What is the most important KPI in HR analytics? 

To help you recognize the most important KPIs in HR analytics, we asked HR professionals and business owners this question for their best insights. From job vacancies to measuring joy, there are several important KPIs that your business should consider focusing on to help track HR department goals.

Here are the 12 most important KPIs in HR analytics:

 

• Job Vacancies
• Recruitment Conversion Rate
• Absenteeism
• Costs for Training
• Employee Productivity
• Percentage of Highly Engaged Employees
• Employee Satisfaction Index
• Retention
• Measure What Matters
• Psychological Safety
• Turnover
• Measure Joy

 

Job Vacancies

With the onset of the Great Resignation in 2021 and with no signs of it stopping at least for the next few months, probably the most important KPI during this time would be: Time to Fill. This is a very common metric in the HR world, and with more vacancies, than there are available candidates, “Time to Fill” is going to be a metric very closely monitored. The average time to fill a position is anywhere from 30-40 days and will vary across industry–this was prior to the pandemic and the shifts that have happened in its wake. Being strategic in your hiring efforts and focused on your job posting and competencies required for success in the vacant role will be crucial in attracting the right candidates.

Linda Scorzo, Hiring Indicators

 

Recruitment Conversion Rate

An important KPI in HR analytics is the Recruitment Conversion Rate since this metric will allow us to determine if the onboarding processes we have in place are actually working or not. If the recruitment conversation rate is low, meaning, we interview too many people compared to how many we end up hiring, then we should look internally at what might be going wrong. For example, we can review our job postings, the platforms where we post them, the requirements for applicants, how are we filtering the good candidates against the bad candidates, examine the tasks we required, to name a few.

Jessica Ulloa, MyPerfectResume

 

Absenteeism

If your employees are not showing up for work, then your organization can not run to its full potential. Analyze these rates to pinpoint ways you can promote engagement within the workplace to ensure that you can get your employees motivated to work. This is a clear-cut way to see how effective your company is running.

Jacob Dayan, Community Tax

 

Costs for Training

Companies hoping to employ new team members should be sure to keep an eye on the costs of training. In fact, this is why low employee retention can be so expensive. Along with the actual hours spent training, there may be materials used and tools that are provided. So, the costs can add up quite quickly and can become a problem, especially if your company is on a tight budget.

Lauren Kleinman, The Quality Edit

 

Employee Productivity

The Overall Labor Effectiveness is an exceptionally entrancing and extensive HR KPI that considers various factors when inspected exhaustively. For example, it is commonly computed by duplicating absolute income by the number of workers. Notwithstanding, for a more detailed study, think about the accompanying elements: accessibility, or the period where employees are really working; performance, or the volume of the product given; lastly, quality, or the quantity of great/saleable products created during that period.

Daniela Sawyer, FindPeopleFast

 

Percentage of Highly Engaged Employees

Companies with highly engaged workforces vastly outperform those without. Successful organizations go beyond simple measurement and actually engage with their people to understand the accelerators – and barriers – that impact company performance. This allows leaders to see what really matters, and offers insight into those things that have the greatest influence on employee engagement and are preventing their employees from experiencing or anticipating success in their role.

Brett Wells, Perceptyx

 

Employee Satisfaction Index

One of the most important – and often overlooked – HR KPIs today is the employee satisfaction index. With high employee turnover rates and labor shortages in the corporate world being pressing issues, I believe an employee-first approach is key to enabling long-term success. Employee satisfaction is tied directly to team performance and overall productivity, which is why employers with successful teams are likelier to have more satisfied workers. I strongly recommend companies conduct regular employee engagement and attitude surveys to detect any signs of dissatisfaction and address them promptly. Ensuring you’re offering fair compensation, a positive work environment, enough flexibility, and ample career growth opportunities can help keep this particular KPI in check, retaining valuable talent and keeping morale high.

Anjela Mangrum, Mangrum Career Solutions

 

Retention

Retention is one of the most important KPI’s an organization can track. It’s also equally important to track growth of employees and promotions which leads to overall retention KPI. 

Putting this KPI on all managers is key as it’s their responsibility to help their team achieve their goals, let them know that their work matters, and then recognize and reward those who consistently help the team deliver timely, high quality, and positive outcomes.

Nicole Serres, Star Staffing

 

Measure What Matters

Anything you do in HR has to matter to the organization. There is no sense in spending valuable time reporting on metrics if they don’t matter to the business. Ask the leaders what KPIs are important to them and measure those!

Jennifer Beezer, BestLife Holdings, Inc.

 

Psychological Safety

Though it is hard to measure, several survey questions can help get a grasp on the level of psychological safety within the organization like:

// Do you feel you will be penalized if you make a mistake in your work?
// Do you feel comfortable bringing up problems and tough issues to your management?
// Do you feel safe to take a risk?

A high-performing team usually has high levels of psychological safety.

Sri Chellappa, Engagedly

 

Turnover

Turnover is one of the most telling metrics in HR. It is the start of so many strategic initiatives and can identify the root causes of key problems in the organization. I use turnover to see where are my people leaving voluntarily and involuntarily. From there I can use steps like exit interviews to determine why my people leaving voluntarily are deciding to make the change. I can determine if there are issues with managers, processes, and so much more to make strategies to address the key issues and retain my top talent.

Kelly Loudermilk, BuildHR, Inc.

 

Measure Joy

This was a really tough question to answer because so many great KPIs exist. However, if there ever were a KPI that captured the essence of a thriving employee experience, it would be the eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score). This metric captures the joy of work – or better stated – your employee’s perspective of how happy they are with their workplace experience.

The reason this KPI is the most important is that it is all-inclusive. When analyzed strategically, it will tell you if team members are engaged, have resources, believe in management, and would recommend this organization to their peers.

Joey Price, Jumpstart:HR, LLC

 

 

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