HR Ink

In my last blog “The Value of Metrics” I went over the importance of tracking metrics and how it can help drive organizational success. Here I will discuss which metrics are vital to track and which ones are not as useful.

The top metrics to track are:

1. Turnover Rate

Employee turnover rate is a critical metric that measures the percentage of employees who leave the organization over the year. This metric includes both voluntary and involuntary terminations and provides valuable insights into employee satisfaction, engagement, and overall organizational health.

High turnover rates can signal underlying issues such as poor management, lack of career development opportunities, or cultural misalignment. By identifying and addressing the root causes of turnover, HR can improve retention, reduce hiring costs, and maintain a stable workforce.

Here is the formula for calculating turnover: Number of terminations (this includes resignations)/Average number of employees during the year x 100.’

2. 90 Day Turnover

This metric is often overlooked, however, tracking the number of employees that leave during their first 90 days provides profound insight into your onboarding process. If you have a lot of employees departing during their probationary period, HR knows then that they have to look at the onboarding process to see where and what needs to be improved.

This is a crucial metric because the initial weeks for new hires are critical in shaping lasting impressions and fostering engagement. Addressing any issues in this phase can significantly impact retention rates.

3. Employee Engagement Score

Employee engagement is a measure of how committed and emotionally invested employees are in their work and the organization. Tracking employee engagement scores through surveys, feedback mechanisms, or sentiment analysis tools provides HR with valuable insights into workforce morale, motivation, and job satisfaction.

Engaged employees are more productive, innovative, and loyal, leading to higher levels of customer satisfaction and business performance.

4. Days Open

This metric is in reference to the open postings that your company has publicly advertised. Tracking your days open for all postings is a great way to see how long it takes to hire on average and can help your recruitment team identify if their current process is working or if they need to make some adjustments to the recruitment process. For example, if it is a niche position, maybe it would be best to outsource the recruitment to a specialized agency.

5. Forecasted Positions & New Hires

Every year your HR teams should be speaking with managers in your departments to forecast their hiring needs for the new year. This helps to ensure your managers are on top of their department by understanding their needs and budgets as well.

This ties in with tracking new hires and every organization should always be monitoring how many new employees they bring on each year. This will help you evaluate how well the HR department forecasted the needs of each department and you can improve on this year to year.

6. Onboarding Satisfaction

As mentioned above, onboarding is the biggest tool for helping your organizations retention rate. It is also what helps all new employees to succeed within their position.

After the probationary period for each new employee, a survey should be provided to them to gain insight if their onboarding helped them succeed in becoming productive as soon as possible. This allows you to realize what is working in your onboarding and what may need to be revamped to ensure that your organization is reaping the rewards of your new hires as soon as possible. This is also referred to as ‘Time to Productivity.’

While many metrics drive organizational improvement, there’s one that stands out as less impactful: ‘Time to Fill.’ Despite its popularity, this metric often reflects factors beyond HR’s control, such as market conditions and candidate availability. Focusing on metrics within HR’s influence ensures efforts are directed towards tangible outcomes and organizational success.

What metrics do you find indispensable in driving your organization’s success? Share your thoughts in the comments below!