Key HR Metrics Every HR Professional Should Track

What are HR metrics?

HR metrics are measurements that help organizations keep track of their people and see how well their HR initiatives are working. Turnover, cost per employee, benefits participation rate, employee satisfaction and engagement are just a few of the HR metrics worth tracking. Measuring what works well in your company and your HR processes, what needs to improve and which trends to expect helps organizations shape their people strategy.

Why do HR metrics matter?

Many executives now want more frequent and more detailed HR reports from their HR teams. That moves HR metrics from "nice to have" to a must for any HR team that wants to build a solid, data-driven people strategy.

HR metrics shape your strategy

HR professionals are increasingly expected to make strategic decisions about their company's growth and success. They now have a big say in what's working, what isn't and where to invest next. HR metrics put the facts and figures on the table. They give HR a deep understanding of the business and help spot problem areas before they cost the company money or talent.

Remember: you can't manage what you can't measure.

Metrics HR professionals should track

Cost per hire

Cost per hire is the average amount you spend to hire a new employee. You can use this metric as a budgeting tool and as a sign of how effective your hiring is.

Knowing how much it costs to hire one person helps in many ways. It lets you break your hiring process into parts and test them, so you find out which methods bring you the best candidates and where your business can save money.

Time to hire and time to fill

Average time to hire is a recruiting metric that helps you measure how efficient your hiring process is and find its weak spots. It's the number of days between a candidate applying for a job and accepting an offer.

Average time to fill is the number of days from the moment a job requisition is created until a candidate accepts the offer. Because it captures the early, manager-side steps that often slow hiring down, it tells you a lot about how efficient your process is.

For a detailed time to fill formula and example, see our guide.

Employee satisfaction and engagement (eNPS)

The employee Net Promoter Score, or eNPS, is a scoring system designed to help employers measure employee satisfaction and engagement in their organization.

It's important to know how your employees feel at work. This measure can help you see whether people are giving it their all. Happier employees tend to deliver better results. Employee satisfaction is linked to a range of benefits for both employees and the organization, including higher sales, productivity and customer satisfaction.

To learn more about this metric, read our article on eNPS.

Career path ratio

Career path ratio is an HR metric that measures how employees grow within the organization based on vertical and lateral moves. It gives HR professionals data to take a critical look at the company's structure and how employees are placed within it.

Performance reviews

Through reviews and performance evaluations, you can measure company, department and individual performance. Instead of relying only on one-way feedback from managers, make sure you collect 360-degree feedback from your employees.

Performance reviews are critical to reaching your company goals. At its core, a performance review measures an employee's potential, abilities, behavior at work and other job-related qualities. These reviews help you understand motivation levels, build on strengths and work on weaknesses, set pay and promotions, and spot training needs. In short, they give you a clearer view of many important insights and metrics, so your analysis is more accurate. You can run performance reviews with Kolay.