An HR Dashboard is a tool that can be used to measure and track various employee performance indicators. By monitoring these metrics, employers can identify areas where improvements need to be made, as well as get a better understanding of overall employee productivity.
Additionally, HR dashboards can help streamline the tracking of employee leave days, vacation days, and other absences. This information can be extremely valuable when it comes time to manage payroll and budgeting.
Overall, HR dashboards offer many benefits to employers and employees. When used correctly, they can help to improve communication, boost productivity, and promote a healthier work-life balance.
To help you best evaluate your organisation's performance, taking all possible Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) into account, we asked HR managers and business leaders this question for their best insights.
Several non-obvious KPIs are recommended for your HR dashboard to help measure your organisation's performance, from employee satisfaction scores to recognition messages sent per employee per month.
Here are 15 insightful KPIs these leaders include on their HR dashboards:
Employee Satisfaction Scores
In any organization, employee satisfaction is a key KPI that should be included in HR’s dashboard and must be closely monitored. A high level of employee satisfaction can lead to increased productivity and engagement, while a low level can indicate issues that need to be addressed. There are several ways to measure employee satisfaction, but one important metric is the “employee satisfaction score.” This score can be calculated using data from employee surveys, and it can give insights into how satisfied employees are with their jobs. The employee satisfaction score is a valuable KPI for HR professionals because it can help them identify issues that need to be addressed. Additionally, this metric can be used to track progress over time and see if there are any trends in employee satisfaction. Thus it must be added to the dashboard of HR.
Daniel Foley, Director of Marketing, SEO Stack
The Number of Employee Candidate Referrals
The number of employee candidate referrals is an important KPI. It is an indicator of what employees feel about working for the organization. Employees can "fake" an engagement survey, but they are less likely to refer a candidate if they are not engaged as an employee. Some companies hire 30% of their new employees from employee candidate referrals and that demonstrates that the company has a good culture and is a good place to work.
Scott Baker, Founder and CEO, Stage 3 Leadership
The Vacancy Closing Time
To me, The Vacancy Closing Time (VTC) is an important indicator of recruitment and selection. After all, whenever a new position opens, a deadline is also set for hiring the person who will fill it. Thus, it makes sense to understand the time a company takes to have its new hires working on day 1. This is a crucial indicator in such a competitive labor market. To measure your company's vacancy closing time, you can choose to look at the percentage of those done on time or evaluate those not on time.
For the first one, the higher the value obtained, the better, and it can be calculated using the formula:
vacancies closed on time = (vacancies closed on time / total open vacancies) x 100
For the second, the closer to zero the result is, the better. The calculation is:
vacancies outside the deadline = (vacancies outside the deadline / total vacancies) x 100
Ricardo von Groll, Manager, Talentify
Track How Likely Employees Are to Leave Feedback
HR departments should track how open employees are to leaving feedback. Both companies and employees play a role in optimizing how much feedback businesses get from employees. Organizations must maintain an open, supportive culture to encourage honest feedback and participation. If companies collect feedback but never implement changes, it reduces employee morale and the likelihood of feedback in the future. If businesses are not seeing optimal rates of employee feedback, they should try anonymizing feedback surveys or offering other incentives to motivate more feedback. Without it, companies change more slowly and employee satisfaction rates suffer.
Kevin Miller, Founder, kevinmiller.com
Number of New Hires
One non-obvious KPI that is often overlooked is the number of new hires. This KPI is important because it can give insight into whether or not the company can attract and retain top talent. If the number of new hires is trending downwards, it may be an indicator that the company is having difficulty attracting quality candidates. Alternatively, if the number of new hires is trending upwards, it may indicate that the company is doing a good job recruiting. Therefore, the number of new hires is a non-obvious but essential KPI to track in an HR dashboard.
Tracey Beveridge, HR Director, Personnel Checks
Average Number of Recruitments Required for a Position
One is the average number of recruitments required to fill a position. This KPI will help you know where you are losing most of your openings. For example, if this number is 10, then it means that it requires 10 candidate applications to fill one vacancy. If the number is 60, then it means that it requires 60 candidates to fill one vacancy. Not good! This might indicate that your organization is having difficulty attracting talent, and you should focus your attention on improving your employer's brand, recruitment process, and interview skills.
Johannes Larsson, Founder and CEO, JohannesLarsson.com
The Overtime KPI
The extra hours your company’s employees spend at their desks may come with extra remuneration, but this does not justify the practice. In the long run, this habit is bound to affect mental and physical health adversely, and even where employees are fine with the practice, it is sure to result in unfavorable consequences for them and the organization. It is the primary job of the HR team to balance the well-being of the employee and the organization, and the long-term continuity of overtime only signals an imbalance in employee strength. Thanks to this KPI on the dashboard, the team can initiate dialogue with managers and introduce solutions to curb the trend.
Kris Harris, Owner, Nootka Saunas
Engaged Employees Percentage
One non-obvious KPI that should be present in an HR dashboard is the percentage of employees who are engaged in their work. This is important because it can be used to gauge how well the HR department is doing in terms of attracting and retaining employees. If the percentage of employees who are engaged in their work is low, it may be an indication that the HR department needs to improve its policies and programs.
Farzad Rashidi, Lead Innovator, Respona
Diversity-By-Role KPI
Diversity By Role is an overlooked KPI that needs to be present in an HR dashboard. A company could look at their overall diversity numbers and think “we’re doing pretty good,” when, in actuality, the numbers are very uneven and there are only men in the leadership positions. Equality and inclusion can only be reached when every position and team is equally diverse and inclusive. You cannot look at the company as a whole, you have to take a microscope to it and look at every individual role and team. HR needs to have Diversity By Role as a KPI, and they need to keep a close eye on it so that meaningful steps can be taken in a company to support equality and diversity on all levels.
Susan Shaffer, President, Pneuma Nitric Oxide
Candidate’s Technical Ability
One KPI that tends to be overlooked by HR is a candidate's overall technical ability. Many times candidates tend to be hired based on prior experience and/or where they got their degree. Being able to effectively determine a candidate's technical ability is a far more important indicator than background will ever be. Having a module or test that candidates can take during the hiring process will help determine how well the candidate will perform in the role if hired. Once hired, being able to periodically gauge the work an employee has submitted within the role can help keep track of that important metric as well.
Charles Tichenor IV, Founder, Disrupter School
Cost Per Employee
Cost per employee is a very important KPI as it shows how much is spent on each employee per month. This KPI can help HR departments in knowing their company's spending capacity and provide them with a guideline on how much they can spend on each employee. When HR managers and employees see this KPI, they will be able to understand the financial condition of the company, and this will help them decide whether they need to reduce the number of employees or reduce the wages.
Luciano Colos, Founder & CEO, PitchGrade
Time-to-Fill KPI
One of the most important HR metrics that should be monitored on a weekly basis is time to fill. In other words, how long has it been since a specific job has been posted. Too often, HR managers worry about metrics and KPIs that are directly related to the workforce that is already in place such as overtime hours, talent satisfaction, and productivity. In reality, the open positions that have not been filled yet often have a larger impact on the overall business. When open positions are not filled with capable candidates, other employees are negatively affected and the company as a whole is not as efficient. Therefore, by keeping a time to fill KPI on your HR dashboard, it will keep open positions near the top of your mind so you can quickly make the necessary adjustments and really push to get positions filled in a timely manner.
Alaina Ross, Co-Founder & Registered Nurse, Sleep Family
Degree of Absenteeism
Calculate the percentage of employees who miss work because of delays, sick days, or other valid or invalid reasons. This indicator might help you adapt your business strategy to account for absences going forward or plan for them now.
I believe that by evaluating the average value of the hours spent, HR managers may determine the main HR KPI. This will demonstrate how absence affects the costs of the business. Making a budget for a preventative approach will be simpler once the cost of absenteeism is clear.
Tiffany Payne, Head of content, Pharmacy Online
Track Incidents
As my business’s owner and HR head, I’d say incidents are a great non-obvious KPI to have in an HR dashboard. Incidents can be anything from product issues to customer complaints and they give you a great overview of how well your team is performing. Plus, they help you identify areas where you need to improve. For example, if you see a high number of incidents involving customer service, you know that you need to train your team members on better customer service techniques. Having this information readily available can help you make informed decisions about where to focus your resources.
Ludovic Chung-Sao, Lead Engineer & Founder, Zen Soundproof
Recognition Messages Sent Per Employee Per Month
One of the most surprising indicators of the health of an organization's culture is the breadth and depth of recognition sent between team members. A simple metric that can be used to quantify this is the average number of recognition messages sent per employee each month. Using this metric, businesses can track the success of programs designed to increase the volume of recognition sent. Sustained decreases in this metric provide an early warning of declining company-wide engagement, burnout, or potential cultural deficiencies. Like many metrics, recognition messages sent per employee should be used alongside other metrics to identify specific areas of improvement.
Garrett Genest, Director of Growth, Kudos, Inc.