Robust HR analytics and reporting is essential for any organisation looking for real-time insights into their workforce. But less than a third of UK employers are thought to be getting the most out of their people data.

New research* shows that just 32% of HR professionals believe that their organisation fully utilises its people data to make evidence-based, strategic decisions.

That leaves over two-thirds (68%) of organisations that are not fully utilising workforce reporting to better inform decision-making and improve outcomes.

The findings, from a survey of 300 UK-based HR decision makers, also suggest that nearly two-thirds (64%) of organisations don’t actively seek HR’s input on business decisions – even though HR are the people who know the makeup and capabilities of the workforce better than anyone.

Claire Williams, chief people and operations officer at Ciphr, says: “It’s important to recognise the impact that utilising people data can have on overall company performance. Businesses that aren’t fully harnessing these powerful insights, particularly for planning ahead, are being incredibly short-sighted. People costs can be at least 80% of an organisation’s P&L (profit and loss), so this data should be scrutinised and leveraged in every way possible – the same way many look at their sales, marketing and pipeline data.

“Everyone knows you need people to run a business. Successful businesses know how to identify and harness their talent – their people – to ensure they continue to grow and succeed.

“People data is essential to this. Having an improved understanding of your workforce can help instil business confidence that you can scale your people in line with forecast growth. It can help inform workforce planning so that you can hire ‘just in time’ rather than once the capacity gap has started to impact your customers. It can give a clearer picture, backed by evidence, of how long it takes you to get new starters competent and ready to start making sales or servicing customers.

“As a business, could you easily identify your risks in relation to turnover or burnout, without in-depth workforce reporting? Do you know who your high and low performers are? If you don’t know where to focus your time and energies, it’s much harder to overcome retention challenges, for example, or ensure the right training needs are met.

“HR teams need to be able to access and utilise robust people data to answer these questions. Especially when the HR profession is becoming more recognised at board-level for its strategic value.”

But which HR metrics are the most useful and important to track and review regularly?

According to Williams, many organisations have a huge array of untapped people data at their fingertips. She and her team use their HR system to track these key metrics (and more):

• Turnover – reports are broken down into total, voluntary, regrettable, and quality of hire (for employees with less than a year’s service), as well as leaver reasons
• Headcount – tracking against budget and revenue per head
• Recruitment – time to hire and conversion rates
• Absence – including percentage of time lost, reasons for absence and percentage of return-to-work interviews completed
• Engagement – looking at eNPS (employee net promoter score) and employee sentiment
• Performance – including 9-box-grid talent review ratings and performance review completion rates

*Ciphr commissioned Onepoll to conduct an independent survey of 300 HR decision makers in February 2024.

www.ciphr.com/infographics/the-hr-metrics-that-matter-most