HR analytics can increase employee efficiency and productivity.
How do you truly measure productivity and efficiency within your company? The answer lies in human resources performance metrics.
As a human resources professional or department, you’re likely often asked how you can create a more efficient work environment that breeds productivity and performance. Well, the answer is to utilize metrics, often known as HR analytics, to help you assess things such as how to recruit and hire successful employees, how to retain said employees, and how to improve the overall performance and satisfaction of current employees.
When employees are given the opportunity to view a standard by which they can compare and measure their current levels of productivity, they often realize there is room for improvement. If an employee doesn’t know they’re not reaching expected performance potential, how can they improve? If they don’t feel accountable for the work they’re putting forth day in and day out, why would they feel motivated to go above and beyond?
Metrics give you data that allows for easier assessment. When numbers are defining employee performance, it becomes difficult for anyone to argue with such cold, hard facts. The use of metrics in HR practices is all about giving you and your employees data by which to measure, allowing you and the company to set goals collectively and individually.
Human Resources Performance Metrics
Tracking employee performance allows you to increase the overall productivity and efficiency of the company. Ironically, the metrics to look at when it comes to each individual employee and the workforce overall include the following:
- Productivity
- Efficiency
- Quality
- Attendance
- Responsiveness
Productivity and efficiency are no-brainers. If your employees aren’t being productive and getting reaching the maximum capacity of work they could be doing within the given workday, then the business is losing money. It’s losing money because more work could be accomplished, and it’s losing money because you’re paying that individual for work they aren’t completing. Of course, productivity and efficiency must go hand in hand with quality. There will always be those employees who put their sole focus on the quantity of work completed without giving enough focus to quality. Quality must never be sacrificed in the pursuit of increased productivity or you’re putting your entire business at risk. Attendance is important as productivity, efficiency, and quality take a hit when you don’t have enough employees to complete the tasks required.
Responsiveness deals with how well your employees take instructions and run with them. If you’re constantly having to hold your employees’ hands, so to speak, through each step of the process, even after they should know what is expected of them, you’re wasting your time and decreasing productivity. The best employees are responsive. They learn what they need to learn and then they fly solo (or work as a team, depending on the situation) as they complete their tasks in a timely manner.
Human Resource Metrics Examples
Other examples of types of metrics include:
- Cost of new hires
- Success of an employee referral program
- Time from hire to promotion
- Profit per employee
- Cost of overtime vs. employing additional workforce
- Costs of healthcare
- Employee engagement
- Communication
- Employee wellness
The list goes on and on, but by measuring these things and more, not only are you working along with the workforce to create the most productive and efficient workforce, but you have all the numbers you need to do so.
So how do you maximize the role of HR analytics and know which are the key HR metrics to use when assessing performance? Well, you might consider attending some workshops or even a conference on the types of metrics available and which are the best HR metrics for your particular business to use as you strive for improvement company wide.
