Designing your HRMS dashboard: five HR metrics to include

HR metrics are integral to your success, and your HR metrics dashboard is the perfect distribution method to provide just in time access to your HRMS data in an easily understandable format.

Every HR department has targets to meet. Your HRMS dashboard makes monitoring those HR KPIs easier, while also providing a simple overview for C-level to understand at a glance. Designed correctly, an HR dashboard is an invaluable tool providing easy to access updates on ongoing performance; designed poorly, your HR dashboard won't provide much of an overview on anything.

We've discussed in previous articles some of the metrics that are important to measure, but what data should be at the top of your list when designing your HRMS dashboard? Here are our top five HR metrics to include on your HRMS dashboard, if you want to get the most out of your software. 

1. Employee turnover

The cost of replacing an employee has been estimated at 100 to 150% of compensation, along with a lead time of one year for a new employee to be fully operational. Turnover usually gets high visibility at the C-level since employee salaries and benefits represent a high cost. Turnover is an item to track throughout your organization, especially when it is conveniently located on a dashboard where managers and directors can easily find it and spot trends as they arise.

2. Flight risk of key employees and high potentials

It is always less expensive to retain an employee rather than sourcing, hiring and training a new one. Are you spending more time coaching underperforming employees at the expense of incentivizing top performers or those in critical positions? Your HRMS knows which employees receive top performance reviews and yet are underpaid based on market rates and stagnating in a succession plan where there is no room for career progression. This metric should be on your HRMS dashboard for higher level management.

Check out our free HR data guide to learn how an HRMS helps you get more out of your HR data

3. Employee skills match to expected business needs

A common organizational struggle is a mismatch between a company’s strategic goals and the ability to execute against them. For example, if you are planning to ramp up product design in five years with the requirement of more engineers but your engineering workforce is nearing retirement age, a mismatch will occur. Your HRMS dashboard can help to chart progress or identify sections where improvements are occurring so they can be replicated in other areas, such as highlighting locations which are finding university hires with engineering degrees.

4. Diversity and inclusion

It has been proven that high performing teams tend to have a high level of diversity across a variety of factors. The combination of differing skill sets and backgrounds creates a better product and customer experience. While government required EEO-1 reporting may provide some insight, your HRMS dashboard is a perfect place to internally chart your company’s progress against your self-identified diversity targets.

5. Employee survey participation and results

Employee engagement has been shown to have a positive and tangible effect on business outcomes in research by Gallup. An employee who does not bother to participate in surveys as ‘nothing will change’ is on the way to becoming disengaged and a liability. Through regular small surveys, you can monitor the morale of your workforce and keep on top of your results on your dashboard.

These metrics are the tip of the iceberg for the visibility your HRMS dashboard can provide your organization. Tracking this data is a good starting point for any organization, but it's important to note that HRMS dashboards are highly customizable allowing businesses to tailor HR reports on practically any performance metric available.