What is an HR report?
A key aspect of managing HR is the human resources dashboard and report. For HR professionals to make sound decisions, both resources are essential. Why? Because it is challenging to do so when stakeholders, including HR business partners, lack understanding of their own company. HR reporting can help, so don’t be afraid! How? That is exactly what this post is about. We’ll go over the benefits of the HR report and dashboard.
Specifically, we will discuss in depth the benefits of a HR report and the kinds of data and metrics that can be included.
Three purposes for an HR report
One of the most important responsibilities of HR is workforce reporting. When used correctly, an HR report provides three main advantages for management and HR:
- HR Observation
Through regular reporting, HR is able to monitor important workforce data and maintain a close eye on the organization. Early detection of developing trends and possibilities allows for the resolution of issues before they have a major negative influence on the company.
- Information about management
An HR report can also assist managers in doing their duties more effectively. Managers can learn about relevant changes in their staff and department by reading an HR report. Managers are likely to prioritize staff retention when they witness challenges such as high employee turnover and a lengthy hiring process in the marketing department. They will also be mindful of the potential consequences of employee departure, such as having to wait longer for a replacement.
- Monitor trouble spots
Transparent tracking of important issue areas is another fantastic benefit of an HR report. Since their own reputation is at stake, managers will be more motivated to focus on staff retention if turnover rates by manager are made transparent. Monitoring issue areas allows HR to take advantage of its position to promote changes.
How to write an HR report
The most effective way to track, manage, monitor, and report on data is with an HR dashboard. HR KPIs (key performance indicators) can be tracked, analyzed, and reported on with the use of this business intelligence application.
There are certain things to think about regarding the “how” and “when” before you begin to write your HR report.
- Manual versus automated
Ad hoc data reporting is still used by many companies. For instance, a manager or executive might request a report from HR containing information about the organization’s staff. The HR data department will put forth extra effort to put together this report following this request. This is a prime example of reactionary and ineffective reporting. Automation is necessary for the (pro)active release of HR reports.
If specific software, such Excel, Gusto, or BambooHR, is used to construct an HR report, it can be automated. These are just some of the top HR dashboards available; there are many more software solutions out there.
- Dashboard versus static
As previously said, a sizable portion of companies continue to use manual or paper reporting. This isn’t always a terrible thing, though, as paper reports can be very useful when the information isn’t expected to change.
Furthermore, a report sent by email may have a higher chance of being viewed than a random post on an HR dashboard. Simply put, dashboards that don’t continuously bring value won’t be used by users.
The most effective approach to track, manage, and monitor data is using an HR dashboard. HR KPIs (key performance indicators) can be tracked, analyzed, and reported on with the use of this business intelligence application. It provides the opportunity to go into the specifics.
Turnover is a fascinating metric, but what percentage of it is made up of losses that were regretted? When a low performer goes, you wouldn’t even blink, but when a high performer leaves, it’s like shooting oneself in the foot. These workers have the potential to be upper management. You can explore your data more thoroughly and draw these conclusions with interactive dashboards.
You can grant access to this dashboard to every member of the HR team or give the appropriate professionals access to data.
The more sophisticated dashboards allow you to forecast the future using machine learning techniques, while the earlier dashboards just provided basic drill-downs. This provides information about the behavior of employees, such as which workers are most likely to leave. There’s a chance that this knowledge has significant strategic importance.
Note: In this instance, the dashboard serves only as a tool for information display. Specialized analytics technologies are used to make the predictions.
- The issue of hygiene
One more thing before we give you an example of an HR report: HR reporting is frequently considered a matter of hygiene. This implies that thorough reporting is undervalued, much like good cleanliness.
To better understand this idea, picture yourself dining at a restaurant. You’re unlikely to comment on how clean the restaurant is. Everybody expects this, right? However, you would (rightfully) protest if the restrooms were messy or if you were handed dirty cutlery. To tie this back to HR, reporting is generally ignored until there are errors. Like cleanliness at a restaurant, accurate reporting is crucial to staying in business.
A few years back, iNostix creator Luk Smeyer commented on HR reporting: Naturally, every HR department ought to excel at this “classical” reporting level. No conversation. No argument. Simply do it. Every organization should have this degree of completely automated, incredibly efficient, lightning-fast, slicing-and-dicing, readable, well-organized, “just click on the button” ability.
But not every company has reached the point of “extremely fast and highly effective” yet. All organizations should, however, report on HR matters with great efficacy.
- Reporting issues in HR
Regarding the HR report, there are a number of traps. These must be addressed in order to save you from becoming stuck in an endless reporting loop.
- Automate your HR report: Avoid attempting to produce each report by hand. This is incredibly wasteful and will use up all of your HR data department’s resources. But don’t worry! This article explains how to quickly automate and generate all of the reports that are described.
- Give essential details: Avoid attempting to please everyone. If you can satisfy 80% of individuals with 20% of the data, it may be the ideal solution. A dashboard that is too complex to use and that presents useless data could discourage users from engaging with the reports or dashboards, which would lessen its impact.
- Fix errors: Human error will occur in HR data! Errors will occur no matter how effective your personnel, procedures, or software are. When errors arise, correct them in the original systems. Furthermore, be careful to design processes that allow for dynamic data input.
An HR report’s metrics
An HR report must contain a number of crucial measurements. Because they give an overview of the company, take note that the majority of them are high-level metrics. The following are the most often reported HR metrics:
- Seniority
- Gender
- Age: In today’s multigenerational workforce, age is becoming a more significant factor. When it comes to succession planning and strategic workplace planning, age matters. It is frequently a major area of concentration for businesses looking to innovate and restructure.
- Education level: Only when available and related to the organization’s overall objectives should educational level be disclosed. Otherwise, there’s a chance the HR report will use it as a “vanity metric.”
- Function type: To differentiate between various groups inside the organization, a statistic such as function type or function groups may be useful. Top management, lower management, production workers, and support staff are a few examples.
- Full-Time Equivalent (FTE): The number of hours worked by a single full-time employee. Often, the number of FTEs is less than the total number of employees. This is especially important in the event that the company employs a large number of part-timers. The full workload inside the company can be accurately measured using FTE. Also, one can classify those who work fewer than one full-time equivalent as part-timers.
- Employees Active: This measure shows how many people are employed by the company.
- Turnover: This statistic shows the quantity and/or proportion of workers that left during the previous time period.
- New hires: This statistic shows how many new workers joined the company in the previous year, either as a percentage or as a total.
- Absence/absenteeism rate: This statistic shows the average percentage of time that staff members missed work over the preceding period. The total number of days of absence for each employee is another way to visualize this figure.
- Cost of absence: This is not a standard statistic, but by tying the previously stated absence rate to a monetary figure, it helps make it more concrete.
- Labor cost: The total sum of money that a company pays its employees is known as labor cost. Payroll taxes and benefits for employees are included in this total. One can divide labor costs into direct and indirect costs. Labor expenses related to individuals who participate in the main process are known as direct costs (an assembly line worker). It is impossible to link indirect costs to a particular production stage, such as a security guard stationed at the facility.
- Training cost: The total amount that a business spends on training both new hires and current employees is known as the “training cost.”
- Cost of recruitment: The entire expense incurred during the hiring process. It usually covers the price of hiring outside agencies, posting employment ads, and occasionally lost productivity. The expense of hiring is far more than that. Examples include attrition, or the length of time a person remains on staff, and the expense of management time spent on hiring and training.
- Time to fill: We’ve already discussed filling time. It is the period of time in days that passes between a job becoming available and an applicant accepting it. This measure will differ greatly depending on the sort of position; for example, it is far tougher to recruit highly qualified salesmen, software developers, and big data analysts than entry-level marketers.
One last thing
Because HR reports and dashboards frequently serve as a springboard for businesses wishing to transition to HR analytics, this topic is important. Different data will be applicable depending on the company you work for.
