A Primer for Human Resources KPIs

Human Resources are an integral part of any company, whether it’s a fresh start-up, mid-sized enterprise or large corporation. Finding the best talent for your roster of employees is what will give you the edge over current or would-be competitors. However, picking the right person for the job isn’t like picking the right outfit for the right occasion. One’s clothes doesn’t influence everyone else’s attire, however, one’s underperformance on the job can have a negative impact over the entire organizational entity.

271 copy

As a result, through many years of research, The KPI Institute has released its Human Resources KPI Dictionary, representing a functional area primer for any HR specialist looking to acquire a structured work ethic when it comes to judging performance.

This dictionary can be used in the early stages of implementing a performance management framework, in the process of selecting and documenting KPIs, but also to improve an existing performance measurement system. Written and put together in an easily accessible fashion by both novices and experts, this dictionary will allow you to achieve the following:

  • Select those critical KPIs that drive operational success
  • Cascade the right KPIs from the organizational to the departmental level
  • Configure your own customized departmental scorecard and dashboard
  • Acquire transparency around key processes by monitoring relevant KPIs
  • Increase professionals’ accountability to meet operational goals

“The materials are designed in a simple yet rich way.” – Senior Performance Specialist, National Water Company, Saudi Arabia

With over 370 Human Resources KPI examples, our dictionary covers all 8 of the major functions that an HR department has to account for: compensation & benefits, efficiency and effectiveness, recruitment retention, service delivery, talent development, workforce progression, working environment.

“Great value taken from the content that could be easily applied to our organization.” – Head of Human Resources Business solutions, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar

While there are many publications that either showcase a handful of indicators, tunneling on them without presenting much in the way of context or connections with other indicators, or simply opt in to present a laundry-list/menu-like approach, laying out as many indicators as possible, with little information as to what they’re useful for, our dictionary strives to put things into perspective.

We have introduced a standardized approach to naming KPIs and a rigorous taxonomy, which makes navigation among KPI examples easier for readers. Whether you’re interested in # Management-to-staff ratio, % International promotion rate, $ Human capital value added, % Employee turnover, # Employee tenure, % New hire failure, % Human capital return on investment or many other KPIs for the HR department, we offer you definitions, purpose statements, recommendations and data examples, to ensure you get a strong understanding of what each KPI is meant to measure and how you should go about achieving that.

Furthermore, if you feel that just a dictionary won’t suffice, you can always head on over to the world’s largest KPI database, documented and up-to-date, and give it a whirl! With over tens of thousands of KPIs, you’ll most definitely find what you’re looking for!

In addition to this, if you prefer a visual aid instead, we have several webinar presentations on topics such as KPIs for talent retention, generating results from KPIs at the employee level, designing an HR KPI scorecard, linking rewards to performance and much more. Filled with graphs, data, examples and in-practice information, you’ll definitely find value in our webinars. Even more so, if you’re interested in hearing out what specialists have to say, our Performance Management: Aligning the organizational strategy to your employees’ activity and Employee Engagement: The Key to Driving Performance Standard Edition are two editions that feature guests from KPISOFT, a worldwide cloud-based software company that develops performance measurement software.

The KPI Institute August 20th, 2015 Research