HR & People Metrics

Employee turnover rate measures the percentage of employees who leave an organisation during a given period. It is one of the most closely watched HR metrics because high turnover disrupts productivity, erodes institutional knowledge, and drives up recruitment and training costs.

Employee net promoter score adapts the classic NPS methodology to measure how likely employees are to recommend their organisation as a place to work. It is a fast, repeatable pulse metric that serves as a leading indicator of engagement, retention, and employer brand strength.

Employee engagement score measures the degree to which employees feel committed to, motivated by, and emotionally invested in their work and their organisation. It is a multi-dimensional metric that predicts productivity, retention, and customer satisfaction.

Absenteeism rate measures the percentage of scheduled work time lost to unplanned employee absences. It is a critical workforce metric that affects productivity, team morale, and operating costs, and often serves as an early warning indicator for deeper engagement and wellbeing issues.

Time to hire measures the number of days between a candidate entering the pipeline and accepting an offer. It is a core recruiting efficiency metric that affects candidate experience, hiring quality, and the organisation's ability to fill critical roles before top talent is lost to competitors.

Cost per hire measures the total expense incurred to fill a single position, including both internal recruiting costs and external spending. It is the primary financial efficiency metric for the talent acquisition function.

Offer acceptance rate measures the percentage of job offers that are accepted by candidates. It is a key indicator of the competitiveness of your compensation packages, the effectiveness of your hiring process, and the strength of your employer brand.

Employee retention rate measures the percentage of employees who remain with the organisation over a given period. It is the positive counterpart to turnover rate and reflects the effectiveness of the organisation's employee value proposition, management quality, and culture.

Application completion rate measures the percentage of candidates who start a job application and successfully submit it. It is a key indicator of the usability and accessibility of your application process, and directly affects the volume and quality of your candidate pipeline.

Candidates per hire measures the total number of candidates reviewed or processed to make a single successful hire. It is a core recruiting efficiency metric that reflects the quality of sourcing, the selectivity of the process, and the overall health of the hiring funnel.

Candidates per opening measures the total number of applicants received for each open position. It reflects the attractiveness of your roles, the strength of your employer brand, and the competitive dynamics of the talent market for each role type.

The gender pay gap measures the difference in median (or mean) pay between men and women across an organisation. It is a key indicator of structural pay equity and reflects the combined effects of role distribution, progression opportunity, and compensation practices.

Gender ratio measures the proportion of employees by gender across an organisation or within specific teams, levels, and functions. It is a foundational diversity metric that reveals structural imbalances in representation and informs targeted interventions to build a more balanced workforce.

Headcount is the total number of employees in an organisation at a given point in time. It is the most fundamental workforce metric, serving as the foundation for capacity planning, budgeting, organisational design, and virtually every other HR and people metric.

Hires by department measures the distribution of new hires across organisational functions over a given period. It reveals where the organisation is investing its growth capacity and whether hiring patterns align with strategic priorities.

Hires by month tracks the number of new employees who join the organisation each month. It is the primary measure of hiring velocity and reveals seasonal patterns, recruiting capacity constraints, and whether the organisation is on track to meet its headcount targets.

Length of service measures the average duration of employment for current employees, typically expressed in years or months. It is a key indicator of workforce stability, institutional knowledge retention, and the effectiveness of the organisation's employee value proposition over time.

New hire turnover rate measures the percentage of employees who leave the organisation within their first year of employment. It is a critical indicator of hiring quality, onboarding effectiveness, and the accuracy of expectations set during the recruitment process.

New starters per month measures the number of employees who begin employment with the organisation in a given calendar month. It is a fundamental workforce planning metric that reflects recruiting output, growth execution, and the organisation's capacity to absorb new talent.

Passive candidate hire rate measures the percentage of total hires who were not actively seeking a new role when they were first contacted by the organisation. It reflects the maturity and reach of the sourcing function and the strength of the employer brand.

The permanent to freelance staff ratio measures the proportion of permanent employees relative to freelance, contract, and contingent workers in the organisation. It is a strategic workforce planning metric that reflects the balance between stability and flexibility in the talent model.

Source of hire tracks the recruitment channels through which successful candidates enter the hiring pipeline. It is the foundational metric for understanding which sourcing investments produce actual hires and which consume budget without delivering results.

Time to fill measures the number of days between a job requisition being opened and a candidate accepting the offer for that role. It captures the full recruiting cycle from the employer's perspective, including approval, sourcing, interviewing, and offer negotiation.

Training expenses measure the total organisational spend on employee learning and development, including formal programmes, external courses, certifications, coaching, and the time cost of training delivery. It is the primary financial metric for evaluating the scale and efficiency of the L&D function.

Yield ratio measures the percentage of candidates who advance from one stage of the recruitment process to the next. It is the conversion rate metric for the hiring funnel, revealing where candidates drop out and which stages are the most effective filters.