PEOPLE METRICS
Value your employees the way you value your customers simply because they are
your company’s biggest assets. Customers may be the reason why your company or
business continues to shine, but without your employees’ dedication and hard work, you
will not gain customers in the first place. Employers, therefore, need to invest in their
employees seriously and must treat them in the best possible manner because if you
invest in your employees, they will invest in your company as well.
HR metrics, or human resources metrics, are key figures that help organizations
track their human capital and measure how effective their human resources initiatives are.
Determining what metrics to measure and report will depend on an organization’s
strategy and goals.
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER
Employee turnover (sometimes also called staff turnover) is a measurement of how
many employees are leaving a company. When employees leave, a company has to
replace them with new employees.
Voluntary vs. Involuntary Turnover
Employees can leave a company for a variety of reasons, both voluntary and
involuntary.
Voluntary turnover happens when employees willingly leave a company, usually
because they go to work in another company.
On the contrary, involuntary turnover happens when it wasn’t the employees'
decision to leave a company. In other words, involuntary turnover happens when
employees are terminated due to poor job performance, absenteeism or violation of
workplace policies.
Importance of Employee Turnover for an Organization
Employee turnover is one of the most important and commonly used HR metrics.
Employee turnover is usually mentioned in a negative context. This is because of the high
costs related to high turnover rates.
A high employee turnover rate is an expensive problem. When employees leave, a
company has to replace them with new hires. Replacing employees costs a lot of
money. According to The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) research,
direct replacement costs can reach as high as 50%-60% of an employee’s annual salary,
with total costs associated with turnover ranging from 90% to 200% of annual salary.
Why is it so costly to replace employees?
The reason why replacing employees costs so much money becomes much clearer
when you consider all the expenses associated with employee replacement. First, you
need to find and hire new employees. Then you have to onboard new hires and train
them. You should also count in the ramp-up time. Inexperienced employees tend to be
less productive. Not to mention the time wasted to find, hire and train new employees
until they are fully productive.
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER RATE
Employee turnover rate is the percentage of employees who left a company within
a certain period of time. An employee turnover rate is usually measured and calculated
on a monthly and/or annual basis.
How to Calculate Employee Turnover Rate?
The employee turnover rate is calculated by dividing the number of employees
who left the company by the average number of employees in a certain period in time.
This number is then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage.
Here is the formula:
The average number of employees is calculated by adding the number of
employees the company was employing at the beginning of a certain period and the
number of employees the company was employing at the end of a certain period,
and dividing the result by 2.
This means that in order to calculate the employee turnover rate, you actually
need 3 variables:
1. The number of employees who left (voluntary and involuntary) the company in
a certain period of time
2. The number of employees the company was employing at the beginning of a
certain period.
3. The number of employees the company was employing at the end of certain
period.
Careers aren’t static. Employees leave their company for many reasons, including
better opportunities elsewhere or simply because they need a change. While staff loss is
inevitable, understanding the facts — like your employee turnover rate and the reasons
behind the separation — will help your HR team solve current workforce issues and better
plan talent and workplace strategy for the future.
PERCENTAGE OF RESPONSE TO OPEN POSITIONS
When you have a high percentage of qualified applicants apply for your open job
positions, you know you are doing a good job maximizing exposure to the right job
seekers. This will lead to an increase in interviewees, as well.
The number of applicants per job opening gives an indication of the popularity of
the job. A very large number of applicants can indicate two things: either a high demand
for jobs or a job description that is too broad.
EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
Happy employees are going to work harder—it’s as simple as that. Measuring your
employee satisfaction through surveys and other metrics is vital to your departmental and
organizational health.
The Importance of Measuring Employee Satisfaction
Measuring employee satisfaction correctly tells you how your team really feels. You
can use that information to improve all of these things:



Employee retention – It’s hard to keep employees around if they’re not happy
working for you. Satisfied employees are less likely to leave for a different job.
Productivity – It makes sense that dissatisfied employees won’t put in the same
effort at work as those who are actually happy with their job. Satisfied employees
tend to be twice as productive compared to their dissatisfied coworkers.
Company culture – Dissatisfied employees can become toxic over time, hurting
company culture and creating a bad work environment. Satisfied employees, on
the other hand, are more likely to be supportive and enthusiastic.
Value your employees and staff, and you can increase your company’s
profitability. Companies that provide satisfying pay, benefits, personal time off and perks
are on the right track.
EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SURVEYS
An employee satisfaction survey, also called a job satisfaction survey, is an
employee feedback tool that allows employers to find out about the employee
experience, directly from employees themselves.
Why Employee Satisfaction Surveys Matter
Low job satisfaction levels can impact the bottom-line of organizations in a number
of ways. Here are some of them:
 Because
unsatisfied workers don’t like their jobs, it’s impossible for them to
become fully productive.
 Unsatisfied workers can become toxic over time, which could seriously hurt
employee morale, pollute your work environment, and increase turnover.
 Since unsatisfied workers show up to an office they don’t like every day, it’s only a
matter of time before your employee retention levels take a hit.
 Unsatisfied workers may take their bad attitude out on your customers, adversely
affecting your brand’s reputation and your bottom line.
 When your company has many unsatisfied team members on its payroll, it’s nearly
impossible to attract top talent.
To improve employee engagement and become a stronger company, you’d be wise
to issue employee satisfaction surveys at regular intervals. Whether that means once a
quarter or once a month depends on your organization.
These surveys can be administered electronically and anonymously to ensure
employees are able to share their thoughts without fear of retribution.
Examples of Good Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions
You need to ask good employee satisfaction questions if you want to gauge how
your employees really feel about the company and their role in it.
Questions that can help you understand what your team members think include:

How meaningful is your work?

How challenging is your work?

In a typical week, how often do you feel stressed at work?

How well are you paid for the work you do?

How much do your opinions about work matter to your coworkers?

How often do the tasks assigned to you by your supervisor help you grow
professionally?

How many opportunities do you have to get promoted where you work?

How likely are you to look for another job outside the company?
References:
Dave Nevogt. (2020, October 16). 6 Methods for Measuring Employee Satisfaction. Hubstaff
Blog. https://blog.hubstaff.com/measuring-employee-satisfaction-with-survey/
Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions | SurveyMonkey. (2019). SurveyMonkey.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/employee-satisfaction-surveys/
Employee
Satisfaction
Surveys
in
2022.
(2020,
September
4).
Qualtrics.
https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/employee-satisfactionsurvey/#:~:text=An%20employee%20satisfaction%20survey%2C%20also
HR metrics that matter most for recruitment and retention. (2021, September 28).
Humanpanel.
https://humanpanel.com/hr-metrics-how-to-calculate-them-and-
why-they-matter/
Reynolds, J. (2019). 15 Questions You Need to Ask in Employee Satisfaction Surveys.
TINYpulse. https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/questions-for-employee-satisfactionsurveys
Zojceska, A. (2018, December 16). HR Metrics: How and Why to Calculate Employee
Turnover Rate? Blog. https://www.talentlyft.com/en/blog/article/242/hr-metricshow-and-why-to-calculate-employee-turnover-rate