best measure of HR

denjen

What is the best measure of HR?
Deb Smith once said. "Show me how you measure, I'll tell you how your people perform."
What metrics do you use to determine if HR is moving in the right direction? Retention %? By the way, is there only one way to figure retention?

joannie

If you are a SHRM member, they have a free HR Metrics toolkit you can print. Sorry, MLS.

davids

I think the best measure of HR is: Is HR successfully contributing to the mission of the organization? How you measure that will depend on your organization's mission.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I think retention is too simplistic. Besides, what is the ideal level of turnover? Zero turnover is not necessarily ideal. Zero turnover could mean you are stagnating. No fresh people with new ideas.

Turnover is also industry specific. 20 percent turnover could be low for some industries and high for others.

Turnover, in my opinion, should be just one aspect of a complete measurement of HR's effectiveness.

Like DavidS said, HR goals are tied closely with organizational goals. If I am focused on improving morale (for example) and what my director wants is a better approach to employee benefits, then I am not being effective regardless of what numbers I can produce.

I think some of the measures of success for HR include:

-ability to attract and retain qualified applicants
-ability to help motivate and engage the workforce
-maintaining a desirable level of turnover
-ability to respond to employee issues in an effective and timely manner
-ability to lead organizationally appropriate training
-ability to manage a budget
-ability to predict and prepare for potential challenges (staffing, increased health costs, etc)
-ability to communicate with internal and external customers effectively

How you measure these probably depends on the data you can reasonably gather. The first question I would ask though is "What performance measures are important to my director?"