HR Metrics is the foundation for mature analytical capabilities. Companies should take advantage of operational measures and tactical as well as advanced reporting that will not only benefit the business but HR department as well. HR metrics can also be immensely valuable to an organisation when they are aligned to specific HR and broader business objectives.
During challenging times like today, HR would have to bear tougher tasks. Not only does HR need to prioritise the people during social restrictions, but there are also other measurements HR leaders have to consider, such as the changes in Law, Employment Act, employee engagement, employee motivation, learning and development, and so on. The emergency of COVID-19 also poses more work for HR to be more mindful with the changes in payroll and benefits administration.
See also: HR Metrics & Its Alignment to Business Success
The presence of technology and analytics could help ease the burden of HR tasks in times of crisis. HR can leverage their metrics to get the most out of employee data, keeping employees informed, productive, and healthy during the crisis. These HR metrics can also help assess the organisation’s health, helping HR to determine their priorities.
More than half (51 percent) of worldwide businesses reported that they have no continuity plan to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. If your company is among them, then it is critical to use this metric. Understanding which critical roles that have no specific continuity plans help HR fill gaps and understand where to focus on developing aftermath plans. You can learn more about this metric here.
Communication is paramount during a crisis, hence, HR should make sure that employees have a variety of ways to stay in touch with their managers and supervisors. HR should also be able to share accurate, timely, and important information and make sure that employees get any urgent information. That being said, metrics that focus on the effectiveness and consistency of communication is essential. The metrics include:
On the communication metric, HR can also focus on employees that are missing a mobile and emergency contact number since email communication sometimes can be really slow to reach. With employees working from home, it is better to have mobile contact info for all employees, thus, HR can give prompt, time-critical updates faster.
Based on MOM’s advice, employers who are severely affected by the virus should work out their cost-saving measures with the unions and employees to save jobs, e.g. asking employees to take no-pay leave each month. And for employers who have not implemented any cost-saving measures, the tripartite partners strongly urge them not to resort to retrenchments or prolonged no-pay leave to manage business costs during the circuit breaker period.
With this new measurement, HR can find out the percentage of employees who could potentially become unavailable by taking leaves, both paid and unpaid, helping anticipate the potential limit to the workforce and an increase of administrative tasks. Absence rate = (absence days/workdays) x 100. This calculation can be conducted monthly to help analyse trends and significant changes.
Understanding the number of locations where the business operates and each location exposure to COVID-19 (very high, high, medium, lower risk) could help determine appropriate control for your next company plan. This measurement can determine how your business should hold the budget, spend, or invest in employee development, both in-house and remote ones.
Read also: New to HR? Here’s 4 Important HR Metrics and Its Function
