Leveraging The Right HR Metrics For Business Success

Maximize employee performance and boost employee engagement

The value of employee engagement in the workplace is not always made clear to executives. Many leaders often fail to consider engagement as a top indicator of organizational performance. One way to prove the value of employee engagement is to connect employee engagement to the metrics that matter most to business success. This promotes your value as an HR function and your employee success initiatives to the overall success of your organization.

What Are HR Metrics and Talent Analytics?

Your key performance metrics and talent analytics are measurable data points used to evaluate organizational performance. By measuring these metrics, your leaders can uncover how effectively your organization is achieving business objectives and organizational success. 
 

These performance metrics might be measured individually, by the team, department, or location level, as well as over time. Indicators of success can differ by industry and job role and might include metrics like productivity, safety incidents, sales revenue, and net income.

The Benefits of Linking Engagement and Business Success Metrics

Linking business success metrics to employee engagement is imperative to drive positive organizational outcomes. It’s key for leaders to see how employee engagement pushes employee performance to create engagement champions across the organization. The benefits of making the connection between employee engagement and organizational performance include:

1. Boosting HR’s value as an important business partner
Ensure HR leaders always have a seat at the table by promoting the idea that employee success drives business success. Showcase the importance of your HR talent initiatives by helping leaders understand the connection between engagement and performance.

2. Building employee engagement champions
Gain leadership buy-in by connecting the dots between employee engagement and       important business outcomes. With leadership support, your employee listening program will shift from an HR initiative to an effort adopted by the entire organization.

3. Scaling employee performance
By connecting business metrics to your employee data, you can understand the efficacy of your policies, programs, and interventions. Refine your approach to create data-based interventions and actively boost the performance of your teams by asking questions like:
 

• Who are our high performers and how can we best retain them?
• How can we improve the employee experience to boost performance?
• What’s the difference in engagement between the highest and lowest performers?
• How can our onboarding process be improved to decrease the ramp-up time for new hires?
• What developmental needs are apparent in high performers vs. low performers?  

4. Providing actionable feedback

When the connections between employee experiences and organizational success are made clear, executive and team leaders should have practical information about how to improve team and organizational performance. These insights should provide leaders with a roadmap of how to course correct and improve their team operations. They should uncover the additional resources, processes, and support employees need to be successful.

How to Determine the Metrics that Matter to your Organization

Depending on your organization or industry, some metrics may provide more value than others. But many organizations have difficulty assessing what data to leverage.

First, HR leaders should review their current organizational strategic plan and initiatives. These plans often outline what metrics and outcomes are indicative of organizational success and important to functional leaders. Once you have a clear understanding of these metrics, you can uncover how employee engagement leads to more positive outcomes.

After you have an accurate perception of the metrics important to your organization, ask organizational leaders which KPIs drive their success—in the short-, intermediate-, and long-term. Ask key questions like:
 

• What are the most important metrics you track?
• What does success look and feel like for your team?
• How do you determine success or know you’ve had a successful year?
• What data indicates high team performance?
• What differentiates excellent vs. average performers?
• How do you determine your biggest challenges?  

Reiterate to your leaders that when they answer these simple but essential questions, they help HR provide data detailing the impacts of the employee experience on key business metrics. As a result, your organization will be able to create informed, data-backed initiatives to maximize employee performance and boost employee engagement.

Leverage your data scientists, IT team, or HRIS analysts to effectively uncover the data that speaks to your employee engagement and performance outcomes. With an effective process in place to uncover the right metrics, your organizational success will grow. Drive employee engagement by taking advantage of your organization’s metrics and consistently push positive business outcomes.

Shane McFeely, Ph.D. is an organizational psychologist and Lead Workplace and Engagement Researcher at Quantum Workplace. Shane earned his Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He has served as both an internal and external consultant and researcher to organizations, including Gallup and Omaha Public Schools, for over a decade. Shane’s research and expertise include advanced data and people analytics, employee engagement and experience, workplace and HR technology trends, and the ROI of HR initiatives and programs. Visit www.quantumworkplace.com  Connect Shane McFeely