Week of October 8th

Metric Category: HR Operational Metric (Talent Acquisition)

Metric Name: Time-to-Requisition Approval

Calculation: Time to Start = Requisition Approval Date - Requisition Request Date

Who Cares About It, and Why? Hiring managers and recruiters. Both parties need an approval before they can post an open position and begin searching for a qualified candidate. When used on an aggregate basis, an Average Time-to-Requisition Approval is one component used to calculate Average Time-to-Fill. Averages can be used as benchmarks for both forecasting and process improvement.

What do you think? Is this metric on-the-money?

*_Week of October 22^nd_ *

Metric Category: Transactional

Metric Name: Development Program Penetration Rate

Calculation:

1. of People in a Given Job Re: On-the-Money Metrics Corner - What Matters to You??? who Have Satisfied the Requirements of a Particular Development Program /

Total # of People in that Given Job

Who Cares About It, and Why? It depends on the program.  For example:

• Enterprise application owners want to make sure power users and administrators have been introduced to company systems.

• Product managers want to know how many sales and customer support people have been through classes and have certified their knowledge on their wares.

• Compliance officers who worry about legal exposure care to know who has and has not maintained their licensure requirements by participating in continuing education programs.

• Sales executives want to know who among their staff have gone through the curriculum that covers the company's consultative sales methodology.

• Senior executives want to know how many of the company's rising stars have made progress on their individualized development plans.

What do you think of this measure?  Is it On-the-Money?

*_Week of October 29^th_ *

Metric Category: Transactional

Metric Name: Headcount Load

Calculation:

1.  Budgeted FTE{color:#0000ff}*{color}  - Actual Avg. FTE{color:#ff0000}**{color}

or

2.  Actual Avg. FTE{color:#ff0000}**{color}

/ Budgeted FTE{color:#0000ff}*{color}

• Periodic revisions of budgeted FTEs should be applied based on

**Avg FTE = (Total FTEs at Beginning of Month + Total FTEs End of Month) / 2

Who Cares About It, and Why?

Assuming the business plan that

produces a budgeted FTE figure is sound, a shortfall in headcount - as expressed

by a negative number in the first or a percentage less than 100% in the second -

implies that there are not as many people executing the plan as there should

be.  This may not be an issue in the

short-term if the organization's staff is more productive than expected.  However, it is likely to be over the long run

if employees are overworked.  It may also

be an indicator that the organization is not doing an adequate job attracting,

screening, interviewing, and hiring qualified candidates.

What do you think of this

measure?  Is it On-the-Money?

Both Kim and Al raise good points. I do think that the Balanced Scorecard or a similar framework is a good place to start. Kim raises an interesting point about finance. I always point clients not already partnering with someone in finance - if there not doing so already - not only to help develop the right measures, but to assist in how those measures are defined, calculated, analyzed and presented to business leaders. The simple reason - they typically have a great deal of experience doing so. With this experience comes analytical skill sets and tool sets used to generate the data that regulatory bodies (and shareholders) require and the insights upon which business leaders can make better decisions. In addition, finance is likely generating reports that leverage HR data such as FTEs and payroll. Partnering with finance from the start also ensures that you're defining workforce-related measures the same way.

Jason Averbook and I recently wrote an article in Talent Management Magazine, which covers many of the challenges and opportunities related to implementing a workforce intelligence strategy as well as some suggestions on how to do so. It can be found at http://www.talentmgt.com/assessment_evaluation/2007/November/470/index.php?pt=a&aid=470&start=10136&page=4. Check it out if you have a moment.

Week of November 14^th

Metric Category: HR Operational Effectiveness

Metric Name: Staff Age Breakdown

Calculation:

(Headcount within a Certain Age Bracket at the End of a Given Period / Total Headcount at End of Period) * 100

Who Cares About It, and Why?

This breakdown gives senior leadership a sense of the attitudes and experience within various segments of the workforce it manages.  Over the past few years organizations have taken a great interest in the percentage of their workforce in its most senior age brackets since they may be thinking about their gold watch and a retirement party.  These people presumably have on average have more skills, experience, industry contacts and knowledge than those younger employees who remain in the workforce.  More and more organizations are seeking ways to more proactively address what they are acknowledging as a problem, well, for the ages. 

Last year, Knowledge Infusion published the attached study, Managing Talent in the Face of Workforce Retirement, which was based on a survey designed to examine the business impact of Baby Boomers departing the workplace.  Our analysis showed that while organizations acknowledge this structural change in the labor force as a threat to shareholder value, few HR organizations are really prepared to address it.  The survey revealed that formalized succession planning, mentoring programs, flexible work schedules for would-be retirees and enabling technologies playing a role in addressing the gap left by retirees.

Have you done this calculation at your company?  If not, you should.

What do you think of this measure?  Is it On-the-Money?

Week of November 28th

Metric Category: HR Operational (Talent Acquisition)

Metric Name: Hiring Mix

Calculation:

Number of People Hired from Source 1, 2, 3, etc. During the Period /

Total # of People Hired During the Period

Who Cares About It, and Why?

This is a useful snapshot metric for recruiters and hiring managers interested in knowing what volume of hires each source of job candidates provides. These candidates may be existing employees, contractors, or people not formally associated with the organization. Consider the following scenarios for applying this metric:

• A senior executive is interested in knowing if the organization's Succession Planning and Talent Mobility initiatives are actually resulting in a greater number of employees filling open management positions versus external candidates. Another way to look at this same application is using this metric to prove - or disprove - the notion that the organization provides its employees with opportunities for career advancement.

• The head of recruiting is interested in investigating where her department's advertising dollars (e.g., newspaper, job boards, career fairs, etc.) are paying off in order to optimize her investment portfolio.

• The company's leadership team is interested in knowing from what departments - and managers of those departmnents - the largest number of internal hires are made. These leaders may wish to do further investigation as to whether or not these departments provide model development environments or if employees in the department simply tend to burn out. Combining Hiring Mix with other metrics such as Voluntary Turnover and Employee Engagement in those departments may lead to further insights.

What do you think of this measure? Is it On-the-Money?