HR leaders understand that it’s critical to measure the effectiveness of HR strategies. The issue is that most HR metrics have traditionally relied on standard measurements that hopefully align with the bottom line.
But HR teams in 2023 must emphasize a people-centered strategy that measures how employees feel about their place of work and then connect these science-based metrics to their significant impact on organizational success.
Employees are critical components of any organization. So why don’t we know how they feel about their workplace?
Business leaders generally agree that employee engagement is essential. A Gartner survey of HR leaders reported that 47% of participants identified employee experience as a “top priority”. When asked if HR leaders still need to analyze employee engagement, one expert responded, “It’s always engagement.”
Yet, many employers face the same hiring and retention challenges year after year because they’re focusing solely on standard metrics and ignoring how employees feel about their workplace.
People-centered strategies are the foundation for improving all HR metrics.
People data analytics takes a different approach to measuring the effectiveness of HR strategies by focusing on identifying the level of employee engagement and the factors that motivate them.
It embraces the concept that workers want to love what they do and where they do it, and they’re willing to leave companies that don’t provide and nurture that environment.
The 4 critical HR metrics for 2023
Employers in 2023 must recognize the importance of treating their employees more like valued customers and utilize tools to measure how effective they are at maintaining that level of satisfaction and engagement.
1. Employee Sentiment and Love of Workplace
Employee sentiment may be the most valuable tool for measuring HR effectiveness in 2023. At the Best Practice Institute, we’ve incorporated our Most Loved Workplace ® (MLW) Love of Workplace Index™audit for 100s of companies as a predictor of critical organizational outcomes that are reliable and valid.
Our research has shown a strong correlation between the MLW audit and employee commitment, innovation, and performance. When combined with a suite of assessments, test results were three times more potent than a personality assessment alone.
Instead of static, rigid, and often difficult-to-answer surveys, our MLW ® app uses Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and machine learning to analyze employee comments and measure an employee’s actual emotions and feelings towards their company.
Our Love of Workplace Index ™ illustrates that 95% of employees are up to 4 times more likely to perform better when they love their work and stay with that employer longer than if they didn’t love their workplace.
2. Attrition/flight risk
Attrition continues to be a significant issue for most organizations. SHRM recommends using flight risk models to identify which employee profiles are most likely to leave their workplace, enabling HR to make strategic decisions.
Thriving organizations experience both top-down and bottom-up excellence. Employees cannot achieve their full potential without the support of their organization, with appropriate feed-forward, and organizations that create nurturing environments won’t be successful if employees aren’t motivated.
4. Talent acquisition/quality of hire
The quality of hire can be challenging to assess. The intent is to measure the value an employee brings to the workplace and, by design, must include a variety of factors to assess the amount of that value.
It’s broad but can be an excellent metric to assess the overall return on investment.
Employers increasingly recognize that the most critical measurements include analyzing how much employees love their workplace.
HR and business leaders who incorporate a science-based approach to understanding employee motivation and incorporate it into their business operations at every level will foster inclusive, nurturing workplaces where employees want to work.
