Human Resources KPIs Template
The most popular HR KPIs combined into a single HR KPI Template for those involved in Human Resources performance tracking.
16 KPIs included
About this template
A set of Human Resource focused KPIs design for all industries to assist with various aspects of managing employees such as Cost per hire, Health Care Costs and HR Expenses.These KPIs can be utilized by HR managers and resource professionals to measure their recruitment and retention performance.Every KPI within the HR template has been selected by industry experts to offer a unique set of KPIs in which to create or optimize your own HR performance strategy.
What this template measures
This template is sixteen KPIs covering the three things an HR function gets asked about: whether people are at work, what hiring costs, and what the department costs to run. They come as a set rather than a list, because several only mean anything next to each other.
Absence Rate is the clearest case. It needs three numbers underneath it, and all three are here: Number of days absent in a month, Number of Workdays, and Average number of employees this month. Import the set and the rate is built from your own payroll data instead of copied out of someone else's report. Recruitment cost works the same way. HR Advertising Costs, Agency Fees, Recruiter Pay, Travel Costs of applicants and staff and Relocation Costs HR are the five lines that add up to what a hire costs. Set the total against Number of Hires and you get that figure itemized, so when it climbs you can see which line moved.
The rest is proportion. HR Expenses against Total Operating Expenses gives you HR Expense Factor, which is how you check the department is sized to the business it supports. Total cost of healthcare, Total Employees and Days taken to hire fill in the remaining picture.
Who uses it
HR managers are the main users. They already own most of the inputs, and the set answers the questions that land on their desk every month: is absence moving, are roles filling, is the spend where it should be. Recruiters use a narrower slice, Number of Hires and Days taken to hire, with the five cost lines showing what each fill actually took.
Finance takes the other end. HR Expenses, Total Operating Expenses and HR Expense Factor answer the sizing question without a spreadsheet exchange, and Total cost of healthcare is usually the line they want watched month by month. Unlimited users means nobody gets left off to save a seat. Before you roll the set out to managers, it is worth reading how to introduce employee KPIs without denting morale, because the rollout matters more than the list.
Setting targets
Import first, load two or three months of history, then set targets. Targets picked before you know your own numbers get ignored by week two. Absence Rate and Days taken to hire are the two people are most tempted to borrow a figure for, and borrowing is where it goes wrong. Both move with industry, shift pattern, hiring market and how strictly you count, so a number lifted from an article is somebody else's context rather than a target for you.
The cost lines are the same exercise. Agency Fees, Recruiter Pay and Total cost of healthcare have no sensible external number, so set the target from where you are and aim at a direction. Kip, the built-in AI, can suggest targets and offer indicative benchmarks once history builds up, though those are AI estimates rather than real peer data. A target that moves you a little in the right direction beats one picked because it sounded ambitious.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Importing all sixteen and entering data for four. An Absence Rate that only calculates in the months somebody remembered to enter Number of Workdays is worse than no absence measure at all.
- Rolling the five recruitment cost lines into one number. You still know what hiring costs, but you lose the ability to say why, and why is the only part anyone can act on.
- Flat annual targets on costs that scale with headcount. Total cost of healthcare and HR Expenses both grow with people, so a fixed figure reads as failure the moment you hire. Use a ratio for those.
- Reviewing quarterly. Absence and Days taken to hire drift slowly and quietly, and by the time a quarterly review catches the movement, the quarter is already spent.
KPIs in this template
Number of days absent in a month
Average number of employees this month.
Number of Workdays
The total number of working days minus no working days
Absence Rate
Measure of Absenteeism
Total cost of healthcare
Total Employees
Total number of Employees this period
HR Advertising Costs
Agency Fees
Travel Costs of applicants and staff
Total cost of applicants and staff - HR
Relocation Costs HR
The total cost of all relocations this period
Recruiter Pay
All associated recruiter pay this period
Number of Hires
The total number of new employees hired this period
HR Expenses
Total Operating Expenses
HR Expense Factor
Days taken to hire
Total days elapsed to fill positions.
Frequently asked questions
How do I import this HR KPI template into SimpleKPI?
Start a free trial and pick Human Resources KPIs from the template library. All sixteen KPIs are created for you with their names and descriptions in place, ready for targets, an entry frequency and your first month of data. The trial runs 14 days and needs no credit card.
Can I remove KPIs I don't need, or add my own?
Yes. Treat it as a starting set, not a fixed one. Delete anything you won't feed, rename what your team calls something else, and add your own alongside. Every plan includes unlimited KPIs, so the set can grow without changing the price.
How much data entry does this template need each month?
Less than it looks. Number of days absent in a month, Number of Workdays and Total Employees come from payroll, and the cost lines land with the month-end accounts. Absence Rate and HR Expense Factor calculate from those inputs, and data can arrive by manual entry, spreadsheet import, integration or the API.
What targets should I set when I first import the template?
None to start with. Give it two or three months, see where you actually sit, then set targets from that baseline. That applies to Absence Rate and Days taken to hire as much as to the cost lines, because both vary too much between employers for a borrowed figure to mean much. Judge the cost KPIs on direction rather than an absolute number.
See these KPIs in action on the HR KPI dashboard example, or import the set straight into SimpleKPI's KPI dashboards: one flat price, unlimited users and KPIs.