Today’s workforce has experienced many changes, innovations and challenges over the last decade. The result is a work world with different needs, and traditional measures of performance and engagement are no longer sufficient to capture the complexities of modern work environments.
Here, Forbes Human Resources Council members suggest some new and emerging HR metrics that can be implemented to effectively navigate the challenges and opportunities of today’s work world. By tracking metrics related to remote work, employee well-being and diversity initiatives, businesses can create more adaptable, inclusive and productive workplaces.
1. Remote Engagement Efficiency
One innovative HR metric for today’s hybrid work environment is remote engagement efficiency. This measures the balance between employee engagement and productivity within remote settings, highlighting the effectiveness of virtual collaboration and work-life balance. By understanding this balance, organizations can refine remote work practices to boost both well-being and outcomes. – Karina Bernacki, VSCO
2. HR Effectiveness
HR effectiveness is a pivotal metric in the work landscape today, addressing the critical need for HR to adapt and thrive in evolving organizational dynamics. While encompassing a broad spectrum of factors, this metric serves as a barometer for gauging the alignment between HR objectives and organizational expectations. This metric will reinforce HR’s pivotal role in driving organizational success. – Rachel Fletcher, Stellar Elements, an Amdocs company
3. Neurodiversity Index
With a heightened focus on inclusivity and support for neurodivergent individuals, the Neurodiversity Index evaluates how effectively an organization supports and integrates neurodivergent individuals. It assesses factors such as recruitment practices, amended work schedules, employee engagement and retention rates among neurodiverse talent. – Melissa Banek, IMC – Trading
4. Collaborative Diversity Engagement Score (CDES)
A Collaborative Diversity Engagement Score (CDES) can offer a transformative approach for organizations to measure and enhance the impact of diversity within their teams. The benefits of diversity are fully realized only when diverse team members collaborate effectively. A CDES can provide a nuanced view of how diversity and collaboration interplay to drive organizational success. – Katrina Jones, Acacia Network
5. Time To Start
Measure the time to start per applicant. The clock starts ticking from the time someone applies to the first day worked or the first paycheck. We need to have a mental shift to be more consumer-centric. Applicant-centric HR needs to be B2C as much as, if not more than, B2B. Legacy HR metrics are meaningless to an individual’s time to start or to their first paycheck. These metrics impact the quality of the pool and thereby the quality of the hire! – Vishal Bhalla, Advocate Health
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6. Talent Mobility Rating (TMR)
Measure talent mobility rating (TMR). How effective is the team at filling open roles with internal talent, or providing career development courses so colleagues can up-skill to higher-level positions? External hiring is often seen as the fix-all for talent issues, but in reality, it’s not always the right tool for the job. HR teams need to better measure how they use internal tools to solve problems. – Nicky Hancock, AMS
7. Employee Well-Being Score
The employee well-being score is a vital HR metric for today’s work world. It measures overall well-being, considering mental, emotional and physical health, reflecting how supportive and sustainable the workplace is. Tracking this fosters a culture where employees thrive, directly impacting productivity, customer satisfaction, revenue, generation and retention. – Bala Sathyanarayanan, Greif Inc.
8. Return on Commute (ROC)
One innovative HR metric that should be developed in response to today’s world of work is related to RTO: return on commute (ROC). Similar to return on investment (ROI), employees use ROC to measure the value of their commute in terms of on-site productivity (gains) versus the time lost (and what it costs) to commute. Simply put, commutes with a high ROC will likely see higher in-office participation as well. – Dr. Timothy J. Giardino, BMC Software
9. New Hire Turnover Rate
Hiring and onboarding talent is time-consuming and costly. A key metric is the new hire turnover rate. Investing in a world-class recruiting and onboarding program is well worth the time and effort. Losing new hires within the first six months happens more than we should allow. Securing top talent requires clear robust job descriptions, continued support from managers and engagement across all teams. – Maria Miletic
10. Employee Engagement
Look at employee engagement and well-being. This metric assesses how connected and supported employees feel and their overall satisfaction with work-life integration. By tracking this, we can proactively address factors that influence retention, performance and company culture, ensuring our workforce is productive, agile, and rewarded. – Tammy Harper, CAI
11. Remote Productivity Index (RPI)
An HR metric that could be developed is a remote productivity Index (RPI). This metric would measure the effectiveness of employees working remotely. It could include factors such as task completion, collaboration effectiveness and employee satisfaction with tools and support. By assessing RPI, organizations can identify ways to optimize remote worker productivity and satisfaction. – Liz Corey, Velosio
12. Skills Agility Index
Every company should have a skills agility index. The goal of the SA index is to measure an organization’s and employees’ ability to adapt to new skills required by market changes and technological advancement. The index would rate internal mobility, the average time to proficiency for new skills learned, employee participation rates in new skill development programs and certifications achieved. – Heide Abelli, SageX
13. Support Effort
A difficult but attractive HR metric would be to track the effort someone gives to support their peers, subordinates and/or senior leaders in ways that are far outside of their role description. Discovering those gems in your organization who embrace opportunities to go above and beyond and then rewarding them is an obvious way to keep pace with the “do more with less” trend. – Bryan Passman, Hunter + Esquire
14. Workplace Loneliness Index
Research shows that 72% of employees report feeling lonely, with workplace loneliness costing $154 billion annually. A workplace loneliness Index can quantify this widespread issue to assess the prevalence and the effectiveness of measures fostering a sense of belonging, inclusiveness and enhanced psychological safety, all of which are especially critical in increasingly remote work environments. – Karen Perham-Lippman, Otis Elevator Company
15. Recognition
Recognition would be interesting, as it’s such a huge driver of employee satisfaction. People like to have their accomplishments celebrated (not just a team lunch), and recognition does that while also fostering a more positive work environment. In a remote-forward world where it’s easy for employee work to disappear into the background, making people feel seen is of the utmost importance. – Ursula Mead, InHerSight
16. Ramp-Up Time To Productivity
Employers should consider measuring new hires’ ramp-up time to productivity. This could help determine the effectiveness of a company’s onboarding and training programs. Though metrics for each position would be different, comparing analytics for a specific role to those of other office locations or organizations would highlight areas of onboarding and training in need of improvement. – John Feldmann, Insperity
17. Early Turnover
Look at early turnover, or the percentage of new hires leaving in the first year, to understand how the tight labor market could be driving attrition in your organization. A high early turnover rate can point to issues with your onboarding, culture or compensation and requires immediate attention. The sooner you recognize the problem, the sooner you can fix it. – Niki Jorgensen, Insperity
18. Authentic Advocacy
Measure authentic advocacy via the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS). This simple question (“Would you recommend this company as a workplace?”) gauges employee loyalty and willingness to advocate, indicating the true value proposition beyond marketing efforts. By monitoring and improving eNPS, organizations can proactively address internal concerns and attract top talent who trust genuine recommendations. – Michael D. Brown, Global Recruiters of Buckhead
19. Benefits Usage
HR teams should evaluate their benefits by usage and determine how many people are enrolled in each plan. They should determine what benefits are utilized and needed and if other benefits could be added or replace current benefits that aren’t used as much. They can also evaluate how many people are enrolled in each specific health plan and make plan adjustments based on usage. – Erin ImHof, CertiK
20. Empathy
Empathy can serve as an indicator of employee engagement and retention. While there’s room for improvement, CEOs and executives are starting to recognize the value of empathy to retention: 42% of CEOs feel that employee retention is a benefit of being an empathetic organization, up 19 points from 2022. – Marcy Klipfel, Businessolver