DIGITALISATION

HR dashboard: five indicators for monthly decisions.

A dashboard connects the data to the company’s questions and decisions. Each indicator has a written definition, a source, an owner and a decision it can support.

THE HUMX TEAM
~3 MIN READ

Start with the question the report answers, then choose the indicators. Definitions are written before the first chart, otherwise the same name means different things in two meetings.

A useful dashboard has four things settled from the start for each indicator: the definition, the data source, the owner and the decision it can support.

Five indicators for the monthly meeting

INDICATOR DEFINITION, SOURCE, OWNER, DECISION

Headcount against plan People active at the reporting date, compared with the approved plan. Source: the personnel records. Owner: HR. Decision: where a position is opened or postponed.

Age of open roles How many days each role has been open at the reporting date. Source: the recruitment records. Owner: recruitment. Decision: which role gets attention or changes approach.

Open HR requests Requests received and not completed at the reporting date, by type. Source: the channel through which requests arrive. Owner: HR. Decision: where work is redistributed.

Corrections before the pay run How many times the same data was corrected in the current month. Source: the time records. Owner: payroll. Decision: which step in the flow gets clarified.

Onboarding conversations held The onboarding conversations held, out of those planned. Source: the onboarding plan. Owner: the direct manager. Decision: where the plan is picked up again.

These five indicators are a starting point. Adapt the selection to the decisions and responsibilities in your company.

What is most easily misread

A missing value does not mean zero. If a site has not reported, write “no data”, not 0 — otherwise the average drops for no reason.

The definition stays the same from one month to the next. When you change it, mark the month in which it changed and keep both versions for a while.

The number and the rate answer different questions: 4 open roles mean something different at 30 people than at 300. Choose one and say which it is.

The same reference date in all sources. An illustrative example: a company with two sites counts headcount on the 1st and on the 30th of the month, from two systems; the difference shows up as staff variation, although it is a difference of date. Reconciliation happens before the decision, not during the meeting.

Access and confidentiality

Access to data is proportionate to the role: a manager sees their team, the leadership sees the aggregate. Where a segment has very few people, reporting stays aggregated. Details about individual situations do not enter the monthly report.

The sheet for one indicator

Six lines, filled in once for each indicator.

The period it refers to and the reference date.

The unit: number, percentage, days.

What is included and what is explicitly excluded.

How missing data is handled.

The owner of the indicator.

The possible action and who decides it.

With the sheet filled in, the discussion starts from interpretation, not from what the figure means.

The practical step

Start with a short monthly meeting: five indicators, one decision, one owner and a review date. The tool comes after the definitions are stable. If you want to see how it connects to day-to-day flows, see HR digitalisation; for the departures indicator, see the cost of employee turnover.

Let’s clarify what we measure.

We start from your monthly questions and agree the definitions together.

Let’s clarify what we measure →