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Let Data Be Your Guide: The

Essential HR Dashboard Template
Resource
Smartsheet Contributor
Diana Ramos
on
Jul 18, 2018
(Last modified on
Jul 20, 2021)

In This Article 

A 2016 report (https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-human-resource-management-hrm-market) by Grand View

Research found that the global human resource management market size was valued at $12.6 billion and was
on track to grow to $30 billion by 2025. There’s a good reason: People are the most important factor in any
organization’s success. Companies are turning to more efficient ways — chiefly, by relying on data and analytics
— to manage their all-important human capital. That’s why dashboards have become an indispensable tool for
human resource professionals and serve as the go-to tool for hiring, retention, onboarding, benefit tracking, and
decision-making.
You can purchase dashboard apps or build your own HR dashboard. In this article, you’ll learn how to choose
appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs), and find expert tips. Once you understand what to include in an
HR dashboard, download one of the free 13 customizable templates to get started.

What Is a Human Resources

Dashboard?
Human resources (HR) dashboards aggregate and present employee data in a meaningful
way, and are designed to help make the most of everyone’s time, both within the HR team and
throughout the entire organization. As a visual display of key metrics, HR dashboards simplify
information gathering, and present data in a way that can be sorted, analyzed, and presented
to management and executive teams.
Dashboards are also an efficient way to communicate with staff and stay abreast of what’s
happening in your company. Here’s an example of what a clear and functional HR dashboard
—  in this case dedicated to hiring functions — can look like:
 
 
“A good dashboard should be simple to use and easy to
understand,” notes Cornelia Gamlem, founder and
President of the Gems Group (https://www.gemsgroup-hr.com/),
consultant, speaker, and author of four books, The Big
Book of HR (https://www.bigbookofhr.com/), The Essential
Workplace Conflict Handbook
(https://www.essentialworkplaceconflicthandbook.com/), The Conflict
Resolution Phrase Book, and The Manager’s Answer Book.
“Being able to measure effectiveness and efficiency is
critical in today’s business environment. Dashboards
provide a platform to do that and to share the data as
well. For example, HR can measure the effectiveness of
recruitment processes or assess trends as part of its
workforce planning activities and easily report to senior
management.”

Dashboard Classifications
As you decide what will be most useful to support your HR efforts, consider how you’ll
specifically use the dashboard. Dashboards are often classified as strategic, analytical, or
operational. Many dashboards are hybrids that combine two or all three types:
Operational: Operational dashboards provide real-time alerts to any deviations from the
norm. Professionals use this type of dashboard to monitor and analyze a company’s
activities in a specific business area. Generally, departmental employees use operational
dashboards often to highlight issues in real-time so they can correct a situation.

Strategic Dashboards: Also known as executive dashboards, this type of dashboard

(https://www.smartsheet.com/everything-you-need-know-about-executive-dashboards) provides an
overview of the data executives need to ascertain the health of the a department or the
entire organization and identify opportunities for improvement.

Analytical: To understand trends and underlying causes, and compare variables and
timeframes, users often rely on analytical dashboards. Analytical dashboards are more
 detailed than the other two dashboard types, and hold both operational and strategic data.
They offer drill-down functionality to enable data exploration and gain insights from
multiple sources.

Learn more about the design and utility of dashboards by reading Best Dashboard Apps by
Category (https://www.smartsheet.com/best-dashboard-applications).

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The Purpose and Benefits of Human

Resources Dashboards
 
According to Dawn Cacciotti (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawncacciotti/), founder of EngageHRnow®
(https://www.engagehrnow.com/), human resources strategist, and contributor/co-author of
Cultivating Culture (https://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Culture-Cathy-Fyock/dp/099817145X), “HR has a
profound ability to impact the results of an organization and the use of HR dashboards is
essential for assisting organizations to accomplish their strategic plan. When well-designed,
 HR dashboards mirror the needs and pathways set by
the strategic plan. They can also pinpoint a particular
area within the organization that is either negatively
impacting their growth or can focus on an area that the
strategic plan showcases as the main area of future
growth.”

A visually engaging way to track vital data, HR dashboards add value by measuring progress,
nurturing relationships, and building culture and support:
Monitoring and Management: Regular reporting enables HR to accurately take the pulse
of the organization by tracking key workforce metrics. HR pros can address emerging
problems before they significantly impact the business and share victories as they occur.

Drill-Down Ability: Dig into data to uncover the root causes of issues like high turnover in
specific departments, the cost of hiring for particular positions, or link retention of high
performers to particular benefits or other factors  

Data-Driven Decision Making: Spot trends and understand challenges and opportunities
— based on real data — that you can share with management.

Improved Hiring Processes: Savvy recruitment analytics saves both time and money by
helping managers make informed talent decisions or assess employees’ performance
more objectively when evaluating staff for promotions.

Onboarding: Improve retention and productivity with an onboarding process strengthened

by dashboards. Track the delivery of electronic documents, new hire orientation and
compliance processes, and job-specific training or other important steps as you get new
team members up to speed. Interested in exploring onboarding best practices? Look into
Free Onboarding Checklists and Templates (https://www.smartsheet.com/free-onboarding-checklists-
and-templates), and Employee Onboarding Processes: Plans, Best Practices and Flowcharts
(https://www.smartsheet.com/employee-onboarding-processes-plans-best-practices-flowcharts).

Engagement and Motivation:  Darrin Murriner believes engagement is the key to both
productivity and retention. Murriner is author of Corporate Bravery
(https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Bravery-Eliminate-Fear-based-Decision-ebook/dp/B014VGS1P4/ref=sr_1_1?
ie=UTF8&qid=1507301809&sr=8-1&keywords=corporate+bravery),
a field guide to eliminating fear-
based decisions and co-founder of Cloverleaf (https://www.cloverleaf.me/), a technology
platform that helps business leaders and managers build thriving teams and culture.
Murriner says that dashboards can be extremely useful in understanding the commitment
and dedication of team members.

 
“Measuring ‘feeling’ levels through pulse surveys can be an effective approach to getting
overall organizational sentiment and identifying where problems are growing or festering.”
Murriner advises, “Information from surveys and related dashboards are most effective when
managers get the information, but more importantly, have the will to be honest when
engagement is declining and make the right corrective actions in a reasonable timeframe. For
example, if unrealistic deadlines have been causing employee burnout, a manager can pull in
additional resources or adjust unrealistic expectations of timelines to bring things back in line.”
 Retention: Gina Abudi, President of Abudi Consulting Group, LLC, author and business
blogger, notes that her clients have benefitted from HR dashboards. “For example, a
positive outcome for one of my clients was that the HR department was able to visualize
and analyze shortfalls in their workforce planning, hiring, and onboarding practices.”

 
Abudi adds, “The HR team consequently improved
retention rates, including providing a professional
development program to increase retention and sharing
valuable data with executives. They saved the
organization money that would otherwise have been lost
because of poor hiring practices and lack of sufficient
training.”

If you’re interested in developing a more strategic approach to HR practice, find further expert
information and free tools in Human Resource Management 101: Functions, Policies &
Procedures (https://www.smartsheet.com/human-resource-management).

What Do HR Dashboards Measure?

All about Key Performance
Indicators
A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that measures the performance of a particular
activity or process. In HR, KPIs can measure efficiency, effectiveness, and organizational
impact to surface deep information related to short and long term goals.
 
Amanda Haddaway is an author (https://www.amazon.com/Books-Amanda-Haddaway/s?
ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AAmanda%20Haddaway), managing director of a boutique
human resources consultancy, HR Answerbox (https://hranswerbox.com/), director of the Maryland
Society for Human Resource Management State Council, and Society for Human Resource
Management trainer. She advises, “HR KPIs should provide awareness and measurement of
 how the organization is progressing on its goals, and KPI
selection is dependent on the organization.”

Haddaway offers an example: “If senior-level employees are resigning at an unprecedented

rapid rate, KPIs to review would be turnover rate and years of service/tenure to ascertain
underlying causes.” The team can analyze those causes and outline steps to take for
corrective action.

KPI Lagging and Leading Indicators

Another way to think about KPIs in the HR realm is in terms of past and future. Lagging
indicators essentially analyze past results and which strategies have and have not worked in
the past. Leading indicators look at your current strategies and how successfully they’re being
executed. They look at the present and help plan for the future, but they don’t measure
results, since the associated results are yet to be realized.

Let’s look at recruiting as an example. Actual hires would be a lagging indicator (people are
already working in the organization) while current applications would be a leading indicator of
where you are going in your recruiting efforts. In other words, the number of applicants is a
leading indicator of where you are in your desired pipeline to measure progress toward your
hiring goals.
Cacciotti of Engage HRNow stresses that meaningful KPIs mix overall strategy with
organizational culture. “The right KPIs are selected based on understanding the organization’s
overall strategic plan (where we are currently and where we need to accomplish the strategy)
and having an informed pulse on the organization’s culture.” Cacciotti adds, “HR could have
the greatest data, understand exactly what they need to do in order to move the strategic plan
forward, but if the initiatives they want to implement of the strategy don’t fit the current culture,
it won’t be successful.”

How to Select HR KPIs

Abudi has found that every organization has and needs different HR KPIs. “For example, an
organization can be focused on employee retention, employee development, and employee
satisfaction. So, you might want to maintain a KPI for each of those three areas.”

Abudi also says that frequent reviews of HR KPIs are necessary. “KPIs are based on what’s
important to the organization and may change year over year. If you set a KPI one year to
track and focus on employee retention and find that retention is improving, you may not focus
on that KPI the following year, although you would keep an eye on it so you don’t lose
ground.”

KPI Characteristics: How Many Are Too Many?

While they may change due to environmental conditions, all strong KPIs should be the
following:
Tangible: Have a specific goal that supports company strategy.

Measurable: If you can’t measure the stated KPI, it doesn’t qualify.

Reachable: Be realistic when defining the KPIs that will determine your success.
 Relevant: Monitor what matters. Don’t waste time with indicators that don’t contribute to
your company.

Limiting the number of KPIs to track on dashboards is a best practice —and is often a
challenge. Our experts suggest that a dashboard shouldn’t have more than 12 KPIs when
tracking progress toward company short- and long-term goals. You can gauge whether your
HR practices are positively impacting your business’s profitability by constantly measuring and
tracking these metrics.
Need more ideas and best practices around KPI selection and tracking? Two resources for
free tools and reference are The Essential Guide to Defining Business Dashboard Metrics
(https://www.smartsheet.com/essential-guide-defining-business-dashboard-metrics) and All About KPI
Dashboards (https://www.smartsheet.com/all-about-kpi-dashboards).

What Makes a Strong HR

Dashboard?
A useful HR dashboard is concise and has an intuitive display of KPIs that is understandable,
shareable, and actionable. As Abudi says, “A good HR dashboard is one you can react to and
use — it displays information valuable to you as an HR professional. You want to avoid a
pretty dashboard with tons of metrics that you can’t act upon or don’t even make sense for
your company. Don’t be sold on looks alone!”
Regarding design, Gamlem concurs that simplicity is the objective and complexity is simply
bad. “Remember, you want to share the information on your dashboard with others, so avoid
clutter and anything that's not visually appealing, such as too much color or graphics that are
too ornate. Also, don't display irrelevant data just for the sake of populating the dashboard,”
she emphasizes.
What else makes for a good HR dashboard? “It includes usable data that tells a compelling
story,” says Haddaway. “If I’m able to look at the dashboard and know right away that my
company has a retention problem, that’s terrific. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by data, so I
favor dashboards that are a little more simplistic and not overly complicated. I also like to have
options to ‘slice and dice’ data as needed for various reports.”

The Importance of Real-Time Data

in HR Dashboards
“Through the use of technology, HR is now able to take advantage of real time and big data,”
says HR Answerbox’s Haddaway. “This data can tell a story about trends that occur in the
entire employment lifecycle — from initial recruitment through employment and eventually,
separation from the organization. I think of metrics as one data point and analytics as the
intersection of multiple data points. I’m seeing some organizations starting to do really
sophisticated analysis on the data they are collecting from the micro to the macro level.”
All of our experts stressed that data should be fresh and constantly updated with data feeds
so the dashboard remains relevant. They also advised that dashboards and KPIs should be
vetted on a regular basis, and reviewed for errors.
If you choose to buy an app, most systems will offer an easy way to import data. “An HR
dashboard needs to be flexible. It should integrate with the organization’s HRIS (human
resources information system) or other live data,” says Gamlem.
How to Bring Real-Time Data into Excel
In the next section, you’ll find HR dashboard Excel templates for you to download and modify
as needed. (If you prefer to create your own dashboard in Excel, this tutorial
(https://www.smartsheet.com/how-create-dashboard-excel) can help.) Before you begin any work,
however, identify the origin of your data. You can manually input data, but for best results,
import data into Excel from an external data source, such as a database, a text file, or Online
Analytical Processing (OLAP) cube. Connect the external data source to the workbook
through a data connection. Once connected to the external data, you can automatically
refresh your workbook from the original data source.
Stored in the workbook, connection information can also be stored in a connection file, such
as a data source name file (.dsn) or an Office Data Connection (ODC) file (.odc). Many data
sources also require an OLE DB provider or ODBC driver to coordinate the flow of data. For
more detailed information, refer to Microsoft’s Overview of Connecting Data
(https://support.office.com/en-us/article/overview-of-connecting-importing-data-86551057-0ef4-4104-a6ca-
fa619aea904c).

Download Free HR Dashboard

Templates
HR dashboards that show progress through charts, gauges, and other visual devices help
managers identify challenges and progress more clearly and assist in analyzing the ‘why’ of
human performance. Is there a difference between metrics and analytics?

Gamlem of Gems Group says there is. “Metrics are the hard numbers, the data that is
collected. Analytics is the interpretation of that data. Organizations use the analysis of data to
evaluate performance against goals, assess trends that can be used in workforce planning so
they can assure they have the necessary staff, and best utilize their peoples resources.”
Engage HRNow’s Cacciotti finds, “Dashboards have been extremely helpful to teams I’ve
worked with to accomplish stated goals. [They have] united the team and improved the
internal communication that is so necessary — and yet is often lacking — to accomplish
desired results.”
In the following sections, you’ll find free, downloadable HR dashboard templates for Excel.
Templates are grouped by KPI category, including compensation, employment, performance,
and culture.

Templates for Compensation KPIs

These metrics help HR understand why and how much is being paid in wages, salaries, and
benefits, and the ROI of human capital investment. Dashboard templates include the
following:
Salary Competitiveness Ratio (SCR): This metric is increasingly important, particularly in
competitive industries where demand for skilled employees is high and the pool of
qualified candidates is low. To calculate this metric, divide the average salary in your
organization by salary averages offered by your competitors or industry wide.

Health Care Expense per Current Employee: Healthcare costs have skyrocketed in the last
decade. Determining how much your company is paying per employee can help you save
money in this costly benefit area. The simplest calculation is to divide the total number of
employees covered by company plan(s) against the total cost per year by the total cost of
healthcare paid by your organization.

Healthcare Costs Per Employee Dashboard

Use this template for a basic view of both individual health benefit costs per employee and
overall costs of the plan. This customizable dashboard provides a clear look into costs by
month for medical, dental, and other healthcare expenses incurred by the employer, the total
health care costs paid by the employer, and total health care costs paid per employee.
 

‌Download Healthcare Costs Per Employee Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-health-

care-costs-employee-dashboard-template-9320xlsx)

Benefits Satisfaction: Using surveys, employees can weigh in on the degree of

satisfaction with specific benefits to help design future benefit programs. The information
can be helpful for designing employee retention plans.

Cost of Benefits: More detailed than healthcare benefits alone, this metric reveals the
complete cost of employee benefits provided by the company to the employee and how
much the employee is contributing to benefits. This metric is a useful recruitment tool if
 benefits like bonuses and flexible spending are attractive and competitive to other
companies in your field.

Benefit Statement Dashboard

Use this template to show the total benefit package by employee for the year, and how much
of the cost was picked up by the company. You’ll find detailed information for total health and
welfare benefits, paid leave, state and federal mandated benefits, bonuses, and more. Adjust
the numbers to reflect what your company offers. You can then aggregate the information for
your employees into one dashboard to see total benefits utilization and costs.
 

‌Download Benefit Statement Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-benefit-statement-

dashboard-9320xlsx)

Revenue Per Full Time Employee (FTE): If you want to know the average contribution of
each FTE to the company’s bottom line on a yearly basis, the calculation is simple: divide
annual income by the number of employees.
Revenue Per Full Time Employee Dashboard
This easy-to-use template shows the revenue by FTE by the month and year. This is a basic
measure of productivity used by most companies. This provides a general estimate. You can
also modify the template to show the breakdown to examine productivity by department,
division, or job description.
 

‌Download Revenue Per Full Time Employee Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-

revenue-full-time-employee-dashboard-template-9320xlsx)
Templates for Employment KPIs
Having a complete picture of how many employees you’re retaining, their attendance habits,
and other data that you may need for legal purposes (like diversity rates) are easy to see with
the right dashboards. Here are some sample employment KPIs and dashboards:
Absenteeism Rate: This KPI shows average absences from the job for both legitimate
(illness) and illegitimate reasons (no-shows who don’t call in or provide an adequate
reason). This KPI represents a significant cost to companies. The formula is relatively
simple: Take the number of days off by any designated period, divide it by the total days
worked by all employees over that designated period and multiply it by 100. You can also
use the dashboard below.

Absenteeism Percentage Dashboard

Use this template to know the average rate of absenteeism by employees and customize it to
suit your needs. This tool will help you record the number of absences by the number of
employees by month and calculate the average absence rate by employee and the total for
the year. If the percentage seems to high, you can take action by looking into underlying
causes, set targets, provide a clearer policy, and institute rewards for excellent attendance. 
 

‌Download Absenteeism Rate Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-absenteeism-rate-

dashboard-template-9320xlsx)

Number of Full-Time Equivalents (FTE): The hours worked by one employee on a full-time
(usually a 40-hour week) is a full-time equivalent. If there are many part-time workers, the
FTE number is often lower than the total number of employees. FTE describes a
reasonable measure of the total organizational workload.

FTE Calculation Dashboard

Use this template to calculate the number of full-time equivalents based on team members
who work 40, 37.5, and 35 hours per week. Once you have the number of FTEs, you may
decide to change the number of workers or the number or hours worked in your organization
to assess trends and achieve revenue or employee satisfaction goals. 
 

‌Download the FTE Calculation Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-full-time-equivalents-fte-

calculation-dashboard-template-9320xlsx)

Contract Workers: Compare the number of contract workers to full-time workers to

understand workforce needs and trends.

Average Tenure: The average length of time team members spends with the organization
helps determine retention and satisfaction data.
 Termination Rate - Voluntary: See how many employees are leaving by calculating the
number of resignations over the total number of terminations in a given time period.

Termination Rate - Involuntary: Gain an understanding of how many employees are fired
by taking the number of firings over the total number of terminations in a given time
period.

Rate of Retirement: This KPI is necessary in the strategic workforce planning process. To
calculate, review how many employees retired as a percentage of the total company
headcount.

Average Retirement Age: Important for forecasting and planning for workforce
replacement, divide all retiring employees by the number of retiring employees is the
average age of retirement.

New Hire Three-Month Failure Rate: This number reveals talent acquisition effectiveness
in finding the right personnel fit.

First Year Voluntary Termination Rate: A high quit rate may mean that the right hires are
being made, but workers are not being properly onboarded or salaries may not be
competitive.

Recruitment vs. Hires: Recruitment is the first step to adding new team members and
finding qualified candidates; hiring is finding the right candidate, acceptance of an offer,
and finally engaging services on a full time, temporary, or consulting basis.

Recruitment vs. Hires Dashboard

This template will provide you with the key to understanding the effectiveness of your
recruitment process. This dashboard shows the number of applicants, the number of job
offers, and how many people finally accepted an offer. If the ratio of offers to acceptance is
low, it may be time to see how you can improve your process, or take a look at what your
industry competitors are offering.
 

‌Download Recruitment vs. Hires Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-recruitment-vs-hires-

dashboard-9320xlsx)
 Hiring Process Satisfaction Rate: Using a survey, discover the employee perspective on
start-to-finish hiring procedures.

Cost per Hire: Research the cost of talent acquisition with this calculation. Average the
total marketing, hiring process, and referral investment per hire to determine the final cost.

Training Effectiveness: Using a post-training survey, ascertain how comfortable new team
members feel after training.

Employee Training Cost: Measure the investment in new hire onboarding by employee.

Percentage of Employees Trained: Find out how long it takes for new team members to
be onboarded.

Diversity Rate: Keep track of whether or not the company fosters an accepting and open
environment.  

Number of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: Track your organization’s commitment to

supporting inclusion and diversity.

Attrition Rate: This is a talent retention investigation to determine how long vacancies go
unfilled, or if it is best to eliminate the position.

Turnover Rate: This KPI reveals how many workers leave the company yearly and is an
important tool to help define retention strategies. When combined with another KPI — for
example, performance — this metric can track the attrition rate difference between low
and high performing employees.

Employee Turnover Dashboard

This template will provide you with a turnover calculation to see how often employees leave
your company. You can track how many employees have left by the month, quarter, and year,
the average number by month, and the ratio of turnover by month, quarter, and year. If
turnover rates are high, it may be time to review company culture, salary, and benefits as well
as conducting some employee satisfaction audits.
 
 ‌Download Employee Turnover Rate Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-employee-
turnover-rate-dashboard-9320xlsx)

Average Time to Hire: Learn how efficient your hiring process is and where it may need
improvement, particularly in roles that are hard to fill.

Time to Hire Dashboard

The hiring process can be frustrating and time consuming for companies and employees alike.
The first step in streamlining the process is understanding how long it takes to put new team
members in place. This template is designed for monthly monitoring and can be adapted to
your needs. Track the types of positions you fill and departments, approval dates, acceptance
dates, and more. Based on that information, the template will calculate the days to offer and
days to fill.
Download Time to Hire Dashboard
Yield Percentage: Learn how many and what percentage of candidates are still viable
after each round of hiring process elimination. A high percentage of candidates results in
a greater number of qualified candidates, while a low percentage may require a change to
the job posting.  
 Knowledge Achieved With Training: This information helps determine the effectiveness of
training, rather than the cost by testing retained knowledge by pre- and post-testing.

Templates for Performance KPIs

How is your HR department doing? How long is your hire cycle? Are you hiring the right
people? Dashboards can provide the answers:
Return on Investment (ROI): This metric is also called Human Capital ROI, or HCROI. The
number shows how your investment in people stacks up against revenue. The formula to
obtain this metric is revenue minus operating expenses divided by compensation plus
benefit costs.

HR Return on Investment Dashboard

This template can provide a clear picture of the economic value provided by your team by
month and by year. Capture revenue, operating expenses, compensation, and benefit costs
by the month with this dashboard which will provide calculations and show you where you
may need to make adjustments to achieve your company goals. While every company has
different needs (depending on size and other factors), a benchmark for larger companies is
one human resources staffer for every 100 employees.  
 
 ‌Download HR Return on Investment Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-hr-roi-return-
investment-dashboard-template-9320xlsx)

Human Resource Ratio: This metric helps determine the HR staff’s ability to support
needed services. Larger organizations usually have a lower ratio of HR to other staff, but
more HR employees overall than small businesses. Calculate the ratio by taking the total
number of HR FTEs and dividing by the total number of full time employees.

Human Resource Ratio Dashboard

Need to track how many full time employees you have against the number of HR staff? Use
this adjustable template to find the ratio of people you have to serve the needs of your
company’s team. The template helps you follow the numbers by the month, quarter, and year.
 

‌Download Human Resource Ration Dashboard (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-human-resource-

ratio-dashboard-9320xlsx)

Candidate Percentage Who Meet Job Criteria: Gauge the validity of your recruiting efforts
and analyze if changes are needed, should a high percentage of resumes fail to meet job
criteria.

New Hire Performance: You can compare the performance of new hires to other
employees and against the job description.

Internal Hire Rate: This number reveals organizational talent development effectiveness.

Internal Referral Hire Rate: This metric allows managers to see the value added when a
qualified colleague is identified by a current employee for an open position and is
subsequently hired.

Internal Promotion Rate: This metric is an indicator of positive growth and retention of top
performers. To find the rate, divide the number of individuals promoted by the total number
of team members.

Internal Promotions vs. External Hires: Particularly effective when looking at

organizational succession planning, this KPI establishes how many existing employees
are promoted against outside hires.

Employee Suggestions: Reflects on company openness to employee input and gauges

engagement in business process improvement by staff.
 Process Payroll Cycle Time: The total number of business days in the payroll process
from start to finish. It shows process timeframes and projects if changes to the process
are required.

Resolve Payroll Errors Cycle Time: This KPI represents how many business days it takes
to resolve an employee reported payroll error. A high number of days suggests it’s time to
update the payroll process.

Percentage of Workforce Below Performance Standards: This KPI notes the number of
low-performers in the company.

Templates for Culture KPIs

Retention is the name of the game, particularly when the market for highly qualified
employees tightens. In competitive industries like software, aerospace, and other technical
fields, culture can be a make-or-break proposition. As is the case for every one of these KPI
categories, you can adapt HR dashboards to effectively measure culture within your company.
HR Dashboard Template
This simple, clean, and flexible design provides an instant view into multiple metrics. You can
customize this template to include the culture or some of the other culture KPIs described
below that are most beneficial for your team or the executive suite, whether it’s a look into
employee satisfaction, benefits, salaries, wages, or recruitment.
 

‌Download HR Dashboard Template (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-hr-dashboard-9320xlsx)

To ensure that employees are engaged, track satisfaction and other measures. Here are some
of the KPIs you might use to gauge and track culture metrics:
Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI): Determine and track changes of in-house team
member satisfaction with three easy, standard questions that are designed to fit any
business:
How satisfied are you with your current workplace?

How well does your current workplace meet your expectations?

How close is your current workplace to the ideal one?

 Employee Satisfaction Survey Number: This metric shows how much effort is being put
into maintaining and improving employee contentment.

Number of Employees Trained in Company Culture: Evaluates the importance and

understanding of disseminating and living the organizational culture.

Vacation Days Utilization: Work-life balance is important to employee satisfaction and

retention. This metric compares the number of available vacation days used to those
unused by each employee.

Net Promoter Score Measures: Calculate how likely an employee is to recommend their
organization as a place to work. This metric is determined by the difference in percentage
of promoters and detractors.

Engagement: A productive workforce is an engaged workforce. Engaged staffers tend to

be perform better and perceive challenges as exciting. Engagement is an important metric
for a team manager’s success since it improves retention.

Onboarding: Onboarding ensures that new team members complete required paperwork,
understand company rules and protocols, understand the culture, and feel comfortable in their
new role. The onboarding process can take up to a year, depending on the role and
organizational needs. Learn more by reading Employee Onboarding Processes: Plans, Best
Practices and Flowcharts (https://www.smartsheet.com/employee-onboarding-processes-plans-best-practices-
flowcharts) and The Complete Guide to Employee Onboarding from HR Experts
(https://www.smartsheet.com/complete-guide-employee-onboarding-hr-experts).

How Do You Evaluate Employee

Performance?
Evaluating employee performance begins with establishing a performance measurement
system. The system should provide standards for performance so team members understand
what and how work needs to be accomplished in their particular role, and also individual
goals, which are goals tailored to the employee based on their strengths and weaknesses.
Once overall performance standards and individual goals have been determined for each
position and team member, they should be documented and distributed to employees so they
understand expectations and have objectives for a positive evaluation in their next review.
This performance data should be reviewed prior to a formal review, and the manager’s
conclusions should be written down and compiled using evaluations from other managers (if
that is company practice), and any other evaluations by colleagues and self-evaluations. This
documentation should be shared and discussed during the face-to-face performance review
so the manager and individual are on the same page and can set up for future success.

What Is a Performance Review?

A performance review, also known as a performance appraisal, is a fair, balanced, and formal
discussion of an employee's development and performance. It’s also a planning procedure
 where you discuss job performance, set professional development goals, and establish
objectives and expectations to contribute to company goals. An important aspect of a
meaningful performance review is tracking data to establish if goals and expectations have
been met.
Learn more by reading The Secrets to an Effective Performance Review: Examples, Samples,
and Forms. (https://www.smartsheet.com/performance-review-examples-and-tools)
How Do You Conduct a Performance
Review?
Dashboards can simplify performance reviews by providing clear communication around work
responsibilities and objectives, illuminating ways to align individual and organizational goals,
identifying training needs, and encouraging positive relationships between employees and
management. Since dashboards enable managers and employees to see how individual
performance compares to pre-set goals and peers, you can pinpoint areas that require
feedback and foster an open dialogue.
For example, data surfaced in a dashboard that relates to a single employee can include how
long it took from application to hire data, history of promotions within the company, total days
of vacation and sick days taken, a history of all performance reviews, and recommendations
made.
While annual performance reviews have been the norm in the past, today’s best practices
recommend that you conduct reviews more often, particularly in fast paced technology
businesses. Using HR dashboards makes it easier for direct managers to provide in-the-
moment feedback, whether for praise or if there’s a challenge that needs attention.
Conducting informal frequent reviews keeps management informed as it fosters positive
relationships. Having more frequent reviews also takes some of the pressure off the formal
biannual or annual reviews and promotes a more connected, more responsive culture.
Employee Evaluation Template
Useful for annual reviews, you can customize this template for every type of timing cadence.
You’ll find sections for weighted, measurable objectives and evaluations, and an area to make
note for follow-up tasks. Other sections include employee self-evaluation, employee skills
assessment, and the employee’s evaluation of the manager. At the end of the template, there
is a dedicated area for professional development suggestions.
 
Download Employee Evaluation Template
 Excel (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-employee-evaluation-9320xlsx) | Smartsheet
(https://app.smartsheet.com/b/launch?
trp=9319&lx=aomuQHE5ZITwSL71OXBayV2F3tjZfBYMXSEruozjq1E&lpv=icsmartsheettemplate&lpa=employee%20
evaluation%20smartsheet)

Group Evaluation Form

This customizable template supports multiple competency ratings, and then automatically
calculates totals scores to assess the performance of organizational groups. Identify the
strengths and weaknesses of any team at a glance. Ratings assigned to individuals can be
exported from other performance reviews or self-evaluation forms.
 

‌Download Group Evaluation Template (https://www.smartsheet.com/file/ic-group-evaluation-form-

9320xlsx)

For performance review tips from experts, more frameworks and free templates, read
Performance Review Examples and Tools (https://www.smartsheet.com/performance-review-examples-and-
tools).

How to Encourage HR Dashboard

Adoption in Your Organization
How do you encourage HR dashboard adoption in an organization? Point out the benefits, be
organized, keep the design simple, and focus on engagement and retention.
Take a Change Management Approach: “I approach it [dashboards] from a change
management perspective,” says Abudi. “I focus on the value and benefit of the HR
dashboard for the individuals whom I want to adopt it. I want to move beyond why it is
good for the organization and focus on why it is good for individuals within the
organization. [Using dashboards is] simply to drive better performance, engage, and retain
top talent and meet goals.”

Present a Plan: A planning phase with input from key stakeholders, followed by a
documented action plan that provides examples, benefits, and a timeline improve the
possibility of adoption. Abudi says, “I engage individual managers by asking them:
Wouldn’t you like a tool that will enable you to track talent performance? Wouldn’t you like
a tool that allows you to measure against metrics and not just guesswork (thereby making
the performance review processes easier)?”

Impress the Executives: Gamlem stresses that executives are looking for data and that
she has seen HR dashboards make an impression — and raise HR’s profile. “I have a
client who used a dashboard to track relevant HR information. When she was asked to
make a presentation to the board one year, she had an easy time developing her
 presentation using the dashboard. The board was so impressed, she was invited back to
present at every one of their future meetings,” shares Gamlem.

Drive Toward Engagement: Cloverleaf’s Murriner says that he foresees steady adoption of
HR dashboards to foster engagement. “The next evolution of HR sentiment surveys and
dashboards is taking a more bottom-up approach to preventing issues from manifesting in
the first place. The future is to head off the greatest causes of disengagement with
technology and tools built to assist teams in avoiding unnecessary conflict, setting more
realistic expectations, and doing work that is optimal for them at their current career
placement.”

HR Dashboard Resources
The following resources help make using dashboards to improve your practice easier for both
novices and experienced HR professionals:
Articles
These articles feature the latest thinking about dashboarding in human performance strategic
management:
Can Technology Drive Organizational Culture?, HR Dive,  2018, by Pamela DeLoatch
(https://www.hrdive.com/news/can-technology-drive-organizational-culture/518822/)

Developing the Dashboard: Real time Visibility in HR, 2018, HR Technologist, by Amber
Lloyd (https://www.hrtechnologist.com/articles/performance-management/developing-the-dashboard-the-
importance-of-realtime-visibility-in-hr/)

The Board Needs Culture Dashboards: A Q&A With KPMG’s Dennis Whalen, 2018, FEI, by
Olivia Berkman (https://www.financialexecutives.org/FEI-Daily/March-2018/The-Board-Needs-Culture-
Dashboards-A-Q-A-With-KPM.aspx)

Books
Here are three recent books that specifically cover dashboard design and utilization:
The Big Book of Dashboards: Visualizing Your Data Using Real-World Business Scenarios
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071Z6XJJX/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)by Steve
Wexler,‎Jeffrey Shaffer,‎and Andy Cotgreave

Business Dashboards: A Visual Catalog for Design and Deployment

(https://books.google.com/books/about/Business_Dashboards.html?id=23A5oPOQ7pYC), Nils H.
Rasmussen, Manish Bansal, and Claire Y. Chen

Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data 1st Edition
(https://www.amazon.com/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effective-Communication/dp/0596100167) by
Stephen Few  

Glossaries
Human resources is a wide-ranging discipline that requires a large vocabulary to manage
people and processes. Take advantage of these comprehensive terms listings:
Human Resources Institute of New Zealand HR Glossary
(https://www.hrinz.org.nz/Site/Resources/Knowledge_Base/Glossary_of_HR_terms.aspx)

HR Technology Partners Human Resources Terms and Glossary

(http://www.hrtechpartners.com/hr-glossary.html)

The IPMA-HR HR Management Glossary (https://www.ipma-hr.org/stay-informed/hr-management-

glossary)

Organizations
All of the following non-profit organizations provide a wealth of resources for its members,
including coursework, certifications, books, periodicals, and mentorship:
Society for Human Resource Management  (https://www.shrm.org/)

HR + People and Strategy (HRPS) (https://www.hrps.org/Pages/default.aspx)

The Human Capital Institute (HCI) (https://www.hci.org/)

The International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR)

(https://www.ipma-hr.org/)International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI)
(https://www.ispi.org/)

Master HR Dashboards with

Smartsheet for Human Resources
Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the
needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 
The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from
anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and
get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated
workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 
When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they
can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.
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