Importance of Metrics for HR professionals

Discussion #1

Give an academic definition of the term metric (with an in-text citation and full reference). Discuss why, in general, metrics are important for HR professionals to report. For example, they can assist the HR professional in achieving their goals and objectives while also assisting the whole organization. For example if innovation is a core capability of the organization, tracking the level of turnover of the individuals who have had the most success innovating would be important along with knowing why these individuals are leaving. This metric would allow the organization to change incentives or other rewards, if needed, or look for other ways to retain the needed talent.

Discussion #2

Share the following:

• A metric you are considering for the next assignment (typically a metric is an outcome and is presented as a percentage or index).
• What the metric tells the organization about the effectiveness of the total rewards program or a specific reward
• How the metric helps to support the organizational capabilities (what the organization does best) or how the metric helps to support the employee competencies (the knowledge, skills, and abilities)
• How the data for the metric will be collected (for example, through an electronic survey, exit interviews, data from the Human Resource Information System (HRIS), focus groups or something else

A metric will be acceptable for the second assignment if it:

• Evaluates the effectiveness of at least one element of the total rewards program of the organization
• Helps toward achieving the organization’s capabilities or employee competencies
• Data can be collected for the metric (you do not have to collect the data but you will describe how you could collect it)