How to Analyze Data That Measures HR Impact: Free HR Report Template

Nearly 70% of executives agree that measuring the impact of HR initiatives is very or extremely important. So how are you tracking, analyzing, and presenting your HR data?

Human resources departments are sitting on a gold mine of data—turnover rates, employee performance reviews, benefit usage, pay history, and more. But too often, internal people data gets overlooked in favor of customer data—even though overhead is your company's biggest expense.

“We have incessant data around our go-to-market, sales, and marketing structure—yet I believe we have been irresponsible around our human data, because it’s the largest expense for most organizations,” says Anita Grantham, BambooHR Head of HR.

“If we really believe that employees drive the customer experience, we would want to be as rigorous around our employee data as we are around our customer data," Anita says. "People data is the difference between paper pushers and powerhouse people advocates.”

Keep reading to learn what hidden HR data your organization has, how to measure HR impact, and how to package that data into an insightful narrative.

In 2022 alone, BambooHR empowered HR professionals to generate 1.8 million data-driven reports. Every day, instant and custom reports in BambooHR help thousands of HR professionals make strategic business decisions about compensation, hiring, integrations, and more. Learn more today!

Free Resource: HR Report Template for Monthly Slides

Presenting your data with a clear narrative and next steps is just as important as collecting it. To help you get started, we created a downloadable HR report template, along with advice on how to analyze data.

These fully customizable slides provide examples of metrics you can highlight and how to frame data-driven narratives, including:

• How to present HR initiatives and metrics to leadership
• How to select reports that best align with your business goals
• How to be a data storyteller
• Examples of HR metrics with instructions on how to report on them
• Examples of standard and custom reports as shown in BambooHR (Many of these reports can be run elsewhere or manually calculated.)
• Talking points about why each metric is important

How to Analyze Data for Human Resources

If you’re just getting started measuring the impact of your HR team, it can seem daunting.

Here’s the good news—you’re likely already collecting much of the data you need to uncover insights into what’s working well and where you can improve.

Step 1: Audit Your Employee Data

The first step is to dig into the employee data you already have.

Employee data (e.g., employee records or personnel files) is the most basic building block needed for people analytics. And luckily, it’s information businesses already collect for payroll and legal compliance.

Step 2: Analyze Business Data

To truly get a complete picture that ties everything together, HR needs to pair people data with business data. This is what brings compelling people insights to the surface, including HR’s impact on the business—which is what executives are asking for.

Step 3: Identify Key Narratives

As you generate reports, whether manually or through an HR platform, look for patterns and trends.

Your people data will reveal insights about the human story behind the numbers. From there, it will become easier to prioritize strategies that address opportunities for improvement.

For example, if high potential employees consistently rate your onboarding program as ineffective in their new hire surveys, or they tend to leave within the first six months, it's time to reexamine your onboarding process. Make sure you’re taking the time to build out an onboarding experience that fully prepares new hires for their roles.

Step 4: Launch HR Reports and Strategies

Data analysis is more valuable when it's shared. To truly succeed, you'll need to master the art of communicating your findings to internal stakeholders.

For example, in a recent report, Gartner found that engaged employees who increase their productivity can increase company profits by up to 21%. How does that play out in your organization? When you can clearly make the connection between employee satisfaction and increased employee productivity and business profits at your own company, there’s no better proof of HR impact.

How to Present Data to Executives: 9 Tips for HR Pros

You’ve got a pile of data gathered in front of you. What now? It’s time to start analyzing. Here’s how you can become a powerful data storyteller:

• Align with your company mission. HR goals and business goals should be the same. Metrics aren’t insightful without goals. Get leadership buy-in by aligning with goals set for the business.

• Draw clear comparisons. Make sure your baseline data and data representing changes over time are clearly labeled.

• Identify opportunities. The true power of people analytics is in pointing out overlooked opportunities. Even if the numbers aren’t great, it’s imperative to lean in and present a plan to address the issues they reveal.

• Tell the full story. Having reports is just the starting point. You need to have the needed context to explain the influencing factors and focus on what is most important to who you’re presenting to.

• Focus on SCIPAB. This leading communications framework covers the most essential information for internal comms, including the S ituation, C omplication, I mplication, P osition, A ction, and B enefit. It's a great way to outline what data points mean, what happens if trends continue, how you recommend proceeding, and the outcomes you anticipate.

• Show financial impact. Show what attrition is costing the business, not just if it’s up or down. Show labor costs as a percentage of revenue or operating expenses. Cater the story to the numbers.

• Know industry standards. Come prepared to answer questions about how your numbers compare to industry averages.

• Cut your talking points in half. Force yourself to focus on the most important bullet points. Too much data is overwhelming. Stay out of the weeds!

• Pivot based on feedback. Know your data back and forth so you can be flexible in responding to executive needs and implement their feedback.

The most effective, and error-free way to report on your data is with an HRIS with built-in reporting tools.

In fact, an HRIS is so effective at aiding in reporting and people analytics that at least 47% of HR professionals use HRIS reporting to measure HR’s impact.

Next Steps: Use HR Reports to Drive Business Impact

When you first start gathering and analyzing data to measure HR impact, the problems you uncover may seem insurmountable. But the beauty of having data is that the more you dig, the clearer your priorities will become, and you’ll better understand what both your people and your organization need to succeed.

Focus on each problem individually, keep measuring, and let the data show how the HR initiatives you’re enacting are making a real impact on your organization.