What are the essential HR indicators for management?

1 of April, 2025

The importance of HR indicators for measuring and analyzing is related to the ability to stay one step ahead of potential problems that could arise in a company and to create human resources dashboards to draw conclusions. This way, preventive actions can be taken to detect potential situations before they have a negative impact on the organization. Undoubtedly, a better option than making decisions to fix a problem.

However, monitoring and measuring allow you to have data for proper decision-making based on more reliable information. This can be achieved at any time thanks to the identification of essential indicators for human resources, which will be much easier with the use of a specific human resources software for this task and with which you can obtain detailed HR reports.

What are the indicators in human resources management?

Indicators, also called HR KPIs, are metrics that allow measuring and quantifying performance based on specific goals and objectives for tasks performed for a company’s operations.

For KPIs to be effective and reliable, they must meet a series of special characteristics. These can be summarized with the English acronym SMART. which stands for:

• Specific.
• Measurable.
• Attainable.
• Relevant.
• Time Bound.

It is vital to remember that HR indicators must align with the strategic objectives of the company.

Importance of indicators

Within any company, it is essential to stop and analyze and measure the impact, repercussions, and return of the actions taken. It is futile to carry out actions without fully knowing whether they work or not, or, conversely, knowing if they have not had the expected impact. This part of control and analysis, so important in companies, is often forgotten.

Whether due to lack of time or budget, few companies choose to maintain good control of all the actions that occur. It is for these reasons that we want to highlight the importance of indicators.

Establishing a series of HR indicators is a good way to ensure control of the actions and a correct analysis to see if they are meeting the proposed objectives. In addition to all this, these indicators can help companies optimize various aspects:

• Indicators aid efficient decision-making.
• They help to understand the efficiency of actions taken within the company.
• Identify strengths and enhance them to turn them into a competitive advantage.
• Allow in real-time understanding of what is happening within the company so that measures can be taken before it is more challenging to act on a problem.

Essential HR indicators for any management

1. Training: Training is the acquisition of theoretical, technical, and practical knowledge for professional development. This indicator or KPI should provide clues as to how to achieve maximum productivity in the relationship of time (hours) that each worker spends in their job.
2. Staff turnover: This is responsible for calculating the level of retention of employees in the company. The ideal number for staff turnover should be less than 5%. It should be noted that the strategies applied to reduce the degree of staff turnover in the company also help ensure higher talent retention in that company.
3. Average time to reach objectives: This indicator measures worker efficiency. It is especially useful if it is measured from the moment the employee begins his commitment in the company, as it allows evaluating whether the selection process is the right one.
4. Workplace accidents: The desirable figure for this would be zero, although it is very difficult since it is impossible to avoid losing some hours due to a work accident or similar cause.
5. Labour absenteeism: Measures the absences of workers from their jobs during normal periods, whether due to absences, permits, or delays. It is a crucial index that can indicate symptomatic trends of the overall operation of the company and the employee.

 These are some of the most recommended HR indicators for management in companies. With these, your measurements would be very comprehensive in every way, and everything will end up benefiting your company.

Human resources management software

Currently, we can obtain various programs on the market that help us manage any process related to the human resources department. In this section, we can mention Sesame, which is HR software with which you can perform various tasks.

Among these tasks, we can develop a comprehensive management dashboard for human resources, HR reports, vacation and absence management, onboarding, payroll management among many more functions. Without a doubt, it is a program that has come to make your work easier and allow you to have plenty of time to dedicate to other corporate tasks.

If you would like to have at your fingertips all the indicators that will help you with the measurement process in your company, you should try Sesame, a program designed for you.

Iris Serrador

People Partner | LinkedIn | | Web | +post

Customer-oriented, both internally and externally, specializing in the definition and implementation of HR policies, as well as talent management, recruitment, and retention. Strong leadership, communication, negotiation, organization, and team coordination skills. Over 12 years of experience in Human Resources.

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