There are plenty of staffing metrics to consider at your staffing firm. But, the question of what and how to measure staffing performance leads to questions about what types of metrics provide the most salient insights.
That’s where we come in!
Different approaches to management emphasize different metric attributes, but in general, organizing key metrics across several broad functional areas provides a good insight into overall performance trends.
Let’s begin with labor costs.
An orientation to the bottom line prompts many managers to look first at the total cost of labor. Common metrics include overtime rates, the total cost of payroll, the cost of labor per unit of service, and the cost of nonproductive labor (usually medical leave and vacation). Cost measures tend to be consistent within industries and are easily benchmarked against peer organizations.
Next, we’re going to look into recruitment and retention metrics.
Hiring new employees costs money. Many larger organizations focus on retaining existing employees by reducing turnover and finding opportunities to improve efficiency so as to avoid replacing outbound employees. Common metrics include the annualized turnover rate, the average cost to hire, and the total time to hire.
Now, let’s discuss productivity metrics.
Unproductive employees drive up costs, so managers want to ensure that employees are as efficient as possible. The most common productivity metric is unit-of-service (UOS) analysis (divide the number of things an employee does in a given time period by the total number of working hours in that period). The numerator is often transactional such as widgets, customers served, calls completed, etc. Companies can set aggressive UOS targets to help drive down costs and improve workers’ marginal performances.
Last but not least, satisfaction metrics.
Satisfaction metrics include employee and customer satisfaction, both of which should be regularly measured. Depending on the industry, the satisfaction of vendors or other external partners could be relevant. Satisfaction measurement sometimes prompts controversy among statisticians, so whatever measures are decided, the surveys and reports should be administered by someone who has experience in survey research methodology.
