HR is about people. But also about numbers. Without clear KPIs, HR management quickly remains a gut feeling. How do you know if your recruitment is going smoothly, if your employees are staying, whether your welfare policy works? With KPIs, you can make this tangible and controllable. In this article, you will find clear KPI examples for HR, divided into the most important areas of personnel policy.
Why KPIs matter in HR
HR is often less' hard 'than sales or finance. But that's exactly why KPIs are essential. They give direction to strategic personnel policy and make invisible signals visible.
The benefits of HR KPIs
- Objective basis for recruitment, retention and planning decisions
- Early identification of problems such as burnout or attrition
- Measurable impact of HR projects (such as onboarding, training, etc.)
- Better reporting to management or board of directors
HR KPIs let you evolve from administrative management to strategic partnership.
Recruitment KPIs
Efficient recruitment is crucial in a tight labor market. The right KPIs help you accelerate, improve and measure bottlenecks in the process.
1. Time to hire
What? Average time between vacancy publication and contract signing
Why? Long lead times cost money and talent
Hint: Segmenting by profile or team provides additional insights
2. Cost per hire
What? Total cost of recruitment (ad, recruiters, tools, hours)
Formula: total recruitment costs ÷ number of recruitments
Use: Compare internal vs. external recruitment
3. Quality of hire
What? How do new employees perform after 6 or 12 months?
Measurement: through evaluation, retention, and productivity
Action: Involve hiring managers for feedback and benchmarks
4. Sourcing efficiency
What? Share of hires per recruitment channel
Use: Which channels provide quality candidates?
Retention and attrition KPIs
Each departing employee costs time, money and knowledge. With the right KPIs, you can identify attrition patterns and take targeted actions.
5. Retention rate
What? Percentage of employees who stay over a certain period
Formula: (number of stayers ÷ total number of employees) × 100
Use: Measure 6-month and 1-year retention for new employees
6. Turnover Rate
What? Percentage of employees who leave in a period
Segmentation: voluntary vs. involuntary, by department or age group
Action: Combine with exit interviews to uncover causes
7. Onboarding success rate
What? Share of new employees who are still active 3 or 6 months after start-up
Why? Poor onboarding leads to early departure and frustration
Use: Measure by team or recruitment source
KPIs for engagement and absenteeism
Engagement and well-being are difficult to measure, but all the more important for sustainable employment. These KPIs help prevent mental and physical well-being.
8. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
What? How many employees recommend your company as an employer?
Score: from -100 to +100
Use: As a general barometer for satisfaction
9. Absenteeism rate
What? Share of sick days compared to total working days
Formula: (sick days ÷ available working days) × 100
Use: Alert to rising trends or team differences
10. Burnout indicator
What? Combination of high workload, low motivation and absence
Measuring via: anonymous surveys or wellbeing surveys
Action: Work preventively on workloads and recovery times
11. Engagement score (survey or pulse)
What? Results of periodic engagement measurement
Use: Analyze by team, not just globally
Hint: Combine with qualitative feedback questions
Visualize and monitor HR KPIs
KPIs only become valuable when you make them visual, share and monitor them. Dashboards provide insight into HR data for management and managers.
What a good HR dashboard shows
- Retention and attrition by month and team
- Absenteeism at team level or location
- Open vacancies and time to hire
- Engagement scores and trends over time
Best practices
- Work with colors: green = good, red = action required
- Combine numbers with interpretation or recommendation
- Only show relevant KPIs per target group (e.g. team lead vs. HRBP)
Common mistakes with HR KPIs
- Show administrative data only (number of employees, number of vacancies) No link between KPI and strategic goal
- Report KPIs without action or follow-up
- No involvement of executives in the story
Choose KPIs that have an impact on culture, performance, and retention
Make KPIs tangible and actionable
Combine numbers with story, HR is and remains human work
Summary: Which KPIs are essential for HR?
Every HR department should have a minimum of insight into:
- Time to hire and inflow quality
- Retention rate and attrition
- Engagement score and absenteeism
- Cost per recruitment and sourcing efficiency
With these KPIs, you can make HR policy measurable, negotiable and strategic.
Ready to get started with KPIs?
Read more:
Fast-growing e-commerce companies need sharp HR KPIs to closely monitor recruitment and team scale.
Production environments require meticulous HR KPIs around team planning, uptime and retention.
Logistics organizations focus on HR KPIs such as absenteeism, productivity and personnel costs.
HR decisions have an impact on your financial KPIs such as staff costs and profitability per FTE.
Marketing teams also benefit from HR insights such as turnover, satisfaction and time to fill in.
If you want to set up KPIs that are really useful, learn how to start from the SMART method here.