Top 19 data-driven HR metrics and KPIs for 2026

Metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been used in organizations – particularly by marketing teams – to measure progress toward a particular goal for quite some time. But they can provide value to other departments, too. In the field of human resources, there are a number of different metrics that can be followed in order to measure the success (or failure) of your department.

When implemented thoughtfully, HR metrics can do far more than track activity. They help connect data to business outcomes, support more strategic decision-making, and reduce administrative friction through automation. By focusing on the right metrics, HR teams can better monitor workforce health, identify risks early, and stay aligned on what matters most to employees and the organization.

If you are responsible for leading an HR function, tracking the right metrics is essential to your team’s effectiveness. Measuring performance across the employee lifecycle makes it easier to spot gaps, prioritize improvements, and take informed action. This article serves as a practical resource for HR leaders on the KPIs and metrics that matter most in 2026, how to measure them consistently, and how to use the results to improve workforce performance and employee experience.

What are HR metrics?

HR metrics, often referred to as HR KPIs, are quantitative measures used to evaluate the effectiveness of human resources strategies, programs, and outcomes across the employee lifecycle. By tracking HR metrics, you can identify areas that need improvement and make changes to ensure that your department is running as efficiently and effectively as possible.

There are a variety of different types of HR metrics that you can track, but some of the most common include employee retention rates, time-to-hire, DEI, and average cost-per-hire. We'll expand on these in a moment. For now, understand that tracking these and other HR metrics will give you a clear picture of how your department is performing and where there is room for improvement.

Why is tracking HR metrics so important?

There are a number of reasons why tracking HR metrics is so important. For the sake of brevity, we've condensed the list down to two main points.

First, these stats help you identify areas where your department needs to improve. Maybe your employee retention rate is low or it's taking your team longer than usual to fill open positions. Or maybe you'll see that your employee retention rates are low and take a closer look at why employees are leaving and what you can do to keep them from leaving in the future. By tracking HR metrics, you can quickly identify these issues and take steps to address them.

Tracking HR metrics also enables you to make data-driven decisions about the future of your department. When you have hard numbers to back up your decisions, it's easier to get buy-in from upper management and other stakeholders. This can lead to lots of opportunities to level up your team, including training, new hires, and software adoption.

Types of HR metrics you need to track

There are countless HR metrics you *could* be tracking... So how do you know which ones you *should* be tracking? Here's a rundown of the most important HR metrics you need to keep an eye on!

Employee retention/turnover rate

Employee retention and turnover metrics measure how many employees leave an organization over a given period and help identify underlying drivers of attrition. It's important to track this metric because it can help you identify problem areas in your company and make changes to improve retention. For example, if you notice that a lot of employees are leaving because of low pay, you might want to consider increasing salaries or offering more competitive benefits packages.

"The best tip for improving this metric is by providing employees with clear goals and expectations and ensuring they have the resources and support they need to succeed. HR should focus on building solid relationships with employees and fostering a culture of open communication. By tracking employee turnover and taking steps to improve it, HR can ensure that they are attracting and retaining top talent."

Wendy Makinson

HR Manager at Joloda Hydraroll

Turnover cost

The employee turnover cost is a measure of how much it costs to replace an employee who has left your company. This metric is important because it can help you assess the financial impact of losing an employee. At a baseline level, turnover cost can be estimated by totaling recruitment and training expenses and dividing by the number of employees lost. More advanced 2026 models also include lost productivity, ramp-up time, manager workload, and institutional knowledge loss.

Employee position duration

Are employees staying in their positions for years without a change? This can lead to them feeling bored, overlooked, or disengaged and can be linked to them leaving the organization. On the other hand, if employees are only staying in their positions for short periods (e.g. 3 months), that needs to be examined further – training is costly and institutional knowledge is difficult to retain with high turnover.

This metric can be a bit less straightforward. To start, you can look at the tenure data, but you’d need to conduct additional analysis to determine how long an employee was in a specific position before moving to another one or exiting the organization in order to get a clear insight.

Time-to-hire

Time-to-hire is the amount of time it takes to fill an open position. This metric is important because it can help you identify staffing bottlenecks and make changes to improve the efficiency of your hiring process. For example, if you notice that it's taking a long time to fill positions because your background check process is slow, you might want to consider using a different background check provider or reevaluating the overall process.

"Small to medium-sized businesses should be concerned most with time to hire. They may not have the talent available within their teams to cover the skillsets of a top employee if they decide to leave. It is always important to understand how long it takes to hire for different roles within an organization, particularly in competitive or skills-constrained labor markets. Some ways to lessen time to hire are to streamline your hiring process, or even better, to automate it. There are quite a few services offering streamlined onboarding and application processes that save human resources departments time and money."

Jarir Mallah

HR Specialist at Ling App

Cost per hire

How much do you spend on each hire? This includes the work of the recruiter/hiring manager, any recruitment tools (e.g. job listings, events), and onboarding or training to get hires up to speed on how things are done in your workplace. While this is a matter of totaling spending across these different functions, understanding how much you spend on average can help you determine how much you’re investing in talent acquisition and what your return on investment is from new hires.

"Cost per hire remains our most important HR KPI. Even the best turnover rates cannot help a company that is expanding and needs hires for new positions. The key to improving cost per hire is to always invest in talent and skills with new hires. The right combination of both will be the best investment for the company long-term."

Adam Bem

Co-Founder & COO at Victoria VR

You might find interesting differences across teams, departments, or functions. For example, perhaps sales teams are more expensive to train than others, but the R.O.I. and average position duration suggest that it’s a wise investment, whereas another team that is equally costly experiences high turnover and short position duration.

By understanding the cost of new employees, HR can make better decisions about where to allocate the budget and resources related to hiring and recruitment. By making more informed decisions about hiring practices, HR can identify many areas where cost savings can be made.

Employee pay gap

Pay equity across gender and race/ethnicity continues to be a problem in 2026, and any organization that’s invested in DEI efforts should be tracking this. It’s quite simple: you obtain and compare the average salaries between a minority group or a key demographic and everyone else. Please note that while the below example is for gender, you can replace “female and male” with virtually anything else, particularly racial groups, age groups, religious groups, or any other key demographic.

Total female salaries/number of women = average female salary

Total male salaries/number of men = average male salary

(Average male salary – average female salary / average male salary) x 100 = employee pay gap.

Employee salary average

Similar to the pay gap metric, the employee salary average can also allow you to compare average pay across groups. You can calculate this by team, function, demographic, or any other variable, and use it to identify or further investigate differences that suggest inequity. For example, you might find that there is a gap between two different demographics, but it’s accounted for within the role (e.g. everyone in that role has approximately the same salary, but that role happens to be largely filled by one demographic) – and while that may point to other issues that might be worth investigating, it can be one additional layer to the story.

To calculate it, complete the following:

(Sum of salaries in key group)/(number of employees) = salary average

Employee engagement score

The engagement score measures how engaged your employees are with their work. This metric is important because engaged employees are more productive, have better attendance, and are less likely to leave your company.

"There are a number of ways to improve employee engagement, but one of the most effective is to focus on creating a positive work environment. This can be done by ensuring that employees have the resources and support they need to do their jobs, providing opportunities for career development, and offering competitive compensation and employee health benefits. Additionally, regular communication and feedback from managers can help employees feel more connected to their work and company."

Tzvi Heber

Founder, CEO & HR Head at Ascendant Detox

There are many different ways to calculate an engagement score. If you find that you’re lagging on employee engagement metrics, pulse checks, and further analysis are a great way to improve them. There are dozens of reasons why an employee can be disengaged – offering them free bagels on Fridays when their team lead is causing their disengagement will only further frustrate them. It’s best to find out what elements of the workplace they’re looking for improvement in. It’s also key to splice this data by demographic, as you may find that certain groups are feeling excluded while others are thriving.

eNPS: Employee net promoter score

Employee net promoter score, or eNPS, asks: On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend this company as a place to work? Employees who select between 0-6 are considered “detractors,” employees who select between 7-8 are considered “passive,” and employees who select 9-10 are considered “promoters.”

The score is simple to calculate and goes as follows:

(Numbers of promoters – number of detractors/number of respondents) x 100.

Benchmarks vary significantly by industry, geography, company size, and work model. In many industries, scores above 30 are considered strong, while high-performing employers may see employee net promoter scores of 50 or higher. The best way to approach this score is to allow people to leave a response explaining why – giving you actionable information to follow up on.

Employee satisfaction

This metric is not always straightforward. While you can take the approach of simply asking employees to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1-10, there are broader and more holistic ways of measuring this. For example, an employee might be satisfied with their role but not their manager – or satisfied with their team but not with their pay. A more robust way of collecting this metric could be:

On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your job overall?

• With the company?
• With your role?
• With your compensation and benefits?
• With your colleagues/peers?
• With your manager?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics

DEI metrics can help determine inequity or a lack of inclusion and belonging. To be clear, this list isn’t exhaustive. For example, the Employee Net Promoter Score and Employee Satisfaction can also shed insight into this, depending on how you splice the data.

And along those lines, we recommend slicing most, if not all, of your HR metrics by key demographics. How long someone stays in a position, how much is invested in acquiring and training them, how satisfied they are, and how often they advance or experience promotion – these are key areas that are often disparate for certain minority groups.

Pay equity metrics offer a valuable window into how your key HR processes are working - from hiring to off-boarding. Pay equity issues often start at hire. If you have pay inequities, it may stem from your offer process. How are compensation decisions being made and how consistently you are assessing and valuing diverse experience and expertise?

"Performance management is another process that can impact pay equity, as review processes that are mindful of and work to mitigate bias are likely to lead to fair and consistent pay and promotion outcomes for all. When women and underrepresented groups feel unseen and undervalued by the organization, pay inequity may be a clue into the root cause of increased turnover. Tracking pay equity is not only critical for DEI efforts but also in understanding the overall health of your HR systems and the employee lifecycle."

Rachel Kleban

CEO & Principal Consultant, Rachel Kleban, LLC

If you determine a lack of equity through these metrics, that’s a huge sign that something in your organization needs to change. Perhaps the policies and procedures need to revise for equity, or the culture needs to actively improve in terms of building inclusion and belonging – either way, these metrics are significant and be measured and addressed in an ongoing and continuous way.

Employee productivity

Having satisfied employees who think your company is a wonderful place to work is a great thing – assuming they’re good, productive employees. However, there is no one way to track productivity. Ultimately, it will depend on your business and goals.

A sales team might track productivity through hitting sales targets, while an accounting team may track it through another means entirely. One way to gain insight across functions is to use role-specific quality or outcome-based metrics rather than relying on a single universal definition of productivity. To do this, you would identify three key metrics for the role and get an average on how an employee performs across those metrics. After assigning a score from 1-5 for each metric, you would complete the following calculation:

Metric 1 + Metric 2 + Metric 3 / Number of Metrics

This approach can help balance performance evaluation across multiple responsibilities, though productivity measures should always be tailored to specific roles and business outcomes. After all, employees are humans who can’t be perfect at everything. Allowing them some grace by measuring multiple (key) areas can allow their strengths to make up for a slight weakness.

Employee absenteeism

Absenteeism can have a profoundly negative impact on an organization. It describes unplanned and frequent absences from work. Definitions vary by organization, but many HR teams in 2026 include sick time and wellness-related absences when monitoring burnout, stress, and workload sustainability. It’s costly to the organization, it’s inconvenient and detrimental to the team morale, and it often suggests the employee is experiencing high levels of burnout and stress. In order to understand this metric, calculate the following:

(Average number of employees x missed workdays) / (Average number of employees x total workdays) x 100

New hire performance evaluation

Another important HR metric to track is the performance evaluations of your new hires. This metric allows you to see how well new employees are performing in their roles and identify any training or development needs they may have. For example, if you notice that new hires are having trouble understanding your company's products or services, you might want to consider providing more training on those topics. Many HR departments establish a 30-60-90 Day performance program to track this metric.

Learning and development ROI

These are metrics that help you understand how employees are faring in terms of their positions and careers, including their entry into the organization and their continued progression. This metric allows you to compare the cost of training and development programs with the benefits they provide (e.g., increased productivity, improved morale, etc.). This information can help you determine whether or not training & development programs are worth the investment for your company.

"It’s crucial for HR leaders to understand whether employees are actually growing in their company or not. Tracking their learning and development is a crucial key performance indicator. You can improve this metric by giving your employees access to courses that help them increase their knowledge and execute their tasks in a new and innovative way. Providing online courses will develop their skills and give them the flexibility to learn from anywhere at any time. When employees have clear growth opportunities, organizations are more likely to see improvements in retention, engagement, and long-term performance."

Madhurima Halder

Content Manager at Recruit CRM

If employees aren’t scoring well against these metrics, it’s best to analyze your organizational chart and determine barriers to advancement. Are people staying in their roles because they’re genuinely content or because they don’t have any other options? Are there clear pathways to advancement within different teams or do employees feel like the entry level is the highest ceiling for them? Are people able to make lateral moves to explore new skill sets, or are they experiencing interference from within their current teams?

Benefits cost per employee

This is a measure of the total value of benefits provided to employees. Knowing this helps you budget and also lets you know if there are any areas where you can optimize your offerings. Tracking this metric is important for the health of your business.

Benefits utilization rate

Do you ever wonder if your employees are really using their benefits? Well, there's a way to measure that. It's called the benefits utilization rate. This can give you an idea of how often employees are using the benefits and how helpful they find them. If the utilization rate is low, it may be time to reevaluate your benefits package, which can save the company money and help with employee retention.

Employee career path

When employees enter the organization, how do they progress? Do they remain in the same positions, never advancing or achieving promotion, or do they make lateral moves? This is a metric that can also shed insight into DEI goals – for example, if you discover that only certain groups seem to advance to promotional opportunities.

To calculate this metric:

Total number of promotions / All role changes

Role changes include combined promotions and lateral movements.

Employee salary change

An employee who remains at the same salary year after year is likely to leave the organization eventually. Even modest cost-of-living or market-level increases are better than nothing, but ideally, they’d be experiencing salary changes as a result of promotion and advancement. To understand this metric, calculate the following:

(Sum of base salaries in current time interval – sum of base salaries in previous interval) / (Sum of base salaries in previous time interval) x 100

How to track HR metrics

Now that we've discussed some of the most important HR metrics, let's move on to how to track them! Once you've decided which metrics you want to track, the next step is to set up a system for tracking them.

One option is to use a spreadsheet or Google Sheets document. This method works well if you only need to track a few simple metrics. However, if you need to track multiple complex metrics, then using a dedicated HR software solution might be a better option. There are a number of different software programs available that can help you track all sorts of different HR metrics; find one that meets your specific needs and budget.

Once you have a system in place for tracking HR metrics, make sure to update it on a regular basis so that your data is always accurate and up-to-date. And finally, don't forget to actually do something with the data once you've collected it! Use it to inform decision-making within your department so that you can continuously improve its performance. Sharing these metrics with your company's leadership is an awesome way to highlight the ongoing success of your team of HR heroes!

Adopting people analytics metrics

Ultimately, these metrics provide a strong foundation for building an HR report card, supported by the use of an HRIS. Once key metrics are identified, data can be collected and analyzed on a regular cadence—often quarterly—using automation. This practice, commonly referred to as people analytics, has become a core capability for HR teams in 2026.

Historically, there wasn’t much data that companies could collect on their employees, but with modern HRIS, you not only get data on employee tenure, absenteeism, compliance, and retention, but you also can learn about dissemination and future planning for your workforce. With employee and workforce data and custom reports, you can analyze data on how to better retain potential new recruits, payroll trends, employment brand image, hiring patterns, and more. Choose from hundreds of available fields, save your reports for easy reuse, filter and sort data, and export to CSVs. The use cases are endless: pull top performers, employee swag preferences, and more to identify where your KPIs are thriving and where you can improve in the HR process.