Key Employee data metrics and KPIs
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We are all aware of the focus placed on data to asses pupil performance and attainment. However many Schools and Academies aren’t as aware of the benefits that regular reviews of their employee data can bring to support the ongoing success of their organisation and support employee engagement and motivation.
Absence/Attendance
Absence data should be analysed to understand individual and collective patterns and trends. By identifying these trends managers and leaders are better placed to provide support and resolve any underlying organisational issues.
This information can be used to support individual absence management, both from a supportive and wellbeing perspective and also to provide evidence for formal meetings and discussions.
The cost of absenteeism can be costly, especially in Schools where around 75%-80% of budgets is associated with staff costs. By collecting and analysing employees absence data managers can implement strategies to reduce them, thereby reducing costs, improving employee wellbeing and productivity.
It is important to not only consider internal data, but also to benchmark against national figures to see how your school compares to others. National sickness absence statistics are collected by the DfE as part of their school workforce in England data, and the following headline information was reported for the year 20/21:
- 5% of teachers took absence up from 54.1 in 2018/19
- The average number of days sick taken by teachers who were absent was 6.3, up from 4.1 in 18/19
- In 20/21 over 3,200,000 sickness days were taken
June 2024 published - school workforce in England data >>
Diversity Monitoring
To improve the diversity of your School or Academy employees a good starting point is to measure this by collecting and monitoring monitor data, however you need to be mindful about what data to collect and what terminology to use.
A good starting point is to limit the data obtain (usually using diversity questionnaires, as part of equality monitoring) to those characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010:
Much of the data collected as part of an equality monitoring exercise will be considered special category data for the purposes of data protection legislation, which means it is subject to more stringent rules than other forms of personal data. If you are undertaking monitoring during recruitment it is very important that the monitoring process is separated from the application process, to ensure that equality information does not influence the recruitment process and give rise to potential discrimination claims.
If you are interested in finding out more about diversity monitoring please contact us.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement was first defined by Kahn in 1990 and focused on how people ‘express themselves physically, cognitively, emotionally’ as they interact with their jobs. Describing an internal stage of being, closely related to discretionary effort and behaviour, often described as ‘going the extra mile’.
In 2004 Utrecht University Group of Occupational psychologists defined ‘work engagement’ as a state of mind which, rather than being burnt out, employees show vigour, dedication and absorption.
Whatever employee engagement means to you and your School / Academy evidence and for most people, personal experience consistently demonstrates that the more engaged we are, the more effort we put in, and the enjoyment we achieve from the actions and tasks we undertake.
Whereas research demonstrates the opposite of disengaged employees, with the latest research estimating that disengaged employees cost an estimated 1/5 of their annual salary.
It is important therefore to be able to measure engagement levels of staff, the most common way being employee engagement questionnaires or surveys, but measuring absence, and identifying trends and factors will also provide useful information regarding engagement levels.
Employee Performance
A key factor of employee engagement is providing intrinsic motivation within roles, as well as regular feedback. This can be incorporated into employee performance management, and does not have to be linked to monetary reward. The most common way of measuring employee performance is to link these to a variety of metrics:
The most common of which are:
Measuring employee performance should be undertaken regularly and an integral part of ongoing employee 121’s and objective setting. KPI’s and objectives should be consistent across the same or similar roles, with the inclusion of specific objectives linked to individual training and career progression needs.
If you are interested in finding out more about measuring employee performance, please contact us.
Employee Headcount, Turnover and Retention
It is important to maintain accurate records of your employee headcount and turnover, which includes length of service, both continuous and within latest role / school as this can provide insight into employee engagement, trends and inform succession planning.
It is no secret that it is usually more cost effective to retain employees, as oppose to losing and recruiting a new employee, as well as the disruption this can cause.
Knowing the length of service of your employees can also help to support you developing retention and engagement strategies, as well as implement success succession planning. Additionally this can inform any recruitment that you may need to do, as well as identify where you have skill shortages or surges.
Distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary turnover is also a useful tool to understand how effective your workforce planning is as well as any underlying issues with recruitment and culture.
The most common methods for analysing turnover data are:
- Wastage index or standard formula
- Resignation rate
- Stability rate
- Survival rate
If you would like support developing your key HR metrics, or simply want to find out a little bit more about this area of HR, please do contact our strategy team at hrstrategy@hrconnect.org.uk
Pay and Benfits
Whilst the majority of Schools and Academies follow the STPCD as well as local and national pay structures, there is still benefit in reviewing and analysing pay and benefits, both internally and externally. In addition ensuring that all Support roles are accurately benchmarked is important to provide pay equity and minimise the risk of equal pay claims.
Understanding where within each salary band / range for specific job roles and areas will help to inform pay strategy decisions, as well as retention, succession planning and recruitment strategies.
By knowing if the majority of your employee, or employees in specific job roles are within their individual salary band / range can help you to develop and embed a culture that supports and continues to engage these employees, in a different way to those that may be at the lower end of the salary scale.
Analysing your pay and reward, alongside employee engagement surveys can support you to develop a reward strategy aligned to your School or Academy’s core values and beliefs.
If you are interested in finding out more about pay and reward, and analysing the results, or would like to know more about reward strategies please contact us.
Recruitment Costs
The cost of recruitment, or cost per hire (CPH) is the total amount of money spent to hire a new employee. The calculation is relatively simple, and can be done on a case by case basis or over a defined period to determine an average cost per hire.
The most common factors easily costed are:
- Job board /advertisement fees
- Agency fees
- Employee referral costs
- Hiring team time costs
- Interview and assessment costs (refreshments, on site hire costs)
- Technology and recruitment tools (specialist software or assessment tools
- Career fairs and recruitment events.
One off costs (such as agency fees etc) are easy to attribute if assessing on a case by case basis, other costs that are not directly related to a specific hire, can be amortised incorporated by dividing by the number of actual hires in the year, or by the anticipated number of hires over cost period.
If you are calculating over a defined period, then all costs associated with recruitment for the period are added together and divided by the number of hires or job roles to obtain an average cost.
It is important to understand how much each hire has cost you especially if you have concerns over retention, or a high number of failed probations or early period leavers as these costs can easily escalate and negatively impact upon school budgets.
If you are interested in finding out more about recruitment costs, and analysing the results, or would like to know more about effective recruitment strategies and practices please contact us.