5 Employee Relations Metrics you
Should be Tracking & Why
March 29, 2012
Twitter Hashtag: #dovetailhr

Who is Dovetail?
Dovetail is a leader in employee support software enabling organizations to:
 reduce administrative costs,
 increase productivity,
 and improve service delivery.
Customer Snapshot:
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Speaker Introduction
Cathy Missildine-Martin
Co-founder & Chief
Performance Officer
Intellectual Capital Consulting
Twitter Hashtag: #dovetailhr
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Audience Poll Question
What are you currently measuring in HR?
 Efficiency metrics like cost/hire and turnover
 Effectiveness metrics like training program ROI
 HR Impact metrics like revenue/emp, Human Capital ROI
 All of the Above
 None of the Above
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Objectives: What we will learn today
 Why ER metrics are just as important to HR analytics
as performance metrics
 How to use technology to track, measure and report
on ER metrics
 What ER metrics you should be tracking and what
they reveal
 How to use ER metrics to drive corporate policy
change

What is a Metric Anyway?
 A number is just that, a stand alone figure
 A metric is different from a number because it can contain multiple
elements
 A business metric is any type of measurement used to gauge some
quantifiable component of a company's performance, such as return on
investment (ROI), employee and customer churn rates, revenues, or
EBITDA.
 Business metrics are part of the broad area of business intelligence, which
comprises a wide variety of applications and technologies for gathering,
storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users
make better business decisions

Analytical Roadmap
Price to Play Poker (what you need)
•Executive Support
•The Right Tools
•The Right People
Phase 5
Phase 4 Impact
• Creating Change
Phase 3 Value Creation • Achieving Strategic
• Genuine Insights Goals
Phase 2 Effectiveness • Decisions based on • Congratulations,
data & learnings You have arrived at
• Key Performance
Indicators • Connections between the true purpose of
Phase 1 Measurement people investment Analytics!
• Cohesive efforts and business
• Metrics defined
• Process outcomes defined
Justification • HR Scorecards & improvement • Predictive Models
Dashboards
• Foundational human capital • Expanded • Cultural shifts
• Leadership organizational
investments
accountability accountability
• Data collection
• Standardization • More sophisticated
• Reporting
• Improvements tools
• Rudimentary tools celebrated
• Distributed efforts
Provided by: STEVE WOOLWINE, PHR, Chief of Staff, Talent and Human Capital Services, SEARS
HOLDINGS CORPORATION

Making the Business Case
 Human Capital expense is a company’s greatest
expense
 Doing more with less
 Start small (low hanging fruit)
 Better decision making
 Eliminates confusion over what is important
(linkage to strategy)

Words of Wisdom
“After 30 years studying HR Departments, I have found the
largest single difference between a great HR department
and an average one, is the extensive use of metrics.”
Dr. John Sullivan , HR Metrics the World Class Way

3 Types of HR Metrics
HR Efficiency • HR Tracking/numbers internal
HR Department
HR • HR Programs
Effectiveness
• Outcomes bases on investment
HR Impact in human capital
• Linked to strategic outcomes

Efficiency Metrics
1. Recruiting Metrics-time to fill, cost per hire QOH
2. Compensation Metrics-budget variance, %
redlined, actual/market %
3. Benefits-Benefits %/total comp, benefits
cost/emp
4. Training-training cost/emp, training
hours/emp, average perfect scores
5. Employee Relations-# Grievances, cost of
grievances'

How do you get ER Metrics?
Documented
Grievances
Ability to
Produce
Metrics
Centralized
Repository
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Creating a Grievance Case

Tracking Case Metrics

Visibility into Case History

Why ER Metrics are important?
 Cost standpoint
 Employee engagement
 Litigation
 Time
 Continuous improvement

What Can We Learn From the Data?
1. Must get to root cause of the ER issues so that
prevention is the goal
2. True cost of grievances
3. True resources spent on grievances
4. Prevention of ER issues leads to better
employee engagement

Poll Question
What are you currently measuring in
Employee Relations?
 Tracking Metrics (number of grievances)
 Cost Metrics
 Root Cause Metrics
 All of the Above
 None of the Above
 Other

Which 5 ER Metrics are Important?
1. Tracking Activity/Grievance rate
2. Cost of a grievance
3. Root cause analysis
4. Average close time
5. Employee Relations ROI

1. Tracking activity
 # of grievances/time
 By manager
 By department
 By region
 By facility
 ADR success Rate

Reporting on Activity
Grievance Cases March 2012
By Manager

Reporting on Activity
Grievance Cases March 2012
By Department

Reporting on Activity
Grievance Cases March 2012
By Region

Reporting on Activity
Grievance Cases March 2012
By Facility

2. Cost of Grievances
 Investigation time (Manager, HR & Legal)
 Employee time
 Lost productivity
 Outside/Inside counsel

Cost Analysis
Grievance Cases 2011
Average Cost

3. Root Cause Analysis
 Manager/Supervisor errors
 Policy/Procedures
 Training
 Poor hires

Reporting on Root Cause
Grievance Cases March 2012
By Root Cause

Root Cause Analysis
Grievance Cases March 2012
By Location and RCA

4. Average Close Time
 How many days does it take to resolve an issue from the
day the issue is raised until resolved
 $$$$$
Case
Closed

Reporting on TTR
Grievance Cases 2011
Average TTR (Days)

5. ROI ER Program
 How much money over time has an effective ER
program saved the organization
 How much more revenue is earned due to lack of
ER issues
 Revenue/emp
 Profit/emp

The Disconnect
“HR professionals are failing to predict staff grievances accurately. In spite
of the sources of grievance remaining constant, it is evident that there is a
mismatch between what HR professionals have expected and what has
actually happened in practice.”
*2012 The State of HR Report, http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1020911/the-hr-
investing-talent-failing-predict-staff-grievances

End Goal: Predicting ER Issues
True
Butterflies Loyalists
High Performance
Add Turnover % Add Turnover %
ER Analysis ER analysis
Change Morale
Low Performance
Seekers Busters
Add Turnover % Add Turnover %
ER Analysis ER Analysis
Engagement

Using ER Metrics to Drive Change
 Promotes a culture of continuous improvement
 Increases productivity of workforce and
managers
 Uncover potential issues before they become
expensive and explosive
 Metrics hold managers accountable for
actions…what gets measured gets done

Questions?
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Contact Us
dovetailsoftware.com intellectual-capital.net
@dovetail @cathymartin
dovetailsoftware.com/dovetailconnectblog intellectualcapitalconsulting.blogspot
(800)684-2055 (678)797-5331
Dovetail Software Cathy Missildine-Martin
info@dovetailsoftware.com cathymartin@intellectual-capital.net
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Next Steps
 Visit our Resource Center: dovetailsoftware.com/resources
 Latest Whitepaper: An HR Case Management System is Essential to
Protecting your Organization’s Reputation and Bottom Line
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 Visit us at Booth #432
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 Visit us at Booth #914
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