📊 Dashboard blueprint
HR Metrics Dashboard Blueprint & Board Report Outline
This is the full structure of a serious HR dashboard: 40+ HR KPIs grouped into nine sections, and the 13-slide running order boards actually sit through. You do not need another spreadsheet to fill in by hand — HR Metrics Studio holds this blueprint, does every calculation, scores each metric and writes the board pack for you.
Build it in the studio
Every metric below, calculated in your currency with benchmarks and insights
Open HR Metrics Studio →Try the free calculators
Turnover, retention, first-year attrition, TRIR and LTIFR — free, in your browser
Run a calculation →🗂️ What a complete HR dashboard covers
Nine sections. In the studio each one is a tab you fill in once, and every metric carries its formula, its benchmark and a written reading of the result.
| Section | Metrics included |
|---|---|
| Headcount | Total headcount · Average headcount · Headcount growth % · Full-time equivalent (FTE) |
| Recruitment | Time to fill · Time to hire · Cost per hire · Offer acceptance rate % · Quality of hire % |
| Retention | Turnover rate % · Voluntary turnover % · Involuntary turnover % · First-year attrition % · Retention rate % · Average tenure |
| Payroll & cost | Total payroll cost · Labour cost as % of revenue · Revenue per employee · Profit per employee · Overtime cost % · HR cost per employee |
| Absence & productivity | Absenteeism rate % · Bradford factor · Overtime hours per employee |
| Learning | Training hours per employee · Training spend per employee · Training completion rate % · Internal promotion rate % |
| Engagement & diversity | Engagement score · eNPS · Survey participation rate % · Gender balance % · Women in leadership % |
| Safety (ISO 45001) | TRIR · LTIFR · Severity rate · Near-miss reporting rate · Safety training completion % · Audit score % |
| Compliance | Open disciplinary cases · Grievances per 100 employees · Contract compliance % |
🛠️ Five rules for a dashboard that survives a board meeting
- 1. Drop what you cannot measure yet. A dashboard with 12 honest metrics beats one with 40 guesses.
- 2. Fix your period. Monthly, quarterly or annual — then never change it mid-year, or the trend line stops meaning anything.
- 3. Enter the previous period first. A number with nothing beside it cannot be judged.
- 4. Set a target, not a benchmark. Borrowed industry averages start arguments; a target you chose starts action.
- 5. Name an owner per metric. Metrics without owners never move.
🏛️ Turning the dashboard into a board pack
The board does not want your dashboard. It wants the six or seven figures that change a decision, each with a direction and a consequence. The running order that works — cover, headline summary, workforce, hiring, retention, cost, productivity, capability, engagement, safety, risk, decisions requested, appendix — is built into the studio's board-report mode, which pulls the right metrics onto each slide and exports the pack as PDF or PowerPoint.
The full reasoning behind that running order is in HR Metrics Every Board Report Needs.
Free tools: Turnover rate calculator · TRIR & LTIFR calculator