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 Hiii y’all, Another Monday, we meet again!!! It’s warm out but not yet terrible… so you know what that means. I’m taking so many mental health walks!!!! I love getting outside and just moving and it's fun to be able to take work calls while on a walk. Thankful for my coworkers who let me step away from my desk for a bit! Other things I’m thankful for: 🎧 The pod episode this week! The incredible Christine Song joins me on the pod to talk about what it’s like to join a start up and we share some of our horror stories about joining a team with no systems in place. It’s fun, I promise!!! 🤖 We build live, again!! Cassidy and I are back by popular demand for part 2 of the AI live build. We’re tackling a bit more advanced things you can do in this session. You can catch up on part one here. Mark your calendar for June 12th from 3:00 - 4:30 PM ET and I’ll see you there!!! 📺 HR Therapy we’re digging into the THREE biggest challenges HR leaders are talking about! Spoiler alert: ranking at the top is fraud, AI in hiring and selecting tech. I’m joined by an incredible panel to dig into why these are ranking as our top challenges and WTF to do about them! Grab your spot and let’s jam. Now onto today… a topic that somehow annoys me and excites me at the same time!!! Sponsored by Wellhub Cool, so your executives think wellbeing is thriving inside your org? HR'S ROLE What is HR’s value? Sorry to get intense on a Monday but I’m sooo tired of people (cough CEOs cough) underestimating HR’s value. After I spiraled a bit about the Bolt CEO’s comments about HR I thought maybe I’d put pen to paper and talk about it here. Sometimes I see HR teams tracking things like trainings completed, policies updated, headcount hired, and time-to-fill. And TBH those things matter... But they measure activity, not actual impact to the business, org, or people. And don’t get it confused, those things DO have an impact but when we’re focused on the activity vs the impact there’s a difference… ➡️ An example: "we ran 8 manager trainings this quarter" and "after we ran 8 manager trainings, team engagement scores went up 8 points and voluntary turnover dropped 15%." The first update just tells the business what was done (activity). The other tells the business what you changed (impact). Big difference! And listen, I get why we default to activity metrics, they're easy to count and conceptualize. You can look in any of your systems and pull a number in a few minutes. I’m a sucker for a quick metric! On the flipside, impact metrics require you to connect dots across systems, set baselines before you launch something, and follow up. And sometimes that takes time we often don't have!! On the note of time, I say this as someone who has been there and down baddd… but sometimes we confuse being busy with being impactful. HR teams are BUSY. Like genuinely, chaotically, no-lunch break busy. Confirmed ✅ I’m gonna hold your hand while I say this… being busy doesn’t necessarily mean being impactful. If you’re looking around like why do I feel like I’m doing so much and nothing seems to be changing? It could be that you’re not focused on the impactful things. And I’m not gonna lie to you, I’ve been there!! Like when I’m working on something and I stop and legit have to ask myself “Why the F am I even doing this?” That’s always my sign that I need to take a minute, a lap or a break and think about the big picture of the work I’m doing. So today’s edition digs deeper into types of metrics to consider and what to do about it so folks can stop estimating HR’s value and start saying THANK YOU for all that we do. 3 types of metrics to consider: So what should we be measuring??? The million dollar question!! Here are three TYPES of metrics to consider: 1. Business impact metrics: These are the ones that make any good leader’s ears perk up. Especially if you have a CEO who is doubting HR’s impact. Think:
The key is connecting HR outcomes to business outcomes. Here is an example: Say your company has 500 employees, with an average salary of $80k, and a voluntary turnover rate of 20%. That's 100 people walking out the door every year. There are estimates it can cost anywhere from 50-200% (!!!!) of salary to replace someone. So in this scenario you're looking at anywhere from $4 million to $16 million in turnover costs annually. If HR runs a retention initiative that moves the needle from 20% to 18%, that's about 10 fewer departures a year. Conservative estimate? $400k saved. In one year. From a 2-point shift. Here’s how the math breaks down: 100 people leaving × $80k average salary = $8 million in combined salary walking out the door. 50-200% of salary to replace someone, that's anywhere from $4 million to $16 million in turnover costs annually, Now we're going beyond just an HR metric to a legit P&L conversation with massive business impactions! Think about it, for a small business or early stage startup that amount of money could make a HUGE difference. ✍️ Homework: go calculate your turnover costs and get an understanding of what it is costing you per year. And then look at your projects. If you have high costs, is there a project around retention on your list? The key is ALWAYS connecting HR outcomes to business outcomes. Don't just report engagement went up. Report what happened because engagement went up. 2. Program effectiveness metrics: Did the thing you built actually work??? How often are we NOT SURE if the thing we just did actually provided value?? I see this as a major spot where HR teams leave credibility on the table. Before you launch a new program, ask: what would "good" look like? Set a baseline. Measure after. Debrief and share what you've learned. It sounds simple because it is simple! But most teams (myself included) skip the baseline and then can't prove anything changed.
Boom, you found out so quickly if a program is effective and worth running again! There’s nothing I love more than providing we don’t need to do something again. 🙂 Less is more okayyy! 3. Leading indicator: How many times do you wish you had measured things that could predict problems before they become emergencies? Me, all the time!!! Like:
Leading indicators can help you get ahead of the story instead of explaining it after the fact. 📣That's the difference between HR as a reactive function → HR as a strategic one. Other leading indicators to add to your list:
All of these leading indicators can help you catch REAL problems before they become business problems. Boom HR's impact goes to the mooooon. Okay now you get the types of metrics you should be thinking about to show value and impact, now what??? The hard truth: If leadership keeps questioning HR's value, sometimes it's a them problem. Full stop!!! Some leaders are just not there yet, and no amount of data will fix a fundamentally broken relationship with HR. BUT And I really mean this with so much love and respect… Sometimes we haven't told the story right. We've been so busy doing the work that we haven't been intentional about reporting the work in a language the business understands. I'm guilty of it too! I know something hasn't landed when I'm really passionate and serious about it and everyone around me seems confused about why we're even talking about something. UGH! 📚 Data without a story is just numbers in a spreadsheet. The best HR leaders I know have gotten really good at translating people work into business outcomes because they've figured out that this is how you protect the work that matters the most. You never want someone to question: why are we doing this thing?? ✅ One thing you can do this week: Take one metric you already track, any metric, and rewrite it as a business impact statement. Instead of: "We filled 15 roles this quarter." Try: "We reduced average time-to-fill by 12 days, which meant 15 revenue-generating roles were operational 3 weeks sooner than last quarter." One small shift. Completely different conversation!!! Make sure you are always sharing the business impact and you’ll see how things like perception can change. Okay you got the data, we can write some strong business impact sentences but NOW WHAT?? What does it look like to present metrics in a way that connects for leaders? ✨ That’s part 2 and it’s next week. ✨ Sponsored by Spark Hire Hiring has gotten even harder, and lean HR teams are absorbing most of the pressure...usually with half the resources and none of the backup. 🙃 (HUMAN) RESOURCES
*This one is brought to you by one of my amazing brand partners WORK-LIFE BALANCE
SONG OF THE WEEK 🎧 Emily, Daisy Grenade Soooo I first heard a snippet of this song before it was released and I was obsesssssed. Since then it’s been on repeat. Even considered going to Warped Tour this year to see them perform! I hope you enjoyed this, please let me know what you think and what other topics you'd love for me to cover. I'm allll ears. Reminder: Take care of yourself and know that I support you. | |||||||||||
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