HR Analytics
The 12 people metrics that matter, dashboards leaders read, and how to avoid vanity HR data.
For: HR leaders, ops, founders
The 12 People Metrics That Actually Matter
A short, defensible dashboard for leaders. Skip the vanity metrics and track what predicts hire quality and retention.
People Dashboards Leaders Actually Read: From Vanity Metrics to a Single Page That Drives Decisions
Most HR dashboards are unread. The reason is consistent: too many metrics, no decision context, no benchmarks, and no narrative.
Retention Analytics: Decoding Attrition Before It Becomes a Crisis
Attrition is the most reported and least understood HR metric. This guide separates regretted from non-regretted, builds early-warning indicators, and turns…
Broken HR advice #5: 'Run an annual engagement survey'
Annual cadence is the wrong cadence for the only signal that actually predicts attrition. Here's the cadence that does.
Broken HR advice #9: 'Be data-driven about people decisions'
People data has the lowest signal-to-noise of any business data. 'Data-informed' is honest. 'Data-driven' is a hiding place.
Real attrition cohort math: what 42 hires over 36 months told us
Three years of monthly cohorts, plotted, with the actual exit reasons and the math behind the second-year wall.
Workforce planning math: headcount modelling, attrition forecasting, and hiring lead times
The quantitative model behind every credible workforce plan — opening headcount, attrition rates, hiring lead times, ramp curves, and the formulas that…
HR metrics that matter vs vanity metrics: the eNPS critique and the time-to-fill trap
Which HR metrics actually predict business outcomes and which are theatre — with a deep, honest critique of eNPS, time-to-fill, and other metrics that quietly…
Predictive attrition models: logistic regression and survival analysis for HR
How to build attrition prediction models that actually work — the logistic regression baseline, when to graduate to survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier and Cox)…
Organizational Network Analysis (ONA): finding the people your org chart misses
How ONA reveals the real informal organisation behind the org chart — collaboration patterns, hidden influencers, broker risk, and the data ethics of mapping…
A/B testing HR interventions: experimentation for people programs
How to apply experimental design to HR — when randomisation is possible, when to use quasi-experimental methods (difference-in-differences, regression…
Building a People Analytics function from zero: a 24-month playbook
How to build a People Analytics function from scratch — the maturity model, first hires, tech stack, data foundations, the four use cases that buy credibility…
Unit economics for HRBPs: CAC, LTV, payback — what they mean for your hiring plan
If your CEO talks about CAC payback and you nod politely, you're outside the room where headcount decisions happen.
The Balanced Scorecard for HR — Kaplan & Norton, applied to people
Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard is the most adopted strategy execution framework of the last 30 years. Done well, it gives HR a board-ready story…
Evidence-based management — Rousseau's case for treating HR like a science
Most HR practice runs on tradition, vendor pitches, and case studies of n=1. Denise Rousseau's evidence-based management (EBMgt) framework asks for something…
Causal inference for people analytics — A/B, diff-in-diff, and the questions correlation can't answer
Most 'people analytics' is correlation in a dashboard. The questions leaders actually want answered — does our new manager program reduce attrition?