HR loves a good metric. Attrition rates, engagement scores, time to hire—it’s all neat, tidy, and utterly meaningless if we don’t know what we’re actually trying to measure. We’ve spent the last 18 months at Freeformers untangling this mess, and we’ve got news for you: most HR data is designed to validate the existence of HR, not to drive real business outcomes.
The three types of HR teams (when it comes to data)
We’ve seen it all, and HR teams tend to fall into one of three categories:
- The data allergic – You know the ones. “We’re people people!” they say, avoiding spreadsheets like they contain an airborne virus. The problem? HR teams that ignore data are at best sidelined and at worst obsolete.
- The data hoarders – These teams collect everything, drowning in numbers with no strategy for using them. They measure things simply because they can, not because they should.
- The data-driven (but still misunderstood) – They’re doing all the right things, but their insights sit in an HR vacuum. If the C-suite isn’t listening, all that good data work is for nothing.
“Virtually all so-called ‘HR metrics’ circulating today are, at best, workforce statistics, and bear no direct relation to actual HR activity.”
HR’s been measuring itself on its own terms rather than in ways that prove value to the business.
Why HR data is broken
The real kicker? HR tech vendors aren’t helping. Most HR platforms only generate data that proves their own worth. How many people logged in? How long did they spend on the system? None of this tells us anything about productivity, performance, or employee experience.
My rule of HR tech: If your platform’s primary data point is “how often it’s used,” it’s not measuring impact—it’s measuring survival.
HR teams need to stop falling for vanity metrics and start measuring what actually matters.
“I think you need to know what you are hoping to get from the data – I don’t think that is focused on enough at the start.”
The problem with HR data silos
One of the biggest issues we see is HR teams operating in silos, leading to fragmented data and decision-making. Too often, different HR functions—recruitment, learning and development, compensation, and internal communications—collect their own sets of data without sharing insights across teams. The result? Inconsistent measurement, duplicated efforts, and no single source of truth.
As Emilie mentioned in our live stream, “If you’re in two people, you can move and you can adapt so much quicker than you can in a big business. I mean, of course we can. That’s why we do it, right?” This highlights how smaller teams can overcome silos through agility, but larger organisations need structured collaboration to achieve the same integration.
The fix? HR needs to think like a product team—sharing insights, iterating based on data, and ensuring that each function contributes to a unified vision of employee success. This means centralising data, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and focusing on metrics that actually drive impact across the entire employee journey.
The reason? We’re too busy designing the survival of our own functions rather than solving (and measuring) actual problems.
What should HR be measuring?
Instead of defaulting to traditional HR metrics, we need to reframe our approach. Rather than looking at isolated data points, HR needs to combine multiple metrics to create meaningful insights. Here’s where we could start:
Mutual lifetime value (MLV): How much value is your business giving employees versus how much it’s getting? If you only measure one side, you’re missing the bigger picture. To measure this, you can start by combining employee retention rates, training investment per employee, performance review scores, and revenue per employee. By tracking these together over time, you get a clearer picture of whether your workforce is growing in value alongside your business.
Real productivity (not just presence): Are people actually delivering value, or are they just logging into systems and sitting in meetings? Instead of just tracking attendance, HR can combine project completion rates, employee feedback on workload, manager effectiveness ratings, and time spent on high-impact work. This creates a more dynamic measure of productivity that actually reflects business outcomes rather than mere activity.
Employee experience impact: Not just engagement, but how effectively HR initiatives translate into business success. Engagement surveys alone won’t cut it. Instead, HR should combine internal mobility rates, net promoter scores (NPS) from employees, absenteeism rates, and sentiment analysis from employee communications. This provides a fuller picture of whether employees feel valued and are contributing meaningfully.
“Too much data might actually highlight something I should be measuring.”
HR’s biggest problem is relying on single-line data points to tell a complex story. By combining three or four relevant metrics, we can build a new way of measuring HR’s impact—one that evolves over time and aligns with business goals.
HR needs a new data playbook
We’ve been running HR on outdated metrics that don’t connect to business goals. It’s time to fix that. At Freeformers, we’re helping HR teams implement data strategies that actually matter—ones that drive decisions, not just dashboards.
Want to rethink the way your HR team measures success? Let’s talk. Because if you’re still relying on login counts and engagement surveys, you’re playing the wrong game.