A new white paper released by CUNA Human Resources/Training and Development Councilfocuses on the trends and benefits of gathering data and analyzingmetrics on human resources and its impact on a credit union'soperations, financial performance and strategic development.

The paper, “HR Metrics: The Numbers in Support of Strategicand Operational Initiatives,” also highlights results of a recentsurvey on how credit union HR executives are using metrics,examples of common formulas, and case studies of credit unions invarious stages of putting metrics to work in theirorganizations.

In May, the council surveyed credit unions on how they are usingquantitative and qualitative assessments of their human capital.The survey garnered 64 responses from current council members andpoints to some industry trends.

Among the results:

• Asked to rank their experience and expertise using HR metrics ona 1–10 scale, with 1 representing “no experience/expertise” and 10“extremely experienced/expert,” 64% of respondents rated theirexpertise as a five or lower.

• Asked how important collection and analysis of HR metrics was totheir organization, with 1 representing “not at all important” and10″extremely important;” 59% rated metrics at a six orhigher.

• Roughly, 85% of those surveyed said turnover was the metric theycurrently tracked or used. Other leading choices were involuntaryturnover rate and voluntary turnover (63% each), cost of benefits(59%), average length of employment (51%), employee satisfaction(44%), promotions (37%), absenteeism (34%), transfers (34%), andemployee demographics (32%).

• Most respondents (81%) said they had used HR metricsprofessionally for 10 or less years

• About half reported using either internal or industry benchmarksto monitor performance.

• In terms of how HR metrics are shared, 28% said the results stayin the HR department, 63% share with the CEO, 39% with the rest ofthe C-suite (he most important company senior executives), 25% withthe board, and 26% with managers with reporting staff.

• More than half of respondents calculated metrics and ran reportsmonthly; 40% also generate annual reports, 37% go with quarterlyreports, and 26% produce them “as needed.”

• Eighty-seven percent of respondents produce their HR metricswithout support from specialized software or vendors.