Role module · CHRO

The CHRO's data checklist

Workforce data usually answers what happened to headcount. The questions that matter are about what it cost, where people are leaving from, and what that does to output.

Read time ~9 min Includes six questions and a 90-day plan For CHRO and their team

01 The numbers you own

Five you should be able to defend

Not the longest list — the shortest one that covers the job. Each links to its full definition, including where the number lives and how it gets read wrong.

Attrition

Attrition rate

Split by voluntary, regretted and tenure — three different problems.

leavers_in_period ÷ average_headcount CPH

Cost per hire

What turnover actually costs, before the ramp-up gap.

(external_cost + internal_cost) ÷ hires RPE

Revenue per employee

The productivity read, once price effects are stripped out.

net_revenue ÷ average_fte Absence

Absence rate

The cover cost that lands in overtime and agency spend.

days_absent ÷ scheduled_working_days DQ

Data quality score

Because workforce data is where duplicate and stale records do most damage.

weighted pass rate across completeness, validity, uniqueness, timeliness and consistency rules

02 Questions to ask

Six questions for your next review

Ask them of your own team before anyone asks them of you. The uncomfortable answers are the useful ones.

Where exactly are we losing people — which sites, which managers, which tenure bands?
What does a leaver cost us, including the months before a replacement is at full output?
Does absence concentrate in particular shifts, and does anyone act on that pattern?
Can we connect workforce cost to output, or only to the payroll line?
How many of our people records are duplicated or out of date, and what depends on them?
Which roles take longest to fill, and what does that gap cost the operation?

03 First 90 days

A plan that finishes something

Narrow and finished beats broad and half-built. Each stage produces evidence that funds the next one.

First 30 daysFirst 30 daysSplit attrition by voluntary, regretted and tenure band, by site and manager. The pattern is usually obvious and usually not where people assume.

Days 30–60Days 30–60Cost it. Cost per hire multiplied by leavers, plus the ramp-up gap, produces a retention business case that funds itself.

Days 60–90Days 60–90Join workforce data to operational output — absence against OEE, attrition against quality. That is where HR stops being a cost centre in the conversation.

04 Where the data lives

The systems behind your numbers

System	What it holds	Key records
HR information system	The record of people, positions, movements and reasons — the source for every workforce metric.	Employee, Position, Movement, Reason code
Time and attendance / rostering	Scheduled against actual hours, absence and overtime by shift.	Shift, Roster, Clocking, Absence event
Applicant tracking and payroll	Cost of hiring and cost of employment, which rarely sit together.	Requisition, Candidate, Offer, Payroll run

05 Questions

Frequently asked

Why split regretted from total attrition?

Because they mean opposite things. Losing people you wanted to keep is a retention failure; losing people you did not is often the system working. A single rate hides both.

What is the most under-counted workforce cost?

The ramp-up gap — the months between a replacement starting and performing at full output. It is usually several times the recruitment fee and almost never appears in a business case.

Bring your hardest number

We will trace one of your own figures back to source, live, on your data.

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