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The blind leading the disengaged. That’s what you get when you measure the wrong things; You will be blind to the problems and your employees will be disengaged. I wrote a whole book about it (see below). You will run around like a headless chicken, busy, burned-out, and frustrated.
Have you noticed that in HR we measure, award and reward the wrong things? We measure:
- Training hours and completions instead of outcomes. (Kill me with your happy sheet at the end of the training!!! Let that go!!!!!)
- The speed and the number of hiring instead of the quality of hire.
- Turnover rates instead of why people leave. (My question is, how did you establish the “right” turnover rate? This has always intrigued me:-))) Why isn’t that KPI dynamic based on market conditions and changes in demographics’ specific behaviour? I would have so many questions about this!)
- Retention rate instead of understanding why employees stay AND what kind of talent is staying.- The completion of annual appraisal instead of its value or quality.- Attendance of DEI events/trainings instead of actual inclusion.- The number of policies created instead of their impact.
- Time spent in the office (or logged in remotely) instead of the quantity and quality of work.
- Employee engagement scores instead of understanding and addressing the root causes of disengagement.
- Grievance resolution time instead of whether the resolutions were fair, thorough, or genuinely solved the underlying issue.
- Internal promotion rates instead of whether the promoted employees are ready for their roles or if their development has been well-supported.
Things we reward that are questionable at best!
- By issuing a policy you can become "The best initiative for the best place to work" employer yet we have no evidence whether the policy is needed, used or if it does anything for anyone. Does it really attract and retain talent?
- Implementing initiatives without measuring their outcomes can earn you the "Best Mental Health" award.
- You can be "The Best HR Person of the Year" if you implement any social and corporate agendas without measuring their impact on the business and the workforce.
- Adding More "Perks": HR leaders are celebrated for introducing flashy benefits—like nap pods or free snacks—but rarely questioned on whether employees actually value or use them. Are the perks solving the real challenges employees face?
- Launching "Feel-Good" Initiatives: Programs like yoga classes or wellness apps are often rewarded with industry accolades, but their impact on reducing burnout or improving wellbeing remains unmeasured.
- “Best Employer” Lists: Often based on employee surveys that measure surface-level happiness rather than real engagement, growth opportunities, or alignment with the company’s mission.
- Mental Health Badges: You can win awards for hosting a mental health awareness day while ignoring the root causes of stress and burnout in your workplace.
- “Innovative HR Practices” Awards: Launching flashy new tools, processes, or programs that might be completely irrelevant or unnecessary, but hey—they look great in a submission packet!
- Overly complex processes: Designing convoluted frameworks and calling it “strategic HR” without considering whether they genuinely serve employees or the business effectively.and so on...
We measure and reward busyness and completion - I call it clutter - so that's exactly what people focus on—staying busy. They fill their time with tasks that make little to no impact, just so they can tick boxes and proudly say to their boss, "Look how much I’ve accomplished!" But the real question should be; How much of what you’ve done actually makes a difference?"
We’re drowning in metrics, but the ones that truly matter—the ones tied to behaviour change, business results, and long-term success—are often ignored. What’s stopping us from focusing on the right things? Is it easier to tick boxes and call it a day? Or are we too afraid to face the truths these harder metrics reveal?
Somebody wrote this on LinkedIn when I asked this question, “We historically have been educated/built this way. All our education was about measuring the wrong thing to get a reward or a certificate even though the outcome was we had no real skills to get a job. These same people then come into organizations mimicking how they got measured during our schooling. Just like children we mimic what we see. Asking someone to forget decades of what you saw since you were a child and how you were measured and come up with a new way is like asking someone to jump off a building. Most will never take this risk.” Most will not! So, here we’re busy counting what’s easy to measure while ignoring what’s impactful but harder to assess. We even get rewards, awards, praise, promotions, and even bonuses for it. Why shouldn’t we keep doing the easy stuff when we get the reward anyway? People are incentivised to do the wrong things and that’s what they do because they want that incentive!
So what should those of you who want to make a difference measure?
The outcomes of what you do—plain and simple. It doesn’t matter how great your initiative, policy, program, or system looks on paper; if it doesn’t deliver results, it’s just wasted time, effort, and resources. Also, listen to the podcast above it talks a lot about useful HR metrics.
But here’s the catch: achieving meaningful outcomes requires addressing the root cause of the problem. And that’s the hard part. The solution itself is often straightforward. The real challenge—and the reason we keep throwing solutions at problems that persist—is that we don’t take the time to truly understand where the problem originates. Without this clarity, even the most well-intentioned efforts are doomed to fail.
So, we continue being busy and achieving nothing. Imagine what we could achieve if we focused on what truly matters in HR. Maybe it is not about a fancy strategy, a new title, more resources, a seat at the magical table, or AI transformation in HR. Maybe HR must change its KPIs and what it measures for it to be successful.
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