31+ workforce planning metrics to track in 2025

Business success often comes down to having the right people in the right roles at the right time. Organizations that anticipate change and adapt their talent strategies accordingly are better positioned to stay competitive and resilient.

Workforce planning is the cornerstone of any good recruitment plan and enables modern HR professionals to analyze, forecast, and plan workforce supply and demand. One of the best ways to understand how to translate organizational needs into new hires and guarantee a strong team with high-quality professionals and low attrition rates is to leverage workforce planning metrics.

These metrics give HR leaders clarity into current workforce trends and help align people strategies with business goals. With the right data, you can anticipate changes, address gaps, and build a more agile, productive team.

Metrics like headcount, tenure distribution, and engagement scores are the foundation for informed decisions. They align with principles of strategic workforce development, which focuses on preparing organizations for future growth and resilience.

We’ll walk through metrics to track so you can approach workforce planning with confidence and precision.

<<Start your prep on the right foot with a workforce planning template.>>

What are workforce planning metrics?

Workforce planning metrics gather information about a workforce from people in the business, people processes, and the wider labor market. HR professionals can use workforce metrics to track and analyze performance and leverage their findings to make data-driven decisions.

To help you understand how successful your plans are and what you can improve for the future, we’ve put together a list of workforce planning metrics that provide insight and guidance into your workforce planning process’ effectiveness.

The importance of tracking workforce planning metrics

Workforce planning metrics are like a compass for HR professionals—they guide you in aligning your people strategies with your organization’s goals. These metrics make it easier to spot trends, strengths, and gaps so you can focus on what matters most. Keeping a close eye on the numbers helps teams anticipate challenges, adjust as needed, and build a workplace where people thrive.

Improve engagement and retention

Metrics like engagement scores, retention rates, and turnover numbers tell you a lot about how your people feel at work. Are they connected? Do they see a future with your company? These numbers help you zero in on areas like growth opportunities, culture, or team dynamics that might need attention. When you take action based on what the data shows, you can create a more engaging and rewarding experience for your people.

Streamline employee lifecycle management

Tracking metrics like tenure distribution, internal mobility, and quality of hire simplifies how you manage people from their first day to their last. These numbers give you clarity on how team members move through your organization. With that insight, you can fine-tune onboarding, training, and career development processes to set your people up for success. It’s a smarter way to ensure smooth transitions and lasting workforce stability.

Attract the right fit

Metrics such as time to hire, reasons for resignation, and competencies help you sharpen your approach to hiring. They reveal patterns that show where you’re getting it right—and where you might need to adjust. With this information, you can focus on finding candidates who align with your organization’s goals and culture, which will help you build a stronger, more cohesive team and better outcomes for everyone.

<<Try these free workforce planning templates to get started.>>

Strategic workforce planning metrics

Here are key metrics to help you strengthen your workforce planning process.

1. Age, race, and gender diversity ratios

Is your organization as diverse as it could be? The most successful workforce planning processes have an inclusive hiring plan. When building an inclusive hiring plan, be sure to actively seek out applicants who will strengthen your company culture and bring a diversity of experience, opinion, age, gender, race, ethnicity, and any other qualities that will add to your organization’s diverse and inclusive character.

Tracking diversity ratios helps HR leaders assess representation across different demographics and identify areas for improvement. To measure diversity effectively, calculate the percentage of team members within key demographic categories:

Age diversity: Break down your workforce into age groups (e.g., under 25, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55+). Compare these distributions to industry benchmarks or national labor force data to ensure balanced representation.
Formula: (number of people in a specific age group ÷ total workforce) × 100
Gender diversity: Measure the proportion of men, women, and non-binary team members across the company and within leadership roles. A balanced gender ratio can indicate inclusive hiring and promotion practices.
Formula: (number of people of a specific gender ÷ total workforce) × 100
Racial and ethnic diversity: Track the representation of different racial and ethnic groups within your organization. Compare internal data to regional or industry averages to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Formula: (number of people in a specific racial/ethnic group ÷ total workforce) × 100

2. Headcount

Headcount is the easiest metric to measure: How many people are currently employed by your organization? You can break this down by departments and teams, but the principle stays the same: Count ’em up and you’ve got headcount. Measuring your headcount shows you what you already have, and it can serve as the foundation of your workforce management plan.

To get more value from headcount data, break it down in multiple ways:

By department or team: Understanding headcount distribution helps identify areas that may be overstaffed or understaffed
By employment type: Separate full-time, part-time, contract, and temporary team members to assess workforce flexibility
By location: If your company operates in multiple regions or countries, tracking headcount by location can inform hiring strategies and resource allocation
By tenure: Analyzing headcount by length of service helps gauge retention trends and succession planning needs

Tracking headcount over time is crucial for workforce planning. Comparing current and historical data allows HR leaders to identify growth patterns, turnover trends, and hiring needs. For example, if headcount has grown 20 percent over the past year, HR may need to assess whether hiring is keeping pace with business demands or if additional resources are required.

<<Get started with a workforce planning template.>>

3. Full-time employees

A deeper dive into your newfound headcount metric will reveal how many people are on full-time contracts. This core number is important for workforce planning, as full-time team members often represent the backbone of an organization’s stability, culture, and long-term productivity.

Tracking full-time headcount helps HR leaders:

Assess workforce stability: A higher percentage of full-time team members can indicate a more stable workforce, while a lower percentage may suggest reliance on contingent or temporary workers
Plan for benefits and compensation: Full-time people typically receive benefits like health insurance, retirement plans, and paid leave, so tracking this metric helps with budgeting and compliance
Forecast long-term staffing needs: If the proportion of full-time team members is shrinking, it may signal a shift toward a more flexible workforce model or a potential gap in succession planning

Use the following formula to calculate the percentage of full-time team members in your workforce:

Full-time headcount percentage = (number of full-time people ÷ total headcount) × 100

4. Internal mobility rate

Understanding the number of people who move laterally between teams adds another layer to the bigger organizational picture. It also provides insight into how many and which open roles are being filled by the talent within the organization.

Lateral transfers, where team members shift to a new role at the same level in a different department or function, can indicate:

A culture of continuous learning and professional development
Strong cross-functional collaboration, where people bring expertise from one area to another
A commitment to internal hiring, reducing the need for external recruitment
The effectiveness of workforce planning, ensuring open roles are filled by existing talent

If you have a high internal mobility rate, it’s a sign that you have a strong succession plan. To measure movement within your organization, use the following formula:

Internal mobility rate = (number of people who changed roles internally ÷ total headcount) × 100

<<Prepare your workforce with succession planning templates.>>

5. Contract type and distribution

Once you know the type of employment contracts your people are on, whether full-time, part-time, or freelance, you can leverage your diverse workforce to help scale the organization. And by taking the core number of full-time people as your foundation, combined with the needs of the business, you can better understand how many people you may need to hire part-time or as freelance contractors.

The core number of full-time team members serves as a baseline for workforce planning. From this, HR teams can assess staffing needs and determine how many part-time or freelance workers are required to support business goals.

Flexible workforce percentage = [(part-time + freelance workers) ÷ total workforce)] × 100

6. Age

As well as adding value, employing a multi-generational workforce can present HR professionals with challenges. That’s because different people will bring their own generation’s particular expectations and experiences to the workplace.

Diverse, multi-generational workforces can have the advantage of different generations’ strengths and modes of thinking. When your people work together to find mutual understanding and common ground, their various strengths can come together to propel ingenuity and drive the business forward. Tracking workforce age distribution helps HR teams understand generational balance and address potential gaps.

Age group percentage = (number of people in an age group ÷ total workforce) × 100

7. Tenure distribution

How long is the average tenure of your workforce? Can you improve it? Use the tenure distribution metric to understand who your high-potential talent is. If you notice that much of your senior leadership has been hired externally, take the opportunity to identify who to invest in with upskilling and professional development opportunities and save on recruitment costs by promoting from within.

You can calculate average tenure with the following formula:

Average tenure (years) = (total years of experience of all people ÷ total number of team members)

Segmenting tenure into different experience levels helps pinpoint trends and identify retention challenges. Here’s how to calculate tenure percentage:

Tenure percentage = (number of people in a tenure group ÷ total workforce) × 100

8. Career path ratio

This HR metric helps calculate rates of vertical and lateral growth within your organization. It helps companies analyze the structure of their organization and how individuals with particular skill sets are placed within it

To understand how people progress within the company, track both promotion rates (vertical growth) and lateral transfer rates (horizontal movement across teams or roles):

Promotion rate = total number of promotions / all role changes

All role changes = promotions + lateral moves

HR can use these rates to track:

Career progression opportunities: A low promotion rate may indicate a lack of career mobility or growth opportunities
Workforce agility: A higher lateral transfer rate suggests strong internal mobility and skill-sharing
Leadership pipeline health: If senior roles are mostly filled externally, succession planning may need improvement

<<Support your people with career path templates.>>

9. Employee engagement scores

When the employee engagement score is low, it’s common to see low team morale, productivity, and high rates of attrition. Use this metric to gain more insight into where and how to invest in enhancing people programs across your organization.

Team member engagement is typically measured through surveys, using a mix of questions about job satisfaction, commitment, motivation, and alignment with company values. Responses are usually collected on a Likert scale (e.g., 1–5 or 1–7), where higher numbers indicate stronger engagement.

Employee engagement score = (sum of all team member responses ÷ total number of responses)

10. Retention rate

Keeping retention high is always a top priority. When planning hires for the next year or cycle, understanding your retention history can help you determine which departments require more headcount and how best to allocate the recruitment team’s resources.

Retention rate measures the percentage of people who stay with the company over a given period using the following formula:

Retention rate (%) = [(number of people at start of period – number of people who left) ÷ number of people at start of period] × 100

11. Voluntary vs. involuntary turnover rates

When calculating turnover, it’s important to understand the rates of voluntary and involuntary turnover. In other words, who wants to leave, and who are you letting go? If your involuntary turnover is high, consider examining the quality of your hires. If your voluntary turnover is high, you may need to evaluate your company culture and think about what and how you can improve.

Calculate your overall turnover rate with the following formula:

Total turnover rate (%) = (number of people who left ÷ average number of team members) × 100

You can also break it down into voluntary and involuntary turnover rates:

Voluntary turnover rate (%) = (number of people who resigned ÷ average number of team members) × 100

Involuntary turnover rate (%) = (number of people terminated or laid off ÷ average number of team members) × 100

12. Attrition rate

Measuring attrition is critical for workforce planning because it tells you how fast people are voluntarily leaving your company. To plan for future hiring efforts, you need to understand the resources your organization can commit to its people. A high attrition rate can signal retention challenges, potential burnout, or misalignment between team member and manager expectations.

You can break attrition down by department, role, or tenure group to pinpoint retention risks before they escalate using this formula:

Attrition rate (%) = (number of people who left ÷ average number of team members) × 100

13. Bench strength

Every organization has departures, voluntary and involuntary. To ensure business operations aren’t interrupted when people leave, it’s best practice to have internal talent ready to fill in and take on the responsibility—temporarily or long-term. Measuring your bench strength can help identify high-potential individuals on your teams. From there, you can more easily determine internal candidates for promotions or lateral moves across your organization.

Bench strength doesn’t have a single formula, but HR teams can measure it by tracking:

The number of internal successors identified for key positions
The percentage of leadership roles filled internally vs. externally
The number of people who complete leadership training

If key roles lack at least one internal successor, HR can invest in succession planning and leadership development programs.

14. Competencies

How skilled are your people? Do they have the knowledge and experience your business needs to succeed? Understanding where people’s competencies lie within the business helps indicate how well-equipped your organization is to face any challenges, adapt, and thrive. It can also help pinpoint where to invest in specific professional development and training programs for your people.

To assess competencies effectively, HR teams can track:

The percentage of people meeting predefined competency benchmarks
Skills gaps between current competencies and future business needs
The number of people participating in upskilling and reskilling programs

<<Evaluate your people’s skills with this free skills gap analysis template.>>

15. People profiles and assessments

Many modern businesses already employ their future leaders and top talent who will help the company realize its full potential. Success lies in identifying those people and matching them with the capabilities and profiles needed to future-proof your organization.

To measure people profiles and assessments, HR professionals can:

Track the number of people with completed competency assessments
Compare individual skills to job requirements to identify alignment gaps
Measure internal mobility rates and leadership pipeline strength based on assessment data

<<Develop internal talent with a free succession planning template.>>

16. Quality of hire

Understanding your quality of hire can help you learn from past mistakes and build on past successes. A high-quality hire leads to stronger retention, greater job satisfaction, and increased productivity. A poor-quality hire can result in disengagement, early turnover, or performance issues.

A strong quality-of-hire score also reflects effective vetting from recruiters, solid retention efforts from managers, and successful onboarding from HR, meaning new joiners flourish in their roles. Measuring this score requires tracking key HR metrics tailored to your company’s specific goals.

Start by selecting the most relevant performance indicators. Assign a 1-5 rating to assess each new joiner’s effectiveness in these areas, then use the following formula:

To improve quality of hire, HR teams can assess new joiners’ performance metrics, manager feedback, and ramp-up times. Standardizing structured interviews, incorporating skills assessments, and refining job descriptions to attract the right talent can also improve hiring success.

17. Annual failed hires

Tracking failed hires—new joiners who never reach their first anniversary—helps organizations identify weaknesses in onboarding, role expectations, or culture fit. High failure rates may indicate misalignment in hiring criteria, poor management support, or a need for stronger onboarding programs.

HR teams can shine a light on what might be happening by analyzing onboarding survey results, tracking early turnover trends, and comparing hiring sources to see which recruitment channels produce the most successful long-term team members.

<<Optimize recruitment strategies with a free hiring princess checklist.>>

18. Reasons for resignation

Taking note of why people resign helps refine retention strategies and recruitment efforts. Exit interviews give departing team members a structured way to share workplace experiences, concerns, and reasons for leaving. HR leaders can track this data to spot patterns in voluntary turnover, whether due to compensation concerns, lack of career growth, or management challenges.

Conducting structured exit interviews ensures companies gather meaningful insights and adjust hiring, engagement, and development strategies accordingly.

<<Uncover key turnover trends with a free exit interview template.>>

19. Employee absenteeism rates

Absenteeism metrics highlight unplanned leave, frequent single-day absences, and overall attendance trends. High absenteeism often signals burnout, disengagement, or workplace culture challenges. Tracking these patterns over time allows HR leaders to adjust workloads or introduce flexible scheduling options to reduce stress levels.

HR leaders can measure absenteeism rates by department, tenure, and role using this formula:

<<Create a clear attendance policy with a free employee attendance template.>>

20. Time-to-hire

Time-to-hire describes the amount of time between a candidate applying for a job and that same candidate accepting an offer. Understanding your historic time-to-hire can help you understand where you can make improvements in your recruitment process. For example, reducing the number of interviews and overall length of the interview process may help you avoid losing out on top candidates who accept competing offers.

HR leaders can measure time-to-hire using this formula:

As your recruiting process grows more efficient (and, hopefully, your employee net promoter score improves), your time-to-hire will shrink and your teams will grow stronger and faster than ever.

21. Training ratio

Now that you have your new joiner set up, who can train them? Training ratio measures the number of fully trained team members versus those who need more training. If you see that you have a low training ratio, consider incorporating advanced training sessions, continuing education courses, and maybe even tuition reimbursements into your budget.

You can track training ratios by measuring the number of experienced people per new joiner and determining the availability of mentorship and coaching resources for new joiners.

Training ratio = (new joiners ÷ number of experienced people)

22. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

eNPS is the holy grail of employee engagement. The eNPS asks team members a single question: On a scale of zero to ten, how likely are you to recommend working for our company? After team members rate their company, HR divides them into:

Promoters (scores of 9-10): Happy team members who are most likely to recommend your organization
Passives (scores of 7-8): Neutral team members. While content, they’re not fully engaged and might not recommend the organization
Detractors (scores of 0-6): People who are unhappy with the organization and unlikely to recommend the company to their network. Detractors have high attrition risks and may speak negatively of the company

Your eNPS is equal to the number of people who would recommend your company minus the number of people who wouldn’t. The formula ignores passives since they’re neutral and don’t directly affect loyalty metrics.

Your eNPS score will help you understand if your people are happy—and if they’ll make recruiting easy by lending a hand. Happy team members tend to stick around—so a high eNPS score can lead to a smoother, more predictable workforce planning process.

23. Cost per hire

Cost per hire calculates how much your company spends to bring new people on board. This includes advertising, recruitment fees, and onboarding costs. Understanding this metric can help you manage your hiring budget more effectively. A lower cost per hire signals a more efficient recruitment process, while a higher cost may indicate areas for saving money like reducing agency reliance or taking onboarding online.

HR leaders can calculate cost per hire using this formula:

Cost per hire = (total recruitment costs ÷ number of hires in a period)

24. Ramp rate

Ramp rate tracks how quickly new joiners become fully productive in their roles. A faster ramp rate often reflects clear job expectations, structured learning paths, and strong mentorship support.

HR leaders ensure new joiners contribute faster by monitoring:

The time it takes new people to meet KPIs
The percentage of joiners who reach full productivity within a set timeframe
The impact of onboarding improvements on overall team productivity levels

25. Salary scale distribution

Salary scale distribution shows how your team’s salaries vary across different roles. This metric can help you identify pay disparities, ensure competitive compensation, and maintain internal equity.

HR leaders can adjust pay structures strategically by measuring:

The percentage of people in each salary band
Pay gaps between different demographics, tenure levels, or roles
How salary structures compare to industry benchmarks

26. Revenue per head

Revenue per head measures how much revenue each team member contributes. This straightforward metric helps HR and finance leaders assess team efficiency, justify headcount expansion, and identify areas for operational improvements. A higher revenue per head suggests a well-optimized workforce, while a declining number may indicate overstaffing, inefficiencies, or the need for skills development.

HR leaders can calculate revenue per head using this formula:

Revenue per head = (total revenue ÷ number of team members)

27. Employee productivity and capacity

Employee productivity and capacity metrics help you understand how effectively work gets completed. If productivity rates decline, it may indicate inefficiencies, outdated processes, or the need for additional training.

Tracking capacity alongside productivity ensures teams operate at an optimal workload—neither underutilized nor overwhelmed.

HR leaders can measure employee productivity using this formula:

Employee productivity = (total output ÷ total work hours in a period)

28. Employee utilization

Employee utilization tracks how much time your people spend on productive tasks compared to non-productive ones. High utilization can signal efficiency, while extremely high rates could indicate burnout risks. HR leaders can ensure team member’s work time contributes to high-value, productive tasks using this formula:

Employee utilization rate (%) = (billable hours ÷ total work hours) × 100

29. Training time

Tracking training time helps HR leaders evaluate the efficiency of onboarding programs and upskilling initiatives. A shorter training period often indicates a well-structured, engaging process, while longer ramp-up times may highlight gaps in learning resources or role clarity.

HR leaders can measure training time using this formula:

Training time = (total training hours ÷ number of people trained)

<<Streamline onboarding with free employee onboarding templates.>>

30. Resource utilization

Resource utilization measures how effectively an organization uses technology, workspaces, and equipment to support productivity. Underutilized resources may indicate excess costs or inefficiencies, while overuse may signal resource shortages that impact work quality.

HR and operations teams can ensure everyone has the right tools without unnecessary waste by monitoring:

The percentage of software licenses actively used
Workspace occupancy rates in hybrid or remote environments
The total amount of equipment usage across departments

31. Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction reflects how fulfilled, motivated, and engaged people feel in their roles. High satisfaction levels lead to strong retention, higher productivity, and a positive workplace culture.

HR teams track job satisfaction through:

Engagement surveys that measure workplace morale
Retention trends to see if satisfied people stay longer
Manager feedback on team enthusiasm and performance

Best practices: Workforce planning KPIs

When defining your KPIs, it’s important to establish metrics that will indicate whether or not your plan is on track to succeed. More and more successful modern businesses rely on real-time metrics for insights into what’s working, what’s not, and how they might improve outcomes.

Examples of HR KPIs to include in your workforce planning program include:

Employee engagement rate
Training ROI
Quality of hire
Absenteeism rate
Turnover rate
Retention rate
Disciplinary rate
Grievance rate

HR professionals who identify between five and seven workforce planning KPIs are better able to effectively manage and track their progress in meeting their goals.

Measuring with a workforce planning dashboard

Traditionally, HR professionals use spreadsheets, paper records, or external systems for workforce planning. Using a workforce planning tool with an intuitive dashboard can help automate the process, collect data, and provide accurate, data-driven insights HR leaders can use to accurately measure workforce efficiency and planning metrics.

How Bob helps track and analyze strategic workforce planning metrics

Bob’s Workforce Planning was designed to help businesses build data-driven, strategic hiring strategies. It gives you complete visibility into all your people data, including headcount, expected turnover and growth, and the ability to track current and future positions—in one place.

Workforce planning metric FAQs

What are the key elements of workforce planning?

Workforce planning is about making sure your people strategy aligns with your organization’s goals. It includes:

Strategic alignment: Connecting workforce goals to overall business priorities
Demand forecasting: Estimating how many people and which skills will be needed down the line
Supply analysis: Reviewing the current workforce to see where its strengths and gaps are
Gap analysis: Pinpointing where the organization’s future workforce needs won’t align with its current capabilities and creating a strategy to bridge those gaps
Action planning: Developing a straightforward plan with timelines and responsibilities to address gaps or challenges
Monitoring and evaluation: Keeping an eye on the plan’s progress and making adjustments when goals or circumstances shift

What are the HR metrics for workforce planning?

HR metrics for workforce planning help track the health and progress of the workforce. They help you see what’s working, what’s not, and where to adjust. Metrics like headcount, retention rate, and turnover rate give you a snapshot of your workforce’s overall health.

Engagement scores and quality of hire tell you how connected your people are and how well your hiring strategies are paying off. And metrics like time-to-hire and absenteeism rates show where there’s room to make processes more efficient. Together, these numbers help you shape a more effective workforce strategy.

What are workforce management metrics?

Workforce management metrics are all about keeping things running smoothly day-to-day. They focus on productivity, attendance, scheduling, and how well your people’s time is being used.

For example, tracking absenteeism can show if burnout is becoming a concern. Employee utilization rates can tell you whether workloads are balanced or if some team members are carrying too much. Using workforce planning metrics can help you make sure your organization stays efficient while supporting your people’s wellbeing.