Having a solid employee relations strategy is great, but if you’re not tracking what’s working, how can you evolve or show leadership the value you bring? Employee relations metrics give you the clearest view into your team’s impact—which is exactly why they’re so imperative.
Employee relations KPIs help you make smarter, faster decisions—and back them up. Whether you’re asking for budget, making a case for more headcount or rethinking how ER fits into the bigger picture, metrics give you a definite edge. Plus, analytics help you fine-tune your efforts in real time and align your strategy with business goals. If this pitch sounds familiar, it’s because it was our central call to action in our Ninth Annual Employee Relations Benchmark Study. There’s no time like the present to start tracking these numbers. And if you’re just getting started, start small. It’s better to track a few metrics well than to track too many and miss the mark. You’ll scale in no time.
Let’s break down exactly what employee relations metrics are, why they matter and which KPIs you need to know.
Key Takeaways: Must-Track Metrics for a Successful Employee Relations Strategy
- Tracking employee relations metrics and KPIs gives HR a clear view into how well workplace issues are being handled, supports smarter decision-making and helps show leadership the strategic impact of employee relations work. It’s better to start with a few meaningful metrics and do them well than overwhelm with too many at once.
- Important metrics include things like employee engagement and satisfaction scores, time to resolve issues, case volume per 1,000 employees by category, substantiation rates, hotline usage, turnover and retention rates, absenteeism and diversity and inclusion measures — all of which help reveal trends, risks and areas for improvement.
- Regularly reviewing and aligning these KPIs with leadership goals, using them to drive action and communicating progress transparently builds trust, supports proactive strategy adjustments and helps HR advocate for resources and change.
What are the Most Important Employee Relations Metrics?
Let’s dive into the can’t-miss employee relations metrics.
1. Employee Engagement
What It Is and Why It Matters
Employee engagement is about energy. It tells you how connected people feel to their work, team and company. For ER pros, this metric is non-negotiable. It’s a key tool that enables you to spot red flags early and build a culture where people want to stay.
Plus, this metric is directly connected to productivity, performance and retention. If you want your strategy to hit the mark, this employee relations KPI has to be on your radar.
How to Put It Into Practice
Start with a short survey. Ask 4–5 yes-or-no questions about how employees feel about their roles, training and team relationships. Keep it simple and honest.
How to Measure Employee Engagement
Use this point system:
- Yes = 10 points
- Sometimes = 5 points
- No = 0 points
Add the scores for each employee and convert to a percentage. Higher score, higher engagement.
2. Employee Satisfaction
What It Is and Why It Matters
Happy employees stay. If someone’s getting paid fairly, sees a future at your organization and feels supported, they’re far less likely to leave. This metric helps you measure how employees really feel about their work, compensation and overall employee experience.
It’s also a critical signal for your ER strategy—especially when it comes to retention and internal mobility.
How to Put It Into Practice
Send out a satisfaction survey. Ask your team to rate things like work-life balance, compensation and benefits on a scale from 0 to 10. Use the results to identify what’s working and where there’s room for improvement. You may notice trends that enable you to quickly course correct.
A friendly word of caution: Don’t send out too many surveys to your team members or they’ll get the dreaded survey fatigue. If you do send one out, focus on what your org can realistically change. If it can’t take meaningful action on any of the questions you’re inquiring about, this can result in further dissatisfaction.
How to Measure Employee Satisfaction
- Track competitor compensation and benefits quarterly
- Monitor Glassdoor and other review sites for negative feedback
- Review survey results to guide ER and HR updates—and act on your insights
3. Employee Net Promoter Score for ER (eNPS)
What It Is and Why It Matters
This isn’t your standard eNPS (which measures how likely a team member is to promote your workplace as a great place to work). This version measures how likely someone is to engage with your ER or compliance team if an issue comes up.
Tracking eNPS for ER helps you understand how approachable and effective your team really is.
How to Put It Into Practice
Ask one simple question:
“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to interact with the ER or compliance team if an issue arises?”
How to Measure eNPS
Group responses into:
- Promoters (9–10)
- Passives (7–8)
- Detractors (0–6)
Then, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. You’ll get a score between -100 and 100.
4. Time to Resolve Employee Issues
What It Is and Why It Matters
This measures how long it takes to close an employee issue—from when it’s opened to when it’s closed.
Shorter resolution times show your team is responsive and efficient. However, speed should never come at the cost of efficiency (or accuracy). Tracking this regularly helps you spot delays and improve your process. You can also consider sharing this data with your team to boost transparency.
How to Put It Into Practice
If you use an ER case management tool (like HR Acuity), you can either check the open and close dates of each case to calculate resolution time or export a report to get a comprehensive overview of resolution time.
How to Measure Time to Resolve Employee Issues
- Average days to resolve a case
- Number of resolved cases per month
- Decrease in complaints over time
- Increase in properly filed cases
- Fewer steps needed to close a case
5. Employee Relations Staffing Ratio
What It Is and Why It Matters
ER teams wear a lot of hats—investigations, coaching and policy. This metric helps you show just how much you’re juggling by measuring how many ER pros you have per 1,000 employees.
Need headcount? This is the number to bring to the table.
How to Put It Into Practice
You’ll need two numbers: Total employees and total ER team members. To make your case more compelling, include each team member’s average annual caseload to really spotlight the workload.
How to Measure Employee Relations Staffing Ratio
Use this formula:
Total Employees ÷ ER Team Members
Example:
If you have 1,000 employees and 10 ER team members, your ratio is 1:100—one ER pro for every 100 employees.
Psst: We define ER as the function that brings the legal and emotional contract between employers and their teams to life. That means which employee relations practitioners are tasked with managing how organizations nurture their culture to maintain healthy, lawful relationships with their workforce.
6. Case Volume per 1,000 Employees (By Category)
What It Is and Why It Matters
This is one of our favorite KPIs for employee relations because it’s all about pattern recognition. Tracking case volume by category helps you spot what’s coming up most the most—whether it’s performance issues, mental health or something else. That way, you can align your strategy with real needs.
How to Put It Into Practice
Pull case counts by category from your ER platform plus your total employee headcount.
How to Measure Case Volume per 1,000 Employees
Use this formula:
(Number of Cases in Category ÷ Total Employees) x 1,000
Example:
35 accommodation cases ÷ 4,000 employees = 0.00875
0.00875 x 1,000 = 8.75 cases per 1,000 employees
7. EEOC Cases per 1,000 Employees
What It Is and Why It Matters
No team wants to land in EEOC territory—but if it happens, you need to know how often and how it compares to your workforce size. This metric helps you spot risk areas early and respond proactively.
How to Put It Into Practice
Pull the total number of EEOC cases and your employee count from your investigations platform or legal team.
How to Measure EEOC Cases per 1,000 Employees
Same formula as before:
(Number of EEOC Cases ÷ Total Employees) x 1,000
8. Issue-to-Case Ratio
What It Is and Why It Matters
Not every issue becomes a case—and that’s exactly what this ratio tells you. It shows how many concerns are raised compared to how many actually turn into formal cases. A high ratio? Your team is dealing with a lot of complex, nuanced situations.
How to Put It Into Practice
Use your ER case management tool to pull the total number of issues raised and cases opened during a set period.
How to Measure Issue-to-Case Ratio
Total Issues ÷ Total Cases
Example:
150 issues raised ÷ 30 cases opened = 5:1
For every case opened, five issues were raised.
9. Case Disposition: Percentage of Substantiated Issues
What It Is and Why It Matters
Just over half (51%) of organizations track substantiation rates, according to our Ninth Annual Employee Relations Benchmark. If you’re not already, it’s time to start.
Sometimes a case doesn’t have enough evidence to move forward. Still, tracking how many issues are substantiated versus inconclusive is a must. This employee relations metric gives you an idea of how strong your reporting and investigation processes are.
How to Put It Into Practice
Use your investigations platform to pull the total number of substantiated, inconclusive and unsubstantiated cases.
How to Measure Case Disposition
(Number of Substantiated Cases ÷ Total Number of Cases) x 100
This gives you the percentage of cases that had enough evidence to take action.
10. Named vs Anonymous Reports
How to Put It Into Practice
Pick a time period (like 6 or 12 months). Then, pull how many reports were anonymous versus named using your hotline and case management tools.
What It Is and Why It Matters
This employee relations KPI shows whether employees feel safe naming themselves when reporting issues. A high number of anonymous reports may point to trust gaps or a need for better education on reporting options.
How to Measure Named vs Anonymous Reports
Compare the number of anonymous and named reports.
For deeper insight, divide totals by the number of months to track trends over time.
11. Legal Cost Per Employee
What It Is and Why It Matters
This employee relations metric tracks how much your company spends on external legal fees and settlements per employee. It’s not just a legal team stat—ER plays a big role in keeping these costs down.
How to Put It Into Practice
Work with accounting to find the total cost of external legal and employment-related settlement expenses.
How to Measure Legal Cost Per Employee
Total Legal and Settlement Costs ÷ Total Number of Employees
Use this KPI for employee relations to show the financial impact of effective ER work.
12. Hotline Issues per 1,000 Employees
What It Is and Why It Matters
An anonymous hotline makes it easier for employees to speak up—and this metric tracks how often they do. It’s a great way to see if employees understand and trust the system. In fact, our Misconduct Study indicates 72% of employees feel comfortable reporting an issue when an anonymous tool is available.
How to Put It Into Practice
Pull the number of hotline reports in a set time frame, then check your total employee count.
How to Measure Hotline Issues per 1,000 Employees
(Hotline Reports ÷ Total Employees) x 1,000
This shows how many reports come through for every 1,000 employees.
13. Turnover Rate
What It Is and Why It Matters
Turnover affects morale, workload and budget. Tracking this KPI for employee relations helps you get ahead of problems tied to engagement, onboarding or culture.
How to Put It Into Practice
Get the number of employees who left during a specific time and the number of total employees at the start and end of that period.
How to Measure Turnover Rate
(Employees Who Left ÷ [(Employees at Start + Employees at End) ÷ 2]) x 100
This gives you the percentage of turnover over a given time.
14. Retention Rate
What It Is and Why It Matters
This employee relations KPI shows how well your organization keeps people. It’s a reflection of engagement, satisfaction and how employees experience your culture.
How to Put It Into Practice
Track how many employees stayed versus how many left during a certain period.
How to Measure Retention Rate
[(Total Employees – Employees Who Left) ÷ Total Employees] x 100
A high percentage means you’re doing something right. A lower one points to areas for improvement.
15. Absenteeism Rate
What It Is and Why It Matters
We’re not talking about scheduled PTO. This metric tracks unexpected or unexcused absences. High absenteeism could be a red flag for low morale, burnout or disengagement.
How to Put It Into Practice
Use manager feedback or attendance systems to log absences. Make sure people leaders have the tools to track and report consistently—like HR Acuity’s managER.
How to Measure Absenteeism Rate
(Total Days Absent in a period ÷ Total Workdays in a period) x 100
This gives you the absenteeism percentage for the period you choose (for instance, a year).
16. Diversity and Inclusion Metrics
What It Is and Why It Matters
DE&I is central to a healthy workplace, and this is one of the most powerful employee relations metrics. It helps you see where you’re making progress and where more work is needed.
How to Put It Into Practice
Use a survey to gather demographic data and feedback on your DEI efforts. Ask about representation, inclusivity and what changes employees want to see.
How to Measure Diversity and Inclusion Metrics
- Representation: Look at race, gender, disability status, age and other key demographics across all levels of the company.
- Leadership Diversity: Track the percentage of leadership roles held by historically marginalized groups.
- DEI Program Feedback: Use sentiment data from surveys to adjust and improve DEI strategies.
This is a must-track employee relations KPI to build a more equitable and engaged workforce.
Taking the Next Steps to Improve Your Employee Relations Metrics Strategy
Tracking KPIs is only the beginning. To build a high-impact employee relations strategy, you need to use your metrics to drive action, improvement and alignment. Here’s how to keep the momentum going:
1. Review Metrics Regularly
Your employee relations metrics shouldn’t sit in a dashboard untouched. Schedule regular check-ins to assess what the data is telling you. Review trends, spot areas for improvement and discuss what’s working—and what’s not.
Tip: Make metric reviews part of your ER team’s rhythm. Create space for open discussion and encourage feedback from HR partners and employees alike. Insight from the ground level brings depth to your data.
2. Align KPIs With Leadership Goals
Metrics are most powerful when they tie directly to the company’s big-picture vision. Present your employee relations KPIs to leadership on a regular basis. Show how your work supports broader business goals like risk reduction, culture building or cost savings.
Bonus: A strong scorecard helps you communicate ER’s value in measurable terms. Use it to advocate for resources, headcount and strategic changes.
3. Reevaluate and Refine Your Metrics
Your organization will evolve—your KPIs should too. Some metrics will lose relevance over time, and new ones will emerge. Conduct periodic audits of your employee relations metrics to make sure they still reflect your goals.
Action: Replace outdated KPIs with data points that better support your current strategy. Keep your metrics relevant and actionable.
4. Share Progress Transparently
Tracking KPIs for employee relations is important—but sharing them is what builds trust. Communicate results company-wide, including successes, setbacks and what’s next. Transparency helps employees see how ER supports the workplace they experience every day.
Reminder: Progress is a process. Sharing both wins and challenges shows accountability and positions your team as a trusted partner in building a better work environment.
5. Drive Buy-In Through Follow-Up
Don’t stop at reporting. Use your employee relations metrics to spark conversations, guide decisions and implement real changes. This is how you turn insights into impact—and bring others along for the journey.
Result: The more your teams see how metrics shape strategy, the more engaged and invested they’ll become.
Leverage HR Acuity to Track and Act on Employee Relations KPIs
You don’t have to manage it all manually. HR Acuity’s case management and investigations platform helps you track the most important employee relations KPIs with ease. Whether you’re monitoring resolution time, turnover trends or DE&I data, you’ll have the tools to pull, analyze and share metrics that matter.
From strategy to action, your metrics should move the needle—and we’re here to help you do just that. Book a demo today to see how HR Acuity can support your team.
