HR Information Systems and Metrics
This domain tests whether you can specify, implement, and use HR technology and data responsibly. Items cover HRIS functionality, data governance and privacy, analytics maturity, and metric calculation.
Core rules
- HRIS scope: core records, payroll integration, benefits enrollment, time and attendance, recruiting (ATS), learning (LMS), performance management, and self-service portals. Analytics sits on top of these transaction systems.
- Selection and implementation: requirements analysis, build versus buy, RFP, vendor evaluation on security, integration, scalability, and total cost of ownership, then data migration, testing, training, and post-implementation review. Most failures are process and change-management failures rather than software failures.
- Data governance: one authoritative source per data element, defined data ownership, standard definitions such as what counts as a hire, audit trails, and role-based access. Personal data requires a lawful basis, retention limits, and incident response under regimes such as GDPR and CCPA.
- Analytics levels: descriptive (what happened), diagnostic (why), predictive (what will happen), and prescriptive (what to do).
- Core formulas: turnover rate = separations ÷ average headcount × 100, where average headcount = (beginning + ending) ÷ 2; absenteeism = days absent ÷ (days scheduled × headcount); plus cost per hire, time to fill, revenue per FTE, and human capital ROI.
- Dashboards: lead with the decision, keep time frames consistent, show the denominator, and avoid dual axes and decorative 3D charts.
Worked example
Headcount was 480 on January 1 and 520 on December 31, with 45 separations during the year. Average headcount = (480 + 520) ÷ 2 = 500, so turnover = 45 ÷ 500 × 100 = 9%. Splitting voluntary (32) from involuntary (13) changes the story: a 29% involuntary share suggests performance management or restructuring, while voluntary exits concentrated in the first year point to selection and onboarding. A predictive model would then test which pre-hire attributes correlate with early voluntary exits.
Traps that cost marks
- Dividing separations by ending headcount, which understates turnover when headcount is growing rapidly.
- Annualizing a partial-year figure inconsistently.
- Trusting a system report without checking definitions and duplicate records.
- Presenting predictive output as certain rather than probabilistic.
- Overlooking privacy and access controls when granting managers self-service reporting.