NIPA APR cheat sheet

Time-to-fill = days from requisition approval to accepted offer; vacancy cost = daily revenue loss × days vacant.

Yield ratio = candidates advancing to next stage ÷ candidates entering stage; use it to locate the weakest funnel stage.

Selection ratio = hires ÷ applicants; a low ratio signals a broad, expensive funnel rather than a selective one.

Cost per hire = (internal recruiting costs + external agency/ad costs) ÷ total hires in the period.

Offer acceptance rate = accepted offers ÷ extended offers; track separately by source and by recruiter.

Quality of hire is typically a composite of performance rating, retention at 6-12 months, and hiring manager satisfaction.

Structured interviews with job-related, behaviorally anchored questions have higher predictive validity than unstructured interviews.

Realistic job previews reduce first-year turnover by aligning candidate expectations with actual role conditions before acceptance.

Source-of-hire attribution rules must be fixed in advance (e.g., first touch vs. last touch) or channel ROI comparisons are invalid.

Employee vs. independent contractor classification turns on behavioral control, financial control, and the nature of the relationship, not on the label in the contract.

Exempt status under wage-hour law generally requires passing a salary-threshold test plus a duties test (executive, administrative, professional, or outside sales).

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces federal anti-discrimination statutes; retaliation claims can succeed even where the underlying discrimination claim fails.

Disparate impact = a neutral policy disproportionately excludes a protected group; disparate treatment = intentional differential treatment.

The four-fifths rule flags adverse impact when a protected group's selection rate is below 80% of the highest group's rate.

Reasonable accommodation requires an individualized interactive process; undue hardship is the employer's defense and must be documented.

The Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for covered employers and eligible employees.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires 60 days' advance notice for qualifying mass layoffs or plant closings at covered employers.

FLSA recordkeeping requires accurate hours worked; rounding practices that systematically underpay employees create liability.

Compa-ratio = employee base salary ÷ midpoint of the pay range; values below 0.80 or above 1.20 typically trigger review.

Range spread = (maximum − minimum) ÷ minimum; midpoint = (minimum + maximum) ÷ 2.

Range penetration = (employee salary − minimum) ÷ (maximum − minimum); expresses position within the band independent of band width.

Pay compression occurs when new hires or subordinates approach or exceed the pay of experienced or supervisory employees.

Total rewards = base pay + variable pay + equity + benefits + perquisites; benchmark against a defined labor market with a stated percentile strategy.

Benefits benchmarking uses the employer cost per employee and employee-perceived value; a benefit can be costly yet low value.

Defined benefit plans promise a formula-driven benefit; defined contribution plans specify employer input, not outcome, shifting investment risk to the employee.

A qualified retirement plan under ERISA/IRC receives tax advantages but imposes fiduciary duties, vesting rules, and nondiscrimination testing.

COBRA requires continuation of group health coverage for qualifying events, generally 18 months for termination of employment.

Voluntary turnover rate = voluntary separations ÷ average headcount for the period; separate voluntary from involuntary before diagnosing causes.

The National Labor Relations Act protects concerted activity and the right to organize for covered employees; the NLRB adjudicates unfair labor practice charges.

Progressive discipline escalates through documented steps (verbal, written, final, termination); consistency across similar cases is the core defense.

Just-cause termination requires documented, proportionate, consistently applied reasons; at-will employment still cannot violate statutory protections.

Engagement surveys measure discretionary effort and commitment; satisfaction surveys measure contentment - the two diverge and should not be conflated.

Exit-interview data is biased by departing employees' reticence; pair it with stay interviews and pulse surveys for a fuller picture.

eNPS = % promoters − % detractors, using a 0-10 likelihood-to-recommend item.

Grievance procedures should specify timelines, escalation levels, and a no-retaliation clause to remain credible and defensible.

Employee relations cases should be logged with issue type, resolution, and duration to reveal systemic patterns rather than one-off disputes.

Kirkpatrick's four levels: reaction, learning, behavior, results; evaluation at level 3+ requires follow-up after the training event.

A training needs analysis has three layers: organizational, task/operational, and individual/person analysis.

70-20-10 model: roughly 70% experiential, 20% social/coaching, 10% formal coursework - a design heuristic, not a validated ratio.

Learning ROI = (monetary benefit − program cost) ÷ program cost, expressed as a percentage.

Bloom's taxonomy orders objectives from remembering through creating; verbs in learning objectives should match the intended cognitive level.

Spaced repetition and retrieval practice produce stronger retention than massed re-reading or passive presentation.

A learning management system tracks completion and compliance, but transfer requires manager reinforcement and on-the-job application.

Onboarding programs of structured length (e.g., 90 days) with defined milestones correlate with faster time-to-productivity.

Skills gap analysis compares required competencies for a role against current proficiency, producing a prioritized training plan.

Demand forecasting projects required headcount and skills from business plans; supply forecasting projects available internal and external talent.

Gap = forecast demand − forecast supply; the gap is closed by build, buy, borrow, bot, or bound strategies.

Turnover cost estimate = recruiting cost + onboarding cost + lost productivity ramp + vacancy cost.

A job-family and competency architecture enables career paths, pay bands, and succession planning from a single structure.

Succession planning distinguishes ready-now, ready-1-2-years, and long-term successors, with named development actions per candidate.

Span of control and layers of organization are the two levers in organizational design; both affect cost and decision speed.

Strategic workforce planning horizon typically spans 1-3 years; beyond that, scenario planning replaces point forecasts.

HR strategy must be traceable to business outcomes via a strategy map or HR scorecard linking people metrics to operational metrics.

Scenario planning uses best-case, base-case, and worst-case headcount models to test the cost of demand uncertainty.

Data quality checks precede analysis: completeness, uniqueness, timeliness, validity, and consistency are the standard dimensions.

Correlation does not establish causation; HR analytics claims require a comparison group, control, or quasi-experimental design.

Common HRIS objects: worker, job requisition, position, assignment, and compensation record - analytics joins depend on stable IDs across these.

A data warehouse consolidates HRIS, payroll, and ATS data; a data lake stores raw, schema-on-read data for exploratory use.

Dashboards should separate leading indicators (engagement, offer acceptance) from lagging indicators (turnover, cost per hire).

Predictive attrition models require periodic validation against actual outcomes; unvalidated models decay as conditions change.

Segmentation (by tenure, role, manager, location) usually explains more variance than company-wide averages, which can mask local problems.

Data privacy obligations apply to employee data: purpose limitation, access control, retention schedules, and lawful basis for processing.

API-based integration between ATS, HRIS, and payroll reduces manual re-keying errors compared with batch file transfers.