CPHR Human Resources Metrics Reporting 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A company's revenue per employee is $180,000 and industry average is $220,000. What does this gap most likely indicate?
- Workforce productivity is below industry benchmarks (Correct answer)
- The company has too few employees
- Compensation costs are too high
- Revenue reporting is inaccurate
Correct answer: Workforce productivity is below industry benchmarks
Revenue per employee measures workforce productivity, and a gap below industry average signals the workforce is generating less value relative to peers.
Question 2: Which metric best measures the effectiveness of a succession planning program?
- Time-to-fill for external hires
- Percentage of key roles filled internally (Correct answer)
- Employee net promoter score
- Training hours per employee
Correct answer: Percentage of key roles filled internally
The percentage of key roles filled by internal candidates directly reflects how well the succession pipeline is prepared.
Question 3: When calculating cost-per-hire, which cost should NOT be included?
- Job board advertising fees
- Recruiter salaries
- New hire's first-year salary (Correct answer)
- Background check fees
Correct answer: New hire's first-year salary
Cost-per-hire includes recruiting expenses such as advertising, recruiter costs, and screening fees, but not the new hire's compensation.
Question 4: A dashboard shows voluntary turnover spiking among employees with 1–2 years of tenure. What is the most appropriate HR response?
- Increase base salaries organization-wide
- Investigate onboarding and early career development programs (Correct answer)
- Reduce benefits to cut costs
- Freeze new hiring immediately
Correct answer: Investigate onboarding and early career development programs
Turnover concentrated in the 1–2 year cohort typically signals issues with onboarding integration or early career development rather than compensation alone.
Question 5: What does a high internal promotion rate metric primarily signal to stakeholders?
- The organization has strong talent development and retention practices (Correct answer)
- Recruitment costs are rising
- External hiring is preferred
- Performance management is lenient
Correct answer: The organization has strong talent development and retention practices
A high internal promotion rate signals that the organization successfully develops and retains talent, reducing the need for external hiring.
Question 6: An HR analyst wants to determine whether a training program improved sales performance. Which approach is most rigorous?
- Survey participants about satisfaction post-training
- Compare pre- and post-training sales data for the trained group against a control group (Correct answer)
- Track training completion rates
- Monitor manager feedback forms
Correct answer: Compare pre- and post-training sales data for the trained group against a control group
Using a control group comparison isolates the training's impact from other variables, providing the most rigorous evidence of effectiveness.
Question 7: Which of the following is an example of a leading HR indicator?
- Last year's total turnover rate
- Current employee engagement scores (Correct answer)
- Prior year absenteeism cost
- Settled discrimination lawsuits
Correct answer: Current employee engagement scores
Engagement scores are leading indicators that can predict future turnover and performance, whereas the other options are lagging measures of past events.
CPHR Human Resources Metrics Reporting 2
A company's revenue per employee is $180,000 and industry average is $220,000.
What does this gap most likely indicate?