The art of becoming an HR reporting whiz (without having done Math Sup)

By Axelle Drack

Published: October 25, 2024

Far from being the preserve of colleagues in the finance department, in recent years reporting has become a widespread practice throughout the company.

It has to be said that, given the need to remain competitive, assiduously monitoring the performance of each function is an effective way of steering the company and making the best possible decisions.

But as an HR manager, you're a numbers person, and building an HR report on an Excel spreadsheet can make you break out in a cold sweat (without exaggerating). The good news is that Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence are increasingly joining the party to make your HR management task easier.

But first, let's get back to basics: what is HR reporting and what are its objectives? Then we'll give you our tips and tools for creating quality HR reporting.

See all software HR Data Management

What is HR reporting?

Definition of HR reporting

HR reporting is a communication tool that summarizes various performance indicators over a defined period, to support strategic decision-making.

It provides a clear, synthetic view of a situation at a given moment, making it easy to identify at a glance the various strengths of the HR department, as well as any bottlenecks or areas for improvement.

👉With the right choice of indicators and a careful visual layout, HR reporting enables you to make more accurate and informed decisions based on facts.

The objectives of HR reporting

Let's talk in more detail about the different objectives of HR reporting. HR reporting helps to improve overall departmental performance:

by identifying strengths,
highlighting what's already working, to make it work even better,
and by pinpointing the areas where things are not going so well, in order to identify the cause and take action to rectify the situation.

In this way, you'll be in a better position to:

improve the efficiency of the recruitment process,
identify development opportunities,
promote your actions to all employees,
demonstrate to management your contribution to the company's overall performance.

🦸‍♀️Votre mission: to contribute to the company's performance by facilitating strategic decision-making.

HR reporting is different from the HR dashboard

HR reporting or HR dashboard: the same battle? Although they may seem similar, they should not be confused. But why? We'll explain:

First, their role. They don't serve exactly the same purpose, because :

the HR dashboard is used by the whole team on a day-to-day basis to check the real-time progress of their tasks (recruitment campaigns, for example) and the achievement of objectives ;
whereas reporting is used to summarize the department's performance for management, and to present an analysis that enables decisions to be taken (e.g., revising targets or hiring skills that are lacking).

The aim of the dashboard is therefore operational, while that of reporting is strategic.
Secondly, the content differs. The first is that

the dashboard is synthetic and dynamic, updated automatically as you progress. It is made up of HR indicators (KPIs), tables and graphs;
reporting presents fixed results, and summarizes results for a given period. It contains data, may include graphics, but above all includes a written section commenting on the results presented, and sometimes recommendations for improvement. Its format is longer than the dashboard, sometimes spanning several pages.

Let's summarize the differences between the 2 tools in the table below:

HR Reporting	HR Dashboard
For management	For the team
Fixed data	Dynamic data
Strategic level	Operational level
Long format	Synthetic format

💡 Please note: these two tools are complementary when it comes to managing your human resources, and it's not a question of using one to the benefit of the other!

How to create high-quality HR reporting? Our advice

1. Ensure the credibility of the data you use

Everything starts with the data! If it isn't reliable, your report is likely to sound false (or hollow) and not very convincing. Anyone who hasn't already spent hours checking for errors or deleting duplicates should raise their hand 🙋‍♀️.

Then, based on the data, you'll need to select the most relevant indicators or KPIs for your reporting.

So make sure the HR data you use is :

✅ from reliable sources,
✅ harmonized,
✅ without duplication,
✅ up-to-date.

2. Automate the reporting process

Some companies carry out their HR management by collecting data manually and then doing all the calculations themselves. Unfortunately, this poses a number of problems:

it's tedious,
it can be very time-consuming, depending on the volume of data to be processed,
and there's a risk of error.

To truly manage your human resources without spending all day on it, you need to automate your reporting. The key? Major benefits:

✅ data that is reliable, centralized, secure and complete, and that you can use without any doubts ;
✅ automatic exploitation of data through business intelligence (sorting, filtering, cross-referencing, automatic creation of graphs, etc.);
✅ the generation of pre-formatted reports in just a few minutes, which you can then personalize.

We'll come back later in the article to the various tools for automating reporting creation.

3. Tailor your reporting to your objective and target audience

Before diving headlong into the production of your report, ask yourself: who is going to read my report, and why?

Knowing the answers to these questions will make it easier for you to :

selecting the indicators to be presented
and in the way you comment on results or projections, so that each piece of information is of interest to the recipient.

4. Careful presentation

As a decision-making tool, your HR reporting needs to be presented in such a way that the recipient quickly understands the context and the situation, in order to decide what action to take. And careful presentation helps!

Here are a few tips for a professional, attractive presentation:

Highlight it with color. The aim is not just to look pretty, but above all to highlight essential information. Ideally, choose colors from your company's graphic charter, and use them sparingly (too much color kills color!).
Insert visuals. Whether they're illustrations, photos (or even emojis, why not), visuals help to lighten the reading experience by creating micro-pauses. They're ideal for keeping the audience's attention throughout the reading process.

Use graphics. They add another dimension to data and other indicators, and are often easier to understand than a table. They can take a variety of forms: curves, pie charts, bar graphs, etc.

Examples and tools to help you create your HR reports

Examples of reporting applications

Here are just a few examples of HR reports you may need to produce:

monthly reporting to management to monitor your department's performance,
a one-off report for shareholders who need to know your financial projections,
reporting on company absenteeism,
reporting on departmental operating costs, if you need to reduce company costs.

HR dashboard template

To give more context to your reporting, don't hesitate to put it into perspective with an HR dashboard.

Discover our article dedicated to the HR dashboard with several examples to inspire you.

Which tools make reporting easier?

Well, you've guessed it, we try to avoid doing our reporting on Excel to avoid wasting time, unless you're a spreadsheet whiz, in which case, knock yourself out (and respect 🙌).

Here are a few examples of tools to use:

HR data management software,
business intelligence software,
some HRIS also have the necessary modules.