HR dashboard software: A guide for data-driven HR professionals

People are a company’s biggest asset. Despite this, HR professionals are often stuck with outdated processes, limited data, and leaders who don’t see the value of investing in their employees. 

The result? Poor performance, low engagement, and high turnover – all of which hurt your bottom line and damage your reputation. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. HR dashboard software gives HR teams the tools and technology to save time, make smarter decisions, and drive real change. 

In this article, we explain what HR dashboard software is and why it’s a game-changer. We also share real-life examples of how it’s helped companies thrive.

Key takeaways

• ​​HR dashboard software helps you gather, organize, and analyze HR data, such as on hiring, compensation, diversity, retention, and other metrics. 

• These platforms improve decision-making, save time, and mitigate HR risks. 

• Many great HR dashboard platforms exist, but BambooHR, Workday, and Zoho People offer all-in-one HR management. 

• HR dashboard software that integrates with talent assessment platforms like TestGorilla is 

What is HR dashboard software?

HR dashboard software is a set of digital tools that helps organizations capture, analyze, and report on different HR metrics. 

You can access hiring stats, employee performance ratings, time and attendance metrics, turnover rates, and other HR analytics through a comprehensive dashboard with detailed reports and easy-to-read charts and graphs. 

These dashboards give HR teams a clear picture of what’s happening with their employees and powerful insights to optimize their processes and make better decisions for their workforce.

Here are some examples of different HR dashboards: 

• Recruitment: Tracks metrics like job applications, offer acceptance rates, time to hire, retention rates, etc.

• Workforce: Offers insights into employee personal information, demographics, job titles, locations, pay rates, promotion dates, exit dates, and so on. 

• Performance: Shows workers' goals, performance ratings, qualitative feedback, and other achievements. 

• Diversity: Highlights workforce diversity trends, including gender, age, race, and other factors.

• Time and attendance: Showcases employees' attendance records, time spent – especially for part-time workers, rest breaks, paid time off (PTO), overtime, and more. 

• Training and development: Tracks employees' skills, training completion rates, quiz results, certifications earned, training program effectiveness, etc.

• Employee surveys: Highlights employee engagement levels, satisfaction rates, exit survey data, pulse survey results, and so on. 

Some HR software provides multiple of these dashboards, while others specialize in a single type. HR dashboard software typically pulls data from various systems, depending on what it displays. This could include your HR information system (HRIS), payroll system, application tracking system (ATS), and more. 

The benefits of HR dashboards

Here’s how HR dashboards can benefit your company. 

1. Saves time and enables quick changes

HR dashboards provide you with the information you need in one place and quickly, saving you the hassle of manually searching large spreadsheets or employee databases. For instance, you can see labor costs and budgets and make prompt decisions to stay on track.

2. Mitigates risks

With all the essential data available at your fingertips and in real time, you can spot emerging concerns before they become big problems. 

For example, you might notice rising absenteeism in a specific department and look into the issue before it gets out of hand. 

Similarly, a diversity dashboard could highlight an increase in turnover for female employees, prompting you to investigate the root cause and refine your diversity strategy before you lose more female talent. 

3. Improves decision-making

HR dashboards give you powerful data and insights, empowering you to make informed, high-quality decisions.

For example, some recruitment platforms show you candidates' talent assessment scores. This not only enhances hiring decisions by giving recruiters insights into candidates’ skills but also helps you ensure new hires receive the right kind of support when they join.  

Data-driven recruiting is simply one of the HR functions that’s improved through an HR dashboard. Using data to inform your compensation, development, and performance enables you to build a strong people strategy.

4. Boosts transparency

When HR teams, managers, and company leaders see the same dashboards, everyone is on the same page. This helps decision-makers collaborate more effectively on people strategy and gives HR professionals the tools they need to get buy-in from senior leaders. 

For instance, an HR manager could better justify wellness initiatives by using survey metrics showing employee stress levels. 

5 best HR dashboard software

Below, we share our list of the five best HR dashboard software, including their key features, pros, cons, and pricing so you can find one that suits your ideal HR tech stack. 

1. HiBob – Best for medium-sized companies

HiBob is an HR platform with a simple interface and easy-to-use features – including document management, HR and onboarding automation, time off management, surveys, performance, compensation tracking, and more. 

Importantly, its people analytics tool lets you pull detailed reports on headcount, growth, retention, absenteeism, and other metrics or create a custom report. The software even highlights trends to help you make better sense of the data. 

Additionally, there’s a hiring dashboard to track and manage candidate data, a centralized payroll hub where you can view and sync real-time payroll data with a payroll system, and a DEI&B (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) dashboard so you can stay on top of diversity and inclusion trends. 

Rating

4.5 out of 5 (Capterra).

Pricing

Available upon request.

2. BambooHR – Best for smaller businesses

BambooHR is an HR software solution that offers hiring, time tracking and payroll tools, employee engagement features, employee database management, and comprehensive data reporting. 

The built-in database solution means you can store every employee data point within BambooHR, and the same data is used to pull insightful reports from the reporting feature. 

The reporting tool lets you access 49 pre-built reports instantly. You can view data on demographics, lengths of service, employee net promoter scores, time-to-hire, turnover, and more. 

Another cool thing? You can benchmark certain metrics – for instance, turnover rates – to industry averages to see how you’re doing. Further, each admin user can customize their dashboard to see the charts and graphs most relevant to them. 

Rating

4.6 out of 5 (Capterra).

Pricing

Available upon request.

3. Zoho People – Best for companies using other Zoho Suite products

Zoho People is an HR management system that offers a range of features, including core HR features like an employee database, HR analytics, and HR workflows and automation. Additionally, it has time tracking and time off management, shift scheduling, performance management, and learning and development tools. 

Zoho People's dashboard offers insights into time and attendance, performance data, project progress, learning stats, and other customizable reports. 

Unfortunately, if you need a recruitment dashboard, you must sign up for Zoho Recruit, a separate platform. 

Rating

4.4 out of 5 (Capterra)

Pricing

Starts at $1.25/user/month for the Essential HR plan.

4. Workday – Best for large and enterprise-level businesses

Workday is an enterprise-level human capital management (HCM) platform that integrates workforce management and planning, HR analytics, and payroll. 

From a workforce management and planning standpoint, you can find features such as personnel record management, org charts, time off tracking, payroll, and succession planning. The platform also has employee surveys, performance management tools, and recruiting and onboarding features – great if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution. 

Workday's dashboards give you real-time insights into employees' performance, hiring trends, turnover rates, and more. It also has a value, inclusion, belonging, and equity (VIBE) dashboard for diversity metrics. Additionally, dashboards are customizable to suit your needs.  

Rating

4.4 out of 5 (Capterra).

Pricing

Available upon request.

5. ADP Workforce Now – Best for professional HR support

ADP Workforce Now is a comprehensive, enterprise-level human capital management system. Its core HR offering includes employee data management, time and attendance tracking, payroll, benefits administration, and talent management. 

It also has built-in talent acquisition tools, advanced reporting and analytics, and even HR professional services. 

ADP Workforce Now's reporting feature offers over 200 ready-to-use reports. You can also build customized reports with the data you need. Additionally, the platform provides internal benchmarking data – for instance, for other departments or locations – and external market benchmarks, helping you make sense of the numbers and trends you see. 

Rating

4.4 out of 5 (Capterra).

Pricing

Available upon request.

3 best practices for using HR analytics dashboards

Ready to get started and adopt HR dashboard software? Let’s check out a few best practices so you can get the most out of whichever tool you pick.

1. Combine recruitment dashboards with skills assessment platforms

Hiring dashboards give you great information about candidate demographics, application statuses, time-to-hire, offer acceptance rates, etc. But they don't give you insights into your candidates’ real-life skills. 

Combining hiring dashboards with skills-testing platforms is an excellent way to see all your candidates’ skill sets at a glance and make better selection decisions. 

For instance, TestGorilla gives you access to 400+” science-backed online tests that assess applicants’ hard and soft skills, cognitive abilities, personality traits, and even cultural contributions. 

You can see all your candidates' test scores and individual reports instantly and integrate these with HR dashboards like BambooHR, Workday, and Zoho Recruit. This way, you have all your recruitment metrics in one place. 

2. Review and update your data sources and integrations

Even the best charts, graphs, and AI tools will give you faulty insights if your raw data is erroneous. That’s why you must ensure the payroll, attendance, and other systems feeding into your HR dashboard are current and accurate. 

The best way to do this is by minimizing the number of systems you use. Consider an all-in-one system that houses your employee database and provides the full battery of HR tools and reporting. If that doesn't work for your company's size or budget, consider HR dashboard software that integrates with your existing systems. 

Additionally, automate data syncing between your systems when possible. You can also schedule periodic manual checks to verify data accuracy and assign specific team members to regularly review data quality. 

3. Customize dashboards for different user roles

Different roles require different insights from your HR dashboard software. For example, recruiters might need access to hiring metrics and charts, training managers need to see stats and graphs on courses, and HR managers might need access to workforce planning, employee demographics, etc. 

Tailoring dashboards to suit specific users’ needs is a great way to save time and improve decision-making. Some software even lets you set role-based permissions, restricting data access to only those who need it – an excellent way to boost data security. 

Make strategic decisions with an HR dashboard

HR dashboard software streamlines data management and lets you easily view critical workforce insights – from hiring metrics and employee performance to compensation and gender parity. 

You can make the most of your dashboard by using it alongside other critical tools like a talent assessment solution such as TestGorilla. You can also integrate your HR software with other systems, regularly update underlying data sources, and customize them to show which metrics are essential to different decision-makers within your organization.

Want to know more about how TestGorilla can elevate hiring decisions? Schedule a live demo or sign up for a free account today!

HR dashboard FAQs

Looking for more information? Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about HR dashboards.

What should an HR dashboard include?

An HR dashboard should house, measure, and monitor important HR metrics such as employee headcount, time-to-hire, turnover, attendance, and performance ratings. Some dashboards also track payroll, benefits usage, and engagement scores. 

The best dashboards summarize and visualize HR data with charts and graphs but also let you download detailed line-by-line reports.

How do I create an HR analytics dashboard?

To create an HR dashboard, first identify the metrics you want to track on the dashboard – for instance, candidate information, turnover data, etc. 

Then, pull the relevant raw data from your HR databases and other systems into your dashboard. This could be from an Excel spreadsheet or another piece of HR software. 

Finally, run reports and create visuals and graphs on your dashboard to spot trends and gain insights. 

What is a digital dashboard in HR?

An HR digital dashboard is software that helps you track, analyze, and interpret HR key performance indicators (KPIs) like employee attendance, compensation, or retention metrics. It offers real-time insights through charts and graphs and lets you download the raw data in CSV or Excel format.