SHRM HR Benchmarking Reports Launch as a Free Member-Exclusive Benefit

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has released 44 new HR data benchmarking reports as a member-exclusive benefit. The launch was announced on April 10 at the SHRM Talent Conference & Expo 2022 in Denver.

The data is available in 22 Human Capital benchmarking reports and 22 Talent Access benchmarking reports, which together track more than 50 HR practice area metrics. Data for the reports was drawn from survey responses collected from April through November 2021 from a sample of more than 2,400 SHRM members between both reports.

"Members will be able to use these metrics to see where their organization stands in comparison to similar employers," said Daniel Stunes, senior researcher at SHRM.

Explained SHRM researcher Derrick Scheetz, the "metrics in each individual report depend on the criteria members select, which provides multiple options across the two HR areas. The reports are designed to target companies that closely match the selected criteria to allow for a more focused and comparable analysis and interpretation."

Multiple Criteria

Both the Human Capital and Talent Access series contain one overview report and 21 additional reports filtered by the following criteria:

Industry

• Accommodation and food service/arts, entertainment and recreation.
• Administrative support/other services.
• Construction/utilities/agriculture and mining.
• Health care and social services.
• Information/finance and insurance/real estate.
• Manufacturing.
• Professional, scientific and technical services/communication.
• Public administration and education services.
  
• Wholesale trade/retail trade/transportation and warehousing.

Organization size

• Small (2 to 99 employees).
• Medium (100 to 499 employees).
• Large (500 to 4,999 employees).
• Extra-large (5,000+ employees).

U.S. region

• Northeast.
• South.
• Midwest.
• West.

Sector

• Privately owned for-profit.
• Publicly traded for-profit.
• Nonprofit or not-for-profit.
• Government (federal, state, local, tribal, school district).

A Practical Tool

The 22 Human Capital reports provide tabulated sets of metrics covering the following practice areas: compensation, employment, financial, HR departments, organization governance, span of control and succession planning.

Each of the 22 Talent Access reports covers metrics relevant to quality of hire, recruitment, selection and skills training/development.

All reports in both series contain a glossary describing the various metrics used under each practice area.

The presentation is straightforward, Scheetz noted. Under Talent Access, for instance, the metric for cost-per-hire is presented this way in the overview report: 

Source: SHRM Benchmarking: Talent Access Report (selection criteria: overview).

"Members can select the industry, sector, organization size or region in which they're competing for talent and then view tables showing costs at the 25th percentile, the median, the 75th percentile and the average," Scheetz said. "If they see, for instance, that they are spending less than the median in comparison to their competitors, they have an argument for potentially spending a bit more for hiring, especially if they're having challenges in that area."

In the Human Capital reports, some of the compensation metrics are presented as in this example from the overview report:

Source: SHRM Benchmarking: Human Capital Report (selection criteria: overview).

Stunes explained that members looking at information on salary-increase sizes "might see that they're above the median and closer to the 75th percentile. If they're being more generous than others in their industry, that's information they can share in their recruitment and retention efforts."

Or, conversely, he noted, "If their planned budget for salary increases is below the average and the median, they may need to rethink if there are ways to increase their spending so they stay competitive. It gives them a heads-up on where they stand. And this could be true for any number of different human capital and talent access metrics as well."

The reports are free to members to download on the SHRM website, behind the member firewall, Scheetz noted. "If you're a SHRM member, you have access to these reports whenever you'd like."

"The data is segmented by all types of organizations, including those that may not be able to afford consultancy-level resources," Stunes said. "For organizations that may not have extra money to pay consultancies, for the price of a SHRM membership all this information is available to them."