HR leaders today face a unique challenge: balancing the increasing expectation of workplace empathy with business bottom line outcomes in an increasingly unstable macro-environment. With many business leaders still questioning the return on investment (ROI) wellbeing, engagement and retention programmes, HR teams need to be able to show their true impact to prove the benefits of a people first strategy. How in practice can companies prove prioritising people isn’t a passing fad but a growth lever to power their business?

The answer lies in shifting the conversation from sentiment to strategy, from initiatives to commercial impact. In this article, we’ll explore the four steps HR teams can use to demonstrate their true impact, strengthening both their strategic influence and their organisation’s bottom line.

Step one: Track the metrics that move the needle 

For businesses of all sizes, it’s essential HR teams track the right HR metrics. Large companies typically have more dedicated time and resource to track dozens of data points. Meanwhile, small firms need to strategically select the metrics which clearly demonstrate business impact. Regardless of organisational scale, focusing on meaningful measurements rather than collecting data for its own sake ensures HR analytics drive real business value.

The key to finding the perfect balance is focusing on a mix of metrics capturing different aspects of employee experience and the impact it has on business success. These could include:

• Hiring metrics: Tracking how long it takes to hire and onboard employees by role helps demonstrate efficiency of your recruitment and onboarding processes, and impact on business performance, as faster onboarding can lead to quicker contributions. Smoother onboarding often leads to higher engagement and retention.
• Engagement score: Identified through surveys, this metric reveals employees’ motivation, commitment, and connection to the organisation. It can also help predict intent to stay, productivity, advocacy, and highlights areas needing improvement. For the business, this translates to higher productivity, lower turnover, stronger team morale, and better customer experiences.
• Counterproductive behaviour: Issues that disrupt business, such as absenteeism and accidents. Error rates in these metrics signal burnout, dissatisfaction, or workplace stress – identifying them enables HR teams to take action before performance is affected.
• Turnover and retention rate: These metrics offer insights into engagement, leadership effectiveness, and overall workplace satisfaction again highlighting areas that need improvement.

Not every metric you track needs to be shared with your exec team.  Selecting only the most relevant ones with business impact is key. The most effective CPOs connect HR data to cost, productivity, revenue or risk.  For example, analysing turnover and retention rates in the first year can help determine the quality of an onboarding programme, allowing HR leaders to refine onboarding plans, reduce time to productivity and early attrition before real value is realised.

Step two: Address HR data barriers 

One of the most significant obstacles HR leaders will face in proving ROI is incomplete or inconsistent datasets. To tackle these common data challenges, and to turn HR insights into business impact, companies need to start with what they have.

Even if a dataset isn’t perfect, trends can still emerge to give a foundational overview. Once gaps have been identified, firms can improve data collection over time. Standardising how the HR team collects and logs information will provide a solid foundation, while a HRIS system will add pre-tracked metrics, streamlining collection and insights.

HR teams then have the opportunity to benchmark against trend and industry data, using the insights collected. External data is a great source to provide wider industry context, understanding where your company excels, or where improvements need to be made.

Finally, HR leaders should feel empowered to make educated guesses based on the available data. The odds are there will never be a perfect data set or metric, but that shouldn’t slow progress. Use the information available to make an informed decision, which is adjusted if new data comes to light.

Step three: Translate HR into business speak

HR leaders know engaged employees perform better, but proving this to the business requires speaking their language. HR teams must frame their initiatives in terms of cost savings, revenue growth, and operational efficiency to secure executive buy-in. When executives see HR’s impact reflected in business metrics, they are in turn more likely to invest in people strategies.

Take a consultancy with a high turnover, for example. The HR team could calculate the company’s total turnover over the past 12 months, reference research on recruiting, hiring, and training replacement costs, and determine the overall cost of attrition. HR can then give overarching figures to the executives, alongside their solution, to prove the ROI. In one conversation, executives can see the challenge, the business impact, and the solution.

As another example, take a fintech business with a low sales team engagement rate. Gallup research shows highly engaged sales teams are 18 percent more productive, and engaged employees are, on average, 23 percent more profitable than their disengaged peers. Using Gallup’s research, HR teams can showcase the importance of investing in an employee engagement platform – not every number needs to come from internal data.

By adopting a simple language switch, HR leaders can demonstrate first-hand how employee wellbeing and engagement drive measurable success.

Step four: Use a story to build the business case 

Even the best HR data won’t drive business change unless HR communicates it effectively. In my experience, leadership teams respond best when HR frames data in a way that tells a compelling story.

Instead of only presenting numbers, HR teams need to use both quantitative and qualitative insights to create and bring to life the story executives need to go on the journey. For example, by including employee testimonials or case studies alongside critical data points, HR leaders can show the human impact of requests, bringing to life the impact challenges are having on employees, leaders and managers.

Visuals such as a simple graph can make it easier to see trends and digest insights quickly, adding another layer to the story, before actionable insights are shared. Clearly communicating the ROI and solution is essential to securing buy-in, with insights into how success will be tracked.

Data, and storytelling, is key to people-first strategies 

Data is the key to proving people first strategies are good for employees and essential for business performance. By tracking the right metrics, closing data gaps, and framing insights in a way that speaks to leadership, HR can double down on its strategic influence while supporting its people.

When HR teams speak in terms of ROI, everyone wins – the business, the leadership team and employees.