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Last Updated February 22, 2021

Know your business through human resource reports

Just like any other area  in your business, it is important to know and understand your human resources information.  There are a range of human resource reports that you can start preparing today to help you with understanding your business past, present and future trends.

Introducing reporting will;

Identify strengths and weaknesses across the business. This will enable you to plan where your business should be focussing its attention in the short, medium and long term.

Allow you to plan for future recruitment needs to meet the growing demands of your business and customers.  Or to replace an employee temporarily during a period of leave or permanently as they engage in employment outside the business.

Respond to the skills and knowledge requirements of the business and customers by outlining individual and business learning and development needs.

Access accurate and timely information to make informed business decisions.

Compare and analyse trends by looking at information on a monthly or yearly basis.

There are various tools and resources available to assist with preparing meaningful reports no matter what size your business.

Examples of useful reports are;

    • Probation Expiry; enables you to inform the employee if they will be confirmed at the end of their probation or by which date the employee needs to be concluded. 
    • Leave Balances; provides a summary of leave entitlements for employees. This report can be used to identify excess leave balances, final payouts for an employee who resigns or in some cases is made redundant.
    • Absenteeism; provides a summary of paid and unpaid leave entitlements accessed by an employee within a period of time. There may be a temporary or permanent underlying issue that needs to be addressed.
    • Turnover; provides an analysis of the number of employees concluded with a specified period against the total number of employees. This report can highlight if a workforce is satisfied or dissatisfied and if any changes needs to be made. It can also identify potential recruitment requirements if there are trends in turnover of certain positions.
    • Payroll; can provide information regarding overall cost of wages, or individual salaries and benefits and hours per week.
    • Learning and Development; provides information about what training employees have completed, cost, when it was last completed and if applicable when refresher training is required.
    • Reward and recognition; identifies staff anniversary dates, years of service and birthdays for acknowledgement.

Start exploring ways to implement the reports that you don’t have using the systems you already have in place.

If you are unsure where to go next, contact Small Business Society and we can step you through the process.


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About Kate Tongue

Kate Tongue is the founding Director of Small Business Society.

She is a qualified and experienced Human Resources professional with more than 10 years of experience across the private and public sectors.

Her particular interest and experience is in managing the employee life cycle, delivering process improvements, and Human Resource strategy.



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