HR dashboard in Power BI

An HR dashboard shows the workforce figures that HR and management use to make decisions: staffing and planned headcount, hires and departures, sickness absence, payroll costs and training. In Power BI, these figures are measures in a single model, so every report shows the same number.

It is part of our Power BI dashboards, which we build around the decisions they support.

Usually, the HR system provides employee, contract and role data; payroll provides salary costs; the rota provides planned hours; and time tracking provides hours worked. Sometimes, a learning platform supplies training data and a recruitment system supplies job openings.

If you use AFAS for HR and payroll, read about the AFAS Payroll Power BI dashboard.

Start by agreeing on definitions: do you measure absence in hours or calendar time, how do you count employees who have partially returned to work, and how do you count an extended absence that spans two calendar years? You can then track the absence rate, frequency of absence reports and duration by team and period.

Diagnoses and reasons for illness do not belong in the model. We combine small teams so individuals cannot be identified.

Planned headcount is what has been budgeted, by department and role in fte. Actual staffing is what the contracts show on a given date. The model puts both at the same level and shows the difference, so you can see where there are job openings or excess staffing.

Adding the rota also shows whether the planned hours match the staffing levels.

Show them at a higher level, by department, cost centre or role group, and put individual amounts in a separate report accessible only to those authorised to see them. You link payroll costs to the accounts by period and cost centre.

For budgets, margins and cash flow, there is the financial dashboard in Power BI.

With row-level security (RLS): roles with a filter, for example by department, assigned to users or security groups. RLS applies to people with the Viewer role in the workspace, not to Admins, Members or Contributors. So keep that latter group small.

You can read how we set up workspaces, roles and apps on the Power BI consultant page.

Use training records from the HR system or learning platform for each employee, linked to their role and department: who has completed which mandatory training, what is due to expire, and how many hours and how much money each team spends on training.

This shows you where each department is falling behind, without circulating lists of individuals.

If your HR system already has the reports you need and nobody wants to compare its figures with rota or payroll data. Or if departments and roles have different names in every system: in that case, start with data quality.

If a standard quarterly report is enough, we will tell you.