1. The three layers of HR metrics (and why most dashboards miss the mark)

Jessica breaks metrics down into three categories: health metrics, operational metrics, and success metrics. Most HR teams stay stuck at level one — tracking headcount, sick days, and attrition in isolation. But the best people teams go deeper.

“You want to move beyond just static, non-contextual information. It’s about pairing metrics — like attrition and time-to-fill — with a success metric tied to a specific problem you’re solving.”

Her advice? Stop tracking everything. Start with a real question, and then find the metric that helps you answer it.

2.  AI won’t fix your people analytics problems — yet

Daniel asked if generative AI is a game-changer for people analytics. Jessica’s take: not so fast.

“AI is going to destroy productivity before it helps it. It’s not good at independent math, and it’s not good at context.”

She’s used GPT to clean up messy data sets — like normalizing 350 country codes in minutes — but warned against asking LLMs to build charts from raw, complex data.

“If you don’t know what the numbers mean, you won’t know if the output is wrong. You need to learn to interrogate your data manually first.”

3. Most HR metrics are meaningless without comparison

Jessica dropped a hot take on headcount:

“Headcount is kind of a useless metric. It only matters in comparison — to manager ratios, ARR per employee, or promotion rates.”

The same goes for employee survey scores like ENPS. She’s not against them, but she is against overuse:

“A badly written survey that people don’t feel engaged with isn’t going to tell you anything. You’re better off doing 30 qualitative interviews and actually learning something.”​

4. Want better metrics? Build your storytelling muscles

Jessica’s #1 advice for people teams trying to get better with metrics:

“Interact with your data manually. Pull it into a Google Sheet. Build a chart yourself. The moment something looks weird — a September spike, a sudden drop — you’ll start asking the right questions.”

Automated dashboards are great, but they won’t make you a better analyst. Curiosity will.

“You have to be as excited about being wrong as you are about being right. That’s how you get to the truth.”

5. The most underrated engagement test in HR

Jessica’s go-to? The RANS test, adapted from software engineering to assess team health.

It asks 12 questions like:

• Do you have useful 1:1s?
• Can you explain the company strategy to someone outside the org?
• If you find questionable info, do you know how to validate it?

“It’s a fast, directional read on where your engagement might be breaking — manager trust, strategy clarity, or information flow.”

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See you next week!

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