Overview
If you previously used Humanforce HR Analytics, you may notice some differences in how Humanforce Analytics calculates and displays HR data. These differences reflect improvements in how data is processed, and in most cases bring figures closer to real-world workforce operations.
This article explains the key differences you may encounter across HR dashboards, including headcount, remuneration spend, and workforce mobility metrics.
Before you start
- You need Dashboard Viewer or Dashboard Publisher access to Humanforce Analytics with HR data access.
- Familiarity with the equivalent Humanforce HR Analytics HR dashboards is helpful but not required.
Differences across all HR dashboards
Unconfirmed end dates
The two platforms handle jobs with an unconfirmed end date differently.
- Humanforce HR Analytics excludes jobs with an unconfirmed end date from the dataset entirely.
- Humanforce Analytics includes any job where the confirmed end date matches the reporting date.
In practice, this means Humanforce Analytics may report slightly higher headcount and related figures compared to Humanforce HR Analytics for the same period. The difference is driven by the number of jobs that have an unconfirmed end date in the system.
Currency-converted amounts
Currency-converted amounts may show small differences between the two platforms. Humanforce Analytics applies exchange rates using timezone-aware dates. This can shift the effective rate by up to one day compared to Humanforce HR Analytics.
In most cases the same rate is applied. Where it differs, the variation is typically negligible.
Financial Planning dashboard differences
How remuneration spend is calculated
The two platforms use different methods to calculate remuneration spend and labour capacity. This is the most significant difference you are likely to notice.
Humanforce HR Analytics approach
Humanforce HR Analytics calculates remuneration and labour capacity monthly, regardless of how employees are actually paid.
- Annual salary is divided by 12 to produce a flat monthly amount.
- If a pay package starts or ends mid-month, the amount is prorated by the fraction of the month covered (for example, 15 of 30 days equals half the monthly rate).
- Hourly employees are treated the same way — the annualised amount is divided by 12.
Humanforce Analytics approach
Humanforce Analytics calculates remuneration and labour capacity per pay cycle (weekly, fortnightly, bi-monthly, or monthly). This matches more closely to how employees are actually paid.
The table below shows when a payment row is generated for each pay cycle type.
| Pay cycle | When a payment row is generated |
|---|---|
| Weekly | Every 7 days from job start |
| Fortnightly | Every 14 days from job start |
| Bi-monthly | 1st and 15th of each month |
| Monthly | Last day of each month |
How the per-cycle amount is derived:
- Salaried employees: Annual salary divided by the number of pay cycles per year (for example, divided by 26 for fortnightly).
- Hourly employees: Hourly rate multiplied by contracted hours per cycle.
Labour capacity (hours worked per cycle) is calculated in the same way.
Proration is applied only to the first and last payments when an employee starts or leaves partway through a cycle. The proration is based on the number of days actually worked in that cycle (for example, 7 of 14 days equals half the pay cycle rate).
What this means for your data
- Monthly totals in Humanforce Analytics reflect which month the payment date falls in.
- For employees on weekly or fortnightly pay cycles, monthly spend and labour capacity naturally vary from month to month. Some months contain more pay periods than others (for example, a fortnightly employee may have 2 payments in one month and 3 in the next). Humanforce HR Analytics smoothed this out by always dividing by 12.
- There may be minor rounding differences between the two platforms due to the different calculation steps involved.
- Average Labour Cost may also differ slightly because it depends on both Base Remuneration Spend and Labour Capacity metrics, which are both calculated differently.
Movements and Change dashboard differences
Change events
Supervisor change tracking
The two platforms handle supervisor changes differently in two specific scenarios.
Periods with no supervisor
When an employee has a gap in supervisor assignment (for example, their supervisor leaves and a replacement has not been assigned yet):
- Humanforce HR Analytics does not record this gap as a change event.
- Humanforce Analytics records the transition to having no supervisor as a change event.
Supervisor changes before job start date
When a supervisor is assigned or changed before the employee's job officially starts (for example, during onboarding setup):
- Humanforce HR Analytics records these pre-start changes as change events. This can inflate the rate of change for new hires.
- Humanforce Analytics excludes changes before the job start date. Only changes during the employee's actual tenure are counted, on the basis that pre-start administrative setup does not represent real workforce mobility.
Mobility Rate
The Mobility Rate metric has been redesigned in Humanforce Analytics. The two platforms answer different questions, so the figures are not directly comparable.
Humanforce HR Analytics: Rate of Change
Question it answers: "How many changes happened per job?"
Formula:
Rate of Change = Total Change Events ÷ Number of Unique Jobs
Every recorded change to a job counts as a separate event. A promotion, a location change, a pay increase, and a supervisor change are each counted individually. If one employee has a promotion and a location change on the same day, that counts as 2 events.
The result is an average rate (for example, 1.35 change events per job). A rate of 1.0 means each job had one change on average.
Limitation: A single restructure (for example, moving a team to a new business unit, updating their supervisor, and adjusting pay grades) can spike the rate significantly, even if it only affected a small number of employees.
Humanforce Analytics: Mobility Rate
Question it answers: "What proportion of the workforce experienced a change?"
Formula:
Mobility Rate = Employees with at Least One Change ÷ Active Headcount
An employee either had a change or they did not — it does not matter whether they had one change or five. The numerator counts distinct people with at least one recorded change. The denominator is the number of distinct active employees by headcount.
The result is a percentage (for example, 12% of the workforce experienced a change). A mobility rate of 12% means roughly 1 in 8 employees had something change about their role or pay.
Why the metric was changed
The people-based approach is less sensitive to the complexity of individual changes. A restructure that touches three attributes per person does not appear three times as significant as one that touches only one attribute — it reflects the same number of people affected either way.
This makes the metric more stable for period-over-period comparison and easier to communicate to stakeholders.
Things to be aware of
- Because Humanforce Analytics counts people rather than events, the Mobility Rate is generally lower than the legacy Rate of Change, especially in periods with complex restructures.
- The Humanforce Analytics metric is a percentage (for example, 12%), while the Humanforce HR Analytics metric is a rate per job (for example, 1.35). These two numbers measure different things and are not directly comparable.