Far from a bland document, an HR report can be a chance to show off your stuff.
But when it comes to creating an HR report and other sorts of paperwork, the status quo tends to be Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations or Word documents. And while these formats have their advantages, they also have their limitations…
Limited data visualization, basic design and tedious editing — to name a few.
Good thing you can use Venngage’s HR report templates and user-friendly visual editor to create eye-catching documents instead. Keep reading for a roundup of common HR reports, as well as our top templates in each category.
Click to jump ahead:
8 types of HR reports, templates included
As an HR professional, you’re undoubtedly busy. Thankfully, you can save time and energy on your next HR report with these templates and design tips:
1. Annual employee self-evaluation
Often part of an overall performance review, an employee self-evaluation report requires team members to engage in self-reflection and assess their own strengths and weaknesses. These types of reports can be especially insightful when compared to evaluations by colleagues and supervisors.
When creating a self-evaluation template to share with your team, simplicity is key. Your final template should be easy to read, straightforward to use and the design shouldn’t be too distracting.
Here’s a minimalist self-evaluation template you could customize to suit your needs:
Or, for a little more of a design punch, you could use this performance evaluation template — it’s still simple, but includes a dark colored background to make the text boxes stand out:
Just so you know, some of our templates are free to use and some require a small monthly fee. Sign up is always free, as is access to Venngage’s online drag-and-drop editor.
2. Quadrant evaluation
A quadrant evaluation is ideal for a high-level overview of an employee’s performance. Rather than getting lost in long, subjective descriptions, a quadrant evaluation answers a couple simple questions.
In the example below, those questions are: did they get the job done? Did they do it right? The first question refers to whether an employee is achieving their goals, while the second refers to whether an employee is adhering to company values.
Of course, you could customize this template with any two factors you’d like insight into. Again, with this type of report, you’ll want to keep your design simple and include a detailed description of each quadrant on the first page.
3. Performance review
Also called performance appraisals or evaluations, this type of review is usually conducted by a manager. Traditional performance reviews involve evaluating an employee’s output and achievements, as well as any areas of improvement.
With this type of review, a one-page format works well. For managers with many direct reports, anything longer would be very time-consuming. A shorter format also encourages direct, focused feedback.
For a modern look, you could use this gray-themed template and edit the fields as you see fit:
As an alternative, this template is still modern, but has a pop of color. You could customize that color to match your brand in Venngage with a click:
4. Individual development plan worksheet
If you’ve ever wondered how to support an employee’s career development, an individual development plan worksheet is a great place to start.
By getting team members to think critically about where they are and where they want to go in their career — and then putting those thoughts to paper, so to speak — you can identify what needs to happen to support their growth.
Here’s a simple, fully customizable template to give you a head start:
5. Activity report
With the shift to remote work, activity reports can be especially useful for both task management and transparency. Also called a work log, progress update or status report, activity reports can focus on one project or one employee’s accomplishments within a given period of time.
If creating an effective performance management system is on your list of to-dos, you’ll want to consider implementing these types of reports.
Here’s an example of a daily activity report. You can customize any design element in this template, including the header image. Browse over three million high-quality, royalty-free photos in Venngage to add an extra layer of professionalism to your design:
For an even more minimal look, try this weekly activity report. This template’s simplicity makes it even easier to customize to suit your company’s brand standards:
6. Monthly HR report
A monthly HR report can take lots of different forms. You may include data about employee pre-boarding process, onboarding, time off, employee learning and development, recruitment and more. This type of report would likely be for a manager or the leadership team.
On the other hand, a monthly HR report could take the form of a company-wide newsletter where you share announcements about new managers, team members, promotions and other relevant news.
For the latter, here’s an example of a customer service report that you could edit for the HR department. Notice how the design uses repetition to create a sense of cohesiveness throughout the entire template, even though it’s on the long side:
For a company-wide HR report, here’s a sleek template that uses both photography and icons for a little variety in the design:
7. Incident report
It’s a fact of life: accidents happen. When they do, an incident report is key to make sure any injuries to a person or damage to a company asset is properly documented. Not only do these types of reports cover you legally, they can also help prevent a similar accident from happening in the future.
When creating an incident report, clarity is key. You’ll want to include a field for a description of the accident, as well as ask questions about who was involved and what steps were taken to rectify the issue.
This incident report template covers all the basics:
Depending on the industry you work in, you may need to include more details in your report. Here’s an example of an in-depth template for healthcare workers:
8. COVID-19 employee incident report
With more and more people returning to offices and attending in-person events, it’s important for HR to track any COVID-19 related incidents. This can help the HR department keep employees safe, prevent any spread of the virus within the company and outline a plan of action.
This COVID-19 incident report template has a modern color scheme that clearly emphasizes essential fields. Edit any element to make it your own:
Looking for a different kind of report template than these examples? Not to worry, we have many more options. Check out this article for 50+ Business Report Templates or explore our full selection of report templates here.
HR report FAQ
What is an HR management report?
HR management reports look at key metrics about your company’s employees and processes, including data on onboarding, turnover, cost-per-hire, benefits participation rate and more. These reports may also include performance and career development insights, depending on the time of year.
Why should you use an HR report template?
Creating an HR report from scratch can be pretty tedious. By starting with a premade template, you can save time and energy. Here are a few more reasons to use a template for your next HR plan or report:
- Just fill in the blanks! Templates already cover everything you need to complete your report in a flash. And if a field is missing or you need a different field, you can easily customize any template with Venngage’s simple visual editor.
- Save time. It’s a lot of work to create a report, and that’s without having to worry about design. But if you use a template, you’ll save yourself time on formatting and your report will look professional (as will you!).
- Get organized. With a template, all the sections you need are organized and ready to go. What’s more, a professionally-designed template ensures the information you’re sharing is clear and well laid out. This will help your co-workers retain any crucial information and will make your communications stand out.
What should a human resources report include?
This depends on the type of HR report you’re filling out. But as a rule of thumb, all HR reports should include the date, name, and position of the person filling it out. HR reports may also include workforce related information, like salary, benefits, performance, attendance and more.
Why should you make an HR analysis report?
There are many reasons to create an HR analysis report, but often, these accompany team, employee or company-wide changes. For example, you may create a report when an employee’s promoted or demoted, when a team undergoes structural changes or when a company hits a major milestone.
What metrics should HR be measuring?
There are many metrics an HR department should track, including:
- Recruitment
Whether you’re doing a lot of hiring or slowing down on this front, recruitment metrics should always be on your radar. When creating a recruiting report, you may include numbers, like how long it takes on average to fill a position, how satisfied interviewees were with the process, how many employees were hired and any costs related to recruiting.
- Engagement and retention
Engagement and employee retention rates go hand in hand, so these are key metrics to track. How many employees participate in team events? How invested are employees in your organization? How engaged are various team members within their departments? What’s your turnover rate? Measuring this type of data regularly will help you identify any problem areas and take action to increase both engagement and retention.
- Time tracking
Depending on your industry, you may need an employee time tracking tool. Apart from regular hours, it’s also important to track any overtime, so you can ensure employees aren’t overburdened, and of course, that overtime is paid out.
- Employee performance
In the past, companies measured employee performance annually. But these days, many companies do bi-annual assessments, or even, track employee performance less formally through regular one-on-ones and check-ins. Generally, metrics around performance include whether an employee is meeting their objectives and KPIs. More subjective measures may look at an employee’s adherence to company values.
- Training and development
To ensure the success of your company’s HR training and development programs, it’s important to track metrics around engagement and completion of these programs. You may look at how many employees have completed a certain course, how well they did and any feedback on the effectiveness of your training programs.
Create your own HR report in a flash
Without a doubt, HR is one of the departments with the most paperwork.
Thankfully, you don’t have to create every document from scratch anymore. With Venngage’s HR report templates, you can find the perfect starting point for any project — and impress your co-workers with professional, well-organized documentation.
