HR Reveals Poor Knowledge of Staff-Related Data Complinet.com, October 2005 Many HR professionals do not have an awareness of basic staff-related data, researchers have discovered. Half "have no idea" about the cost of recruiting staff and one tenth are unaware of how many people work for the company. Of the 466 HR practitioners that took part in the poll, one third did not know how many sick days employees were taking or how the company's absence rate compared with other firms. More than one third did not know their previous year's employee turnover and two-thirds did not know how they compared to the industry average. Michael Richards, chief executive at Snowdrop, said: "HR aims to make a real business impact by contributing to strategy and business planning. But to do so, it has to first understand the HR basics. Without being able to forecast future business needs accurately, HR will only be able to feel its way - not fulfil its boardroom ambition. Without this knowledge, how can HR expect to really help drive performance?" The researchers also found that: More than one third did not know their employees' average length of service. Nearly one in four did not know how many employees would retire in the next three years. More than a third did not have software to manage staff information.