In order to perform well in the market, the most successful companies don't only report human resources analytics. Rather, those high-performing organizations use that data for strategic, long-term planning, says Cliff Stevenson, senior human capital researcher at the Institute for Corporate Policy.

Among the metrics most used for strategic planning by high-performing organizations are performance ratings, turnover rate and time to fill positions, Stevenson says. Low-performing organizations, however, tend to focus on metrics that are not related to strategic planning, such as training completed, which simply takes stock of what happened in the past without tying it to the future.

"The high-performing organizations are looking at the time to fill positions and turnover rate, so they can use that information for future decisions," Stevenson says. "For instance, if they know that historically turnover rate is tied to performance ratings, then they can look at improving the levels of performance to try to give people a chance to succeed in their jobs and retain those employees."