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Humanforce Analytics Visualisation Types

Malachi Douthit
  • Updated

Humanforce Analytics comes with a wide range of pre-built dashboards, giving you instant access to key workforce insights without any setup. For many customers, these dashboards cover the most common reporting needs. However, every business is unique — and you may want to tailor your analytics to answer specific questions or highlight metrics that matter most to your organisation.

By creating your own visualisations, you can fully customise dashboards to match your requirements. Visualisations allow you to transform data into clear, meaningful stories: compare performance across teams, track trends over time, and quickly spot areas that need attention.

This page provides an overview of each visualisation type, including the requirements for building it and guidance on when to use it. Use this as a reference when creating custom dashboards so you can choose the right chart type to deliver the insights you need.

Dimensions & Measures

A Dimension is descriptive information you use to break down or group your data.
Think of it as the “who, what, when, or where” part of your data.

Examples:

  • Location

  • Work Type

  • Application Source

  • Date

Dimensions are usually text or dates, not numbers you calculate with. They help you slice and filter the data so you can answer questions like: “How many open job vacancies are there by Work Type?” or “How many hires are made each quarter by Application Source?”

A Measure is a number you can add up, average, or use in calculations.
It’s the “how much” part of your data.

Examples:

  • Applications

  • Hires

  • Job Vacancies

Measures are the values you want to analyze, usually shown as totals, averages, percentages, or other calculations. They help you answer questions like: “How many applications were received this year?” or “What is the average number of days it takes to make a hire?”.

Visualisation Type

 

Requirements

 

When to Choose this Visual

 

Column Chart

  1. At least one dimension (e.g., Department, Location, Role).

  2. At least one measure (e.g., Headcount, Hours Worked, Overtime Costs).

  1. To compare categories side by side.

  2. Best for showing differences in values across distinct groups.

  3. Useful when you want to emphasize magnitudes rather than trends over time.

Stacked Column Chart

  1. One dimension for grouping (e.g., Location, Department).

  2. Multiple measures or one measure broken down by a second dimension (e.g., Employee Type, Gender, Shift Type).

  1. To see how sub-groups contribute to a total within each main category.

  2. Best for analyzing composition while still comparing totals across categories.

  3. Great for workforce diversity or breakdown analysis.

Line Chart

  1. At least one date or time-based dimension (e.g., Week, Month, Quarter).

  2. One or more measures (e.g., Average Hours Worked, Attrition Rate, Leave Requests).

  1. To analyze trends, patterns, or seasonality over time.

  2. Best for showing movement and direction rather than absolute values.

  3. Ideal for tracking KPIs that fluctuate regularly.

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

  1. One or more single-value measures (e.g., Total Headcount, Average Cost per Employee, % Overtime).

  2. Optional comparison to a previous period or target.

  1. To track performance against targets or thresholds. Alerts can be configured per KPI.

  2. Best for quick, high-level snapshots of critical business metrics.

  3. Works well as a headline figure in a dashboard.

Pivot Table

  1. Multiple dimensions (rows and columns).

  2. One or more measures for aggregation.

  1. To create flexible, Excel-like summaries of data.

  2. Best for users who want detailed tabular data with the ability to expand or drill down.

Donut Chart

  1. One dimension (categories).

  2. One measure (value to distribute).

  1. To show proportions or parts of a whole (like a pie chart.

Area Chart

  1. Time-based dimension (e.g., Date, Week).

  2. One or more measures.

  1. Similar to a line chart but emphasizes magnitude (area shading).

  2. Great for cumulative values or highlighting growth over time.

Stacked Area Chart

  1. Time-based dimension.

  2. One measure broken down by a secondary category.

  1. To show the contribution of subcategories to a total over time.

  2. Highlights both trend and composition.

Line + Stacked Column Chart

  1. One time dimension.

  2. A measure for the columns, and another measure for the line.

  1. To compare a primary measure (stacked) with a secondary metric (line) on the same chart.

  2. Useful for linking related KPIs.

Scatter Plot

  1. Two continuous measures (x-axis and y-axis).

  2. Optional: one dimension for grouping/colouring.

  1. To explore relationships or correlations between two metrics.

  2. Great for outlier detection.

Bubble Chart

  1. Two measures (x and y axes).

  2. One measure for bubble size.

  3. Optional: one dimension for grouping.

  1. Like scatter plots but with a third variable represented by bubble size.

Waterfall Chart

  1. One dimension (categories in sequence).

  2. One measure with increases/decreases.

  1. To show how incremental positive and negative values lead to a total.

  2. Perfect for financial and workforce cost analysis.

Heatmap

  1. Two categorical dimensions (rows and columns).

  2. One measure for intensity (color).

  1. To quickly spot patterns, clusters, or problem areas.

Treemap

  1. One hierarchical dimension (e.g., Department → Team).

  2. One measure (size of blocks).

  1. To show proportions of categories within a hierarchy.

  2. Good for space-efficient comparisons.

Funnel Chart

  1. One sequential dimension (e.g., process stage).

  2. One measure.

  1. To show stages in a process and where drop-offs occur.

Geo Bubble Chart

  1. Geographic dimension (e.g., location, region).

  2. One measure for bubble size.

  1. To visualize data by geography, with size emphasis.

Geo Heatmap

  1. Geographic dimension (country, state, territory).

  2. One measure (size/color fills regions).

  1. To identify density or concentration across regions.

Geo Area Chart

  1. Geographic dimension (country, state, territory).

  2. One measure (size/color fills regions).

  1. To fill regions with color intensity, showing totals.

Sankey Diagram

  1. Two or more dimensions in sequence.

  2. One measure for flow volume.

  1. To show flow or movement between categories.

Radar Chart

  1. One categorical dimension.

  2. Multiple measures for comparison across categories.

  1. To compare multiple variables for the same group.

  2. Great for performance or skill profiles.

Candlestick Chart

  1. Time-based dimension.

  2. Four measures: Open, High, Low, Close values.

  1. Traditionally used for stock/financial analysis.

  2. Could be repurposed for workforce metrics with ranges.

Pareto Chart

  1. One categorical dimension.

  2. One measure, with cumulative percentage line.

  1. To apply the 80/20 rule — identify the “vital few” contributors.

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