Two things are tested here: what the letters of SMART stand for in the BASK, and the HR-to-employee ratio with its benchmark numbers.
SMART
The BASK expands SMART as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-based.
- Distractors keep the S-M-A-R-T shape and swap words: strategic, aligned, tracked; meaningful, agreed, reviewed; sustainable, actionable, recorded. None of those appear in the BASK expansion.
- "Improve the employee experience considerably this year" fails on measurable: "considerably" gives no quantity or indicator, so attainment cannot be judged. It does not fail on time-based, because "this year" sets a boundary.
- Relevant means alignment to business need. It is not about which function owns the topic.
HR-to-employee ratio
The SHRM formula is HR FTEs divided by total FTEs, multiplied by 100, expressed as HR staff per 100 employees.
Worked example: an organization with 1,250 total FTEs and 15 HR FTEs. 15 / 1,250 = 0.012, and 0.012 x 100 = 1.20 HR staff per 100 employees.
- Do not invert it. 1,250 / 15 = 83.3 is employees per HR staff and is wrongly scaled.
- Do not substitute payroll cost or manager headcount for the denominator; that produces a cost ratio or a span ratio, not a staffing ratio.
The 2022 benchmark numbers
SHRM's 2022 Benchmarking Human Capital Report (n=945) reports the HR-to-employee ratio as median 1.11, average 1.70, 25th percentile 0.42, 75th percentile 2.02. So 1.20 per 100 sits below the 1.70 average.
- The average sitting well above the median means the distribution is right-skewed, pulled up by organizations with unusually high ratios. It does not mean the sample was unstable; 945 responses is large.
- The median puts half of organizations above 1.11, not above 1.70.