Board decks love headcount, but headcount alone hides the story. A handful of leading indicators will tell you how your team is really doing — long before it shows up in attrition.
The five to start with
Time-to-productivity for new hires
Voluntary attrition, split by tenure
Absence trends by team and season
Internal mobility and promotion rate
Manager span of control
Lagging metrics tell you what happened. Leading metrics give you a quarter to do something about it.
Pick two to review every month. Consistency matters more than dashboards — a metric you actually look at beats ten you don't.