Profit per Employee
Last updated: Apr 28, 2025
What is Profit per Employee?
Profit per Employee is a measure of Net Income for the past twelve months (LTM) divided by the current number of Full-Time Equivalent employees. Because labour needs differ across sectors, this ratio is often used to compare companies within the same industry.
Profit per Employee Formula
How to calculate Profit per Employee
If a company employs 50 people and has profits of $1.0M annually, their Profit per Employee is $20,000 on an annual basis. If the company invests in employee training and more efficient processes and sees their profits grow to $1.5M annually, based on the same number of employees, their Profit per Employee will be $30,000 annually.
Start tracking your Profit per Employee data
Use Klipfolio PowerMetrics, our free analytics tool, to monitor your data. Choose one of the following available services to start tracking your Profit per Employee instantly.
How to visualize Profit per Employee?
Compare your Profit per Employee year-over-year to refine your hiring and staffing plan to reach the optimal ratio. Take a look at the chart for an idea of what tracking your data could look like:
Profit per Employee visualization example
Profit per Employee
Bar Chart
Profit per Employee
Chart
Measuring Profit per EmployeeMore about Profit per Employee
Mostly used to compare companies within the same industry to one another, geography, labour costs, and company stage will all impact this ratio.
Unlike Revenue per Employee and Expenses per Employee, this ratio considers both income and costs. This makes it a good summary metric, but hides some details that are exposed by the other two KPIs.
As with any metric that measures employee efficiency, improvements are gained either with investments in training and culture or by investing in processes and automation (the latter can also be used to reduce the number of employees needed).
Profit per Employee Frequently Asked Questions
Why is our Profit per Employee so different from industry benchmarks?
Multiple factors can explain variances: your business model (outsourcing vs. in-house), automation levels, pricing strategy, or market positioning (premium vs. economy). A luxury retailer with fewer, higher-paid staff might show higher profit per employee than a mass-market competitor, despite both being equally well-managed within their strategies.
How can we improve this metric without resorting to layoffs?
Focus on increasing profit numerator rather than just decreasing the employee denominator. This might include raising prices, improving operational efficiency, reducing non-labor costs, or using technology to enhance employee productivity. For instance, implementing better systems might allow your current team to handle 15% more volume without adding headcount.