Correlation Coefficient The correlation coefficient describes the relationship betweentwo variables and is stated as a number between –1.0 and +1.0.For example, say the HR department wants to find out what factors contribute to absenteeismin the company. One of the factors they decide to analyze is length of time at thecompany, so one hypothesis they might use is “The absentee rate is higher with newemployees.”To analyze this, they would collect two numbers for each employee: how many monthsemployed and how many days absent. The numbers are then plotted on a graph foranalysis.If this hypothesis is correct, they would expect to see a negative correlation coefficient;that is, the shorter the length of time employed, the higher the absentee rate. This would bereflected by a negative number: for example, –.2. Figure 2.2 shows how this looks.