As the year winds down, human resources plays a crucial role in ensuring a smooth transition into the new year. Following are some best practices to successfully closeout the year and set the stage for a successful year ahead for your organization’s employees.
Essential Year-End Tips
Familiarize yourself with any new legislation and take appropriate action to ensure compliance. This includes new regulations as well as any minimum wage increase for your area. Ensure that all HR policies and procedures are up to date with current laws and regulations.
Update your employee handbook and policies for the new year. Employee handbooks should include federal mandates, state mandates, and local policies. Communicate any changes to all employees to maintain transparency and compliance.
Ensure all employee records are up-to-date and securely stored. Audit files to check for completeness and compliance with data protection regulations. Move appropriate files to storage.
Conduct thorough performance reviews. Provide employees with feedback on their work throughout the year. Help to identify strengths, areas for improvement, and potential growth opportunities. Set goals for the upcoming year and align them with the organization’s objectives. Consider both formal and informal recognition methods, such as awards ceremonies or personal thank you notes.
Review compensation and benefits packages. Analyze market trends and review compensation packages to ensure they’re competitive. Make necessary adjustments to salaries, bonuses, and other benefits to retain talent and maintain fairness. Will you be giving any Christmas gift and/or year-end bonuses in December? Make sure to provide that information to your payroll provider in advance, and keep in mind these bonuses have additional taxation requirements.
Review key HR metrics and analytics. Review metrics such as turnover rates, hiring successes, and training ROIs to assess the effectiveness of HR initiatives. Use these insights to make data-driven decisions for future HR strategies. Review the year’s HR budget spending and plan the budget for the next year. Strategically allocate funds to support key HR initiatives like recruitment, employee engagement, and wellness programs.
Evaluate training and development programs. Review the effectiveness of the current year’s training programs and plan for the next year’s training anddevelopmentinitiativesConsiderleadershipdevelopmentprogramsforhigh-development initiatives. Consider leadership development programs for high potential employees. Focus on developing internal talent well in advance to fill critical positions for succession planning.
Verify employee information. Conduct an audit of all employee records to ensure accuracy with names, addresses, social security numbers, and other personal information. This is crucial for accurate W-2 and 1099 form reporting. One tip is to send an automatic reminder for all employees to update their personal data into your payroll management system.
Coordinate with payroll and benefits departments. Collaborate with other departments to update benefits, insurance premiums, or retirement plan contributions that might affect payroll deductions. Ensure that any changes in employee benefits for the new year are reflected in the payroll system.
Effective Communication with Employees
Wellness initiatives: Encourage participation in wellness programs to support employee health and well-being, especially during the stressful year-end period.
Year-end logistics: Clearly communicate important year-end information to all employees, such as holiday schedules, payroll dates, and office closures.
W-4 changes: Remind employees to file an amended W-4 if there has been a change in their filing status, exemptions, etc. Also, remind employees to update their address if they moved during the year.
Policy changes: Communicate any policy changes for 2025.
2025 logistics: Remind employees of vacation and PTO accruals and whereto find their W-2 in January.
