Three Things HR Can Do Before The End of the Year

The end of the year is quickly approaching, so it’s time to make some important preparations for next year while tying up loose strings from this year. While you might be tempted to focus solely on how your department performed this year, several things you can do right now will prepare you for next year. While it feels like the Human Resources department never truly has a “slow period,” now is one of the most stressful times of your year. So what should you prioritize before we ring in the new year and what can you save for next year?

If one of the things you want to cross off your to-do list is to find the perfect talent development software to help your workforce reach its full potential, consider scheduling a demo of Trakstar! Our team is standing by and ready to meet with you as soon as you’re ready. Click here to schedule a demo.

Complete Your Year-End Reports

One of the most important things you can do now is finish your year-end reports.

Why?

You don’t want to start your year looking too far back in the past and getting caught up in things that went bad (or things that went well). Use your year-end reports to summarize the previous year and measure key results that tie back to organizational goals. By completing these reports, you’ll be able to measure progress and start planning for next year. It will also give you a sense of achievement as you head into some time off – you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come!

How do you get started?

The first step is to look back at your results and identify the key measures that show how well your organization is doing. For example, if you have a training goal, look at how many courses your employees took over the past year. If your goal was to increase employee engagement and overall retention, take a look at how many employees stayed at your organization.

If you are a Trakstar customer, creating year-end reports has never been easier. All our products come with built-in Insights dashboards that help you analyze your data, understand what’s happening, and even present the information in easy-to-understand ways. This will take away a lot of the stress (and prevent you from using dangerous spreadsheets that often show your information incorrectly).

Set HR Goals For Next Year

Setting goals is one of the most important things you can do for your company. It’s easy to get lost in the details of daily work, but having a clear idea of what you want to achieve and when will help your HR department stay on track.

Setting SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) is one way companies can make sure they’re on track with their goals. For example: “I want to increase employee satisfaction by 5% by the end of June,” could be a specific goal because it specifies a number. However, we’d have trouble measuring its success or failure because it doesn’t determine how this increase will happen or when it should happen. A better version might be: “I want our employee satisfaction rate to be above 83% at least once every quarter next year.” This goal is still measurable and attainable since we know how often our employees are surveyed and what kind of score would qualify as an improvement from our current rate. 

However, this goal might only be realistic by adding other specifics like who exactly needs to improve their scores or why. If we include some context about why increasing employee satisfaction correlates with higher profits for companies—which most people know intuitively—then suddenly, this becomes an achievable outcome rather than just wishful thinking!

Get Feedback From Employees

Employee feedback is a simple way to get actionable data on how your organization is doing. Use an engagement survey to help get a feel for where your company is. This can be as basic as asking employees whether they’re happy with their work environment and if they feel like they’re being treated well by management. It could be more complex and specific, with questions about training or job satisfaction.

The key is to keep the survey short and sweet—you don’t want your employees getting bored or distracted from their primary duties too quickly! You also want to ensure that everything is clearly stated in the survey, so there are no misunderstandings about what you’re looking for.

For example, if you want feedback on how effective an employee orientation was for new hires last month, some examples of questions might include: “Did you find the training helpful?” “Do you feel prepared for what’s ahead?” And finally: “Are there any improvements we could make for our next round of hires?”

Once all the data has been collected and analyzed (which can take some time), share that information with management so they can use it in making decisions moving forward.

Prepare For Next Year’s Goals, Sprints, & Successes

The end of the year (and another quarter) is a great time to reflect on what has happened this year and start planning for what’s next. HR professionals can use this time to do some activities that will prepare them for the new year, like getting feedback from employees or setting goals. They also need to complete any remaining tasks from last year before they can move on with their lives as well!

The end of the year can be highly stressful, especially if things haven’t always gone the way you want them to. But now is the time to start planning for what’s next and making a move toward achieving your goals. One way you can help improve your chances of meeting your HR goals next year is to schedule some time to look at talent development software like Trakstar. The easiest step you can take right now to achieve that goal is to schedule a demo to see what we’re all about. You can do that here.