5 Considerations for Creating a Solid HR Foundation in 2024
Happy New Year! For many businesses, January is a time for looking back on the previous year, assessing business practices, looking at financials, and evaluating your team’s performance for the year. It’s also a time for looking ahead to the coming year – making changes, setting goals and objectives, and laying the foundation to achieve success!
As you move forward into 2024, consider these 5 questions to help ensure a solid HR foundation:
- When was our employee handbook last reviewed? Having a compliant and up-to-date employee handbook is crucial to your business’ HR health. Federal, state, and local regulations are constantly changing, often prompting a necessary compliance update in the handbook. Other changes within your business can result in necessary policy updates. Has your headcount increased? Have you hired anyone out of state? Do you have employees who work remotely some or all of the time? Does your handbook need to address any pain points you are currently experiencing with employees, such as dress code violations, the need for drug testing, attendance issues, or other conduct or performance concerns?
- Does every position have an accurate and up-to-date job description? Job descriptions can serve multiple purposes: job descriptions are commonly used to assist with creating job postings, but they can also be a valuable tool for onboarding new employees, setting annual objectives, and assessing employee performance. Moreover, they provide a level of protection for both the business and the employee, since they should ideally outline the essential functions of the role, the skills and training necessary for the role, as well as the physical requirements of the role. Job descriptions can be crucial in determining whether or not a medical accommodation can be made for an employee.
- How solid is our onboarding process? Whether you plan to hire 2 employees or 200 employees this year, having a well-thought-out, thorough onboarding process can be incredibly impactful to your business. Studies show that an employee who is successfully onboarded is statistically more likely to be a contributing and engaged member of the team for longer than an employee whose onboarding was haphazard or poorly planned. A solid onboarding program includes all of the typical “day 1” paperwork but also addresses the “pre-work” that needs to happen before the employee’s first day as well as the ongoing training that needs to happen for 30, 60, or even 90 days after the employee starts. Successful onboarding will cover all of the logistics of working at your company, provide a thorough review of policies and procedures, as well as dive into the business’ mission, vision, and values to help the employee feel welcome and part of the team from day one.
- Do I feel good about our performance management process? A meaningful performance management process will include objective setting (ensuring each employee understands your expectations for them), regular and ongoing coaching (to provide feedback and encouragement and help keep employees on track with their objectives), and a more formal annual performance evaluation process (to formally recognize performance through a documented and clearly communicated process that allows for the identification of areas of improvement and areas where the employee excels). Your performance management process will help ensure that all of your employees are working together and in sync toward the successful completion of your business’ goals and objectives. And if someone is not performing, having this solid foundation in place will give you the tools and resources necessary to coach them to success or manage them out of your organization, if needed.
- Do I have the HR support I need? Having HR support to assist you with all of the above activities and more is crucial to running a successful business. Whether a qualified internal HR professional/department or an outsourced HR partner like Berger HR Solutions, make sure you have someone to go to for your HR questions, projects, support, and other needs.
Have any remaining questions about creating a solid HR foundation for your business this year? Please contact us at info@bergerhrsolutions or (410) 695-9888. Berger HR Solutions is here to help.
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