It is that time of year again! While many people like to spend this time focusing on Christmas shopping, meal planning, holiday celebrations, and even New Year's Resolutions, this is a great opportunity for to also focus on your business planning – and not just for the year end, but for the new year as well. And to help you get prepared, we’ve created for you a year end checklist. This checklist is a rundown of all the tasks you need to take care of so that you are ready to conquer the new year.
2022 Year End Checklist
🗹 Assess your 2022 Goals:
Whether it is just a simple list of personal goals or more detailed KPIs for you and your team, now is the perfect time to pull them up and review them. A great way to assess your progress is to ask yourself the following questions:
Were your goals achieved? Why or why not?
Did you exceed your goals? How?
Did you fall short of your goals? How?
What are the next steps? Do you need to carryover any into the new year?
This is a great time to start thinking about your goals for 2023. Where are you wanting to stretch yourself personally and/or professionally? Do you perhaps want to become a mentor or become a subject matter expert in a particular area? Do you want to learn a new hobby?
🗹 Employee Personal Data:
Remind your employees to make sure their personal information is up to date. This will make your year-end reporting and tax reporting less stressful. At a minimum, you want to make sure you have their updated mailing address and any up-to-date dependent information (with the correct spellings).
🗹 Reimbursements/Fringe benefits:
If you offer employee reimbursement benefits or programs, such as tuition reimbursement, ensure your employees know of any payroll deadlines to get their paperwork submitted for re-payment.
🗹 FSA Deadlines:
Do you offer an FSA account for your employees? FSA accounts are a great way to help employees manage annual medical spending and reduce surprise out-of-pocket expenses. But did you know that in the United States alone, workers leave nearly $400 million in FSA funds unspent each year? Remind your employees they have until the end of the year or grace period (if offered) to spend the money, otherwise, they will lose it. If they are not sure where or how to spend it, have them visit www.FSAstore.com, the largest online marketplace for guaranteed FSA eligible products.
🗹 Plan an End of Year Employee Event:
Don’t forget to involve your employees when it comes to year-end planning. Your employees are strategic component to your business’ success and the Holiday Season provides ample opportunity to say, ‘thank you’.
Think about your workforce and what they value. Perhaps a fun Holiday party to kick off the Season is the right fit. If you know they value their home and family time, can you swing some extra days off around Christmas and New Year’s? If you can’t provide additional days, maybe they could be given the option to come in late or leave early. Could you give them an extended lunch hour so they can get some Holiday shopping done? If you know your employees enjoy giving back, maybe you can plan an afternoon of volunteering with a local charity, or conducting a toy drive within the office. If you have more than one location, maybe you could have a little friendly competition and do a food drive. The location that donates the most food will win a free pizza party, or be given an extra day off to take in the New Year.
🗹 Evaluate Employee Engagement:
The end of the year is a great time to do an employee engagement assessment. Do a check in with your employees and see how things are going. Are they enjoying their work; are they engaged; what suggestions do they have for morale improvement? Your employees are a great source of information when it comes to suggestions for improvement – don’t be afraid to tap into their knowledge.
🗹 Training Calendar:
If you created a training calendar for this year, now is the time to do a review and see what you completed, and what may have (accidentally) slipped through the cracks. For those that were slippery, start creating your 2023 Training Calendar and not just for your employees, but for your management team and yourself. Pay attention too if you are in a state with mandated training, such as sexual harassment training. Don’t forget to include any necessary safety or OSHA compliance training too.
🗹 Handbook Review:
Now is a great time to review your employee handbook. You want to ensure your current practices align with what is in your handbook and that any new policies are added in. Now would also be a great time to confirm any new state or federal law updates are implemented in your handbook as well. And don’t forget to communicate to your employees your updated handbook.
🗹 Plan Your Time Off:
As business owners it is very common to put off taking much needed time off. Don’t forget about YOU. Take the time now to plan when you will take that R&R away from the office.
🗹 Employee Time Off:
Don’t forget to remind your employees about their vacation time as well. Revert to your handbook and ensure you are following your company’s policy as it relates to rolling over unused time off, paying it out, “use it or lose it”, etc. Now is a great time to make sure your employees know how much time off they have remaining and what will happen to their unused hours.
Taking the time now to prepare for your company’s year-end as well as the new year, is not only just good business practice, but it will leave you with more time to really step back and enjoy this Holiday Season and not stress about one more “to do” list.
PHR, SHRM-CP
Comments