I’ve had a lot of searches for “year end thoughts” recently end up on my site and in my blog, so I thought I would add some additional consolidated thoughts into a single post.

First and foremost, it is my opinion that the end of the year is not a time to save a whole array of activities for. However, if you must, or if it is just inevitable that cyclical events tie to a calendar or financial year – then the best scenario is to plan and prepare well in advance for that activities which will take place.

What sort of (HR) activities are we talking about? Annual (final) performance reviews, development planning, salary increases, bonus payouts, stock option allocations, profit sharing, benefits re-enrolments, commission payouts and/or adjustments, salary benchmarking & market pricing, budgeting & forecasting, program reviews, strategy building, succession planning, headcount/workforce planning, recruitment plans, vacation and accruals review, and of course, filing. I’m sure there are more items specific to your business that could be applicable.

With limited hours and resources, the best plan of attack is to make your list based on the types of above activities and set up a calendar of activities that you can prioritize against. You can set your priorities based on two factors – importance and level of effort. For example, your performance reviews may have critical timing to meet the needs of the business and requires moderate effort (assuming you are not adopting a new program or overhauling an old one) – so it may be something that is high up the list. Creating a recruitment plan for the year, which could be lower priority but require a fair bit of effort to meet with clients and work through their needs – may be prioritized to happen later in your calendar – once your urgencies and quick hits are out of the way.

To your benefit, calendar year ends tend to have the luxury of holiday schedules which may or may not help you find time to accomplish deliverables. I have found that leading up to and following the holidays, my internal clients have tended to focus on their own business deliverables that they mush accomplish before the year is out. This is both good and bad for me. The bad is that for any initiatives that require their input (workforce planning, performance management, etc), time can be scarce and in demand – thus making it difficult getting participation. The good is that for all other more internal HR projects, or phases of projects between those requiring client input (salary benchmarking, strategy building, budgeting & forecasting, etc) there is usually uninterrupted time to hunker down and get those projects done quickly. You can also take the time to finalize your year end reporting and documentation. Balancing the two, and effectively working your schedule and your own holiday time around that of your clients is both the art and the science.

Finally, new years are often new starts. An opportunity to set your new benchmarks, reset your metrics/scorecards, and set new strategy for new programs and policies to benefits your employees, clients and stakeholders. Budgets reset and you can now focus on initiatives you have been waiting to get going on since June of the prior year. You now have the energy, time and resources to focus on the new. Take hold and leverage all that can be had going into a new year. Set your group, team and individual goals (aligned to business needs/strategy) as early as possible before or in the new year. You wouldn’t set off on a road trip without a road map, so don’t set into a new year without clearly defined objectives, priorities and a detailed plan for success. Document the plan, assess it against resources and reality, publish it and share it with your stakeholders (clients, executive team) – as this will give your HR team transparency, respect, trust and well as the incentive to deliver on your promises. Update it as necessary – things change, it’s inevitable and important to be realistic.

Good luck in the new year with all that you will accomplish!

At the onset of writing this, I have no idea what it is going to be about. Aside from having let my writing here lapse over the past week due to unexpected work commitments and feeling the need to get a current post up, there was a deep nagging feeling that I needed to choose this as a topic/title.

I track my site stats on a periodic basis – out of interest, to see who is visiting, stalking, hotlinking, etc. Well, for the month of November, one of the most common search engine searches that resulted in visits to my site was ‘Cool HR Promotions’. Suffice to say, that beyond that, I have no idea of the context of the searches, or what the searchers may have been looking for. Some thoughts:

1) People in Hr who are cool and have been promoted

2) Cool ways to tell people they have been promoted

3) Things HR does in a workplace to promote themselves and their services in a ‘cool’ way

4) Cool things HR does to promote other aspects of work life and the business

5) How or organize an employee ice cream day if you are in HR

Well, all joking aside, I thought I may as well address the topic with some ideas. (BTW – the pic comes from a Google Image Search for ‘Cool HR Promotions’)

When I think of the concept of ‘Cool HR Promotions’, what comes to mind is things the HR people in a workplace can do to make worklife ‘cool’ or fun for employees. I am presuming that this is what the bulk of people searching for were driving at. Interestingly, I intentionally use the word ‘worklife’ versus work, as I feel the first step itself is recognizing that work is not separate from life, but is part of it. In fact, a large part of it. Many people often spend more time with co-workers at the office than with their spouse/partner or kids. More time commuting and at a desk or worksite than in the home or doing leisure activities. So, it holds true then, to be truly happy in life – it makes sense to be happy in all aspects of life, and to see them as equal “cool” parts of the same life.

OK, so now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s speak about some ideas. And, I have seen it all. From the traditional Holiday/Christmas parties and summer picnics to 18-hole adhoc office minigolf courses and arm-wrestling competitions. Every workplace will be different, and what works in one, may not work in another. For example, in my last entry, I wrote baout Friday (video) gaming nights at my current company.

Sure, all this is fun and games, and more event related than promotions, but it all ties in. HR can embrace these activities, support them, promote them and use them to make working life more fun. At a past employer, our anniversary program was based on awarding the company product to employees on an annual basis – and was very well received. We used the same rewards for the recruitment referral program as well. At other companies, we’ve held raffles to give away company product or donated product from suppliers with the proceeds going to charity – a win/win for employees and the charities. Even little things like personalized welcome kits for new employees goes a long way to winning the hearts of new employees while showing tenured employees that you still care.

From events, to promotions, to formal reconition and rewards programs – the only limits are imagination and knowing your culture (oh, well, except for that issue of taxable benefits in the eyes of the CRA – but, that’s a discussion for anothre day). The sky’s the limit. So, if you are on of those people looking for some ‘cool hr promotions’ fell free to post a comment, or send me a note, and I’ll be happy to share some more thoughts and ideas with you.