The arrival of a new year gives small-business owners a great opportunity to look at a variety of human resources issues and decide what changes they should make.
January can be a fresh start for everyone in a company. So owners should think about sitting down with employees to discuss what’s expected of them in the coming year. They should also take the time to create or re-evaluate policies for vacation and other time off, and re-examine the benefits they offer.
“Do an overall check of your HR procedures” in January, suggests Rob Wilson, president of Employco, a Chicago-based human resources firm. He noted that during the course of the year, “when you’re trying to run a business, sometimes the last thing you think of is HR.”
Many companies are setting their annual budgets in January, and determining what staffing levels they’ll need should be an integral part of that process. But owners should be looking at more than numbers. They need to think about whether they have the right people in the right jobs.
That’s where meeting with workers one by one is critical, looking at their performance over the past year and discussing the future with them.
“Help them set goals individually and parlay them into corporate goals. How can they coincide with your corporate goals?” Wilson said.
Conversations with workers should be two-way, with an owner open to hearing what staffers have to say — good and bad.
“Take a survey of employees about what they think of things,” said Rick Gibbs, a senior human resources specialist with Administaff, a Houston-based company that provides human resources outsourcing. But, he warned, “it’s important not to do that unless there’s an intention to act” in response to staffers’ concerns.
While owners need to meet with employees individually — of course, if there are many employees, other managers will need to help out — it’s a good idea to hold group staff meetings as well. And think about a schedule of meetings throughout the year; setting that now will make it less likely that they’ll fall through the cracks later on.
Along that line, Gibbs likes the idea of creating a human resources calendar at the start of the year, and planning for employee-related events or issues likely to come up.
“Put in things that will happen — busy times, vacations, holidays,” he said.
With these events in mind, take a look at your time-off policies. If you ran into vacation crunches in 2007, with everyone wanting the same days or weeks off, it’s time to create a policy that spells out how many people can be off at the same time, and how conflicts will be resolved. It’s probably a good idea to bring staffers into the process, hearing their ideas before you create a system. That way, while you might not be able to keep everyone happy, at least employees won’t feel as if rules were imposed on them unilaterally.
You might want to start thinking now about bringing in extra help for peak vacation or busy times. Knowing in advance what your needs are likely to be will make it easier to get temporary workers in July, December or whenever.
Your policies need to be written down, too, ideally as part of an employee handbook. These are important documents that detail for workers not just vacation time, but sick and disability time, leave for jury duty or military service, disciplinary procedures, dress codes and other HR matters.
If you’re not sure what should go into a handbook, you can search online for “employee handbook” and find several sites that offer suggestions. The U.S. Small Business Administration has a good overview at www.sba.gov/gopher/ Business-Development/ Success-Series/Vol10/ handbook.txt.
There are also books that can help you create a handbook, and you can get advice from a retired HR executive for free by contacting SCORE, an organization of retired business people, at www.score.org or by calling 800-634-0245.
The start of the year is also a good time to review your benefits, and think about what changes you want to make. HR professionals and accountants alike urge small-business owners to set up retirement plans early in the year if they don’t already offer this benefit, which can be a powerful employee recruiting and retention tool.
Setting up a plan now will make you competitive right away. And the sooner you create a plan, the sooner everyone, including you and your company, can start saving.
Joyce Rosenberg writes about small business for the Associated Press.
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