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Published on Jan 3
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In the daily grind of business, it’s easy to settle into routines and just go with the flow. The New Year is a great opportunity to break out of your safe zone and explore new opportunities for innovation and change in your HR department. Take a look at your notes from the previous year and think critically about programs that you thought about implementing or changes you never got around to making. Here are three HR New Year’s resolutions that you can use to change your workplace for the better.
Develop a more inclusive and diverse workforce
With the massive social, political, and economic upheavals of the last 10-20 years, it’s no wonder that the makeup of the American workforce is changing. As the most diverse and inclusive group ever to enter the American labor market, Millennials are forcing companies to rethink their hiring strategies and the demographics of the workplace.
In the year ahead, strive to create opportunities for people of a more diverse background to apply for and be interviewed for positions. If you’ve always posted your job openings in the same place and keep seeing the same kinds of faces sitting across the interview table, it may be time to shake up your job advertisement placement strategy. Actively court diverse groups for employment and make diversifying your workforce part of your brand strategy. A mix of experiences, ideas, opinions, and identities can help your company face the increasingly challenging 21st century market.
Learn from turnover
When an employee is leaving your company, it’s always a good idea to plan a face-to-face exit interview. Your employees, both those leaving and those staying, will appreciate the gesture and the information you gather from these discussions can give you a more clear and unbiased view of your business and leadership teams. While many larger companies opt for a written or electronic exit survey, the information gathered from these is often perfunctory or superficial at best. For your best chance to gather real insight into why your company is experiencing turnover, a well-planned face-to-face interview is almost always the way to go.
Don’t let the information you gather from exit interviews waste away in employee files or a drawer. The responses gleaned in exit interviews can give you a unique perspective on your performance, employee satisfaction, and effectiveness of management. Exit interviews can be an essential part of your company’s strategic planning process, but only if you effectively use the information gathered in these sessions. Look for patterns in the feedback you receive from outgoing employees to identify potential organizational issues. Consider developing a spreadsheet of the information gathered that will allow you to identify issues at a glance. Trends should be addressed by a leadership team and action should be taken to avoid further talent drain.
Prioritize employee engagement
Employee engagement will continue to be a hot topic in 2019. When employees become disengaged in the workplace, morale and production suffer significantly. Taking steps to ensure that your employees feel valued, committed, and loyal to your workplace will save you a lot of headache down the road.
Provide opportunities for employees to explore their options with your company through job shadowing programs. Help employees (and your company) get a leg up on the competition by sending employees to conferences and encouraging them to take part in continuing education or other training programs in your industry. Make sure telling your employees that you value them and then showing it with your actions every day is one of your top HR New Year’s resolutions.
On a personal level, look for creative ways to engage with employees. Take employees to lunch on a rotating basis to catch up or hold a monthly potluck for everyone to congregate and chat. Celebrate important milestones in your employees’ lives. From birthdays to wedding and baby showers, these moments create a bond that allows your employees to develop a deeper sense of belonging.
Ring in the New Year with Sheakley
Making resolutions isn’t enough. Once you’ve brainstormed and thought out your 2019 priorities, you have to commit to those initiatives. Link these changes to your organizational strategy to get buy-in across all sectors, not just from the HR department. Your resolutions can only be achieved if you commit yourself and get the commitment of your whole staff. Sheakley’s HR Management division can help you develop policies for your employees that can help you make your HR New Year’s resolutions a reality.
Schedule your free consultation with a Sheakley HR professional today. Stay up-to-date on all things Sheakley by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media. What are some HR New Year’s resolutions not listed above that you are taking on in 2019? Join in the discussion by commenting below.
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