Year-end HR Planning and 2018 Preparations

Human Resource Planning Tasks to Consider

Wrapping up 2017 and looking toward 2018 is important for Human Resources in every organization. Year-end communications and aligning programs to business strategy are just a few things that HR professionals should be considering and planning.

As the end of the year quickly approaches, it’s important to consider outstanding 2017 initiatives ensuring you bring them to closure. This is a great time to be communicating with employees about things that are important to them: money and time off. One specific area of opportunity is with your Section 125 (Flexible Spending Accounts). These programs are a great employee perk and can easily become a source of contention if employees lose money or owe back funds. Reports can be easily pulled and reminders to use funds and submit receipts can make a big difference to affected employees.

While there is a lot going on it’s also the perfect time to be cleaning up compliance and paperwork issues and aligning HR processes to organizational business strategy. Human Resources initiatives can have a significant impact on an organizations abilities to meet its business needs. People processes should be aligned to growth and expense strategies. Often salary and benefits are the largest company expenses. Driving employee engagement, aligning individuals to business goals and considering technology solutions are three distinct areas where HR can help a business meet its objectives and serve its customers.

As the regulatory environment continues to evolve, ensuring compliance with State and Federal regulations can protect an organization from unwanted fines. The Affordable Care Act and 2018 EEO-1 compliance obligations are examples of how regulations and their evolution have added complexity and additional effort to be compliant.