There are just a few weeks left until the holidays and year end. Before you get caught up in all the festivities, it’s a good idea to set aside some time to make sure you have addressed any outstanding HR issues for 2019, and have finalized your plans for 2020 and the new decade.
Be sure you have made the appropriate adjustments to comply with recent legislation, specifically:
The deadline for harassment prevention training has been extended to January 1, 2021 for most California employees.
California has enacted a statute that makes it much more difficult to classify workers as independent contractors, effective January 1, 2020.
The federal minimum salary threshold for exempt employees is being increased, effective January 1, 2020.
California is increasing its minimum wage again as of January 1, 2020. Several cities within the state also are increasing their minimum wage.
Here’s a checklist of other items to complete before year end. Be sure to add any items relative to your particular business that you don’t see here.
- Order any updated Federal and State Labor Law Posters
- Review your Employee Handbook to identify any changes needed based on new laws, policies and/or procedures
- Review and update employee addresses in preparation for W-2 distribution
- Review and update job descriptions
- Finalize the HR Budget for 2020
- Finalize focal process for 2020
- Finalize company goals
- Determine dates of company holidays for 2020
- Finalize and announce any new benefits/employee perks for 2020
- Renew any annual memberships and subscriptions
- Schedule annual reviews with employees
- Deal with any lingering employee relations issues
In addition, think back over the year and reflect on what went well and what didn’t go well from an HR standpoint. Are your employees engaged and productive? If not, do you see any trends that you could work on turning around in 2020? Are there any employees who stand out as particularly high potential? How will you develop and retain them in 2020?
This is also a good time to look back over the past decade. Reflect on how your organization has changed and celebrate your accomplishments over the past decade. Also, consider what you want to usher into the next 10 years. If you don’t know where to start, consider conducting a SWOT analysis in the New Year. This way, you can become aware of trends both inside the company as well as in your industry.
Giving some thought to these things now, and then putting a plan in place to address them after the first of the year will get 2020 off to a good start!
I would love the opportunity to help you plan for 2020 and the next decade please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com.
