The Savvy Business Owners’ Essential HR Checklist for the Final Quarter

Recruit Your Temp Christmas Staff

Many businesses in the retail industry require temporary staff to help them to deal with the festive rush. If you haven’t already started this process, then you need to take action straightaway. You’ll have to think about:

  • Where can you find the top talent for your roles?
  • How will you manage the recruitment and selection processes?
  • Who will take care of the training and onboarding activities?
  • What will you need in terms of contracts and administrative arrangements?

Plan your Christmas Rotas

Deciding who works when over the holiday period can be tricky, and there will be many considerations to manage. You may need a higher level of cover, and you might need to ask your members of staff to work unsociable hours, so it makes sense to get your plans together as soon as possible, so you can communicate the arrangements to your workforce.
Pinpoint Any Additional Training Needs

If you’re eager to smash your goals in the final quarter, then you need to have your staff onboard. Are you completely confident that they have the necessary skills and knowledge? You might want to consider:

  • Ensuring your staff know how to pinpoint upselling opportunities, and handle them with confidence and grace
  • Brushing up on customer service best practice, so your employees can shine during the busier period
  • Speaking with your managers so everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to handling problems and averting disasters

Consider Your Christmas Party Plans

The festive season can be hard work when you run a business, but don’t forget to consider how you can reward your staff for their achievements and dedication. You might decide to host of a Christmas party, and this will of course require some careful planning.

Check Your Policies and Procedures are Fit for Purpose

Your policies and procedures are the backbone of your HR practices, and it makes sense to regularly assess whether they’re still fit for purpose, still meet your needs as an employer, and still comply with the relevant employment legislation.

You might think that you’re just far too busy to sit down and do a review, but you should never cut corners in this area. If you make the commitment to assessing your documentation once a quarter, you’re likely to save yourself a great deal of time and hassle.

Schedule Performance Discussions in the Diary

As an ambitious leader who’s passionate about performance, you’ll know the value of holding regular performance discussions with your staff. The next few months are likely to be busy, so make sure that you put some time in the diary right now to have these conversations.

Doing this will play a part in ensuring that you’re getting the most out of your workers over the Christmas season, and it will also give you the opportunity to identify any problems that might occur, and pinpoint any potential issues so you can deal with them in a timely manner.

Create a Plan for Poor Weather Conditions

Would your business suffer if the weather took a turn for the worse? Do you have a plan in place in case members of staff can’t make it into work? And do you know what your responsibilities are in terms of providing a safe, comfortable, and warm place to work?

We can’t control the weather, but we can ensure that we as prepared as possible.

Ensure Your Admin is Up to Date

Admin may not seem like the kind of strategic issue that you should be focusing on as a leader, but if you drop the ball in this area, you could face some seriously difficult circumstances. Your administrative processes no doubt ensure that everyone is paid correctly and on time, for example.

If you work with an external payroll provider, then now’s the time to have a conversation with your point of contact to ensure that everything’s in place for the final quarter of the year. This will be especially important if there are changes within your business, e.g. if you are recruiting temporary workers, or if your existing workforce will be required to work different hours and shift patterns.

Check You’re Compliant with Legislative Changes

Employment law is regularly and changing and adapting, and you absolutely must ensure that you’re up to date. There are several changes scheduled to happen during the final quarter, including an increase in National Minimum Wage for certain age groups.

Take the time now to assess anything that might be relevant to your business, and put your plans in place accordingly.

Put an Initial Plan in Place for January

Right now, you’ll no doubt be relentlessly focused on the challenges that you’ll be facing in the very near future. Don’t forget to consider what happens once January comes round though. It makes good business sense to put an initial plan in place, so the time doesn’t creep up on you and you find yourself unprepared.

Need a little help with pulling all of this together?

If so, we’d like to chat. We can assist you when it comes to making sure that you have everything covered from an HR and people perspective, so you can focus on your big business goals during the final part of the year.

Give us a call today, and we can arrange to have an initial informal discussion about your needs.

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