Thank goodness that’s over with (HM is writing this one – don’t panic – HKB is still very much bubbling over with Christmas joy). 

Now is the time to take a deep breath, look ahead and think about a few key areas you might want to focus on in 2024. 

To help you, we’ve summarised our Top 5 Resolutions for 2024: 

• Update your Employee Handbook 
• Encourage Career Development 
• Hold regular 1:1 review meetings  
• Issue an Employee Engagement Survey 
• Effectively manage probation periods 

Update your Employee Handbook 

When was the last time you looked through your HR Policies and Procedures? 2 years ago? 3 years ago? Ever? Employment legislation changes every year – make sure your policies are compliant and reflect the most recent updates.  

Encourage Career Development 

Implement new professional development initiatives for your employees – what does this mean? 

It means asking your employees how they see their career progressing – whether it be with your business, or elsewhere. Ask them what training they would like to help them meet their career goals – what else can you do to assist them in getting the most out of their role? 

And then put a plan in place to action whatever is agreed. This part is critical. Empty promises ruin relationships. 

Carry out regular 1:1 meetings with your employees 

Make sure your managers are meeting with each team member on a regular basis. They need to be asking questions such as how do they think things are going? Is there anything the business can do to assist them in meeting their performance objectives? Managers should be raising any ‘niggles’ before they become nightmares.  

Issue an Employee Engagement Survey 

Employee Engagement Surveys are an extremely effective way to find out how your employees are feeling about your business – are they as happy as you think they are? Is there something you could be doing to improve retention? Is there anything you can do to improve performance? 

NOTE: it’s utterly pointless issuing an engagement survey if you do nothing with the results. Before you issue the survey, make sure you’ve thought through how you’re going to action any reasonable suggestions that come through.  

And finally…actively manage probation periods 

We can’t tell you how many conversations we have with managers who suddenly want to terminate an employee despite never having addressed the issues. Probation periods are extremely useful for both the employee and the business to ‘test out’ whether the arrangement is working. Have open communication, meet regularly, have the tricky conversations. It’ll save you hours of time and lots of pennies in the long run.  

For more advice, get in touch – thehelens@complexhr.co.uk