It is just over a month until the festive season, and most of us we will be looking forward to a break (even if it’s a bit different to last year), as well as saying a less than fond farewell to 2020, because frankly it’s not been the best year or at least the year we were expecting.   

But as the weeks go by, and our personal priorities shift into Christmas prep at home, such as gift buying and tree decorations, your thoughts might also turn to end-of-year to do list for HR.  Clearly there isn’t going to a standard list for everyone, but we think there are a few things you should be doing, if you haven’t already ticked these off already - after all, there’s always a few people that have Christmas sorted by mid-November! 

Reviewing Furlough arrangements
Whilst the scheme has now been extended to the end of March, HR should still be regularly reviewing furlough agreements to see if anyone can be put on flexible furlough or return to work full-time. 

• Consider which jobs and skills are needed right now - can you re-deploy someone to cover leave over the Christmas break? 
• Take another look at the roles that are still viable and sustainable for the business. If you are putting off a redundancy programme until March, it might be worthwhile also exploring the benefit of bringing it forward – perhaps the long-term gain will outweigh the short-term pain? 

Developing End-of Year Communications
Whether this ties in with your pay review or not, the end of the year can be a good time to communicate about reward, recognition, development, and any other aspects of your employee value proposition. 

• In the absence of Christmas parties and the traditional office festivities, is there anything else you can highlight as an employee benefit?  What about employee discount schemes, or an Employee Assistance programme? 
• Think about the messages you want to send your employees as they take time out for the Christmas break.   

Refocusing priorities for 2021
Let’s face it, this year hasn’t really gone to plan for any of us. Chances are, 2021 might still have a few surprises in store for us too. A lot of projects in 2020 have been put on hold or completely scrapped, but just forgetting about what would have been might is not always the right approach. The benefits they were set out to achieve may still need to be realised and perhaps even more urgently. 

• What are the fundamental things that HR needs to do in 2021? If it is an organisational restructure, new pay review tool, or a review of incentive arrangements, think about how you can build in flexibility and agility so that if things shift you can still achieve the overall objectives. 
• But don’t be overly ambitious and consider what is really realistic for the organisation. Seemingly small changes and incremental shift and can make a big difference

Utilising any quiet time
We all need to take a break, however if things quieten down for your organisation over Christmas, is there anything that you can get ahead with for 2021?

• Gender Pay Gap Reporting will be mandatory again in April 2021 for all organisations with more than 250 employees. BAME pay gap reporting is also on the horizon and many organisations are already doing the analysis by choice. This is a great opportunity to get ahead.
• Brexit, the end of the pandemic (and perhaps a return to the office) and an increased focus on sustainability (we expect more emphasis on ESG issues in 2021) – is your HR ready? 

Whilst Innecto isn’t able to help you with your Christmas gift finding or deciding where to hang the baubles, we do have a team of qualified HR and Reward consultants who can assist in helping you with your HR Christmas List. So please do give us a call - even it is just a chat or to exchange Festive Greetings, we’d love to hear from you. I can be reached directly at Judith.moore@innecto.com, or call us on +44 (0)20 3457 0894.
 

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