September ’18 HR To Do List

Summer is winding down and we’ve noticed the pumpkin spice making appearances all over town already! It’s still a great time to form some positive Work-Life Balance habits; get outside and enjoy these last bits of summer and the first hints of fall in the air! Sometimes that first chill can be more motivating than the warmth of summer!

If you follow us on Instagram and Facebook, you’ll soon know that our Theme of the Month is ADAPTABILITY. In the business world of 2018, changes happen in the blink of an eye. If your employees (and executive team) can’t keep up with the pace of the changes, you’re dead in the water. (And so is your company!)

So how are you preparing your employees to be adaptable, quick thinkers who can not just adjust to change, but embrace it? If you’re not actively doing anything, now is the time to start. Put a plan in place and start thinking about how you as an HR Leader can embrace a focus on change and adaptability! Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Cross train employees so they can fill in for each other, but also so they can be comfortable in change.
• Do you normally complete training exercises in person? How about changing the training methodologies – even on another topic. Instead of a classroom safety training, do it live, in person, in the warehouse. Or flip it around: is there a training that is usually in a classroom that can be done online? Changing training methods not only gets people acquainted with another learning method, but indirectly gets them accustomed to change and makes them more adaptable.
• Does your company culture embrace adaptability or inhibit it? Think about how your company’s very culture defines whether or not your employees embrace the new or fear it. Do you have suggestion boxes where changes can be submitted? Does your executive team openly talk about what’s changing in the industry and how the company is adjusting to remain competitive?

While you work on being adaptable, there’s still plenty of other items that need to be taken care of this month. Perhaps you can work on your own adaptability by performing one of these items in a different manner than you usually do, thereby increasing your own adaptability!

• Kids are back in school in September! Do you need to revisit any policies regarding flexible work schedules, time off for parents to deal with school issues, etc? The start of school can be disruptive at work, too, with parents getting used to new schedules, taking time off for the first day of school, leaving early for Back to School Night, etc. Make sure your policies regarding schedules is clear and understood by all employees.
• Speaking of schedules, did you adjust any attendance or schedules for the summer? Now is a good time to remind employees when these policies end and things go back to “normal.”
• EEO-1 Reports are due September 30th
• Start preparing a budget for 2018
• Start analyzing your YTD (year to date) turnover rates by department and overall
• Schedule a flu-shot clinic
• Update, review, and audit your internal and external HR and recruiting websites
• Check in on your 2018 goals: where are you personally, as a department, and on your part of the company’s goals?
• The Human Resource Executive Technology Conference and Expo is September 11-14 in Las Vegas.
• October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month and National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Start preparing any events you’d like to sponsor to honor either or both causes
• Start thinking about any Halloween celebration(s) you will sponsor. Can you sponsor a Trick-or-Treating party for employee’s children? A costume contest for employees? A Halloween party in the office?  An after-hours Halloween party? Be sure employees know the “rules” when you are sponsoring a party. In the HR-world, alcohol often leads to trouble, so plan carefully!

Enjoy these last few blissful days of warmth as we move into fall…and, as always, if you have more ideas about workplace adaptability we’d love to hear them – comment below!