As the end of the year approaches, your tasks in the human resources department will pile up, from preparing payroll for employees’ year-end bonus to updating new recruitment strategy for the New Year. Dealing with deadlines while the people around you might have been drown in festive environment, it will likely to increase your stress level if you do not have mature plans and open communication with your employees.

To help you get out of from such situation, here are some tips to help you get ready for a year-end.  

Plan ahead – As best as possible, you need to plan at least two or a month before year end. Make list of everything you need to prepare. In this way, errors are less likely to occur.

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Here are some recommendations of  End-of-Year Checklist from Zenefit that might help you:

For Employee Benefit

1. Affordable Care Act Preparation include:

• calculate number of Full-Time Employee (FTEs),
• perform Affordable Test on your benefits offerings,
• double-check status of grandfathered plans to see if they can carry over,
• distribute Health Insurance Marketplace Notices to employees,
• consider amending employee pre-tax contribution to flexible spending account (FSA) to meet any increase,
• prepare for reporting Forms 1094-C and 1095-C to the internal revenue service (IRS),
• and prepare to distribute written statements to your employees.

1. Examine benefit package
2. Finalise employee open enrolment details
3. Verify employee dependant coverage
4. Distribute new health insurance cards to employee
5. Ensure proper end-to-year paid of time (PTO) carryover in the system or pay employees out for PTO (it depends on your policy)

For Payroll System  

1. Review company-wide salaries which include perform cost-of-living adjustment and compare your offering to market averages.
2. Schedule and issue holiday bonuses
3. Prepare for the first payroll run of the new year
4. Confirm new year payroll schedule
5. Order W-2s and 1099s
6. Review employee wage, tax, and withholding information (such as W-4s)

For Hiring Preparation

1. Review hiring processes such as analyse recruiting process and onboarding length
2. Have departments check staffing needs to plan for new hires
3. Create and update succession plans
4. Update job descriptions

For General Human Resources Preparation

1. Review HR budget for new year to begin allocate resources
2. Perform annual performance reviews
3. Plan holiday party
4. Make departmental New Year’s resolutions
5. Review and update company policies
6. Remind employees to update information such as addresses, tax documents, moving planning
7. Review vendor contracts and set up renewal details
8. Back up necessary HR data and personnel files
9. Clean and organize personal workspaces
10. Create and distribute vacation calendar for new year

And here are 5 essential ways you can adopt to prepare for the year end:

01     Compensation – Consulting or collecting information for OSHA log can help you identify and prevent work hazards that might occur. They can also recommend you safety procedures or tips for future accidents.

02     Payroll – You should calculate every year-end bonus and review year-end payroll report for W-2s. Also, examine every job description to ensure whether your employees are properly categorized as exempt or non-exempt. It helps correspond with wage increases if any.

03     Benefits plans – You should review every benefit plans and note whether it still meets your company needs or not. Not to forget, they should still remain cost-effective for your budget company. You can hold open enrolment meetings to know if your employees agree with the changing of plans and premiums.  

04     Policies and procedures – New Year, new rules. You should update policies in order to remove any outdated information and to ensure that they remain compliance with all state, federal, and local regulations that are applicable for your businesses. Likewise, check your internal procedures to ensure that it reflects the most efficient practices.

05     Strategic plans – You can consult to your upper management or executives for upcoming forecasts, goals, and budget. You can also examine your next year needs such as recruiting, responsibilities of HR staffs, employee retention or downsizing.

Finally, begin preparation for next year – repeat and refine your process.

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