The end of 2014 is almost here. Next week Thanksgiving and before you know it New Years. Back in 2012 I made the following year end reccomendations:
- Is the company employee manual up to date – any changes necessary? – The end of the year is always a good time to review those policies and procedures and see how they worked in 2012. Often the year will show some deficiencies or problems with policies as they are applied.
- Are employee files up to date? Make sure all employees have acknowledged receiving the most recent HR manual or any changes to the manual.
- Are company employment agreements up to date? Make sure any employment agreements are updated or amended to reflect changes in ownership or term expiration. Quite often those agreements are forgotten about and there is no agreement in place.
- Make sure employees have signed off on all non-compete, non-solicit, or confidentiality agreements.
- Frequently the end of the year involves reviews. Make sure those reviews are acknowledged by the employee and make it to their employment files.
These remain good suggestions. The law hasn’t changed that much and the traditional HR/Legal items employers should cover remain the same.
End of year is also a good time to have conversations with employees about where they are going. If there is a poor peforming employee it might be time to discuss a transition. There is never a good time for these discussions but employers owe it to their employees and it will be best for everyone in the long run.
Finally, end of year is also a good time to take stock of security. I don’t necessarily mean whether the locks on the doors are strong (though that’s a good place to start). What I mean is cybersecurity. Are the companies’ trade secrets treated like trade secrets? Is access restricted to this type of information and does the company keep track of who accesses this type of information? These are all good things to consider as we move into 2015.
