5 New Year's Resolutions for Your Business
It’s common for people to make personal resolutions for the new year, but business owners should also take this opportunity to do the same. Reflecting with your team on the past year and setting goals for the new year helps keep employees motivated and focused and the business run more efficiently.
These resolutions can be company-wide or smaller in scale and focused on management teams or individual employees. Here are six New Year's resolutions that include some best practices to help run your business successfully:
Complete an internal mental health review
The last two years have led many businesses to prioritise mental health in their workplace. Employers and managers now have more resources available to help understand their employees’ mental health struggles and introduce policies and measures to assist them. Taking an internal mental health review means allowing your employees to voice any concerns or triggers that may have gone unnoticed. This is one way to be more proactive in resolving any issues and creating a healthy and happy workplace.
Review policies and procedures
Policies and procedures are essential working documents in an office, helping to set employee expectations and ensure compliance. Standard HR policies include bullying and harassment policy, work health and safety policy, work from home policy, COVID-19 policy etc. Each policy should list the date last reviewed and a scheduled future review date to ensure they are amended regularly (every 6-12 months) and reflect any changes in legislation and industry standards relevant to your business.
Review employment contracts
If you are using a standard employment contract for all employees, a lawyer should review these to ensure they are compliant with current legislation, industry standards, and awards. This area of law changes frequently, and business owners are often caught out by applying the wrong industry standards and award rates for their employees, resulting in significant employment law issues. As part of this review, do an audit of your employees’ current job descriptions and update where necessary.
Encourage delegating
Business owners and managers could always practice more delegating. But employers should also feel comfortable enough to ask for help when they are struggling with their workload. This will maintain job satisfaction and prevent employee and employer burnout.
Introduce business planning events
Keep the momentum going throughout the year by having quarterly or bi-annual meetings dedicated to the ongoing planning of the business. Accountability is an excellent tool for ensuring employees perform consistently and that your business remains on track. These events offer a time and place for creative collaboration for all employees, enabling them to feel heard and contribute to business success.
Optimum Legal is well experienced in reviewing and preparing employment contracts, including any relevant policies, that protect both employer and employee. If you require any assistance in this area, book a consultation with us today.