Are you and your team ready for the new year? Our HR Calendar for 2025 will ensure you include HR in your business throughout the year as well as give you some notable dates to focus on.
Download your 12 month HR calendar here
January – Workforce planning and recruitment
Start the year off right and review your current workforce and recruitment strategy for the year.
Do you have job descriptions that detail the role and responsibilities of each position in your business? This will not only help you with individual employee management but also devise a structure and make sure all tasks are covered.
Do you have gaps to fill or additional roles to fill? Now is the time to review your strategy of how you will attract talent, the criteria they need to meet and how you will select your next employee.
This Brew Monday, 20 January, The Samaritans are reminding everyone to reach out for a cuppa and a catch-up with the people you care about. We’ve popped this date on our HR Calendar.
The Samaritans know there’s no such thing as ‘Blue Monday’ – feeling low isn’t just something that happens on Mondays or a random day in January.
So out with the blue and in with the brew!
It doesn’t matter if it’s a Monday morning or Saturday night, or if you’re drinking green tea, black coffee or orange juice. If you’re sharing a cuppa and listening, you’re doing it right!
February – Compensation, Benefits and Pay Review
What do your employees actually get? We have by now the new minimum wage requirements for April 2025, so you need to check if anyone is due an increase and also how the rise affects the gap to other pay rates in your business.
Other statutory compensation rates are also affected so check that your payroll system is ready for April.
What other benefits do you offer your staff? There’s the traditional Private Medical, Life Insurance and Gym memberships but can you think outside the box. What do your staff actually want? It could be food related, discounts or maybe flexibility.
March – Policy reviews
Employment legislation changes come in around this time of year, but it is also best practice to annually review your company documents to check they are still applicable and say what you really want them to say!
Putting document control on your policies will easily allow you to see what needs reviewing, when and by who.
April – Employee Training Review
Do you have mandatory training requirements? How do you monitor when training is due? Take some time to look at your employees’ skills and you could create a matrix so you can easily assess who needs to be trained in what for each role and diarise the training renewal requirements.
May – Mental Health Awareness
Mental Health Awareness Week is 12th – 18th May this year, Mind set at topic to give you some ideas on how you can get involved.
Mental Health can affect your employees when they are work with their productivity and social interaction, as well as cause employee absence so it is important to have policies and procedures in place that will support your employees, at various levels and be approachable.
June – Staff reviews
Staff reviews, in whatever format you choose, are important for several reasons.
They aid open communication to discuss things like performance, expectations and identifying areas for development.
Regularly reviewing your staff will increase engagement as it shows you care and value them as a part of your business. Keep this as a regular on your HR calendar and you’ll remember them every year!
July – Work life balance
As we get into the summer (and hopefully some good weather) it is a good time to think how about how your staff balance work with their lifestyles. With a summer of sport, music festivals and BBQs, being sat in the office when all the fun is happening outside can be demotivating. What can you do as a business to help your employees enjoy life as well their time at work.
August – Annual leave review
What is your policy on annual leave? Can employees carry over if they don’t get to take it all, how much do they get? As we are mid-year, now is a good time to have a look at who has got what left. If there is a considerable balance outstanding, have a chat with your staff to see what their plans are to get it booked in.
The legal requirement is 5.6 weeks per year (can be inclusive of bank holidays) for a full-time employee. Make sure you are meeting the legal requirements.
September – Diversity and Inclusion
Founded by Inclusive Employers in 2013, National Inclusion Week® (NIW) is a yearly event dedicated to celebrating inclusion and taking action to build inclusive workplaces.
Inclusion is an overarching culture encompassing diversity, equality, and many other aspects of our working lives.
Feeling included is a key part of human nature, and it can be difficult to feel included if you don’t feel represented at your workplace, for example due your race, gender, or because of health matter. People spend most of their time at work, so it’s critical that they feel safe and respected
Have you got policies that you embed into your daily work activities to encourage inclusion, for example your recruitment policy?
October – Employee Survey
What is it really like to work at your business? Do you staff get what they need to do their job? Do the feel valued? All key questions that you get answers to as part of a staff survey.
To do a survey justice you need to think about what you are wanting to find out and what can you realistically deliver on if employees bring it up. For example, if there is no budget for any significant pay rises, don’t ask people about their pay.
Make sure you follow up and feedback on the outcome of the survey and actions you are going to take. We’ve put a plan for the month on our HR Calendar.
November – Plan for the festive season
Christmas seems to start as soon as we put the Halloween decorations away! What time off will your staff want over Christmas and what does your policy say they are entitled to. We have a blog on how you can manage time off fairly over Christmas.
December – Wrap up the year!
Time to reflect and see what went well this year, what you want to improve upon and maybe what you want to do differently next year.
Your software can give you data of performance, staff absence, turnover and retention. All great KPIs of how your workforce is doing.
But go easy on yourself – being a leader in business is hard.
Don’t forget Slice are here to guide you through the year, whether it be someone at the end of the phone to ask questions to, or someone on site to help implement your HR strategy, give us a shout and we will see how we can help!
Hopefully our HR calendar will make help HR stay on the agenda through the year and support in managing your employees, but do give us a shout if you need to talk anything through.