The end of the financial year (aka EOFY) is just around the corner.
While you may think this time of year is all about getting your finances in order (our accountants would certainly like us to think so!), it’s equally as important to look at your HR as both play a big role in business success.
But what exactly should you be doing from an HR perspective coming up to 30 June? Don’t worry, we’ve got your end-of-financial-year HR to-do list in hand!
Check your policies and procedures
Let’s start with the not-so-exciting bit: a policy and procedural review.
Are your existing policies and procedures up to date? Are they aligned with your existing practices, current laws, and today’s hot issues?
To help you assess your existing policies and procedures, here are some of the important employment law changes happening this year:
- Minimum wages and superannuation are set to increase in July. Super will increase from 10.5% to 11% per annum.
- Pay secrecy terms in employment contracts are now prohibited
- Sexual harassment laws have been strengthened to include other people in the workplace, including volunteers, trainees, students, subcontractors, and customers.
- New employee attributes restrict discrimination against employees, breastfeeding, gender identity, and intersex status.
- Additional 10 days paid leave for permanent and casual workers involved with family or domestic violence.
- Either parent can claim parental leave, and two parents can take leave simultaneously. Parental leave pay is allowed to be taken in blocks as small as one day at a time, with periods of work in between within 2 years of the date of birth.
- Employees have the right to request flexible working under some circumstances. From 6 June, additional consultation requirements will apply.
- Employees are prohibited from entering a fixed-term or maximum-term contract spanning two or more years.
Make sure all your policies and procedures consider these changes and adjust things accordingly to ensure you stay compliant—and a desirable employer.
Review your culture, teams and leaders
Next, review the areas that form the foundation of your business success: your culture, teams and leaders.
By taking a step back to evaluate what’s working and what’s not in these areas, you can identify areas for improvement and create a roadmap for the year ahead.
Here are some key questions to consider:
- What worked well in the previous year?
- Were all the plans held accountable?
- What needs to shift to drive positive change?
Start by evaluating your culture. This includes reviewing your values and behaviours, mission statement and ways of working to ensure they align with your company goals. What areas could be improved?
Next, look at your teams. Review and evaluate their performance over the last financial year. Analyse strengths and weaknesses, evaluate team dynamics and identify opportunities for growth and development.
Also, look at your leadership. Are your leaders working to their potential? Consider their communication skills, decision-making abilities, and capacity to motivate and inspire employees. What could they be doing better?
Bring your team to the table
Once you’ve reviewed your culture, teams and leadership, ask your employees for their thoughts and feedback on each area. Also, do they feel valued, supported and engaged?
Seeking input from your team can help you further identify areas where things aren’t working so well, and you can make improvements. Be sure to include open-ended questions, such as ‘Is there anything else you’d like to see?” This can often deliver light bulb suggestions.
Depending on the size of your company or organisation, you can call people in for one-on-one meetings or send out a survey or email. We love online tools such as Jotform or SurveyMonkey.
Create a realistic roadmap
Armed with insights and knowledge about what’s working and what’s not, it’s time to reset. This means creating that roadmap.
Your EOFY roadmap should include specific priorities, goals and action plans to address any areas of improvement for the 23/24 financial year.
Start by identifying your goals.
This could be things like improving employee engagement, developing leadership skills or enhancing team performance. Make sure your goals are specific, measurable and achievable.
Next, develop action plans and assign responsibility.
Which individuals or teams are responsible for achieving each of your goals? Who’s accountable for each step? Make this clear and provide these people with what they need to get it done and the timeframes for doing it.
On top of this, create an HR calendar to outline key activities happening throughout the next financial year, for example, performance reviews, training and development, conferences, and engagement surveys. This will ensure prep time can be built in and all projects don’t fall at once.
HR development planning/budgets
Once you’ve identified your HR needs and goals for the next financial year, you should look at the budget.
Do you have any budget to use before the year-end? How much can you afford or are willing to spend in 23/34 on reward and recognition, getting the team together, building connections and ways of working, or leadership development?
Working out the coming year’s budget can be a complex task. Consider various things, such as how many employees need to be trained, how long any training will take, and the cost of materials and resources.
When planning and setting budgets, prioritisation is key. Allocate more dollars to high-priority activities that align most with your overall business strategy.
As well as looking at your business budget to fund these activities, suss out what government grants or funding are available.
Importantly, make sure you put measures in place to track your spending so you stay within budget and can see whether you’re getting good ROI.
Don’t forget to say thank you
Last but not least, say thank you to your team to show your appreciation for their hard work and contributions over the financial year.
It may only seem like a little thing, but it’s one of the most powerful positive actions you can take.
Saying thank you is not only a nice thing to do, but it can also help boost morale, increase job satisfaction and improve employee retention. So whether you send personalised notes, give out small gifts, or hold an EOFY event, make employee love a priority!
Boost success with HR in 23/24
Reviewing your HR at the end of the financial year is a great move.
It ensures your HR practices are compliant, effective, and aligned with your business strategy. The outcome? A happier and better-functioning workplace and a more successful 23/24!
