Happy New Year! We hope that you all had a lovely holiday season. As we usher in the new year and return to post holiday to-do lists, this is a great opportunity to review your current Human Resources practices, policies and documents. Here are a few areas we recommend you focus on:
- Statutory Holidays: While statutory holidays generally remain the same year after year, it is important to review each year to make note of any that fall on non-working days. Following this you can publish a statutory holiday calendar to communicate the designated dates that your organization will observe in 2025.
- Payroll: Review the 2025 payroll schedule to determine if there are any conflicts in dates for processing payroll or paydays. Note any minimum wage increases or changes to benefits/statutory deductions that may be occurring in 2025.
- Employee Information: Confirm with your employees that their personal information on file remains up-to-date (ex. address, emergency contact, licenses, work permit expiry etc.). Review your record keeping practices to ensure you remain compliant with privacy and retention requirements.
- Performance Reviews: Review your performance review process and supporting documents to ensure they remain relevant to your organization. Confirm the schedule for 2025 and communicate these timelines to your managers and employees to ensure all parties have ample time to complete documentation prior to the review.
- Posting and Training Requirements: Review legislated training/posting requirements and make note of new requirements or employees who may require training/retraining in 2025 (i.e., respect in the workplace training, WHMIS training, and first aid training).
- Policies and Employee Handbooks: Review your Handbook to ensure that all your policies still apply and/or comply with changes to legislation that occurred throughout 2024.
- Employment Agreements: Review your agreements – better yet have us review them! - yearly to ensure they are up to date and remain enforceable.
- Vacation: Ensure you have properly addressed 2024 vacation and any balances have been allocated for. Ensure that 2025 vacation entitlements and accruals are accurately set up in your vacation tracking system. If you have any Company shutdowns, now is when you should be communicating this.
Prioritizing these reviews on a yearly basis will ensure the rest of the year runs smoothly and you remain compliant with legislative changes. If you have any questions or would like our support, please do not hesitate to contact Client Care.