Just had a great group at an Alexandria SBDC seminar on HR, lots of good questions and networking. One of the first discussions was the usefulness of an HR calendar. Take an annual calendar from any system you use regularly and:

  • Add in all legal compliance dates that apply to your business. These include due dates for getting out W-2 and 1099 forms, OSHA logs, EEO reports if you are covered.
  • Put on your benefits policy renewal or due dates if you offer benefits. Figure in when you will do open enrollment.
  • Look at your planned hiring for the year – and work backwards to when you need to start your process to fill each position. Put that on your calendar.
  • Schedule regular employee communications. Whether you write a short email or do a formal newsletter or just a ‘state of the business’ note – regular communications of what is going on, what your goals are, customer/client information are critical. Having them on your calendar helps you do them on-time.

Other things you might want to add include company events, payroll dates, pay reviews, employee recognition dates.

This calendar will help keep you focused on upcoming needs for your attention and action. That reduces your stress and helps cut last second goat-ropes. This is a simple process that pays big.

Be sure you keep the calendar somewhere where you see it regularly. And can use it easily. That may be in any format or method that works for you. But do try it for a year and you will discover how useful it really is.