Introduction

January is when everyone draws up a list of New Year’s Resolutions that they personally want to achieve during the year. It can be based on lessons learnt from the previous year or what they want to achieve this year.Why should it only be confined to personal matters? Why can’t Employers and Employees decide that January could also be the month whereby they decide what the New Year’s Resolutions for the workplace should be?

How should the New Year’s Resolutions in the workplace be determined?

It would be quite helpful if both the Employer and Employees can reflect on the previous year. They should be honest about what went wrong in the workplace the year before. This will help to determine what must be changed this new year. A meeting and/or planning session can be arranged whereby both the Employer and the Employee can discuss what can be improved upon as well as the goals that they want to achieve for the coming year.

It is important that this be a frank discussion and both Parties must commit to the successful achievement of the New Year’s Resolutions. Furthermore, not only should work performance and work non-performance be discussed, but all the disciplinary issues that arose the previous year must be addressed as well. To ensure that the New Year’s Resolutions for the workplace won’t be forgotten by the second week of January, it is important that these Resolutions be written down and dispatched throughout the workplace. Furthermore, it can be divided into monthly goals so that both Parties can track the progress made and even adjust it, if needs be.

What should Employers do?

The Employer should come to the meeting and/or planning session armed with the issues that prevented everyone from performing as they should have the previous year. The issues list must be detailed and specific to enable both Parties to have an open discussion. The issues list must include performance concerns as well as disciplinary transgressions.
The Employer must furthermore also think about solutions and/or strategies that they want to propose in the workplace to change the status quo. This could entail that new Policies should be drafted to accommodate the strategic changes. It could even further necessitate that the Disciplinary Code must be amended to ensure that the disciplinary transgressions of the previous year will be efficiently addressed the coming year.

What should Employees do?

Employees must also come with a list of their own of what went wrong in the workplace the previous year. They should be honest about their role in things not working out or going as smoothly as it could have the previous year. Furthermore, they should also have suggestions how the previous year’s issues can be addressed, eradicated and/or improved upon.

Benefits of setting New Year’s Resolutions in the workplace

Setting New Year’s Resolutions in the workplace will ensure better communication between Employers and Employees. This will in turn confirm that everyone is clear on what they want to achieve and how they are going to achieve it this coming year. The lessons learnt from the previous year would have been extracted and the solutions and/or strategies would have been drawn up to address this. This will guarantee that everyone in the workplace grows on a personal level and will ensure the future growth of the Employer’s business which will benefit both Parties.

Conclusion

New Year’s Resolutions for the workplace will set the tone for the coming year. It will give peace of mind to Employers knowing that their Employees are certain of what is expected of them the coming year and that everyone is on the same page. This will free-up the Employer’s time so that they can focus on running and expanding their businesses without having to address issues constantly.Employees, on the other hand, will also know what they must do the coming year to achieve the goals set. It will provide certainty and clarity to them. The Employees will have a roadmap to follow.

Contact SchoemanLaw Inc today for expert advice on all Employment-related matters. We can assist with the chairing of Disciplinary Hearings and drafting of Disciplinary Codes and Policies. We also provide training to Employers to help ease their burden so that they can focus on running their businesses.

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Nicolene Schoeman-Louw