Evaluating Your HR Needs for 2023

CoAdvantage – As the old year rolls over into the new, it’s a good opportunity for businesses to take stock and prepare. For HR teams, that means taking some time to understand where the challenges of 2022 – market disturbances, labor shortages, and more – have left them and what they need to do to get back on track to meet organizational objectives in 2023. Here’s how to do that.

1: Gather your data

Before you start planning your HR strategy, make sure that you have the necessary data. For instance, did you collect any employee feedback in 2022 through surveys, performance review feedback, exit interviews, or any other methodology? You can also find good employee-related data hiding in plain sight in other areas. For example, you can glean some insight into the success of your 2022 benefits enrollment by analyzing sign-up changes and collecting data about visits to, or downloads of, educational resources.

You’ll also want to collect data about HR’s 2022 performance relative to organization goals. We write regularly about how HR can be a value generator for employers, but this requires HR to align its work closely with the company’s larger objectives.

2: Make a plan

Remember, a goal is not a plan; it’s the destination of the plan. Even once HR goals have been identified, it’s necessary to find a path to reach those goals, which in turn requires two key ingredients: actions and metrics. The former provides a roadmap that shows you where to go and what to do next, while the latter allows you to measure your progress.

Start by analyzing the results of your 2022 HR plan (if you had one) or just review the year and identify any notable hits and misses. Then, look at where HR’s current efforts stand relative to organizational objectives for 2023. Where there are discrepancies or shortcomings, create an action plan. If you don’t have sufficient data or input from employees from the past year, that by itself might be a good initiative to pursue in early 2023.

3: Identify areas where you need help

If you didn’t see desired results from your own efforts in 2022, or if you have identified areas of potential improvement or opportunity, it might be time to consider outsourcing at least some HR tasks. For HR teams to truly excel, it’s important to free HR staff from purely administrative work so they can focus on higher-value, high-priority strategic work. This is especially true at small businesses, which are likely understaffed and overburdened relative to the demands placed on whoever handles HR administration.

An HR partner can provide enormous value here. If nothing else, they can often offer better service and benefits at lower prices that your own company can manage through economy-of-scale pricing. But more importantly, they can free you from the critical but time-consuming tasks that can bog down in-house staff and give them the flexibility and space to flourish.

With these three pieces in place – the data to drive good decisions, a solid plan that charts the course from here to where you want to be, and the right support in the areas where it will do the most good – your organization will be positioned for a fantastic new year.

CoAdvantage, one of the nation’s largest Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), helps small to mid-sized companies with HR administration, benefits, payroll, and compliance. To learn more about our ability to create a strategic HR function in your business that drives business growth potential, contact us today.