A new year brings the opportunity to evaluate your entire business, from how you can capitalize on the previous year's successes and address shortcomings to reevaluating and adjusting your longer-term goals. Turning these assessments into action plans can be a challenge, especially given the ongoing pandemic.

One department that's critical to turning your organization's ideas into action is human resources. Human resources initiatives are crucial components of any business. Without HR, there is no talent to power the organization — and without that, how can a business function, let alone innovate? Now more than ever, we can’t overlook HR’s vital role in keeping businesses competitive and productive.

Consider employee mental health and well-being. In the past two years, disruptions to work, fear of illness, and economic uncertainty have contributed to mental health challenges for everyone. HR support has been crucial in helping employees not only survive difficult times, but also thrive.

The Importance of Aligning HR Goals

The key to a successful HR function is knowing how to align your HR strategies with your business goals. HR shouldn’t be seen as an island, responsible for sending forms and gathering signatures but not an integral part of the whole operation. When HR aligns with other departments, the business improves across the board.

For example, according to a study by Bersin by Deloitte, when HR teams used data from other departments to guide their work, they were four times more likely to be respected by business colleagues. Alignment also enhances employee satisfaction and performance. On the other hand, when human resources goals don’t align with the goals of other departments and the business as a whole, the results can be chaotic and disruptive.

So how can your HR department align with overall business goals? By being proactive rather than just reactive. The traditional approach to HR is reactive, such as posting an open position once a department manager communicates to HR about the opening.

With a proactive, long-term HR strategy, however, the heads of HR and other departments discuss short- and long-term hiring needs in detail and develop a strategy to meet them. This allows HR to foresee opportunities and how they align with other company needs. HR can make more informed decisions and won’t be caught posting a job ad at the last minute.

HR can also participate in crafting a compelling vision for employee satisfaction. For example, in recent years, giants such as Google have famously provided employees with an expanded range of perks like on-site cafes, sports complexes, prestigious guest speakers, and other benefits.

Of course, you'll need to carefully consider how to implement HR initiatives in your organization, and that can take a significant amount of time. To stay productive as an HR department, it's important to balance more complex, long-term goals — such as the ones discussed above — with short-term, operational human resources goals.

Shorter-Term HR Goals for the New Year

Let’s take a quick look at some short-term goals that you can stay on top of in 2022 to support a long-term HR strategy.

1. Keep up with administrative responsibilities.

Often thought of as HR's only job by those who don’t know much about it, the task of creating and distributing forms and documents is still a key part of HR operations. Don’t get behind on this. Start the year right by making sure paperwork is in order — ideally through a comprehensive digital platform.

2. Craft winning job descriptions.

A new year means changes in employees’ goals — including potential employees. It’s a time when people plan changes and improvements, so it’s also a great time for HR to put extra care into creating and refining job descriptions for open positions. Ideally, you want to capture a feeling of newness and opportunity in these write-ups.

3. Track time off properly.

Many employees take time off during the holiday season and even into the start of the new year. Make sure you're supporting that and tracking time off properly and fairly to keep employee morale high.

4. Keep things fair for everyone.

No one wants to start a new year with unresolved issues or a sense of unfairness. To avoid this, HR can carefully document workplace conflicts and issues and facilitate objective performance appraisals. In both cases, HR is an impartial party that can ensure that both praise and opportunities to improve are clear and documented.

Start the New Year Off Right

Meeting the goals of human resource management is critical to an organization's success. By taking a few short-term human resources goals seriously, your HR department can start 2022 off with a bang. That can naturally segue into larger conversations with other departments about how to align long-term visions. And that benefits everyone.

Human resources strategy and planning should never just be left to chance. Start now with these simple steps and enjoy a fruitful and productive year ahead.