Have you already started considering the HR trends, challenges and priorities to focus on in 2022? Should your priority next year be driving improved workforce wellbeing initiatives? Will it be learning and skills development or health and safety compliance? Perhaps your biggest 2021 HR challenge has been employee engagement and talent attraction? Or maybe it’s all about simply getting your payroll right every time?
Our fun HR quiz is a great way for HR managers to answer these questions and identify the most important priorities for your HR team in 2022 and beyond. You will also be entered into a competition to win £100 of Amazon vouchers for you or your team!
Take our festive HR Quiz today
Firstly, imagine you’re managing a team of elves in one of Santa’s workshops.
Managing elves is hard work at the best of times, but it’s hard not to get snowed under at Christmas.
From competing for the latest talented elf with the new toy shops popping up all over the North Pole; making sure your elves are reskilled to make the next innovative new toy idea Santa has come up with, to just managing all the elves wanting Christmas Eve off. Last year, elf-made man Twinkletoes was still making train sets when he should have been making drones and Peppermint left to work for your competitor 'Santamental Toys'. It’s snow laughing matter.
Yule know you need enough magic dust to keep them happy in order to get all of the Christmas presents made successfully and delivered on time, but that's easier said than done - and your particular customers are the hardest to please of all.
Take the HR quiz to discover which elf leader you are...and what your HR priority should be for 2022
Bright Spark
You may have been having some recent challenges with learning and skills development across your elf workforce.
Perhaps there’s new learning tools you could be using in 2022, or there are specific new skills required of your elves as your workshop continues to grow and evolve? Have you got ways to identify the skills your elves have now, and those that will be needed to make the toys of the future? Perhaps you could look at more flexible ways for your elves to access and engage with learning, like on their snobile? (bad Christmas pun, we know)
There could also be an opportunity to help build their elf-confidence so they can advance and pursue their career development goals and unlock opportunities to work on the technical toys or with Santa himself.
Addressing your learning, skills and elf development challenges now can help you be even better prepared for Christmas 2022.
Gingerbread
Looks like you may be having some challenges juggling last-minute Christmas Eve leave requests. Did Pixie ask for leave before Buddy? Can you effectively track and manage their attendance and leave entitlements to report to Santa?
Or maybe you’ve had some inaccuracies in paying your elves? Or paid Cocoa too late? You may be facing challenges of complying with those ever-changing North Polian regulations?
Oh deer. Doesn’t sound like claus for celebration that’s for sure.
We suggest looking at ways you can get your HR and payroll software in peppermint condition next year, and doing more of the hard work for you. This could include looking at ways your workforce can elf-serve a bit more, so they can manage their own attendance, sickness, absence and leave, without having to post messages up the chimney, and so you can make sure you don’t accidentally pay Gumdrop when you should have paid Robin.
Download our expert guide to choosing software that supports your digital HR strategy.
Star
How are you supposed to attract talented new elves when there's new workshops popping up making new toys like drones for kids? How can you compete?
Don't know whether you've got the next Dobby or the next Buddy? (No idea what we're talking about? What kind of elf leader are you?!)
Yule likely be having recruitment challenges right now, either struggling to attract the most talented elves, or those that know how to make your kind of toys. Or perhaps the great ones with the knowledge to make the most complex toys are leaving to work for other workshops?
You could start by looking at the skills of the elves you already have and find new ways to engage and develop them. Perhaps revisit your recruitment strategies focussing on things like flexibility, culture, incentives and a digital-first approach in order to attract the most talented elves.
Hope
We may expect all elves to be happy and motivated – many have high elf-esteem in fact - but that's not always the case.
Perhaps you’ve struggled with the wellbeing of your elves this year and want to avoid another rebel without a clause like Jolly?
Your priority for next year should be new initiatives to support and manage the elf, wellbeing and engagement of your workshop. This could include apps to help them feel more connected, wellbeing training to help signpost them to support and resources, or recognition tools to ensure they feel valued and fulfilled, wherever they’re working and whatever toys they're making.
Snowball
You potentially have some elf and safety or compliance related challenges right now.
Your elves may need more support in being able to effectively recognise and manage risk. Pudding climbed the tree to hang the star without the proper equipment or training last year - not safe, not safe at all.
Your priority next year could be prioritising elf and safety training and ways to track and manage risk, so Pudding knows what's expected of him and Santa doesn't get fined again.
Or, perhaps it's cyber related compliance that's your challenge? Mistakes happen when elves are busy. Making sure your elves are cyber aware can help avoid another elf like Fruitcake, accidentally handing over your toy innovation plans to the Grinch.
Behind every successful, growing and innovative toy workshop, you’ll find highly engaged elves that are supported by the tools they need to succeed.
Discover more about Access People, integrated software for HR, Learning, Payroll and Compliance – and have your elf a merry little Christmas.