Tag: HR Best Practices

Categories
Managing Processes

7 HR Resets Every Team Needs at the Start of the Year 

by Deborah Eke

The new year often exposes cracks in HR operations. Leave balances may not add up. Payroll rules can change overnight. Employee records can feel outdated as soon as you open them. For HR teams, January is less about resolutions and more about resetting systems, so the year runs more smoothly than the last. 

A practical HR checklist helps teams shift from firefighting to forward planning. With the right technology, much of this work happens without manual effort or constant follow-ups. 

Here’s what should be on every HR leader’s radar as the year begins: 

1. Conduct Performance Reviews and Set Goals 

As one of the most valuable ways to align people with business priorities, performance reviews help managers give meaningful feedback, recognize achievement, and set clear development goals for the new year. Tying these conversations to learning and career progression also strengthens retention and engagement. 

2. Review and Update HR Policies for Compliance 

New laws, remote work norms, and workplace expectations evolve fast. Reviewing your employee handbook, updated policies, and compliance requirements ensures your organization stays protected and employees understand expectations around pay, time off, conduct, and hybrid/remote arrangements.  

3. Strengthen Payroll Management for the Year Ahead 

Payroll errors are costly, and regulatory updates only increase the risk. Each year brings changes to tax rules, deductions, and statutory contributions. HR and finance teams need payroll systems that can adapt without disrupting operations. 

For organizations operating in Nigeria, alignment with the New Tax Act (NTA 2025) is a critical focus. Beyond specific regulations, payroll systems should maintain accuracy across salaries, benefits, and deductions. HumanManager supports compliant and consistent payroll management, reducing errors and saving hours of reconciliation every month. 

4. Review and Reset Leave Plans 

Leave policies are often carried over without question, even when the workforce has changed. Hybrid schedules, new roles, and compliance updates all affect how leave should work. 

Start by auditing existing leave types, carryover rules, and approval workflows. Are employees clear on what they’re entitled to? Are managers approving leave consistently? Automation helps by removing guesswork and keeping leave balances accurate in real time. With HumanManager, leave planning becomes structured, transparent, and easy to manage without chasing spreadsheets.

5. Update Staff Data 

Outdated employee data causes problems across HR, from benefits administration to performance tracking. The start of the year is the right time to review personal details, job roles, reporting lines, and employment status. 

A centralized HR system allows teams to update staff records once and trust that information everywhere else. Clean data isn’t just about compliance. It’s the foundation for better decisions throughout the year. 

6. Build Data that Drives Insight 

Data shouldn’t sit unused. When structured properly, it reveals patterns in attendance, turnover, performance, and engagement. Modern HR platforms turn everyday activity into insights that leadership can actually use. With HumanManager, HR teams can track trends, spot risks early, and support workforce planning with real numbers instead of assumptions. 

7. Equip Employees with Learning Pathways 

Employee development is no longer optional. Skills evolve fast, and people expect growth opportunities that match their roles. 

Learning pathways help employees understand what’s next and how to get there. Through HumanManager Learning, organizations can create clear learning pathways that connect performance, training, and career progression. Employees understand what’s next, and HR teams can support development without adding administrative burden. 

A strong start sets the tone for the entire year. When HR processes are automated, data-driven, and people-focused, teams gain time to focus on what matters most: their workforce.

Start the new year with clarity, efficiency, and a competitive HR advantage, request a demo: https://humanmanager.net/demo-request or send an email to [email protected] 

Categories
Managing Processes

Errors To Avoid During Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisals have proven to be one of the best ways to improve employees’ productivity and enhance outcomes. This periodic evaluation of staff performance provides feedback on their strengths and weaknesses, enhances subsequent output, helps identify and reward high-performing members of staff, and determines appropriate salary upgrades.

Despite its numerous benefits, a lot of mistakes — sometimes known as rater errors — from a supervisor’s biased viewpoint can result in low morale, anxiety, poor job satisfaction, or even loss of job. It is therefore pertinent that supervisors, managers, and human resources personnel understand these biases and how to eliminate them during appraisal exercises.

These few points present some of the pitfalls that must be avoided and how to overcome them:

1. Central Tendency/Favoritism/Grouping

Challenge: The appraiser rates staff in a not-too-good or not-too-bad category. This is unfair to employees who really deserve a higher grading.

Solution: Establish and agree on SMARTKey Performance Index (KPI) at the beginning of the appraisal period and evaluate performance against these goals. Also, document observable behaviour over the entire performance cycle.

2. The Halo/Horns Effect

Challenge: Occurs when the appraiserallows specific positive or negative factors related to the employee’s work affect the overall assessment of performance.

Solution: Track and document performance based on agreed KPIs daily, weekly, monthly, bi-annually, or annually. Identify specific behavioural attributes that support your ratings and be sure that none is influenced because it is particularly admirable or irritating.

3. Bias/Comparison/Holding a Grudge

Challenge: This is when the appraiser makes an employee suffer for past behaviour, irrespective of the positive output at work or when the appraiser judges the employee based on factors like state of origin, gender, religion, age, disability, weight, height, marital status, etc.

Solution: Focus on the employee’s work, not on personal matters, unless those personal matters affect the work of the employee. Check your perceptions for accuracy, fairness, balance, and consistency.

4. Recency

Challenge: This occurs when an appraiser rates only recent performance, good or bad.

Solution: Keep track of performance and document observable behaviour over the entire performance cycle to get a balanced view. Ask others for their observations of the employee to see if they have different views.

5. The Sunflower Effect

Challenge: This is when an appraiser rates employees high regardless of performance, to make themselves look good or to be able to give more compensation.

Solution: Employees can justify ratings through tracked comments across set approval workflows for various levels.

6. First Impression Error

Challenge: This is the rater’s tendency to let their first impression of an employee’s performance carry too much weight in the evaluation of performance over an entire rating period.

Solution: Appraisals should support regular feedback, reports and trend analysis to help line managers and HR track employee’s rating over a period.

7. Concluding appraisals without feedback for improvement

Challenge: Employees do not get comprehensive feedback after the appraisal exercise.

Solution: Use an automated appraisal system that allows for feedback. Always provide unbiased feedback about employees’ strengths and weaknesses, and even suggest helpful measures to boost outcomes.

Appraisal errors can cause your entire performance review programme to lose credibility among your employees. Consistent analysis of the process can help avoid this situation!

With HumanManager, you can enjoy a seamless and efficient performance management process that suits interactions within your organisation among employees at all levels, as well as in the physical and virtual workspace. HumanManager makes it a lot easier to achieve your organisational goals.

Ready for a topnotch appraisal? Get started at www.humanmanager.net.