And another year has gone by! Like Romans who began each year by making promises to Janus -the God of beginning and after whom the month January is named; this is that time of the year when we make our resolutions for 2014.

1. Be the Agent for Socialization

My Resolution: “I will start leveraging internal social media applications to satisfy my employees’ need to stay connected & socialize”

Employees use social media mostly for personal benefits. Businesses must understand this need and should strive to fulfill it by creating company specific social networks via internal applications.

2. Publicize your Rockstars

My Resolution: “I will start using new avenues for recognition of my employees like company Facebook, LinkedIn etc.”

Recognition on social media is the idea platform to satiate the needs of a multi-generational workforce. Putting their pictures on company’s Facebook page, giving them recommendations on LinkedIn, tweeting about them, mentioning them on company blogs are some of the ways to make employees feel like company rockstars.

3. Mutual Respect

My Resolution: “I will start sharing job description & interview panel profiles with my prospective candidates”

Detailed and clear descriptions not only help present a clear picture of expectations from the employee, help them figure out whether they are suitable for the job, but also removes ambiguity and confusion regarding the job role. Sharing interview panel profile demonstrates respect towards prospective employees.

4. The Learning Potluck

My Resolution: “I will start utilizing networking as a learning medium for my employees”

Seminars/ conferences are good platforms for networking and as adults we learn more quickly with experiential sharing. Networking makes learning an ongoing, open-ended process which is self-directed and explorative in nature.

5. Let the Games Begin

My Resolution: “I will start exploring learning through gamification, and storytelling”

Using gamification in training is effective for a variety of reasons like ‘increasing level of interest in trainings’ and ‘better engagement. Another emerging area, storytelling, is also considered safe as it is ideal to engage all generations since it connects individuals through emotions.

6. Game for Big Data Insights

My Resolution: “I will start exploring Predictive Analytics for obtaining Insights in Big Data”

The insights hidden in Big Data today are innumerable. Predictive analytics solutions are the best way to unearth those and they can be utilized not only in recruitment but can also be explored for areas of performance management, engagement and rewards among others.

7. The Book is Judged by its Cover

My Resolution: “I will continue using social media to track my employer brand & reputation”

When it comes to trusting information from social media by applicants, most of them trust social sites to know about the reputation of the company and its work culture. HR needs to capitalize on this opportunity to represent genuine and positive content on social media traffic about the company, its work culture and the specific jobs.

8. Design Defines Delivery

My Resolution: “I will continue insourcing design and outsourcing faculty”

When it comes to training delivery, external resources are considered more effective whereas design responsibility should be best held internally. A word of caution for L&D is to ensure that faculties should not become extremely towering personalities so that they end up overshadowing design.

9. It’s a Comma not Full stop

My Resolution: “I will continue exploring how to engage with my alumni (for referrals & strengthening my employer brand and other dipstick studies)”

Alumni can not only act as brand ambassadors for the organization but can also serve as a great sample for dipstick studies to preview policy change impact, areas of improvement etc.

10. My Best Friend is my Manager

My Resolution: “I will continue being a friend, philosopher, and guide for my Gen Y (& not a gatekeeper)”

Gen Y wants their managers to be more of a friend, philosopher and guide rather than a decision maker. This approach helps managers to understand their way of working, life’s motivations and the challenges they face. Managers can also benefit from this equation through reverse mentoring.

11. The Magic of 90

My Resolution: “I will stop having learning sessions of more than 90 minutes”

90 minutes is training session is considered ideal. With micro learning being the next wave in learning, 90 minutes of magic could be entire training session time in years to come.

12. Differential Generations Differential Rewards

My Resolution: “I will stop having a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to rewards and will structure differential rewards for different employee generations”

Gone are the days when a single total rewards strategy addresses the needs of every generation. The ultimate goal for Compensation & Benefits professionals will be to develop a made-to-order reward scheme for every single employee based on his/ her preferences.

13. Work-Life – from Nice 2 Need 2

My Resolution: “I will stop neglecting work life balance as low priority and start addressing it on priority”

Overdose of 24×7 connectivity, long working hours, globalization are some of the reasons that are making or employees feel the need to respect personal and vacation time. The key is to create happy employees…those who would be more productive and therefore more engaged.

14. Open Hearts & Open Minds

My Resolution: “I will stop the mindset of not sharing the critical policy information just because the prospect has not joined yet”

Sharing key procedures, policies, and guidelines is beneficial both ways. Potential candidates can figure out ‘What to expect?’ and the practice eliminates surprises (especially ‘bad’ ones) for them when they join. The company benefits by hiring only those who share the same values.

(The above is an abstract of People Matters & The Strategist Research Published in the People Matters Issues of January 2014 as its Cover Story)