Wrap It Up

What kind of gift wrapper are you? Are you the Martha Stewart type, starting your Christmas shopping in June, spending hours selecting just the right paper and ribbons, then carefully and thoughtfully wrapping each gift, ensuring its bow creates a perfect complement to the package, all while holiday music plays in the background and you sip on eggnog? Or are you more like me, with a “What the heck, it’s just going to get ripped open anyway, so I’ll just put it in a bag” wrapper? Perhaps you are my friend/colleague Rhonda, who is somewhere in the middle—loving the look of beautifully wrapped gifts but lacking the time to do it yourself, so you visit the shop's gift-wrapping department. Maybe you are like my HR Hotline friend Deb, who is practical and finds a gift card in an envelope her go-to style (no returns necessary).

Your preference for gift wrapping may reflect how you approach your year-end HR tasks. After all, many items need to be wrapped up before the new year arrives. Do you begin preparing for year-end in October or even earlier so you can enjoy the holiday (you’re a Martha)? Do you create a list for after the holidays and then put it in a drawer for later (hello, Sara)? Do you lead the process but delegate these tasks to staff (hi, Rhonda)? Or do you pare down the list to those items that need to be handled immediately (howdy, Deb)?

Regardless of your style of wrapping up, the tasks aren’t going away! Spending an hour or two now getting organized, prioritizing, and creating a schedule will minimize time and effort moving forward. At MRA, we take pride in providing our members with tools to help through a variety of HR processes, and we’ve developed a list for you, so you don’t need to! You can find that list here.

We wish you a warm, safe, and merry holiday season!