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There are occasions in HR when something initially looks relatively straightforward. An employee is repeatedly late, they haven’t followed a procedure, their performance has deteriorated, they have failed to attend a meeting or perhaps their behaviour towards their manager or colleagues has become difficult. The natural reaction is often to look at the problem in front of you and decide how it should be managed. Sometimes that will be exactly the right thing to do. But where an employee has…
There is a phrase I use regularly in my job that I have come to dislike: “It’s a commercial decision.” I dislike saying it, and I dislike hearing it. I understand exactly what it means. I understand the mathematics behind it. I have advised employers to make that decision many times over the years. But I also understand why, for the person who owns the business, it can stick in the back of your throat. Because sometimes a “commercial decision”…
For this month’s Ask the Expert, I caught up with our HR Consultant, Paula, and asked her the question I always find gives us the best ideas for this feature: “What are you talking to clients about at the moment?” Her answer surprised me a little – lay-off and short-time working. It is not something we advise on every day and, in many respects, the terminology feels rather old-fashioned. Lay-off and short-time working provisions have traditionally been associated with industries…
For years, fixed-term contracts have been one of the simplest ways for employers to deal with temporary staffing needs. Whether you’re covering maternity leave, providing additional resources for a busy period, recruiting someone to deliver a specific project or bringing in short-term expertise, fixed-term contracts have offered businesses flexibility without necessarily creating the same long-term employment obligations as permanent recruitment. Many employers have also taken comfort from the fact that, in practice, many fixed-term contracts ended before an employee had…
Over the past year, I have noticed a significant shift in the conversations I am having with clients. Not so long ago, most discussions centred around recruitment, retaining talented employees and supporting business growth. Today, whilst those conversations still happen, they are increasingly being replaced by a different question altogether. “Does our business still have the right structure?” Interestingly, very few employers begin by asking about redundancy. Instead, they talk about rising employment costs, increasing pressure on profit margins, advances…
Social media has a habit of finding a new way to describe something that has probably been happening for years. One of the latest workplace trends celebrates the friendships that develop between colleagues with significant age gaps. Videos and posts refer affectionately to a “work bestie”, a “work mum” or “work mom”, or joke about spending eight hours a day with “someone’s mum” or “someone’s dad”. Behind the humour is something genuinely positive: people celebrating colleagues they may never have…
This month, I sat with Nita one of our experienced HR Consultant’s to discuss an issue that employers regularly ask us about – an employee’s right to be accompanied at a disciplinary hearing. A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision has clarified an important point of law, but does it actually change what employers should be doing in practice? Nita, why are we talking about the right to be accompanied this month? Nita: A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal case has clarified…
Over the past few months, I have had countless conversations with business owners about the Employment Rights Bill and the significant changes expected to reshape the employment landscape over the coming years. One comment I hear repeatedly is, “We’ll deal with it when the law changes.” On the surface, that seems like a sensible approach. After all, many of the proposals are still working their way through consultation and parliamentary processes. Why invest time, money and resources into something that…
April is always a key moment in the HR calendar, and 2026 is no exception. Alongside the usual annual uplifts to statutory pay rates, this year brings something more significant: changes that signal a shift in how workplace rights are enforced and experienced, particularly through the introduction of the Employment Rights Act 2025 and the forthcoming Fair Work Agency. For SME employers, this isn’t just about updating payroll systems. It’s about understanding the direction of travel and ensuring your business…
Proposed reforms to Statutory Sick Pay are due to take effect from April 2026 as part of the wider Employment Rights Act agenda. While the full detail has yet to be confirmed, the direction of travel is clear and employers, particularly those engaging casual and variable-hours workers, are already beginning to ask how the changes will affect them in practice. At present, Statutory Sick Pay is only payable to employees who meet specific eligibility criteria, including a minimum earnings threshold.…
A revised roadmap for UK employment law changes The Government has published an updated implementation timetable for the Employment Rights Act 2025, replacing the original roadmap issued in July 2025. For small and medium-sized employers, this revised timeline is important reading. While the overall direction of UK employment law reform hasn’t changed, the detail around when key changes will take effect certainly has. If you run an SME, this update should offer a degree of reassurance. There is a significant…
One of the most common conversations we have with employers at HR:4UK starts with a simple sentence: “We’re not sure which process we should be following.” and our response usually starts with a simple but important question: is this a case of won’t, or can’t? Behind that question usually sits uncertainty about whether an issue is one of performance, capability or conduct. Performance isn’t where it should be, attendance is patchy, or mistakes are creeping in (or becoming more frequent),…
Managers rarely set out to create risk. In most cases, they are trying to be fair, reasonable and supportive while keeping the business moving forward. Yet one of the most common causes of employment law risk we see is not bad intent, but a gap between confidence and competence in people management. This “confidence gap” is increasingly exposing employers to issues around performance management, capability, conduct and fairness — often without anyone realising there is a problem until it is…
Over the past year I’ve had more conversations about the Employment Rights Act 2025 than almost any other change in employment law. There’s a lot of noise, a lot of headlines, and understandably a lot of concern from employers who want to do the right thing but aren’t quite sure what applies yet and what doesn’t. This article is designed to do one thing: explain clearly and calmly where we are now, what changes are coming, and when employers actually…
At HR:4UK, we know that keeping up with employment law changes can be a challenge, particularly when the updates are made quietly and without much fanfare. One such change, announced towards the end of last year, will significantly affect how long employment disputes take to move through the system. From 1st December 2025, the Government will double the length of the ACAS Early Conciliation period from six to twelve weeks. I sat down with Izzy an HR Consultant to talk…
As a small business owner, dealing with disciplinary hearings can feel overwhelming. The worry about saying the wrong thing, missing a procedural step, or inadvertently creating employment law risk is very real, particularly when you don’t have an internal HR department to rely on. This is why many employers seek HR support for small businesses when managing disciplinary and grievance procedures. At HR:4UK, we regularly help businesses by providing scripted disciplinary hearings as part of our wider HR consultancy support.…
Informal management is one of the biggest, and least recognised, employment law risks facing employers right now. January is often when business owners pause, reflect and look ahead. With a new year comes renewed focus, but it also brings unresolved people issues back into view. Performance concerns that were quietly tolerated before Christmas, awkward conversations that felt easier to avoid (especially before Christmas, with the sensitive manager in us not wanting to “spoil” Christmas), and long-standing situations managed “by instinct”…
We’re in tough times, and for many small businesses, the reality is that difficult decisions are having to be made — including making redundancies. Whether it’s due to rising costs, restructuring, or changes in demand, no employer takes these steps lightly. But before you issue redundancy notices, it’s vital to pause and ask yourself: have you genuinely explored all options for alternative employment? Why Employers Must Consider Alternative Employment Redundancy law — and good HR practice — require more than…