Buzzing About HR

Someone on your team is still turning up, still delivering, still saying they’re “fine” and yet the spark has gone. That grey zone is where quiet quitting lives, and in a small business it does real damage long before anyone resigns: slower problem solving, lower energy, and a subtle drop in standards that others quietly copy. We’ve both been on the receiving end of it, and we know it’s rarely about laziness or attitude. It’s a signal that something stopped working.

We get clear on what quiet quitting actually means (and what it doesn’t), then dig into the most common roots we see in UK SMEs: poor or missing feedback, workload creep without acknowledgement, and managers avoiding the harder conversations. We also bring in the numbers that make this impossible to ignore, including UK engagement data and what exit interviews reveal about how long people think about leaving before they go.

Most importantly, we give you practical tools you can use this week. You’ll hear the exact sentence we use to open a real conversation, what to listen for without getting defensive, how to fix what you can quickly, how to name what you can’t change yet (pay, promotion, structure), and why booking the next chat is the difference between a one off talk and a genuine rebuild of trust. We also bust a few myths that keep managers stuck, including the idea that money solves everything.

If you manage people, press play, pick one person who has gone quiet, and act early. Subscribe so you never miss an episode, share it with another manager, and leave a quick review if it helped.

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

A new starter turns up on Monday morning and, before you have even finished the office tour, tells you their baby is due in eight weeks and they want paternity leave. If your first response is to do the rota maths in your head, you’re not alone. The problem is that from April 2026, paternity leave becomes a day one right in the UK, and many small business managers are about to have these conversations with zero training and a lot of assumptions.

We break down what the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes in practice, including the expansion of day one rights for paternity leave and unpaid parental leave. Then we get into the bit the law text doesn’t teach you: how to talk about it. The biggest trip-up is mixing up leave and pay. Leave is the time off and it becomes available from day one. Statutory paternity pay has its own qualifying rules, so a brand new starter may be entitled to take leave while not yet qualifying for statutory pay. Getting that sentence right can save you a complaint, a grievance, or a resignation.

You’ll also hear the three most common manager mistakes we see: the gut reaction that reads as irritation, denying a right because pay rules are misunderstood, and being flexible for one person but strict with another. We give you clear scripts for interview disclosure and day one announcements, a quick consistency check, mythbusting on records and “small business exceptions”, and a seven-point action list to update contracts, templates, and onboarding.

If you want plain-English HR guidance you can actually use, subscribe, share this with the person who onboards your new starters, and leave a review so more small businesses find it.

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

One of the hardest workplace risks to spot is the person who never complains. We open with “Mark” the dependable grafter who shows up early, takes barely any time off, and quietly carries months of poor sleep, pain, and pressure until he disappears from the business. That story is not rare, and during Men’s Health Week we’re naming the pattern that costs lives and costs small businesses: men often stay quiet for longer, seek help later, and leave with less warning.

We break down why men’s health at work can look different, across mental health and physical health, and the cultural layer underneath both. We talk through the research-backed patterns: lower disclosure, later presentation, and quiet exits, plus the numbers behind the urgency in the UK. We also make space for an important framing: focusing on men does not mean ignoring women; it means making sure the door is genuinely open for everyone.

Then we get practical with simple, repeatable steps for managers and owners: say explicitly that health applies to everyone, use “side-door” questions that feel natural, train managers to ask twice, and make GP appointments easy with paid time and no drama. We also connect the dots between chronic pain, sleep issues, prostate concerns, low mood, and performance, because physical health is mental health at work. You’ll leave with a clear action list, myth-busting on what’s appropriate to ask, and crisis resources worth sharing.

Men's Health Forum: menshealthforum.org.uk

Men's Health Week 2026: menshealthforum.org.uk/mhw

CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably): thecalmzone.net | 0800 58 58 58

Samaritans: samaritans.org | 116 123 (free, 24/7)

Andy's Man Club: andysmanclub.co.uk

Mind — men's mental health: mind.org.uk

If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a business owner who employs mostly men, and leave a review with the one change you’re going to make this week.

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

Someone hands in their notice, sends a polite email, and casually mentions they have 11 days of holiday left. You open your tracker and realise your “system” is a spreadsheet on someone else’s computer, a trail of emails, and a few approvals buried in WhatsApp. That’s annoying today, but from 6 April 2026 it becomes a legal risk: UK employers must keep annual leave records for every worker for six years, and those records must be accessible if the Fair Work Agency asks.

We walk through what’s changing, why it matters, and how holiday law has tightened across recent reforms, including the rules affecting irregular hours and part-year workers. We also spell out the money side, because holiday pay is not soft admin: small miscalculations can stack up into arrears, and enforcement can add painful penalties on top. If you’ve ever argued about bank holidays, carry-over, or what to pay someone when they leave, you already know how quickly “we think it’s fine” turns into “prove it”.

Then we get practical. We share a three-week tidy plan that does not require new software: pick one home for records, do a focused catch-up data fill, and write a one-page process that covers request, approval, and recording. We myth-bust the idea that payroll solves everything, explain why trusting staff to track their own leave is not enough, and finish with a seven-step action list you can put in the diary, including a quarterly review that stops your tracker drifting out of sync.

If you want calm, defensible annual leave records and fewer nasty surprises when someone resigns, press play. Subscribe, share with a fellow small business owner, and leave a quick review so more people can find straight-talking HR help.

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

Your kitchen wall says 29 degrees, the Met Office alert pings, and you can feel the mood change at work. Someone goes quiet because they feel rough. Someone else rewrites your dress code with shorts and flip-flops. And at least one person is watching to see whether you notice. Heatwaves at work are not really about temperature, they are about trust.

We break down what UK employers actually need to know: there is no legal maximum workplace temperature, and the popular “30 degrees rule” is not law. What you do have is a duty of care under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, a requirement for a reasonable temperature under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, and the need for a risk assessment under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. We also bring in the Equality Act 2010, because a one size fits all hot weather approach can disadvantage disabled staff, pregnant workers, older workers, and people on medication, creating a legal and wellbeing risk before you even reach for the thermometer.

Then we get practical. You leave with a five step plan you can action by Friday: a short written message that relaxes dress code and makes breaks flexible, discreet check-ins with higher risk staff, moving heavy or outdoor work out of the 11am to 4pm window, modelling water breaks so stopping feels normal, and a quick review to get ahead of the next heatwave. If you want a clear small business HR approach to heatwave safety, workplace wellbeing, and sensible adjustments, press play, then subscribe, share with another business owner, and leave us a quick review.

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

That casual “looks fine to me” moment during hiring can become a £60,000 problem long after the person has settled in. We walk through how UK right to work checks actually work in practice, why the Home Office issues civil penalty notices to ordinary small businesses, and how you can be on the hook even when you never knowingly employ someone illegally. The goal is simple: keep your statutory excuse intact by doing the check properly, on time, and with evidence you can produce.

We break down the three legitimate routes: the manual right to work check (seeing original documents, copying, dating and storing), the online share code check via GOV.UK (saving the result against the employee record), and the IDSP option for British and Irish citizens (keeping the provider’s report). Then we get blunt about the five mistakes that cause the most damage: accepting a WhatsApp passport photo, doing the check after day one, forgetting follow-up checks for time-limited visas, relying on the wrong documents, and failing to store records so you can prove the check happened.

You’ll also hear a tight pre-start checklist you can apply to every hire: offer letters that stay conditional, booking the check before the start date, choosing the correct method, storing PDFs with dates, and diarising visa expiry follow-ups well in advance. We finish by clearing up common myths, including “we’re too small to be targeted” and “my bookkeeper does it”, plus a quick action list to audit your recent hires and fix your process this week.

If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a fellow business owner, and leave a review so more people can avoid an expensive, totally preventable mistake.

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

You've got a vacancy.

You've written the job ad. The same job ad you wrote in 2019, with two new bullet points bolted on the front and one removed from the bottom.

Five years' experience required. Degree preferred. Industry knowledge essential. Familiarity with the system is desirable.

You stick it on Indeed. You wait.

47 applications. Five tick the boxes. You interview three. You hire one.

Six months later, she's gone.

Because the job wasn't actually what the ad said it was. It needed someone who could pick things up quickly, hold three priorities at once, talk to a difficult client without going to pieces, and use a system she'd never used before but could learn.

None of that was in the ad. None of it was on her CV.

All of it was something the second-best candidate, the one with no degree and a slightly weird career history, could absolutely do.

You didn't interview her. She didn't tick the boxes.

This is the gap. The thing the CV told you, five years, degree, industry- was the thing that mattered least. The thing it didn't tell you, adaptability, calm under fire, willingness to learn, was the thing that mattered most.

This week is Learning at Work Week. So we're going to do the learning episode, which means we're talking skills-based hiring. Not because it's trendy. Because in 2026, in a small business with no recruitment team and no L&D budget, it might actually be the only sensible way you get and keep the people you need.

In this episode:

• What skills-based hiring really is, and what it isn't (it doesn't mean ignoring CVs)
• The numbers behind your reality: 81 per cent of UK employers now say it's "important", 30 per cent reduction in time-to-hire, 20 per cent better retention at 12 months, and 73 per cent of SME owners who "don't know how to do it"
• The five-step skills method defines the actual job, three must-haves max, writes the ad in skills, sets a 15-minute task, and keeps mapping after they're hired
• Why your existing team are quietly looking, and why "no visible path forward" beats pay as a reason people leave small businesses
• Four myths that keep owners stuck, including "I can't afford to develop my people" (you can't afford to) and the classic "if I train them, they'll leave" (if you don't, they'll stay, and be exactly as undeveloped as the day you hired them)
• Seven actions for Learning at Work Week, including one piece of homework that takes one job ad and one open document

If you're about to hire, struggling to keep good people, watching someone bright stagnate because there's no path forward, or quietly about to recycle the same job ad you wrote in 2019 — this episode is for you.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Blog: skills-based hiring for SMEs

Learning at Work Week 2026

CIPD on skills-based hiring

Free HR Health Check — short, jargon-free, tells you what needs attention

Book a discovery call

Join the newsletter — plain-English HR updates, no waffle

If you're not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th June 2026, you'll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead.

That's it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you'll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here.

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working — and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show — and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time — keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

You've been noticing. For about three weeks now.

She's quieter than usual. Missing a couple of mornings. Apologising for things she hasn't done wrong. Saying "I'm fine" before anyone's actually asked.

You've thought about saying something. You've thought about it twice this week. You've talked yourself out of it twice.

You don't want to overstep. You don't want to say the wrong thing. You don't want to make it weird.

You also, and this is the bit no one likes to admit, don't really know what you'd do if she actually opened up.

What if she cries? What if she tells you something you can't fix? What if she says she's been struggling for months?

So you say nothing. You smile as you leave. You say "have a good evening." You go home.

She stays at her desk.

This is where awareness weeks fall over. We get really good at telling people they should ask. We don't tell anyone what to do next.

The 2026 Mental Health Awareness Week theme is Action. So this episode is about what you actually do. The conversation itself. The bit through it. The bit after. The bit awareness weeks usually skip past.

The blog post on this, linked below, covers what to say. This episode flips it: what to do.

In this episode:

• Why action gets dropped (three predictable reasons, all fixable, including the "the conversation is the destination" trap that catches almost every manager)
• The numbers that should stop you in the room: 964,000 UK workers suffering work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25, up nearly 200,000 in a single year. 22.1 million working days lost. Mental ill health now accounts for 52% of all work-related illness. And the gap that matters most for small businesses, 71% of owners had a team member affected last year, but only 24% felt they'd handled it well
• The four-step manager playbook, first conversation, discovery, agreement, review, that works in any small business, with no EAP, no budget, no wellbeing strategy
• What "reasonable adjustments" actually look like when you don't have a policy library: flexible hours, quiet space, phased return, time off for a GP appointment, a workload conversation with their actual workload in front of you
• The CIPD finding that quietly answers the whole episode is that only 29% of organisations train their line managers in mental health. Where they do, 73% of those managers feel confident having sensitive conversations. Training works. Most businesses just haven't done it.
• The legal context that just shifted, SSP from day one since 6 April 2026, no more waiting days, no lower earnings limit. Short, repeated mental health absences used to fall through the SSP gap. They don't anymore. The cost of not having the conversation early just got higher.
• Four myths, including "I'll make it worse if I bring it up" (the data flatly disagrees) and "if I help one person, everyone will want it" (treating everyone identically isn't fairness, it's laziness with a costume on)
• Seven actions for this week, starting with one person you've been quietly worried about. Not the easy one. The one you've been putting off.

If you've got someone you've been quietly worried about, and you keep meaning to have the chat, this one's for you. Especially if the reason you keep putting it off is that you don't really know what comes after.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Blog: what to say (companion to this episode)

Mental Health Awareness Week 2026

HSE — work-related stress statistics

Mind — supporting staff at work

ACAS — Managing stress at work

Free HR Health Check — short, jargon-free, tells you what needs attention

Book a discovery call

Join the newsletter — plain-English HR updates, no waffle

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

A polite knock at the door.

A woman with ID. From the Fair Work Agency.

She'd like to see your records, pay slips, hours worked, holiday taken, contracts, and right to work checks. For everyone you employ. And everyone you've employed in the last six years.

She doesn't need a complaint to be there. She just is.

The Fair Work Agency launched on 7 April 2026. It can recover six years of arrears with penalties up to 200 per cent. Most small business owners haven't fully clocked yet what this means.

This episode is the wake-up call, and the calm action plan.

In this episode:

• What the Fair Work Agency actually is, and what powers it has under the Employment Rights Act 2025
• The five places small businesses most often trip up (it's not where you think)
• A four-week plan to get tidy without panicking, pay, holiday, contracts, and right to work
• Four myths that keep owners exposed, including "they only go after big employers"
• Seven actions to take this week, none of which require new software

If you employ anyone in the UK, this applies to you. There's no minimum business size. There's no quiet exemption.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Fair Work Agency overview — full blog post with the legal details

GOV.UK — National Minimum Wage rates

GOV.UK — Right to Work checks

Employment Rights Act Advice

Free HR Health Check — short, jargon-free, tells you what needs attention

Join the newsletter — plain-English HR updates, no waffle

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

You can sign up here 

If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.

You've been at your desk for seven minutes.

You haven't sipped anything yet. Your laptop is still loading. Your inbox is already winning.

A payroll question. A WhatsApp sick day with no reason. A "can we have a quick chat?", and we all know what that means. A new starter arrives in five days, and her contract hasn't been sent.

Then the phone rings. It's the employee from last week. The one who's been struggling. And she's crying.

You did not start this business to be an HR director. But here you are.

This is HR in a small business. There is no HR department. The HR department is you.

Today is International HR Day. And before we even start, here's the thing: yes, it counts when you do it. Even when nobody calls you HR. Even when you've never done a CIPD course. Even when you're just trying to keep the wheels on.

In this episode:

• Why the human side of HR keeps becoming the invisible work in small businesses, and why it stays that way
• The numbers behind your reality: 4.1 million UK micro-businesses, the Fair Work Agency, the Employment Rights Act 2025, and what's already landed on owners in 2026
• The "HR Hour" method,  sixty minutes a week, three steps, the only thing you need to start this week
• Four myths that keep small business owners stuck, including "I'm too small to need HR" and "I'll sort HR when I've got more time"
• Seven actions for International HR Day week, including one that just asks you to acknowledge what you've already done this year

If you're the founder doing payroll between school runs, the office manager who became HR by accident in 2019, or the HR-of-one who has no peer in the business and feels lonely about it sometimes, this episode is for you.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Free HR Health Check — short, jargon-free, tells you what needs attention

Employment Rights Act Advice

Book a discovery call

Join the newsletter — plain-English HR updates, no waffle

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff.

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If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

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Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.