The Brightmine Podcast (UK)

With unfair dismissal protection kicking in after just six months from January 2027, probation is about to matter more than ever. Organisations are already reviewing, and often shortening, their probationary processes in response to the Employment Rights Act 2025. Deborah Kent, HR manager at the Money Advice Trust, joins the podcast to explore how success profiles can strengthen onboarding and initial training. Listen now to find out how to set new starters up for success from day one. Resources

Probationary periods - line manager training

Unfair dismissal reforms: Rethinking probationary periods

Webinar: Unfair dismissal changes - are your probationary processes ready?

Read the transcript

Burnout is a growing workplace challenge, driven by economic uncertainty, rapid change and the impact of AI. In this episode, Nicola Turner, founder of BodyMindBrain, explores why tackling the body's stress response, through regulation and recovery, may be the missing piece in preventing burnout and sustaining performance.

Resources

From wellbeing washing to proactive prevention: How HR can tackle the burnout crisis

Championing a stress-free workplace: Understanding the causes of stress

Podcast: The AI challenge - adjust your performance expectations and measurements now!

Wellbeing research 2026

India's employment law framework is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation.

As four new Labour Codes reshape everything from wages and contract labour to leave and workplace grievances, employers are facing a host of new challenges and opportunities.

Robert Shore speaks to Trilegal partner Swarnima about the reforms, the rise in workplace complaints, and why UK HR professionals should be paying close attention.

Read the transcript

Resources

India International guide

Employment Rights Act 2025 Hub

Webinar: Employment Rights Act 2025 - October harassment law changes

There have been many significant legislative shifts in relation to flexible working in recent years, of course, and under the Employment Rights Act 2025 we are promised further changes.

Charlotte Wiseman joins the podcast to look at the way flexible working is transforming employee expectations and workplace culture, and to offer some ideas about what best practice looks like in this new era.

Resources

• The future of flexible working starts with HR
• Employment Rights Act 2025 Hub
• Flexible working: What strategy employers can adopt
• How to lead HR planning for the Employment Rights Act 2025

Brightmine legal editor Lilia Dangi joins the podcast to talk through recent and upcoming trade union-related reforms under the Employment Rights Act 2025. She discusses how these changes are modernising industrial relations and rebalancing the relationship between employers and unions, and looks in particular at:

• the new duty to inform workers of their right to join a union;
• unions' right of access to the workplace; and
• the role of the Fair Work Agency.

Tune in to hear what employers need to know, and how these reforms could reshape the future of industrial relations.

Related resources

• Employment Rights Act 2025 hub
• Employment Rights Act 2025 trade union law changes - your questions answered
• The ERA era - takeaways from our trade union reforms roundtable
• How to lead HR planning for the Employment Rights Act 2025
• Webinar: Employment Rights Act 2025 - a user's guide

Some major changes are coming to the harassment laws in October. Global inequalities specialist – and licensed skipper – Georgie Williams joins the podcast to talk about what it's like to draw up an anti-harassment policy on a ship. What does it mean when you can't "clock off" and go home in the way you can with land-based office jobs? How does this change dynamics? What challenges does this raise?

Resources

• Sexual harassment risk assessment form
• How to lead HR planning for the Employment Rights Act 2025
• On your radar - Employment Rights Act 2025 updates and HR mythbusting
• Anti-harassment and anti-bullying policy

Organisation design expert and From-To founder Lilian Duckart joins Brightmine HR strategy and practice editor Laura Kimpton to discuss how HR departments can use organisation design to meet the changing needs of their business - and how AI can help.

Resources

• Leading practice guide - organisation design: What is it?
• How to lead HR planning for the Employment Rights Act 2025
• On your radar - Employment Rights Act 2025 updates and HR mythbusting

Research suggests that AI is making a nonsense of the traditional equivalence between output and productivity and creating a new category of worker: the person who is thriving themselves into exhaustion.

Jeremy Hollander joins the podcast to discuss how HR can tackle these issues by upgrading productivity measurements to distinguish sustainable high performance from intensity that is destined to end in burnout.

Related resources

• Webinar: Maximise HR efficiency - AI solutions that drive business growth and increase employee satisfaction
• Webinar: Mapping the path from Excel to AI - An expedition into people analytics
• AI fundamentals: How to identify AI needs in HR
• Use of AI chatbots at work policy

Pay gap reporting is about to get an important upgrade.

Michelle Gyimah, pay gap strategist and founder of Equality Pays, joins the podcast to break down what the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes really mean - and how HR can get ahead of the likely next wave: ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.

Resources

How to measure and report a gender pay gap

How to lead HR planning for the Employment Rights Act 2025

On your radar - Employment Rights Act 2025 updates and HR mythbusting

With early pay awards showing signs of growth, Sheila Attwood joins the podcast to dig into what the data tells us about pay award plans for the year ahead, and how employers can navigate the growing tension between affordability and employee expectations.

Related resources

Pay trends March 2026: Pay awards edge up in early 2026 but outlook remains cautious

Pay award forecasts for 2026

On your radar - Employment Rights Act 2025 hub