Age discrimination can be a tricky area for employers. In this edition of the podcast, Susie Munro, Senior Legal Editor at XpertHR, leads us on a tour of recent cases that offer examples of how things can go wrong if they are mishandled and provides some tips on avoiding typical age-related traps.

If you have questions or ideas for future editions of the show, you can email us at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you!

The resources Susie refers to are: 

• Age discrimination: Case law round-up
• Age discrimination: Employment tribunal round-up
• Can direct age discrimination be justified?
• Workforce planning
• How to work without a compulsory retirement age
• Retirement
• Managing poor performance
• More episodes from The XpertHR Podcast

According to a recent survey, 98 per cent of HR professionals said they had felt burned out in the past six months. In this episode we ask:

• What is burnout exactly?
• Why is it afflicting so many people working in HR?
• And - crucially - what can you do to keep burnout at bay?

On hand to address these questions are Debbie Kleiner, from Wellbeing in Work, and Bar Huberman, XpertHR's HR Strategy & Practice Content Manager.

We are also hoping to make a second episode in which we explore your experiences of burnout. You can email us at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you!

If you would like to discover more about Debbie's work, you can visit her website, wellbeing-inwork.co.uk, or email her at [email protected].

For all the resources mentioned in this podcast, visit XpertHR.

We look at the challenges and opportunities arising in immigration in 2023 for HR and employers, including:

• the introduction of new visa types;
• an additional exemption to the immigration skills charge for senior or specialist workers;
• the importance of planning ahead to manage the impact of longer lead times;
• changes to right to work checks;
• benefits and issues arising from hybrid and remote working;
• managing sponsored workers when dealing with recruitment, restructures and redundancies; and
• trends and developments, including the anticipated Electronic Travel Authorisation system for EU nationals.

We shares some practical tips on how HR and employers can improve the working experience for neurodiverse employees and make the wider workforce more cognisant of some of the issues they experience.

If an employer dismisses for gross misconduct, what does this mean for an employee's contractual rights? Does a failure to pay notice pay, make an otherwise fair dismissal unfair? Max Winthrop, partner at Sintons LLP, joins us to answer these questions and more, drawing on his legal and practical expertise. Max also shares his thoughts on the potential for significant change to employment law under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

Jen Rooney, disability inclusion specialist and founder of The Wellbeing tortoise, explores why employers need to understand and embrace the human case for reasonable adjustments to cultivate inclusive workplaces.

Nick Chronias, partner in DAC Beachcroft's employment and pensions group discusses the steps employers can take to avoid industrial action and what obligations employers have once a ballot for industrial action has been successful among employees who are members of a trade union.

Adrian Martin, head of the employment team at law firm Burges Salmon, discusses the tricky issues that can crop up when there are multiple contractors in a TUPE transfer, and how both outgoing and incoming employers can navigate these issues.

Adrian takes you through the legal and practical issues involved in service provision changes, including: when and why TUPE might apply; the "fragmentation" of services; recent case law; and how HR can help to structure and shape the services to achieve the commercial objective.

Gemma Dale, HR professional and lecturer at Liverpool's John Moores University and author of the book "How to work remotely" published in June 2022, joins us to talk about progress to date with hybrid working. We cover challenges as well as emerging benefits - including dealing with reluctant returners, cultivating the right culture, building trust, and what HR should be advising senior leaders in terms of the way forward.