How has HR risen to the challenges of COVID-19? Senior HR practice editor, Noelle Murphy, takes us through the latest findings from XpertHR's annual survey of HR roles and responsibilities.

We also discuss key metrics for the profession, including the ratio of HR practitioners to employees, budgets and key priorities for the year ahead.

Max Winthrop, partner and head of the employment law team at Short, Richardson and Forth LLP, discusses the circumstances that may justify a some other substantial reason dismissal including: changing an employee's terms and conditions; third-party pressure to dismiss; a breakdown in working relations; and where an employee refuses to have the coronavirus vaccine.

Vicki Robinson, deputy director at the Miscarriage Association and Jo Broadbent, counsel knowledge lawyer at Hogan Lovells, share their thoughts on how HR, line managers and colleagues can support employees affected by miscarriage or stillbirth.

Topics discussed include:

• employees' rights to time off;
• emotional support and communicating sensitively;
• returning to work;
• the rights of partners and fathers; and
• what to do where an employee suffers a miscarriage at work.

We are also joined by Stephen Simpson, principal employment law editor at XpertHR, to discuss the key documents that employers can use to outline the support available for employees and to confirm their associated rights to time off.

Gemma Dale joins us to talk about the crucial role HR has played in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, the future of the workplace and the challenges around wellbeing and engagement.

Luke Bowery, partner at Burges Salmon, guides you through some common tricky issues in redundancy selection exercises, including: devising fair selection criteria; adjusting criteria for disabled employees; conducting competitive interview processes; pooling and scoring where employees have been furloughed; and assessing those on secondment.

Louise Haycock, partner at law firm Fragomen, takes us through what employers need to know, and what actions they may need to take, following the end of the transition period around the UK leaving the EU.

What key employment cases should be on the HR radar in 2021? We highlight the most important upcoming cases and discuss their impact on HR, including those relating to: worker status, holiday pay, national minimum wage for sleep-in care workers, trade unions and collective bargaining, and equal pay.

We also look at the impact of Brexit on EU case law and the state of play of employment tribunals.

The 2021 cases that we discuss will decide the following questions:

• Are Uber drivers self-employed or are they workers, meaning that they are entitled to basic employment rights?
• Are sleep-in care workers entitled to the national minimum wage while they are asleep?
• Are employers permitted to make direct pay offers to employees "over the heads of the union" when collective bargaining breaks down?
• Should employers include voluntary overtime in the calculation of employees' holiday pay?
• How far should claims for the unlawful exclusion of overtime from holiday pay calculations be limited?
• How should employers calculate holiday pay for term-time workers?
• Are supermarket workers, who are mostly female, able to compare their pay with the pay of depot workers, who are predominantly male?

Max Winthrop, partner and head of the employment law team at Short, Richardson & Forth, discusses the legal and practical consequences for HR of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination programme including: whether or not employers can require workers to be vaccinated; potential discrimination issues; contractual considerations; and practical steps around communication, strategy and policy.

Immigration solicitor Louise Haycock details what employers need to know with the end of the Brexit transition on December 31 2020, including the new points-based immigration system that came into force on 1 December.

Rosie Evans, behavioural scientist, discusses how HR can approach coaching, onboarding and evaluating remote workers in an emotionally intelligent way.