Deadlines that sit a couple of years away can feel comforting. Plenty of time. Nothing urgent. Until the small, everyday habits quietly harden into rules you never meant to create.

In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we look at the UK Employment Rights Bill and why the real risk for small businesses is not the legislation itself, but what happens in the meantime. The vague conversations. The informal promises. The inconsistent decisions that feel harmless now but come back to bite later.

Kate talks through how ERB risk really builds in day-to-day working life. The kitchen table agreement that turns into a formal dispute. The “we’ve always done it this way” approach that collapses the first time it is challenged. And how to prepare sensibly, without panic, policy overload, or spending your weekends rewriting documents you do not yet need.

A big theme running through the Employment Rights Bill is reasonableness. Not being nice. Not saying yes to everything. But making decisions that fit your business, applying them consistently, and being able to explain them calmly and clearly. You will hear practical examples of what a reasonable no sounds like, why blanket refusals on flexible working are risky, and why copying big-company HR approaches often backfires in small teams.

Kate also shares a quick consistency sense check that reveals hidden risk in minutes. If two people in the same role ask for the same thing, do they get the same answer, and can you explain why? If not, that is where problems start long before the law ever changes.

To keep this manageable, the episode sets out a phased approach to ERB readiness that works for small businesses. Right now, the focus is on habits rather than paperwork. Clear language. Agreed working patterns. Managers who feel confident having proper conversations instead of avoiding them. Later comes alignment, making sure contracts match reality and decisions are recorded properly. By the time the bigger changes land, you should be refining, not firefighting.

And this is where many businesses struggle. Not with policies, but with managers freezing in the moment when someone asks for flexibility, raises a concern, or pushes back on a decision.

If that sounds familiar,  Cake, Coffee and Compliance is designed for exactly this gap. Launching in March, it helps managers handle tricky conversations with confidence, apply rules consistently, and make reasonable decisions without panic or second-guessing.

You can register here to find out more about Coffee, Cake and Compliance and be the first to hear when it opens:

https://kateunderwoodhr.co.uk/cake-coffee-compliance

Subscribe, share this episode with a fellow business owner or manager, and as you listen, ask yourself one simple question. Which habit do you need to fix first?

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Have questions or need HR advice? Reach out to Kate Underwood HR & Training at www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email us on [email protected] or follow us on social media for more tips, resources, and updates.

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