Autumn Budget 2025: What Business Leaders Need to Know
Autumn Budget 2025: What Business Leaders Need to Know The 2025 Autumn Budget has introduced a range of measures that will impact payroll, employee benefits, and overall workforce-cost planning. These changes include adjustments to tax thresholds, changes in minimum wage, as well as updates to benefit schemes and incentives that are likely to affect employee […]
The cost of not managing wellbeing over the holidays
As we head into the winter period, holiday requests can surge, sickness levels rise, and for many SMEs, commercial pressure peaks. Many of you may experience colleague burnout, clashes and conflicts over time off, and unplanned absences that hit productivity just when you need things running smoothly. Your employees might be juggling personal commitments, financial […]
Next Year’s workforce is built now: what great SME leaders are doing to prepare for 2026
Next Year’s workforce is built now: what great SME leaders are doing to prepare for 2026 For many SMEs, it’s tempting to push hard through to Christmas and deal with strategy, structure, and staffing later. But that’s risky. The most effective leaders are using this time to quietly build the foundations for next year – […]
Finish Strong: The Leadership Habits That Set You (and Your Team) Up for a Brilliant Q4
August often gives the illusion of quiet—half the team on holiday, meetings thinning out, and inboxes slowing down. But small business owners know: this is the moment to lead with intent. Q4 isn’t far away. The final stretch of the year is where pressure builds—commercial targets, people challenges, competing priorities. If you wait until October […]
Inclusion Isn’t a Policy, It’s a Crucial Mindset
You’ve updated your handbook. You’ve got an Equal Opportunities Policy. Tick, tick. But your team? Someone quietly shares they’re masking their neurodivergence. Another avoids asking for flexible hours, again. And you can sense some conversations are starting to move underground into group chats and private DMs. Welcome to inclusion in 2025 where AI tools, social […]
That WhatsApp Message Might Cost You More Than You Think
You’ve had a tough conversation with an employee. There’s been tension building, and now they’re off sick, maybe stress related. Before you’ve even had a chance to regroup, an email lands in your inbox: Data Subject Access Request (SAR). They want everything. Emails. Message threads. Group WhatsApp chats. Notes from the 1-to-1s. Their personnel file. […]
Just Survived a Restructure? How to Set Your People and Business up for What is Next
You’ve made some hard calls, tightened budgets, let good people go, reshaped roles. Now you’re looking at the business thinking: What now? Maybe the dust hasn’t quite settled. You’re pushing forward commercially, but the atmosphere feels awkward, perhaps shaky. Morale seems low, uncertainty is high, and the energy in the team is a fraction of […]
Terminated employee’s probation and received a complaint? What now?
Our HR team describe the options and set out the progress of a possible claim.
When Push Comes to Shove: No Fault Dismissals
There are currently 5 potentially fair reasons for dismissal in the UK. Each of them requires a process, sometimes the process can be lengthy, and short cuts can be risky.
Efficiencies and how to find them, an HR guide for employers
The last budget pushed employment costs to record highs, and many employers are seeking ways to cut costs to offset higher taxes – we look at the role of technology, as well as more traditional methods for achieving workplace efficiencies.