By Nicky Jolley, Founder & MD, HR2day
The changes are giving us a fresh look at how we manage people.
There has been plenty written about the Employment Rights Act over the past year. New rights, new responsibilities, new dates for the diary. For employers, particularly those running smaller businesses, it would be very easy to see it as another long list of things to get ready for.
But I think there is a more useful way to look at it.
The changes give businesses a good reason to take a fresh look at how they manage people day to day. Not simply whether the right policies are sitting in a handbook, but whether managers feel confident having conversations, expectations are clear and the way people are managed actually reflects what the business says it does.
Some of the changes are already with us. Statutory Sick Pay now applies from the first qualifying day of absence, with the lower earnings limit removed, while paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights in April. More will follow. From October, employers will have greater responsibilities around preventing workplace harassment, and from January 2027, employees will be able to claim ordinary unfair dismissal after six months rather than two years.
That last change in particular is prompting some interesting conversations with employers.
For me, the answer isn’t to become more cautious about employing people. It is to become better at managing them.
Probation periods are a good example. They can sometimes become little more than a date in the diary: three or six months passes, everything seems fine, and everyone carries on. Used properly, though, probation is an incredibly useful period for both sides. It gives managers an opportunity to set expectations early, give useful feedback and deal with anything that isn’t quite working before it becomes a bigger issue.
One of the things I have learned during my career in HR is that good people management rarely comes down to one big conversation. It is usually built through the smaller ones that happen along the way.
If somebody’s performance has changed, talk to them. If a manager is struggling with an aspect of their role, give them the support to improve. And if something has gone particularly well, say that too. Good HR isn’t only about stepping in when there is a problem.
That is why I think businesses can use the Employment Rights Act positively.
Rather than waiting for each new provision to arrive and then updating a policy, look at the bigger picture. Equip managers beforehand, ensure they know when an informal conversation is enough and when something needs to be documented, and make sure they understand what is expected of them.
As Founder and Managing Director of HR2day, I have spent many years working with businesses at very different stages of growth, and the strongest people practices are rarely the most complicated, they are usually the clearest.
The businesses that handle change well tend to be the ones where managers know their people, conversations happen early and HR processes support good judgement rather than replace it.
There are still more Employment Rights Act changes to come, and employers will need to keep an eye on the detail as further regulations and guidance are published. But we don’t need to wait for every final detail before doing something useful.
This is a good opportunity to look at how we manage people now, keep what works, improve what doesn’t and make sure our managers have the confidence to do their job well.
If that is one of the lasting effects of the new legislation, I think it could be a very positive one for workplaces.
hr2day.co.uk