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Mental Health Awareness

Mental Health Awareness

Mental health issues in the UK workplace have become an increasingly pressing concern in recent years. As an experienced HR consultant, I’ve seen first-hand how these issues can have a major impact on the productivity, engagement, and overall wellbeing of...
April 2023 Statutory Increases

April 2023 Statutory Increases

April 2023 Statutory Increases As of April 2023, The UK’s Employment Laws have changed regarding the minimum rates of pay, statutory sick pay and statutory family-related pay in order to keep up with the current rates of the UK’s Cost of Living. As such,...
Get your HR Sorted

Get your HR Sorted

Get your HR sorted – make 2023 your year It’s February and January has gone past in a blur.  I bet you have big, exciting goals for your business?!  How is that going so far? One thing I notice when speaking to my clients, is many of them skip one vital...
Quiet Quitting

Quiet Quitting

What is Quiet Quitting? Quiet quitting is a relatively new employee relations challenge facing businesses. It is not, as the name may suggest, employees quietly handing in their resignation from a job and leaving, but when employees work to rule, carrying out the...
4 Day Work Week to become the New Norm

4 Day Work Week to become the New Norm

Over half of the UK workforce would like more flexibility when it comes to work (though we here at KUHR estimate that figure to be much higher, ADP reports that 6 in 10 employees feel this way). Flexibility can come in many different forms and one of them most common...
Why Doctors don’t need to issue FIT Notes

Why Doctors don’t need to issue FIT Notes

The Laws around fit notes have changed several times now. The first change was that doctors can now sign fit notes digitally, which is why leniency towards the change in a signature’s appearance should be upheld.   As of right now (1st of July), the law has allowed...
Is Working Remotely Here to Stay?  

Is Working Remotely Here to Stay?  

Ever since flexibility became the new norm in a post-pandemic era, work-life balance has been in the control of the employee. As a result, demand for jobs that offer remote work has dramatically increased. According to data found by LinkedIn UK, paid job...
Statutory Pay Increases April 2022

Statutory Pay Increases April 2022

Statutory Increases From 2022 As of this coming April, The UK’s Employment Laws have changed regarding the minimum rates of pay, statutory sick pay and statutory family-related pay in order to keep up with the current rates of the UK’s Cost of Living. As...
Tax Relief for Home Workers

Tax Relief for Home Workers

People assume that working from home is the cheaper alternative to paying petrol and fares for the commute to work. However, some of us must pay for our own equipment, incur an increase in costs from an increase in electricity usage and in some cases -not to get into...
Updated Right to Work Guidance

Updated Right to Work Guidance

As of last month, The Home Office updated the right to work guidance. The key changes are as following: As of right now to the 5th of April 2022, employers have the option to conduct a right to work check of Biometric Residence Permit (BRP), Biometric Residence Card...
3 Steps to Improve Mental Health at Work

3 Steps to Improve Mental Health at Work

At any given moment in time, 1 in 5 people are having suicidal thoughts. Mental health difficulties were a pandemic well before COVID made the issue a thousand times worse. At work, employees are taking days off – faking illnesses and making excuses – in...
Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme

Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme

Have you reviewed your benefits package recently? Did you know that there is a new Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme that you could now be offering your employees?   This specialist scheme is like the modern-day cycle to work scheme, available to help support...
Introducing Toggl

Introducing Toggl

Tech Tuesday   We’ve got another #TechTuesday for you, and this week we want to talk about a great tool called Toggl. Have you heard of it? Do you know what it does? If you are yet to give it a go, it is about time you tried it!  Toggl is an extremely handy...
Breathe – the ‘go to’ HR system

Breathe – the ‘go to’ HR system

Tech Tuesday We’ve got another #TechTuesday for you, and this time we’d like to highlight our ‘go to’ HR system – Breathe! We believe that having the right software to support your HR processes, really can transform your business.  ...
Breathe – New People Portal app

Breathe – New People Portal app

Breathe HR Software keeps on getting smarter and smarter! It’s been just over 2 months since Breathe launched their brand-new Rota, Time and Attendance module, and they now have even more useful new features. Let us introduce you to the Breathe – People Portal mobile...
Flexible Working

Flexible Working

There have been some recent employment tribunal cases with regards to employers, not allowing employees time off to go and deal with things such as going to pick up their child from nursery who was sick and not allowing an employee to amend their working hours. So, we...
Introducing Otter

Introducing Otter

Tech Tuesdays It is safe to say that when it comes to transcribing meetings, volunteers are often hard to come by. I am yet to find a person who loves writing up minutes or transcribing interviews. Let me introduce you to Otter, a mobile app and website that...
Introducing Loom

Introducing Loom

Tech Tuesday   Have you ever spent far too long writing out an email to someone to explain how they should go about completing a task, only to find that when you reach the end…the wording is probably not all that clear, there would still be room...
Introducing Pirkx

Introducing Pirkx

Tech Tuesdays So as a self-confessed geek most people that know me, know that I love tech and finding new apps and programs to help small business owners – or frankly just to turn the kettle on to make sure the water is boiled for tea when I walk in the door...
What can you do if you get a bad reference?

What can you do if you get a bad reference?

The current rules Following Brexit, there were no changes to the exiting right to work checks and the current guidance remained in place. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens resident in the UK before 11pm on 31 December 2020 are eligible to apply under the EU Settlement Scheme...
What can you do if you get a bad reference?

Right to work changes from 1st July 2021

The current rules Following Brexit, there were no changes to the exiting right to work checks and the current guidance remained in place. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens resident in the UK before 11pm on 31 December 2020 are eligible to apply under the EU Settlement Scheme...
Introducing Hannah, our latest addition to the team

Introducing Hannah, our latest addition to the team

Hi! I´m Hannah, and I’m over the moon to be the newest member of the KUHR team… until our young Kickstarters join us in June!  I´ve been part of the team for a while, working part-time from Mallorca, Spain. But I’m delighted to announce I will soon be back in the...
Empower don’t micromanage

Empower don’t micromanage

5 ways Employee Engagement will enable your small business to grow. To build the most effective team and to ensure long-standing employees it is important that your team members feel empowered rather than micromanaged. It is a fine balance between giving freedom to...
Does IR35 apply to Small Businesses?

Does IR35 apply to Small Businesses?

How does IR35 apply to Small Businesses? As you may remember IR35 was delayed for the private sector from being implemented due to COVID-19.  However, the legislation is going into force from 1st April.  Below are the 7 key steps that small business owners need to...
Statutory Increases April 2021

Statutory Increases April 2021

April 2021 Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses Following on from the Budget last week please find below all the changes to Employment Law that are happening in April 2021. National Living Wage / National Minimum Wage The important thing to note is that the...
4 Steps to Lifting Lockdown

4 Steps to Lifting Lockdown

The Government’s 4 Steps to Lifting Lockdown Today in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out his proposed 4 Steps to Lifting Lockdown. Here is a summary of those 4 Steps to Lifting Lockdown. Step 1: On 8th March, 2021 All students return to...
What are the new UK immigration rules?

What are the new UK immigration rules?

What are the New UK Immigration Rules? Welcome to our quick blog post about new UK Immigration rules. Now, due to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, new UK immigrations rules now apply. Free Movement for European nationals ended on 31st December 2020. This...
Excessive Workloads in COVID-19

Excessive Workloads in COVID-19

Excessive Workloads During the Covid-19 Pandemic Would you have imagined this is what your 2020 would have looked like at the start of the year? Blink and you might have missed it… March to December seems to have gone by quicker than you can say “How many...
HR Risk Quiz

HR Risk Quiz

Hello and Welcome to Our HR Risk Quiz! Do you run a small business but think you might need a little HR support? Well, you’re in luck! Here at Kate Underwood HR & Training, we’ve created an HR Risk Quiz to help you to decide what kind of support you...
Steps to Success: Wellbeing Challenge

Steps to Success: Wellbeing Challenge

  Welcome to Steps to Success: Wellbeing Challenge!   So, boys and girls; how are you feeling about this lockdown? It sucks, doesn’t it?   Well, there’s good news, the Steps to Success: Wellbeing Challenge is here to rescue you from the...
COVID-19 UPDATE: Job Support Scheme Expansion

COVID-19 UPDATE: Job Support Scheme Expansion

Job Support Scheme Expanded (For Businesses Required to Close) As of the 26th October 2020, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak has announced on Friday 9th October 2020 that the Government’s Job Support Scheme will be expanded to firms required to close due...
Introducing Pocket HR

Introducing Pocket HR

HR in Your Pocket!  Before we introduce Pocket HR, a quick question: Have you ever wished you had help with HR? Starting out as a business owner – full of hope and expectations – human resources probably wasn’t that high on your priorities list. Perhaps you...
The Importance of Redundancy Process

The Importance of Redundancy Process

Following Proper Redundancy Process is Vital So, let’s start by looking at a few examples of how companies have made mistakes in the redundancy process: East London NHS Foundation Trust v O’Connor; Mr O’Connor was unfairly dismissed after accepting an...
The Happiness Index: Employee Voice 24/7

The Happiness Index: Employee Voice 24/7

What is Employee Voice 24/7? The Happiness Index have created an employee survey designed to give employees a voice during times of change. The pre-built survey is completely anonymous and allows employees to leave feedback 24/7. Whether your team work shifts and are...
Breathe Rota

Breathe Rota

An HR System that makes Rota Planning a Breeze! We know that organising and communicating quickly and efficiently with your team can be challenging, especially when they are spread across various locations (especially at the moment with so many people still working...
Surviving, Survivor Bias

Surviving, Survivor Bias

What is Survivor Bias? During WWII, the United States Army wanted to protect their airplanes and needed to know where to put additional armour. They looked at their bombers, that were returning from the war riddled with bullet holes, and plotted points on a chart to...
HR Academy Launches Today!

HR Academy Launches Today!

Why Did We Come Up With The HR Academy? Like all businesses, we have had to adapt with the current coronavirus pandemic and we have been trying to adapt how we work to ensure our customers still receive the very best service. Over the last 6 weeks we have: Supported...
New Team Member at KUHR

New Team Member at KUHR

Introducing Our New Team Member!  Hello! I’m Becca. I am the new team member and the new Office Coordinator here at Kate Underwood HR and Training. My main role as the new team member is to assist with the smooth running of the office and support the team however they...
Your Free Guide to Coronavirus and Furlough

Your Free Guide to Coronavirus and Furlough

Answering Your Coronavirus and Furlough Questions Coronavirus and furloughing have had – and will continue to have – a massive financial impact on both SMEs and large business as well as your employees; who may have to have be furloughed. More than nine million...
Furlough and Holidays

Furlough and Holidays

Furlough and Holidays First thing’s first, if you are still unsure of what being on furlough means, or as an employer have not heard of the Government Job Retention Scheme, you should check out links to our own and the government’s content on these subjects. It seems...
6 Easy Ways To Reduce Presenteeism

6 Easy Ways To Reduce Presenteeism

Presenteeism Is Already Negatively Affecting Your Business Happy New Year! We all made it through Christmas and New Year unscathed but now midwinter; the season of presenteeism is upon us. Today, we’ll be learning what the term means and making a New Year’s resolution...
The Amazing Benefits Of Napping At Work

The Amazing Benefits Of Napping At Work

The Rise of Napping at Work Did you know that 85% of mammal species are polyphasic sleepers? Humans are part of the minority that have just one period of sleep and one period of wakefulness during the day. Interestingly, it’s also disputable whether this is our...
How To Offer Employee Benefits On A Budget

How To Offer Employee Benefits On A Budget

How To Offer Employee Benefits On A Budget Running a business of any size is hard work. If you’re running a reasonably small business, it can be even harder because very often everything is down to you – the owner. You need a team behind you to lighten the load and...
Your Quick Guide To Working Out Holiday Pay

Your Quick Guide To Working Out Holiday Pay

Working Out Holiday Pay Is Easy… Right? Everyone knows that getting your employee’s Holiday Pay correct is very important. Yet it seems employees frequently feel like their bosses are getting it wrong. The lack of clarity on the subject is highlighted by the...
Your FREE Guide To Occupational Health

Your FREE Guide To Occupational Health

A Quick Guide To Occupational Health First things first. Occupational Health Physicians are doctors – let’s get that out of the way for starters! I admit, the fact that I have to say that may just be me showing my naivety. However, I remember when I was first...
5 Tips for Mental Health Awareness Training

5 Tips for Mental Health Awareness Training

Mental Health Awareness Training In this day and age, employers have a duty of care to look after their employees Mental Health as well as their physical safety. With new statistics being thrust into the spotlight every day, it is more important than ever to think...
The 6 Best Apps For Small Business Owners

The 6 Best Apps For Small Business Owners

These 6 Apps For Small Business Owners Can Help Save Time & Reduce Stress! Welcome! If you caught last week’s blog, you may remember I shared my top 6 ‘Go To’ technologies for small businesses to help with HR. This week, I’m delighted to share my top 6...
Connect Your Business Plans And Appraisals

Connect Your Business Plans And Appraisals

Want Your Company To Succeed? Connect Your Business Plans And Appraisals! Business plans are a critical part of every business to ensure that every activity you undertake moves you closer to achieving your goals. But how well do you align your Business Plans And...
What Is E-Learning? And Why Do I Need It?

What Is E-Learning? And Why Do I Need It?

Get With E-Learning… Or Get Left Behind! E-Learning is fast becoming the most effective way to onboard, train and develop staff. There are e-learning platforms available for just about every sector and every role within those sectors. Even where practical skills...
Why Return To Work Interviews Are Vital

Why Return To Work Interviews Are Vital

Do You Always Carry Out Return To Work Interviews? Cards on the table time. Do you ALWAYS carry out a Return to Work Interview when an employee comes back from a period of sickness? Or, like many business leaders, are you too busy? Maybe you see it as just another...
5 Sensational Tips For Using BreatheHR

5 Sensational Tips For Using BreatheHR

  Here Are My Five Top Tips For Using BreatheHR I recommend that all of my clients use an HR system, and I especially recommend BreatheHR. For those using currently using this brilliant and easy-to-use UK-based HR system, I’d like to share these five sensational tips...
Hiring An Intern Is What Your Business Needs

Hiring An Intern Is What Your Business Needs

The Many, Surprising Benefits of Hiring An Intern This summer, I was very fortunate to have a lovely intern called Sean to join the KUHR team. I would highly recommend taking on an intern if you are a small business and ever get the chance. Not only did I gain great...
Is Your Business At Risk From Presenteeism?

Is Your Business At Risk From Presenteeism?

Is Your Business At Risk From Presenteeism? Mental Health in the workplace is big news right now – and rightly so. As a responsible employer, you care about the physical and mental wellbeing of your staff, right? For example, if you were asked ‘How are your company...
Which Is The Best HR System For Your Business?

Which Is The Best HR System For Your Business?

Need An HR System? Check Out BreatheHR! If you’re already a client of mine, you’ll know I love a sound HR system, and you’ll also know that I highly recommend BreatheHR. If you’re thinking about implementing up an HR System, or you’re not sure why you’d want one for...
4 Awesome Tips For National Relaxation Day

4 Awesome Tips For National Relaxation Day

Chillax! It’s National Relaxation Day I know, I know – there’s a ‘National Day’ for everything these days! Though National Donut Day may sound heaven-sent, thank goodness all these celebrations are not all Bank Holidays or nothing would get done! The History Of...
The Pros And Cons Of Exit Interviews

The Pros And Cons Of Exit Interviews

Exit Interviews: Useful Information Or Too Little, Too Late? To say the HR world is divided over the value of exit interviews is an understatement. A quick internet search soon returns countless articles both extolling the benefits of gathering constructive feedback...
How To Become A Better Leader

How To Become A Better Leader

Recent surveys have shown that some business leaders in the UK are lacking key management skills essential for businesses to develop in the way they want to.  Whilst leaders appear competent in technical skills, budgeting and financial management, they can sometimes...
The 5 Best Tips To Prepare For GDPR

The 5 Best Tips To Prepare For GDPR

5 Simple Ways Small Businesses Should Prepare For GDPR Over the last week, the main topic of HR conversation has been about how small businesses need to prepare for GDPR. Some discussions have been very proactive, but there are many that believe they do not need to...
How To Stay Productive At Work

How To Stay Productive At Work

How To Stay Productive At Work In Our Always-On World If any one person had a cure-all answer to how to stay productive at work, then they’d be a millionaire. The National Office for Statistics recently calculated that productivity in Britain has lately been...
Paws 4 Thought: Pets at Work Policy

Paws 4 Thought: Pets at Work Policy

Do You Have A Pets At Work Policy? We all know that Britain is known for its love of pets but what are the practicalities of having a Pets at Work Policy in your workplace? You might have seen a few pictures of my cat (and IT Manager), Jess helping me out. Days like...
Employment Tribunal Fees Deemed Unlawful

Employment Tribunal Fees Deemed Unlawful

Employment Tribunal Fees Deemed Unlawful: What Now For Small Businesses? Yesterday it was announced that Employment Tribunals Fees were unlawful and are to be abolished. What Does This Mean For The Government? In an unprecedented move, and a two year investigation,...
How Should You Make Redundancy Decisions?

How Should You Make Redundancy Decisions?

Making Tough Redundancy Decisions In today’s working life as an employee, people will have an average of 10 jobs in their lifetime. Therefore, working in HR is not always pink and fluffy. Unfortunately, sometimes, you have to be confident and ruthless enough to...
5 Ways To Keep Your Employees Cool

5 Ways To Keep Your Employees Cool

What Steps Should You Take To Keep Your Employees Cool? English weather is joked about all around the world and perhaps deservedly so. However, we do experience the occasional heatwave, and with climate change, just like sea-levels, their frequency is on the rise. So,...
Hampshire Venus Awards 2017

Hampshire Venus Awards 2017

The Hampshire Venus Awards 2017 Just Got Bigger! Last year I was honoured to be nominated for Southampton’s Venus Awards and managed to become one of the Semi-Finalists for Influential Woman and Finalist for New Business. So now, as the competition brings...
4 Benefits Of E-Learning For Small Businesses

4 Benefits Of E-Learning For Small Businesses

These Benefits Of E-Learning Will Keep Your Small Business Compliant   One of the common issues that I often come across with small businesses is trying to find a cost-effective way to ensure that their team is compliant in statutory training. To combat this, I have...
Statutory Payment Increases 2017

Statutory Payment Increases 2017

How Will April’s Statutory Payment Increases 2017 Affect Your Payroll? As of April, 1st, the government’s Statutory Payment Increases 2017 will increase. It has been a few years since Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Statutory Sick Pay were increased, so...
4 Ways To Achieve Perfect Work-Life Balance

4 Ways To Achieve Perfect Work-Life Balance

How Do You Achieve Perfect Work-Life Balance? How to achieve the best work-life balance is, of course, one of the eternal questions and one that may remain elusive for decades to come. As 2016 draws to a close, I started to consider starting my own business and found...
How To Survive Christmas At The Office

How To Survive Christmas At The Office

All Yule Need To Know About Surviving Christmas At The Office! Christmas at the office can be almost as bad as going home to visit the family. For some, it’s a time of spreading joy, love and peace to all men, for others it’s filled with useless gifts, bad...
A Refreshing Alternative To Going To Court

A Refreshing Alternative To Going To Court

A Refreshing Alternative To Going To Court by Sarah French Working within the Human Resources industry means no day or case is ever the same. In this way, HR can be a little bit like family law lawyers. As HR professionals, we often become the confidant to our...
4 Simple Ways To Manage Employee Holidays

4 Simple Ways To Manage Employee Holidays

4 Ways Small Businesses Can Manage Employee Holidays Over the last few years, new events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become popular in the UK as employee holidays. From a business perspective, you need to make sure you can deal with holiday requests on...
Childcare Voucher Scheme: 2017 Changes

Childcare Voucher Scheme: 2017 Changes

The 2017 Legislation Update: Changes To The Childcare Voucher Scheme As you may or may not be aware, there are quite a lot of legislation changes coming in 2017. The one we’re going to be taking a look at today is the Childcare Voucher Scheme. I’ll begin...
The Importance Of Fair Process

The Importance Of Fair Process

Do You Have Fair Process & Procedures? When it comes to fair process and procedures, I’m quite often asked: “Is that really necessary?” My response is always something along the lines of “Well, if you were in that situation, how would you...
6 Top Tips To Crush Employee Sickness

6 Top Tips To Crush Employee Sickness

How To Deal With Employee Sickness I have just spent some time reading a few great articles around employee sickness and how much it costs small businesses. During my time, I have heard a multitude of excuses as for why someone cannot come into work, some obviously...