Buzzing About HR
🎙️ Buzzing About HR
Straight-talking HR for real businesses (the kind where you are doing payroll, sales, and playing therapist before lunch).
From Kate Underwood HR & Training, this podcast makes the people stuff make sense, without the corporate jargon and “synergy” nonsense.
Hosted by award-winning HR expert Kate Underwood, each episode is designed for real life. You know, the moments nobody prepares you for:
- The employee who is brilliant at the job but chaos in the team
- The manager who avoids tough conversations until it turns into a bin fire
- The “it’s only a small issue” grievance that suddenly becomes a formal complaint
- The sickness pattern that is suspiciously linked to Mondays and payday
- The resignation that makes you think, “Wait… what did we miss?”
This is practical HR for small businesses and busy leaders. We talk performance, absence, hiring, retention, culture, motivation, and how to stay on the right side of UK employment law without turning your business into a paperwork museum. Expect straight answers, real examples, and steps you can actually use the same day, not theory that only works in perfect-world HR departments with unlimited budgets.
It’s also a permission slip to lead like a human. Clear standards, fair boundaries, decent communication, and less drama. The goal is a calmer workplace, fewer sleepless nights, and a team that actually wants to stick around.
And yes, Hazel the office dog pops up too, because nothing says “people management” like a judgemental stare from a Wellbeing Officer who has never written a policy in her life.
☕ Start here: Take the FREE HR Health Check and see where your risks (and quick wins) are hiding.
Episodes
65 episodes
Day One Rights Turn Week One Into Your Highest Risk Window
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am talking about day one rights and why they change the rhythm of employment for small businesses.Because day one is no longer just about laptops, logins, uniforms, and trying to remember whe...
The Friday Flu: Sickness Patterns That Catch Small Businesses Out
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we are talking about sickness absence. Not the tidy policy version where everyone follows the rules and no one texts at 6:58am saying they are not coming in. The real small business version. The one w...
Don’t Paste That: The AI Mistake That Could Leak Your Client List
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am talking about one of the quietest risks sitting inside small businesses right now. Not hackers. Not competitors. Not some dramatic cyber attack.Someone on a deadline, with good intentions,...
Stop Playing HR Cluedo: How to Run an Investigation Properly
If someone says “Can I have a quick word?” and your stomach drops, last week was about grievances. This week is what comes next.Investigations.And this is where most small businesses wobble a bit.Not because you’re doing an...
“Can I Have a Word?” What to Do When Someone Raises a Concern
If someone in your business says, “Can I speak to you privately?”, most leaders feel a small jolt of panic. Are they resigning, raising a grievance, or about to report something serious?In this episode of Buzzing About HR, Kate br...
Later Is Not a Strategy: 3 HR Mini Dramas Every SME Must Fix in 2026
If your phone’s been pinging all morning, you’ve nodded through a meeting while quietly panicking, and you’ve already said “I’ll deal with that later” twice… you’re in the right place.It’s
Small Business Survival Guide To The Employment Rights Act 2025
If you have heard the words “Employment Rights Act 2025” and thought, “I’ll deal with that later,” you are not alone. Deadlines that sit a little further away feel manageable. Plenty of time. Nothing urgent. Until it is suddenly urgent and you ...
Day-One SSP Is Coming: Sort Your Sickness Process Before It Sorts You
Sick pay changes are coming fast, and messy sickness processes will feel every bump. In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we unpack what day one SSP, the removal of the lower earnings limit, and the new rate calculation could mean for sm...
Fix The System, Not The Middle Manager
Ever find yourself stuck in the middle?One side asking, “Why isn’t this sorted yet?”The other asking, “Why are you doing this to us?”That awkward, lonely space is middle management. And for a lot of people, it feels like be...
Hiring Isn’t Tinder: Stop Swiping Right On “We’ll See If We Click”
Hiring quickly can feel like survival mode. You need someone in the seat, yesterday. But the real risk often shows up weeks later, when projects slow down, standards wobble, and your best people quietly start carrying the extra weight.In...
Recognition Shapes Culture Faster Than Rules
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we are talking about that mid-winter morale dip. Not a full-blown disaster. Just that flat feeling where everyone is still showing up, but the spark has gone a bit quiet.This episode is about h...
Farewell To The Paper Round
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we start with something small that quietly disappeared, and took a lot with it. The paper round. Not as a misty-eyed trip down memory lane, but as a reminder of how many young people used to learn the...
The ERB Procrastination Trap: Why ‘Later’ Will Cost You
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 th...
January Tsunami: Why People Quit
Your inbox says “quick chat,” and suddenly January feels like a wave you didn’t see coming. In this episode, Kate unpacks why resignations spike at the start of the year, how to tell the difference between a normal January wobble and a genuine ...
What Worked, What Hurt, And What To Change In 2026
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we are doing a proper year end reset for small business owners and managers. Not the polished “new year new you” stuff. The real kind.Because year end rarely feels neat when you run a small bus...
Start 2026 Strong By Fixing Five Simple HR Jobs Today
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we land right in that familiar end-of-year mess. It is the 23rd of December. The calendar is on the floor, budget papers are trapped under a mug, and the to-do list looks like it is breeding.If...
Special Edition: The Employment Rights Act in Plain English for Small Businesses
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am cutting through the noise around the UK Employment Rights Bill and focusing on what actually matters for small businesses.Because let’s be honest, there has been plenty of commentary, plen...
How Small Businesses Can Build an Early Careers Pipeline That Actually Works
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am talking about something that is getting lost in the headlines. Hiring might be slower, confidence might be wobbling, but small businesses can still build a strong early careers pipeline wi...
How To Keep Morale High And Customers Happy When December Chaos Hits
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we step straight into the festive chaos that hits every small business in December. Hazel is under a pile of Christmas lights, the inbox is bursting with last-minute shift changes, and everyone is one...
How To Get Ready For The UK Employment Rights Bill Without Drowning In Admin
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am tackling the Employment Rights Bill and turning all the noise into something much more useful. A plan.Because if you are a small business owner or the poor soul holding HR together with co...
Autumn Budget 2025: What It Really Means for Small Businesses
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am digging into the Autumn Budget 2025 and what it actually means for small businesses.Because the headlines always sound shiny. Promising. Reassuring, even. But if you run a business, you kn...
Men’s Health at Work: Posters Don’t Fix Burnout
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we are talking about men’s health at work and why a few posters in November are not enough if the culture still punishes people for slowing down, switching off, or going to an appointment.Becau...
Quiet Quitting Is Not the Problem. It Is the Warning Light
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we are talking about quiet quitting. Or more accurately, what is usually sitting underneath it.Because by the time someone is keeping their camera off, doing the bare minimum, and giving you ab...
Practical Ways To Support Menopause And Keep Teams Fair
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am diving into a question that so many businesses quietly worry about. Does offering menopause support genuinely help you keep brilliant people, or does it risk looking like special rules that create tensi...
How To Keep Clients Without Breaking Employment Law
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am diving into one of those moments every HR person and business owner knows too well. A client is pushing for speed, your gut is shouting no, and you are stuck trying to keep the work without dropp...