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Picture this, it's Tuesday afternoon. The thermometer on your kitchen wall says 29 degrees, and it is not yet three o'clock. Your phone has buzzed twice with MetOffice Alerts. The first heat wave of the year has landed. In your business, wherever that business is, whatever it does, three things are happening right now, whether you can see them or not. One, somebody on your team has gone quiet because they feel rough and they don't want to make a fuss. Two, somebody else has taken matters into their own hands and is now wearing something to work that you

Heatwave Reality Check For Employers

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would not have approved of in writing. Three, at least one person is wondering silently whether you're going to do anything about any of this or whether you're going to do what most bosses do, which is nothing. That third one is the one that matters, because heat waves at work are not in the end about the temperature. They are about whether the person who employs you noticed. That is what your team is watching for this week. And here is the irritating bit nobody tells you. The law is not going to make this decision for you. There is no legal maximum workplace temperature in the UK. There is no figure on a thermometer that triggers an automatic right to go home. The 30 degrees rule everyone quotes is a TUC campaign figure. Not law. Never has been. What there is, and this is the bit that matters, is a duty of care. And a watching team. And a window of about 48 hours to do the right thing visibly before everyone decides what kind of employer you are. Today we're going through what to do. This week. This actual week. Heat is here, tea is iced, kettle off for once. The welcome to the hive. Hey there. Welcome back to Buzzing About HR, the podcast for small business owners and HR professionals who want straight talking plain English advice. I'm Kate, your host, HR Queen Bee, and someone who has been refreshing the MetOffice app like it's a hobby. With me as ever, currently spread out flat on the coolest patch of kitchen tile she could find, is Hazel, our well-being officer. She has independently decided that mid-afternoon is for lying down, and I have to say I respect the analysis. This is a bonus episode. The main one this week was right-to-work checks. If you missed that one, episode 21, go back for it. It is the most expensive single mistake a small business can make right now. But today is heat, because by the time you read a blog about heat waves, the heat wave is over. By the time you do a course on heat waves, your team has already remembered what you did this week and made up their minds. The blog on this, linked in the show notes, is the evergreen version. Laws, duty of care, the full reference. It is there forever, for every summer. This podcast is what to do this actual week. Kettle off. The Buzz, what the law actually says. Quick recap of the law because you'll get asked. There is no maximum workplace temperature. There is no number on the thermometer above which your team have a legal right to go home. What there is, three things, all of them important. One, the health and safety at Work Act 1974. You have a duty to ensure the place is safe, so far as is reasonably practicable. That word reasonably is doing all the heavy lifting. Reasonable in an air conditioned glass office at 32 degrees is not reasonable

What UK Law Actually Requires

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on a hot roof at 32 degrees. 2. The workplace, health safety and welfare. Regulations. 1992. The temperature has to be reasonable. The approved code of practice gives you a minimum, 16 degrees for normal work, 13 degrees for strenuous, but no maximum. 3. The management of health and safety at work regulations. 1999. You must do a risk assessment. For pregnant workers, that risk assessment has to be specific, documented, and adjusted in writing. Heat is part of it. If you have not done that this week and you employ someone who is pregnant, please pause this and do it. The Equality Act 2010 also sits in the background. If your we treat everyone the same hot weather approach disadvantages someone disabled, pregnant, on medication, older or with a health condition, that's a problem before you even reach for the thermometer. That is the law. The law gives you a duty and a judgment, not a number. Stop waiting for the number. There isn't one. The hive check. The numbers that matter. Now the numbers that do matter. The MET office is currently issuing heat health alerts on a yellow amber-red scale. We are sitting in amber across most of the South this week. Amber means the heat is likely to have an impact on health, particularly older adults and people with pre-existing conditions. A and E heat-related admissions during a UK heat wave typically rise by 20 to 30%. The 2022 heat wave, when temperatures topped 40 degrees, was associated with around 3,000

The Risk Numbers That Matter

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excess deaths across the country. Closer to your business, the average personal injury settlement for a heat-related workplace incident, in cases I have advised on or seen reported, sits between £15,000 and £60,000. That is for cases where the employer either had no risk assessment, no adjustments, or had been told the conditions were unsafe and pressed on. A heat-related incident in a small business has three costs. The person, first, the legal exposure, second, and the team's view of you, third. That third one quietly costs you the most over time. Because people who watch their boss ignore them in a heat wave don't typically resign that week. They resign in October, and they tell people why. The sting. The five things. People get wrong this week. Right. The five things I am seeing this week, every week of every heat wave, in business after business. One, it's only a few days, we'll just push through. Push through is what big companies say when they have aircon and you don't. Push through is also what creates the resignation in October. Don't push through, adjust. Two, I haven't said anything because I don't want to make a fuss. If the boss hasn't said anything, the team assumes the boss hasn't noticed. Or worse,

Five Common Hot Weather Mistakes

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has noticed and decided not to care. A two-line email today. Dress code is relaxed, water is in the fridge, brakes are flexible, tell me if you're struggling, cost you nothing and changes the room. 3. Everyone's the same, everyone copes. No. Pregnant employees, employees on blood pressure tablets, antidepressants or diuretics, anyone over 60, anyone with asthma or a heart condition, anyone newly arrived from a cooler climate, anyone disabled, they do not cope the same. The Equality Act expects you to know this. The duty of care expects you to act on it. A quiet word, not a public meeting. 4. They came in shorts and flip-flops, I'll deal with that later. Deal with it before lunchtime. If your usual dress code is contributing to the problem this week, relax it in writing explicitly. Otherwise, people make their own decisions and you end up with a customer complaint and a disciplinary you could have avoided. 5. Working from home solves it. Sometimes. Sometimes their home is a top floor flat with single glazing and a toddler. Work from home is one tool. It is not the answer. Ask each person whether their home is actually cooler before you assume. Those are the five. Every heat wave, every year. Same five. The waggle dance. What to do by Friday? Right. The cure. Five things to do between now and Friday. None of them cost much. All of them visible. Step one. Send the email today. Four lines. It is hot. Dress code is relaxed until further notice. Specify what you are allowing. Water and ice are in the kitchen. Brakes are flexible. If you are struggling, tell me, not your colleague, today, not tomorrow. Send it. Done. 20 minutes of writing time. Largest single morale move you can make this week.

Five Visible Actions By Friday

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Step two. Find your higher risk people. Discreetly. Run through your team in your head. Pregnant. On medication that affects heat tolerance. Over 60. Health condition. Outdoor worker. Vehicle without aircon, kitchen, warehouse. Talk to those people individually before the end of tomorrow. Not in a meeting. A quiet word. How are you doing? Anything we should change for you this week? For pregnant employees, the risk assessment has to be in writing. A CAS template. Do it today. Step 3. Move the work. Heat is worst between 11am and 4 p.m. Whatever heavy or outdoor work you can move out of that window, move it. Earlier starts, later finishes. Swap an afternoon site visit for a morning one. Rebook the warehouse stocktake for 7 a.m. Some of it won't be possible. More of it will be possible than you think. Treat the heat wave like a snow day. What would we move if we genuinely had to? Step four. Make stopping normal. The most useful thing you can do this week is make it socially acceptable for someone to say, I need to sit down for 10 minutes. You go first, visibly. I'm going to grab a glass of water and sit in the cooler room. Back shortly. Permission flows downwards. Cultures where people push through are the cultures where someone ends up in A and E. Step five. Diary a 15-minute review for next Monday. What worked, what didn't. What we change for the next one. Because the next one is coming, probably July. That is the entire plan. Five things. Not perfect. Just visibly, sensibly, looking after people. Which is, in this country, in this weather, ahead of most employers. The swarm, mitebuster parade. Myth one, it's the law to go home at 30 degrees. It is not, there is no such law. There is a right to raise a health and safety concern without being penalized. Listen to it. Address it. If a reasonable adjustment is genuinely not possible and the work is unsafe, you stop the work. But the trigger is unsafe, not 30 degrees. Myth two. My contract says I have to wear a tie. Your dress code is a policy, not a contract term. You can vary it temporarily and in

Heatwave Myths Staff Repeat

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writing, and this week you should. From today until further notice, ties are not required. Smart shirts open at the collar are fine. Smart shorts are permitted. Twenty seconds to write. Done. Myth three. The kids' school sent them home. Why are we still here? Schools have specific safeguarding rules for young children that do not apply to adult workplaces. Not a comparable. Acknowledge the discomfort, point to what you are doing, offer the flexibility you have. Myth four. We're too small for this to matter. The smaller you are, the more it matters. A two-day staff absence in a six-person business is a third of your week, and the personal injury claim doesn't get smaller because the employer is smaller. The honeycomb, your quick action list. Seven things to do this week. One, buy a thermometer if you haven't got one. Take a reading mid-morning and mid-afternoon in the working area. Write it down with the date. 2. Send the four-line hot weather email today. 3. Identify two or three higher risk people and have a quiet individual word with each of them by tomorrow. 4. If anyone is pregnant, do the heat risk assessment in writing today. A CAS template. 5. Move one piece of heavy or outdoor work

Seven Point Quick Action List

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out of the 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. window for the rest of the week. 6. Go first on stopping. Be the boss who visibly takes a water break. Permission flows downwards. 7. Diary a 15-minute review for Monday morning. What worked, what didn't, what we tighten before the next one. Seven things, most of them under five minutes, all of them visible. That is the heat wave handled. Flying the hive, right before I go. Heat waves at work are not really about the temperature. They are about whether the boss noticed. In your team, this week, someone is testing whether you noticed. They will not tell you they are testing. They will not phrase it that way. But they are. The cost of getting this wrong is somebody in AE or somebody who quietly decides in May that they will start applying elsewhere in October. The cost of getting it right is a four-line email, an honest conversation with the two or three who need it, and a willingness

The Real Test And Closing

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to let people stop when they need to. Five days of mildly inconvenient flexibility. 18 months of goodwill. That is the trade. Take it. If this episode was useful, share it with another small business owner. They are probably still pretending the heat isn't happening. Find me at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk or email buzz at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk. Subscribe so you never miss an episode and if you haven't left a review yet. It takes 30 seconds. It genuinely helps and it is easily the cheapest good deed you'll do all week. More refreshing than a biscuit with your tea. Not quite as good as an ice lolly, but nearly. Until next time, keep buzzing, look after your people and find some shade. Kettle off. Standards up.