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Picture this. It's the Tuesday after the August bank holiday weekend. The last long weekend of the summer is behind you. The out of office is coming down, and there's a slightly different feeling in the air. The mornings are cooler. The diary is filling up. Somewhere in the back of your mind, a quiet voice is saying, Right, autumn's coming. That voice is worth listening to. Because autumn is not just pumpkins and darker evenings this year, it's the runway into the busiest stretch of employment law change we've had. October brings a whole cluster of it at once, and January brings the big one behind

Late Summer Reset For Autumn

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it. Here's the thing though, this isn't a panic episode, it's a get sorted episode. Because the businesses that sail through autumn are the ones that use these calm, late summer weeks to get a plan in place, one that carries them right through the change without them having to think about it again. So today I want to talk about how you go from one good hour of HR help to being properly covered all year. Kettle on. Let's get into it. The welcome to the hive. Welcome back to Buzzing About HR, the podcast that makes sense of the world of work. One honeycomb of good advice at a time. I'm Kate, your HR Queen Bee, and Hazel, our well-being officer, is making the most of the last of the summer by supervising a sunbeam on the kitchen floor. Important work, apparently. This week is all about getting sorted before autumn. We've spent August using the quiet to look under the bonnet. Now it's about turning that look into something that keeps working for you, month after month, so you're not starting from scratch every time the law

Welcome And What We Cover

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moves. Here's my promise for the next 20 minutes or so. No jargon, no doom. Just what's coming this autumn, why a bit of ongoing support beats a one-off scramble, and how the power hour we talk about so often turns into proper cover without costing you the earth. And yes, a quick practical word on bank holiday pay while it's fresh. Because that long weekend always brings the same questions. Let's go. The buzz. Let's start by naming what's actually on the runway, because the calm way to handle a busy autumn is to know exactly what's in it. There are two dates that matter, and they sit one behind the other. First, October 2026. This is the biggest single month in the Employment Rights Act rollout. Four things arrive more or less together. The harassment duty gets stronger from taking reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment to taking all reasonable steps. One small word, a much higher bar. Alongside it, a brand new duty

The October 2026 Changes Ahead

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around third-party harassment, so harassment of your team by customers, clients or contractors, becomes your responsibility to try to prevent. Then tribunal time limits double, from three months to six for most claims. And there are tipping and trade union changes too, so if tips flow through your business, or you want to get your union information right, those land as well. Second, and further down the runway, January 2027. From the 1st of January, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal drops from two years to six months. Now here's the bit people get wrong. So let me say it carefully. It officially starts on the 1st of January 2027. But because it applies to anyone with six months service on that date, everyone you've hired since the 1st of July 2026 is already inside the window. They will qualify the moment the law lands. On the same date, the cap on compensation comes off entirely, and fire and rehire becomes automatically unfair. So that's the shape of it. A cluster in October, the big one in January, and a calm few weeks right now before either of them. September is the quiet month sitting in front of both. The question is simply what you do with it. The hive check. Let's do a quick check on something that trips people up, because it's the whole reason this episode exists. There's a difference between fixing a thing once and staying fixed. A power hour, 60 focused minutes to sort your most exposed problem, is brilliant for the once. You bring the thing that's keeping you up at night, we fix it, you walk away lighter. I love a power hour. It's the paid front door for a reason, but the autumn we've just described isn't a once. It's a run of changes, one after another, each needing a slightly different bit of your paperwork

Power Hour Versus Ongoing Cover

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or your habits looked at. The harassment duty in October. The doubled claim window straight after. The six-month rule in January. If you fix one thing in August and then meet each of those alone, cold on the day, you're back to scrambling every single time. That's the case for ongoing support, and I don't mean that as a sales line. I mean it practically. The businesses that find all this manageable are the ones where someone is already holding the map, where the contract update for January is already diorised, where the harassment training is already booked, where, when a wobble lands on a Tuesday, there's a number to ring and a person who already knows your business. So the honest question isn't power hour or plan. It's this. Is what's coming a single job or is it a season? An autumn 2026 is very much a season. The sting. Here's the part worth sitting with gently. The most expensive way to handle change is one crisis at a time. Think about how a one-off problem actually costs you. It's not just the fix, it's the hour you lose finding someone, the day you lose weighting, the worry in between, and the fact that you're paying a premium for help right at the moment you need it most. Emergency HR is like an emergency plumber. You'll pay it because you have to, but you'll wish you'd sorted the boiler in the spring. Now stack that up across an autumn with October and January in it.

The True Cost Of Crisis HR

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Three or four separate scrambles, each at full price, each with its own stretch of stress. Against a plan that quietly handles the lot, spreads the cost, and means you never pay the emergency premium at all. And there's a real reason the sums have shifted. From January, the compensation cap comes off. So the downside of getting a dismissal wrong is no longer a known, limited number. It's open-ended. That doesn't mean disaster is coming for anyone doing things properly. It means the value of doing things properly, of having fair process and tidy records as a matter of routine, just went up. The quiet, boring discipline of good HR is worth more in the new world than it was in the old one. None of this is a reason to panic. It's a reason to stop buying HR by the emergency and start having it as a standard. Which brings me neatly to how that actually works. The waggle dance. So here's the honest path from where a lot of you are standing today to properly covered. It starts free. The HR Health Check is our free front door, five to seven minutes, self-serve, and you get an instant red, amber, green picture plus a report in your inbox. With October and January on the runway, your contracts, your handbook, and your probation approach all need a look, and the health check tells you where you stand before you spend a penny. The red flags are the ones that bite in January. You'll find it at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk slash hr-health dash check.

From Free Check To HR Protect

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If the health check turns up something specific and pressing, the next rung is a power hour. £150 plus VATI, 60 minutes, we fix the most exposed thing. Sharp, focused, done. And here's the bit I really want you to hear. If that power hour shows you that what you're facing is a season, not a single job, you don't lose the money you spent. If you move on to one of our service plans within 30 days, that 150 comes straight off your plan setup. It credits back. So the power hour isn't a cost you weigh against a plan. It's a first step into one with nothing wasted. The plan itself is HR Protect, ongoing cover for a monthly fee, which is the difference between meeting autumn alone and meeting it with your outsourced HR department already in your corner. Contracts kept current, the January changes handled for you. Someone on the end of the phone who knows your business before the wobble, not during it. You can see the plans at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk forward slash hash service-plans. And if you want to see the whole road laid out first, the Employment Rights Act timeline tool on the website shows every change and when it lands. It pairs beautifully with the health check. The timeline tells you what's changing. The health check tells you where you stand against it, your map and your mirror. The Swarm, Mythbuster Parade. Let's clear up four things I hear a lot about ongoing support and about the autumn. Myth one, I'll just deal with each change when it comes. With October and January stacked up, that's three or four separate scrambles at full price. Handling them one crisis at a time is the most expensive plan there is.

Mythbusting Plus Bank Holiday Pay

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Bank holidays are not an automatic legal right to paid leave. What people are entitled to comes from their contract, and the fiddly part is part-timers. If someone doesn't work Mondays, they can quietly miss out on a run of bank holidays unless you prorata their entitlement fairly. Worth a look at your contracts before the next one. The honeycomb, your quick action list. Here's your list of seven things to take away from today in order. One, take the free HR Health check at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk slash hr-health-check so you know your red amber green before autumn. Two, look at the Employment Rights Act timeline tool so you can see October and January laid out on one road. 3. Check who you've hired since the 1st of July 2026, because they're already inside the six-month window for January. 4. Pull your contracts and check how bank

Seven Actions To Take Now

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holidays work for your part-timers while the long weekend is fresh. 5. Decide honestly is what I'm facing a single job or a season. If it's a season, a one-off won't hold. 6. If you've a specific fire to put out, book a power hour and remember the 150 credits back onto a plan within 30 days. 7. If you'd like autumn handled for you, look at the service plans and HRProtect at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk slash hash service dash plans. Flying the hive. So that's the runway. One good hour of help can absolutely fix one good problem. But autumn 2026 isn't one problem. It's a season, and the calmest way through a season is with someone already in your corner. If you'd like a hand working out whether you need a one-off fix or proper ongoing cover, that's exactly what we're here for. Start with the free health check or drop us a line at buzz at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk. No pressure, no jargon, just a proper conversation about what would actually help. Until next time, keep buzzing,

Closing Thoughts And Next Steps

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look after your people, and get sorted while it's still quiet. Kettle on.