The September Tidy Up

Kate 0:38

Picture this. It's the last Tuesday in September. The kettle's on, the mornings have gone properly dark, and somewhere on your desk there's a note in your own handwriting that says October changes with nothing underneath it. You've heard about them. You've meant to sit down with them, and now the month is about to turn and you're wondering whether you're actually ready or just quietly hoping. Here's my favourite thing about this particular week. Nothing on that list is difficult. Genuinely. Not one item on it needs a lawyer, a compliance department, or a weekend. What it needs is half a day of honest attention and a decision about what to do first. So this is the tidy up episode, the one where we put all of it in one place, in the right order, with the right dates against the right changes, because they are not all on the same day, and I don't want you diarising the wrong one. Then we'll do the checklist. Then we'll cut it down to the two or three things that genuinely matter most if you only get one afternoon. No new law today, no fear. Just everything from this month gathered up so you can walk into October knowing exactly where you stand. 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 self-appointed well-being officer, is here doing what she does every September, which is lying directly across the doorway I need to walk through, looking faintly wounded that I'd want to go anywhere. She has opinions later. Brace yourself. This is the last episode of the month, and it's the one that pulls the whole September run together. We've spent four weeks on the October runway, the harassment duty and all reasonable steps, speak up culture, inclusion and the small manager habits that make it real. The tribunal time limits doubling and the paper trail that has to survive it. Today all of it lands in one place. Here's my promise for the next 20 minutes or so. First, the changes with the correct separate dates, because October is not one deadline, it's a cluster spread across weeks and it runs into January. Second, the full checklist, so you can tick as we go. Third, the honest prioritization. If you have one afternoon, here's where it goes. And at the end, the thing I most want to say about all of this, which is that it will happen again next year, and the answer isn't to get better at panicking. Let's go. The buzz.

The Four Dates That Matter

Kate 3:28

Right, first things first, the dates. Please write these down separately because the single most common mistake I'm hearing this month is people treating the whole thing as one big change on the first of October. It isn't the first of October.

Tribunal Time Limits And Exposure

Kate 3:45

The time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims doubles from three months to six. That's England, Wales, and Scotland together on the same day. The 9th of November, you may have seen mentioned, is a narrower Scottish date for breach of employment contract claims. So don't let anyone tell you Scotland is waiting until November for the main change. One more thing, and it's the question I get asked most. The new limit applies where the relevant event happens on or after the 1st of October, so anything that happened in September keeps the old three-month clock on it. Nothing about how you treat your people changes on that date. What changes is how long you stay exposed afterwards. A decision you make in November can be looked at until roughly the following May. And there's a second change on the 1st of October that I want to make sure you don't walk

Right To Work Checks Expand

Kate 4:41

past. Because it's had almost no coverage and it reaches further into an ordinary small business than the tribunal one does. Right to work checks expand. Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration. Act 2025 comes into force tomorrow, and it takes the duty to check beyond employees to workers, individual subcontractors and businesses running online matching platforms. In real terms, the self-employed cleaner, the courier, the chair renter, the subcontracted trades, the person the agency sent, and the substitute who turned up instead of the person you booked. Liability can even reach down a subcontracting chain so you can carry the risk for somebody you never hired. Genuinely self-employed people running their own business and contracting directly with you as a customer stay outside it. And the label on the contract doesn't decide that, the reality does. Before anybody panics on the eve of the month, hear the shape of it. This applies to new engagements from tomorrow and to repeat checks falling due after that, so nobody is asking you to recheck the whole business overnight. The job for tomorrow morning is small. Know who does work in your name, know who has never been checked, and make sure nobody new starts without one, whatever their contract is called. The codes of practice are still in draft, so some of the detail will firm up, and there's a full piece on the blog from the 21st walking through it properly.

Harassment Duty And Third Parties

Kate 6:18

The 30th of October. This is the big one, and it's a full month later. Three things land together. The duty to prevent sexual harassment rises from reasonable steps to all reasonable steps, which is a higher and much more active bar. And note that the extra word sits on the sexual harassment duty specifically. The third-party harassment liability is broader than that. From the 30th, you can be liable for harassment of your team by customers, clients, contractors, and the public related to any protected characteristic. So race, disability, age, religion, or belief. Sex, sexual orientation, and gender reassignment are all in scope. And the old three strikes rule has gone, so there's no requirement that it must have happened twice before. And the trade union changes start, which means a new written statement telling workers they have the right to join a trade union, plus new union access rights. One honest note on that. The regulations setting out what actually counts as reasonable steps aren't expected until 2027 after a public consultation, so you're being asked to meet the higher standard before the detailed guidance exists. Do the obvious, proportionate things now and write them down, because that's the defence either way. By the end of 2026. If you handle tips or service charges, there's a duty to consult your workers before you set or change your TIPS policy. And the revised draft code of practice on the fair and transparent distribution of tips is out for consultation right now, closing tonight, which I'll come back to in a second.

Tips Consultation And January Shockwaves

Kate 8:07

And then the 1st of January 2027. This is the one people file under next year's problem, and I'd rather you didn't. Three changes. The unfair dismissal qualifying period drops from two years to six months. The cap on unfair dismissal compensation is removed, and fire and rehire becomes automatically unfair. Now here's the bit that makes January a today problem. Six months before the first of January is the first of July, which has already been and gone. So anyone you hired from the first of July this year is already inside that window. Every recruitment decision you've made this summer, every probation you're running right now, every we'll see how they get on you've quietly extended is happening under the new rules, whether it feels like it or not. And two things closing this week. Because this episode goes out with hours left on one of them. The revised draft code of practice on tipping closes tonight at 11.59. The consultation on workplace monitoring technologies, so tracking, cameras, and anything using technology to monitor, manage or make decisions about people, closes tomorrow night at 11.59. If you've ever thought a rule was written by somebody who has never run a rotor or a tips pot, these are the last two chances this month to say so. It takes about 10 minutes and they hear far too little from businesses your size. And one more in a single line because it quietly changes the arithmetic on everything else. The Fair Work Agency has now had its first conviction back in July, and the government is consulting on giving it the job of enforcing holiday pay. So nobody actually checks is no longer true. For anyone who has been doing this properly all along, that's good news. So that's the buzz. Four separate moments, one cluster, and one of them started in July without anyone announcing

Shrink It Into A Checklist

Kate 10:16

it. The hive check. Let's do a quick check on the muddle that trips people up, because getting this straight is what turns a scary month into a manageable one. The model is scale. People hear the biggest set of employment law changes in a generation, and assume the response has to be equally enormous. A project, a restructure, a folder of new documents. And because that feels impossible on top of actually running a business, they do nothing at all, which is genuinely the only option here that carries real risk. But look at what's actually being asked. A policy that's current and says what it means. A team who've been told they're protected and know how to raise something. Managers who know what to do when someone tells them a difficult thing. Notes written at the time rather than reconstructed later. That's it. That's the shape of nearly all of it. Here's the heart of it. Almost nothing in this cluster asks you to change how you run your business. It asks you to be able to show what you already do. The harassment duty asks for evidence of effort. The six-month window asks that your record still makes sense to a stranger next spring. The January changes ask that your recruitment and probation decisions are made properly rather than left to drift. None of that is new management. It's the same management written down. So the honest check is this. If the size of the month is what's stopping you, shrink it. It's a checklist, not a project. The sting.

Policies That Fail In Real Life

Kate 11:58

Here's the part worth sitting with gently. Everything we've talked about this month has a version that looks fine on paper and fails in real life. And the gap between those two versions is where both the harm and the risk live. Let me make it real. You can have a beautiful anti-harassment policy and a member of staff who has genuinely no idea it exists. You can have a grievance procedure and a manager who, when somebody finally works up the nerve to say something in a corridor, says, leave it with me, and then doesn't write anything down. You can have handled a difficult absence case perfectly well in the moment and have absolutely nothing on file that shows it because it was all conversations and good intentions and you were busy. Under the old three-month limit, that was uncomfortable. Under a six-month limit, it's uncomfortable for twice as long. Memory fades, the manager who handled it leaves, and what's left is whatever you wrote down at the time. Which, if the answer is nothing, is a difficult place to be defending a decision you actually made fairly. And here's why it matters far beyond compliance, because I don't want this to be about tribunals. The person who doesn't know they're protected is the person who doesn't speak up. They go quiet, they dread certain shifts, they stop offering ideas, and one day they hand in their notice and give you a reason that isn't the real one. You never find out. That's the actual cost, and it turns up on your payroll long before it ever turns up in a claim form. The reassuring flip side is that both problems have the same fix, and it's a small one. Tell people, write things down. That's not a compliance exercise. It's just being the sort of employer where things get said out loud early while they're still small. The growl. Hazel says the quiet part. Before we get to the doing, there's someone under the desk with her chin on my foot and a strong point of view about all of this. Hazel, our well-being officer, is two and a half now, so she has the confidence of someone who has never once been wrong. She also can't talk, which is the only thing keeping this podcast broadcastable. So I read you the subtitles.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Subtitles On. Everyone keeps calling the 1st of October a deadline. It isn't a deadline. It's the day people find out what you've actually been doing all year.

Kate 15:27

Subtitles Off. We are trying to be encouraging on this show. Although I suspect that was meant encouragingly to the ones who did the work. Right. Let me put that properly, because there's a fair point buried in there somewhere under all the teeth. A date in the calendar doesn't create risk. It reveals it. The 1st of October doesn't change how you've treated anyone. It changes how long somebody has to look back at how you treated them. And the only thing standing between you and that six-month window is what you wrote down at the time. So the honest question this week isn't, am I ready for the deadline? It's would the last twelve months of my decisions read well to a stranger? Which, now I say it out loud, is precisely the sentence that was running under the dog. Only with better manners and considerably fewer teeth. She has not moved. She has, however, growled at a biscuit, which in this house counts as I told you so. The waggle dance. So let's round this out with the actual list. Work down it honestly. Anything you can't tick isn't a failure.

The Practical Checklist That Works

Kate 16:44

It's simply your priority for the first week of October. Harassment and dignity at work. Your anti-harassment policy is current and reflects the all-reasonable step standard. It names third parties explicitly, so customers, clients, and contractors, not just colleagues. And it isn't limited to sexual harassment because the third-party liability covers any protected characteristic. Your team actually know it exists because you've told them, not because it's filed somewhere. Your managers know how to receive a concern calmly and what to do next. And there's a safe, credible route to raise something, including when the concern involves a senior person, which is exactly what SafeVoice is built for. Have a look at safevoice.co.uk, records and process. You have a consistent documented process for disciplinary grievance, absence, and dismissal, and you follow it every time rather than most times. Notes are written at the time, not reconstructed six months later. Absence is handled through a fair process with proper medical evidence where it's needed, never through shortcuts. People get a fair hearing and a real right of appeal. Tips and unions, if they apply to you. If you handle tips, you have a plan to consult your workers before you set or change the policy. Your written statements and onboarding mention the right to join a trade union, ready for the 30th. The bigger picture. You know where your genuine gaps are, and there's a date against each one. Anyone you've hired since the 1st of July is being managed like someone who can bring an unfair dismissal claim from January because they can. And if anything sizeable is on the horizon, larger scale redundancies especially, you've noted to take advice early. Now prioritization. Because if that list has left you with more gaps than you'd like, please don't try

Your Three Priorities For Thursday

Kate 18:55

to fix all of it this week. Two or three things matter most. Start with the reporting route. If someone in your business had a serious concern this Thursday, is there somewhere safe and credible for them to take it? Especially if the problem is their own manager? If the honest answer is no, that's your first job. It protects your people, and it's some of the strongest evidence there is that you took the duty seriously. Second, tell your team they're protected, not a policy circulation. A short warm human message saying we don't tolerate harassment here. That includes from customers and contractors, and here's how you tell us if something happens. Five minutes of your time. It's worth more than a 50-page policy nobody opens, and it is itself one of the reasonable steps you're being asked to show. Third, check your records. Pick your most recent tricky case, absence, disciplinary or grievance, and ask whether the notes would still make sense to a stranger next May. If they wouldn't, you've just learned exactly where to tighten up from here. You can't rewrite the past. You can absolutely make everything from now on clean. Everything else can follow in the first fortnight of October. And one last call on something practical. Cake, Coffee and Compliance, Block 1, starts on Tuesday, the 13th of October, and this is

Manager Training And Paperwork That Sticks

Kate 20:28

the calm week to book it. It's manager training, not a webinar and not legal advice, and it's built for the exact gap this whole month keeps pointing at, which is that your line managers are the ones who have to actually do this. They're the ones a member of staff speaks to first. They're the ones who decide in about four seconds whether a concern gets handled properly or quietly evaporates. Seven sessions in block one, one hour each. Tuesday mornings at half past nine, running from the 13th of October to the 1st of December. Every session hands over a real document your managers keep and use, not a slide deck they never open again. And here's why the timing matters this year. All three harassment sessions land before the 30th of October, the 13th, the 20th, and the 27th. So your managers are trained and holding the paperwork before the duty rises. Not scrambling in November explaining why nobody knew. It's the training your managers were supposed to get and never did. 20 hours across the year, one hour at a time, which is roughly the only format a busy manager will genuinely turn up to. Our HR business partner and HR Excel clients have all 20 sessions included in their retainer already. So if that's you, just book your people in. Everything's at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk slash managers. Block one starts on the thirteenth. It's evergreen, so there's no wrong time to join, but there is a much easier time, and it's this week. The swarm Mythbuster Parade. Let's clear up four things I've heard all month.

Mythbusting The October Panic

Kate 22:17

Myth one. It's all happening on the first of October. It really isn't, and this one causes actual harm because people prepare for the wrong thing on the wrong date. The first is the tribunal time limits across England, Wales and Scotland, and the expanded right to work checks. The thirtieth is the harassment duty, the broader third party liability and the union changes. TIPS is by the end of the year. An unfair dismissal, the cap and fire and rehire are the first of January. Four dates. Diorise four dates. Myth two, the January changes are next year's problem. Six months before the first of January is the first of July, which has been and gone. Anyone hired since then is already inside the window. Myth three. We're too small for any of this to apply. There's no small business exemption in this cluster. What scales is the word reasonable, not whether the duty exists? A small business isn't expected to do what a corporation does, just the sensible, proportionate things for a business your size. Doing nothing because you're small is the only duty. Genuinely unsafe option on the table. Myth four, we've got the policies, so we're fine. Policies are the starting line. Subtitles, mid-parade, uninvited. You don't have a policy problem, you have a nobody has read it problem. Also, yes. The honeycomb, your quick action list. Here's your list of six things in order before Thursday. 1. Put four dates in

Six Actions Before The Week Ends

Kate 24:01

your diary, not one. The 1st of October, which carries two changes, the 30th of October, the end of the year, and the 1st of January. And before you close the laptop, the tipping consultation shuts at 11.59 tonight and workplace monitoring at 11.59 tomorrow. So if you're going to say something, say it now. 2. Sort your reporting route so someone with a serious concern has somewhere safe and credible to go, including when it's about their manager. Take a look at SafeVoice at safevoice.co.uk. 3. Send your team a short human message telling them they're protected. That it includes harassment by customers and contractors and exactly how to raise something. 4. Pull your most recent difficult case and read the notes as a stranger would. If they don't stand up, that's your process fix for October. 5. Book your managers onto Cake, Coffee and Compliance Block 1 at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk slash managers. It starts on Tuesday the 13th of October and all three harassment sessions run before the 30th. 6. Take the free HR health check at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk slash hr-health-check. Five to seven minutes, instant red, amber, green, and a report in your inbox telling you which of these changes you actually need to worry about. Flying the hive. So that's September and that's the runway. Four dates, one checklist, two consultations closing

The Pattern For The Next Years

Kate 25:44

within the next 30 hours, and three things to do first if this week is all you've got. The reporting route, the message to your team, and the records. Now here's the honest bit, and I want to say it plainly because I think it's the most useful thing in this episode. This will happen again. More of the Employment Rights Act phases in through 2027. There will be another cluster, another set of dates, another autumn of getting ready, and probably another episode of me telling you to write things down. That isn't me trying to worry you. It's me being straight with you about the shape of the next few years. Which means the thing worth noticing isn't this checklist. It's the pattern. Because the businesses that handle change well are not the ones that scramble heroically every time a deadline appears. The businesses that cope are the ones with two quiet advantages: steady support, so somebody is already watching what's coming and planning for it long before it's urgent. And trained managers, so when something lands, it's handled properly at the first conversation by the person who's actually there. Get those two things in place, and the next cluster is an email you read with your coffee, rather than a fortnight you lose. So, three ways to make October karma. Start with the free HR health check at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk slash hr-health dash check and find out where you genuinely stand. Look at safevoice at safevoice.co.uk if your speak up route is the gap. And get your managers into cake, coffee and compliance before the 13th of October at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk slash managers. Or just drop us a line at buzz at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk and we'll talk it through properly. No jargon, no pressure. Until next time, keep buzzing and take care of

Final Links And Sign Off

Kate 27:49

your people. Kettle on, standards up.