Buzzing About HR
🎙️ Buzzing About HR
Straight-talking HR for the people doing payroll, sales and playing workplace therapist before lunch.
If you run a UK small business, or you're the HR-of-one trying to keep the wheels on, this podcast is for you.
No corporate jargon.
No "synergy."
Just real answers to the people's problems no one warned you about.
Hosted by award-winning HR expert Kate Underwood, each episode tackles the moments small business owners actually face:
- The employee who's brilliant at the job and causes chaos in the team
- The manager who avoids hard conversations until they turn into a bonfire
- The "small issue" grievance that suddenly becomes a formal complaint
- The sickness pattern is suspiciously linked to Mondays and payday
- The resignation that makes you think, " What did we miss?"
You'll get plain-English UK employment law, practical advice on performance, absence, hiring and retention, and grown-up culture conversations, all usable the same day. No theory. No paperwork museums. No advice that only works in big HR departments with unlimited budgets.
This is also a permission slip to lead like a human. Clear standards. Fair boundaries. Decent communication. 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" quite like a judgmental stare from a Wellbeing Officer who's never written a policy in her life.
☕ Start here: take the FREE HR Health Check and see where your risks and your quick wins are hiding.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Episodes
70 episodes
Six Years. £20k Per Worker. Zero Warning: The Fair Work Agency Is Here
A polite knock at the door.A woman with ID. From the Fair Work Agency.She'd like to see your records, pay slips, hours worked, holiday taken, contracts, and right to work checks. For everyone you employ. And everyone you've employ...
International HR Day For Small Business Owners Who Do It All
You've been at your desk for seven minutes.You haven't sipped anything yet. Your laptop is still loading. Your inbox is already winning.A payroll question. A WhatsApp sick day with no reason. A "can we have a quick chat?", and we ...
Stop Near Misses Becoming Accidents In Small Businesses
There's a box in the walkway. It's been there for three weeks. Your team member nearly trips over it. They say nothing because the last time someone mentioned something, the list went into a drawer.In the break room, someone's been hunch...
How Minimum Wage Rises Quietly Break Your Pay Structure
The minimum wage went up to £12.71 in April 2026. Your newest team member got a pay rise. Great.But what happened to the person who's been with you for four years?When the floor rises, and nothing else moves, experienced staff not...
April 6 2026 changed the rules, here's what no one told you
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am doing the debrief that a lot of small business owners needed last week but did not have time to sit down for.The sixth of April 2026 was the biggest single day in UK employment law in a generatio...
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...