Buzzing About HR
Kate Underwood
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About This Podcast
🎙️ 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.
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Recent Episodes
The £0 Development Plan Every Small Business Should Steal
You've got a vacancy.You've written the job ad. The same job ad you wrote in 2019, with two new bullet points bolted on the front and one removed from the bottom.Five years' experience required.…
S2E19 *Special* What To Do After An Are You OK Chat
You've been noticing. For about three weeks now.She's quieter than usual. Missing a couple of mornings. Apologising for things she hasn't done wrong. Saying "I'm fine" before anyone's actually…
S2E19 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…
S2E18 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…
S2E17 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…
S2E16 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…
S2E15 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…
S2E14 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,…
S2E13 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…
S2E12 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…
S2E11 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…
S2E10 “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…
S2E9 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 World…
S2E8 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…
S2E7 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…
S2E6 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…
S2E5 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…
S2E4 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…
S2E3 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…
S2E2 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…
Frequently Asked Questions
Buzzing About HR has published 72 episodes since January 2025, covering topics in Business, Business News.
Buzzing About HR is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 14m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Buzzing About HR, including email and social media links.
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