Buzzing About HR
Kate Underwood
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About This Podcast
🎙️ Buzzing About HR
Straight-talking HR for real businesses (the kind where you are doing payroll, sales, and playing therapist before lunch).
From Kate Underwood HR & Training, this podcast makes the people stuff make sense, without the corporate jargon and “synergy” nonsense.
Hosted by award-winning HR expert Kate Underwood, each episode is designed for real life. You know, the moments nobody prepares you for:
- The employee who is brilliant at the job but chaos in the team
- The manager who avoids tough conversations until it turns into a bin fire
- The “it’s only a small issue” grievance that suddenly becomes a formal complaint
- The sickness pattern that is suspiciously linked to Mondays and payday
- The resignation that makes you think, “Wait… what did we miss?”
This is practical HR for small businesses and busy leaders. We talk performance, absence, hiring, retention, culture, motivation, and how to stay on the right side of UK employment law without turning your business into a paperwork museum. Expect straight answers, real examples, and steps you can actually use the same day, not theory that only works in perfect-world HR departments with unlimited budgets.
It’s also a permission slip to lead like a human. Clear standards, fair boundaries, decent communication, and 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” like a judgemental stare from a Wellbeing Officer who has never written a policy in her life.
☕ Start here: Take the FREE HR Health Check and see where your risks (and quick wins) are hiding.
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Recent Episodes
S2E8 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
Feeling that mid-winter morale dip? The one where everyone is showing up but the spark has gone a bit flat?This episode is about turning that around quickly and sensibly. No extra budget. No…
S2E3 Farewell To The Paper Round
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we start with something small that quietly disappeared, and took more with it than we realised. The paper round. Not as nostalgia, but as a reminder of how many…
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…
S2E1 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…
S1E49 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…
S1E48 Start 2026 Strong By Fixing Five Simple HR Jobs Today
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we drop into that familiar end of year moment. It is the 23rd of December. The calendar has slid onto the floor, budget papers are wedged under a mug, and the to…
S1E40 Special Edition: The Employment Rights Bill Explained in Plain English for SME's
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we turn down the noise and focus on what really matters. The UK Employment Rights Bill is full of big headlines and bigger opinions, but small businesses need…
S1E39 How Small Employers Can Build A Resilient Early Careers Pipeline In A Shaky UK Job Market
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I want to talk about something that is getting lost in the headlines. Hiring might be slowing down, confidence might be wobbling, but small businesses can still…
S1E38 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 asleep under a pile of Christmas lights, the inbox is bursting with…
S1E38 How To Get Ready For The UK Employment Rights Bill Without Drowning In Admin
Big HR changes are on the way, and we’re turning the noise into a clear plan. Kate breaks down the Employment Rights Bill for UK small employers with plain-English timelines, practical examples, and…
S1E37 How The Autumn Budget 2025 Hits Small Businesses
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am digging into the Autumn Budget 2025 and what it actually means for small businesses. The headlines sound promising, but if you run a business, you know the…
S1E34 Making Men's Health Routine At Work
The moustaches are fun, but posters don’t cover shifts. We take a straight look at men’s health at work and how small teams can spot trouble early, protect time for care, and avoid expensive…
S1E33 Quiet Quitting Isn’t The Problem; It’s The Signal You’ve Been Ignoring
The signs show up before the resignation letter lands: cameras off, ideas thin, meetings that end with nothing decided, and work kept tightly to the job description. We call it quiet quitting, but…
S1E32 Practical Ways To Support Menopause And Keep Teams Fair
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am diving into a question that so many businesses quietly worry about. Does offering menopause support genuinely help you keep brilliant people, or does it risk…
S1E31 How To Keep Clients Without Breaking Employment Law
In this episode of Buzzing About HR, I am diving into one of those moments every HR person and business owner knows too well. A client is pushing for speed, your gut is shouting no, and you are stuck…
Frequently Asked Questions
Buzzing About HR has published 57 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.
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