HR:ER

When are you too fat to work? 😲 Hear how our HR consultancy team tackled another emergency as a small business with an employee who, due to morbid obesity, has already required three specialised chairs - which cost thousands each and becoming unsustainable for the company. What are the employer's legal obligations if no health conditions contribute to the employee’s obesity? How can HR address an...

Is your training and development failing to truly develop your staff? If so, it’s not engaging enough. We sit with Gilly Cohen, Head of Global Performance at YMU Group. In her unique role, Gilly has revolutionised learning and development at YMU, a global powerhouse in talent management, representing the biggest stars in entertainment. We discuss: Is Gen Z the laziest workforce generation yet? How...

Does your organisation use mental health first aiders? Next in our guest series, we sit down with Paul McGregor, founder of Everymind at Work, which provides on-demand support designed for Mental Health First Aiders in the workplace. In this HR:ER discussion, we discuss the legal implications if an employee confides in an MHFA and subsequently causes harm to themselves, share "wellbeing washing" w...

We're excited to launch our first HR:ER guest series, and we're kicking it off with none other than Lucy Aylen, the founder of Never Fully Dressed! Since its inception in 2009 as a market stall, Never Fully Dressed has succeeded into a renowned international fashion brand, now featured in high street retailers like Flannels, ASOS, and House of Fraser. Join us as we dive into Lucy's journey and dis...

Has your business fallen victim to a phishing scam? Is it gross negligence when an employee loses company money? In our next HR crisis story, a senior Finance Director lost £50k of company funds to an obvious scam. This error led to the company's collapse; a simple check of the email address would have revealed it was a fraudulent email. In this episode of the HR:ER podcast, we discuss Which scams...

Workplaces often spark new relationships, but what happens when an extramarital affair spirals into a stalking nightmare? This is after a staff member ‘caught’ Matt and Ben in a storeroom. The situation then escalated to Matt bombarding Ben with love letters, trying to change his shifts to be on shift with him, and making ‘heavy breathing’ phone calls to him and his wife. In this episode, we explo...

The NHS has issued a record 10.4 million fit notes, with GPs admitting, "We don't want to risk confrontation. We just see the request in our inbox and okay it." This surge has led to significant unproductively, resource strain, and increased costs for businesses. In this week's HR:ER podcast episode, we dissect: What factors have contributed to the rise in 'sick note' culture? How can HR different...

Is HR providing a good onboarding programme? Only 12% of employees feel that their organisation provides a good one. In our next HR:ER episode, our host and founder, Elissa Thursfield, shares her personal onboarding experience and how HR can avoid similar mistakes. Onboarding sets the tone for an employee’s experience with the company, influencing whether they choose to stay long-term or leave. Ef...

What happens when HRs skip compliance and DBS checks with a new employee? You accidentally hire a murderer. This was only discovered when staff noticed the "strange vibe" of a new employee around the office. After a social media stalk, it turned out he faked his identity and previously spent time in prison for murdering a woman. As part of his role, he had been visiting homes as a handyman and mor...

What do you do when an employee breaches the company dress code? According to research, 63% of the public say they would consider face and neck tattoos to be unprofessional. In this episode of HR:ER, we share the unexpected challenges HR professionals face when an employee's personal choices collide with workplace policies. Our HR crisis story involves an employee in a customer-facing role who let...

Can employees pack up and work from anywhere? With the rise of remote work spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a surge in digital nomads opting to work from abroad. But is it really feasible? What are the legal, logistical, and team challenges that come with it? This follows after an employee who relocated to Finland for the duration of the ski season without telling her employer who...

Facing an employee who's pulling a 'sicky'? It's a common HR dilemma, which we tackle in our latest HR:ER podcast! A lucky employee won 10k on a scratch card and booked a holiday without authorisation, quoting "I'll just pull a sicky" when their holiday request was rejected. So what can HRs do? We share emergency measures HRs can implement to prevent 'sickies' happening in the workplace, including...

What do you do when you catch an employee viewing inappropriate content, notably OnlyFans, on a work computer? How do you untangle the web when the OnlyFans account in question, is someone else who also works for your business? This is the crazy story that we're discussing in our next podcast episode of HR:ER, as our HR crisis story is about an employee who not only riddled his computer with virus...

In today's workforce, mental health challenges affect a staggering 84% of workers annually. This prevalence has surged in recent years, paralleling the rise of conditions such as ADHD and Autism, leaving many employers grappling with how to navigate this complex terrain effectively. But where do we draw the line between health conditions and violence in the workplace? In our latest HR:ER episode,...

AI (Artificial Intelligence) has no doubt become an everyday tool in the modern workplace, but when does it become classed as cheating? Our next HR crisis story is about an employee using AI to do all his work and then spending the rest of his time playing virtual poker and snooker. Causing issues with the employer due to the quality of his work, specifically with the accuracy of some of the conte...

Welcome to our first episode of the HR: ER podcast, where we get into dealing with your HR Emergencies! Our first episode doesn't disappoint, as our HR crisis story is a unusual but serious one. It begins with an employee, whose admiration for a famous model went a little too far! This all ended up with an employee caught using their client's hot tub, sniffing their t-shirt and getting reported fo...

HR: ER is the emergency room for business owners, HR professionals and anyone else who is responsible for managing or employing a team of people. Hosted by Hroes founder Elissa Thursfield, with 15 years of first-hand lawyer and consulting experience and software service specialist Oliver Robinson they provide you with a generous dose of insights and practical advice. From hiring nightmares to comp...