The HR Podcast | Built for Business

In this episode, Sarah Ropek and Claire Cathcart explore why performance improvement plans (PIPs) have developed such a negative reputation and whether the problem is the process itself or how it’s used. Many employees see a PIP as a sign that their job is already at risk, but Claire and Sarah discuss why that perception exists and what often goes wrong in performance management before a formal pr...

International Women’s Day Special: Careers in HR, Confidence & Building Your Own Business In this International Women’s Day episode, Sarah Ropek and Claire Cathcart step away from their usual Q&A format for a more personal conversation about their careers in HR, the decisions that shaped them, and why they both chose to start their own businesses. With more than 20 years of experience each...

The Employment Rights Act is reshaping UK employment law in 2026 and 2027 - but what does this major legislation change actually mean for your business? In this episode of The HR Podcast Expert Sessions, Sarah Ropek and Nic Elliott break down the biggest employment law reforms in years. Discover what's coming first, including day-one statutory sick pay and the new Fair Work Agency, plus what&#...

Hiring the wrong person can cost up to 3x their salary. This episode covers the real causes of bad hires and practical fixes for your recruitment process. Listen now. If you've ever looked at a new starter three months in and thought "this isn't who I interviewed," you're not alone. According to the REC, the wrong hire can cost up to three times their salary — and in a small...

Why HR Still Matters Even With Great Managers Good managers don't remove the need for HR in small businesses. Here's what HR actually does, when to get support, and what the risks are if you don't. Listen now. Your managers are competent, your team is happy, one-to-ones are happening — so what exactly is HR adding? It's a fair question, and one Claire and Sarah hear regularly from...

Can You Contact Employees on Sick Leave? UK Absence Guide Think you can't contact an employee on sick leave? You can — but how you do it matters. This episode covers UK absence management done right. Listen now. You can contact an employee who's off sick. That's the short answer — and it surprises more managers than it should. What you can't do is contact them in a way that feels p...

Probationary Period Purpose: What UK Businesses Need to Know Is your probationary period actually working? This episode covers what probation is for, how long it should be, and what changes in January 2027. Listen now. If your probation reviews get forgotten or treated as a formality, you're running a risk that's about to get significantly bigger. 22% of UK employees say they didn't re...

Why Employee Resignations Spike in January (And How to Stop Them) January resignations don't come from nowhere. This episode covers why staff leave after the holidays and which employee retention strategies actually work. Listen now. If you always seem to lose people in January, the decision to leave almost certainly wasn't made in January. LinkedIn and Indeed both show January is one of t...

Exit Interviews: Should You Bother and How to Make Them Work Exit interviews done badly are a tick-box exercise that changes nothing. This episode covers when they work, what to ask, and what to do with the data. Listen now. Exit interviews are one of those HR rituals everyone does but few use well. A 2023 CIPD study found 35% of UK employees were considering leaving within 12 months — poor manage...

Promoted Your Star Performer and It's Gone Wrong? Here's Why One in four high performers underperform after promotion. This episode covers the promotion pitfalls, how to prevent them, and what to do if it's already gone wrong. Listen now. Promoting your best person seems like an obvious call — until three months later it's clearly not working. According to the Harvard Business Revi...

Should You Cancel the Christmas Party? Managing the Risks Employment claims rise 30% in January — often from Christmas parties. This episode covers the risks, your liability, and how to celebrate safely. Listen now. The Christmas party is one of the most anticipated — and most reliably problematic — events in the workplace calendar. Employment claims rise by as much as 30% in January, often from s...

Side Hustles at Work: Should You Stop Employees Having One? 25% of UK workers now have a side hustle. This episode covers when it's a conflict of interest, when it's a benefit, and what your contracts should say. Listen now. A quarter of UK workers now have a side hustle — and that number is rising. Your instinct might be to shut it down, but a blanket ban could cost you good people. In th...

Can AI Replace Your HR Department? What Businesses Need to Know 55% of UK HR teams already use AI. But can it replace HR entirely? This episode covers what AI does well, where it falls short, and what to do next. Listen now. The question isn't whether AI is coming to HR — it's already here. 55% of UK HR professionals say their organisation uses some form of AI or automation in HR. But &quo...

How to Restructure Without Destroying Your Business Culture 58% of employees say they feel less loyal to their company after a restructure — especially when communication was unclear or poorly handled. That statistic isn't just about the people who leave. It's about the ones who stay, watching how their colleagues are treated and deciding what it tells them about the business they're s...

Why Do People Hate HR? The Reputation Problem and How to Fix It 42% of employees say they don't trust the HR team. That's the finding from a 2023 People Management poll — and if you've spent any time on LinkedIn recently, you'll have seen the sentiment playing out in real time. HR is accused of being the corporate police, of working for management, of hiding behind processes. Some...

Hiring for Culture Fit vs Capability: How to Get the Balance Right 89% of hiring failures are attributed to attitude and culture mismatch — not a lack of technical skill. So how do you hire for culture without just recruiting people who look and think like you? In this episode: whether you can genuinely hire for both, what "culture fit" means versus "culture add," how scorecard...

How to Stop Being a Bottleneck in Your Business If every decision, approval, or sign-off has to go through you, you're not leading — you're blocking. According to McKinsey, 61% of growing businesses cite unclear decision-making structures as a top barrier to scaling. And in most cases, the bottleneck starts at the top. In this episode: why bottlenecks happen in both small and large busines...

How to Choose the Right Employee Benefits for Your Business Over 80% of employees say benefits are a key factor in staying — yet most small businesses offer packages that go unused or weren't designed around what people actually want. Getting benefits right is about choosing deliberately, not adding more. In this episode: where to start with benefits strategy, why focus groups beat surveys, wh...

Do Employee Appraisals Still Work? A Practical Guide Only 14% of employees find appraisals motivating. Yet businesses that replace them with nothing lose the thread entirely — no visibility on performance, no development conversations, no link to pay or progression. In this episode: how appraisals work in practice vs theory, why linking performance to pay gives the process meaning, why personal de...

Can You Make Your Team Return to the Office? What UK Employers Need to Know The return to office debate is back. Amazon, Dell, and others have mandated it. Some businesses are going fully remote. Most are in the middle and not sure where they stand legally or practically. Before you issue a policy, there's a lot to work through: what your contracts say, whether custom and practice changes thin...

Why Can't We Just Fire Them? A Practical Guide to Employee Dismissal "Why can't we just fire them?" is one of the most common questions HR gets — and it almost always comes from genuine frustration. The answer isn't always no. Sometimes you can. But there are three types of cost — legal, cultural, and moral — and most business owners only consider one of them. In this episode...