HR is becoming a major headache for small businesses

If you run a small business (in the UK that’s any under 250 employees) then the chances are you are spending an inordinate amount of your time addressing HR issues. This seems to be getting worse since 2020. The problem is that it is very difficult to ignore these issues as the consequences can be existential for your business.

The last 10 years have seen an overspill into the workplace of ideas that used to be kept within academia. Black Lives Matter, Trans Rights, Covid, Discrimination at Work, MeToo and legislation like the Equality Act 2010 have all impacted the workplace. Large organisations have been falling over themselves to implement HR policies to reflect these societal issues. This is creating an expectation, not just with employees but with society in general, that small businesses and employers should do the same. The problem is that small businesses do not have the expertise to address these issues.

On top of this, it is not like large employers get this right. Over the last few years we have seem multiple occasions where large employers have broken the Employment Act or the Equality Act in shoehorning ‘woke’ policies onto employees, undermining their Rights as protected by both laws.

The thing is: there is no requirement to have an Equality/Equity Diversity and Inclusion Policy in your business. There’s no legal obligation to train your staff in it either. Yes, some of you will be supplying to NHS Trusts and other organisations that make such policies a pre requisite of supplying, however, there’s no obligation to implement policies that include radical interpretations of EDI.

FairJob UK is here to help small businesses navigate this minefield. It is completely unfair that small businesses are expected to spend inordinate amounts of time on this and we believe that all small businesses should have access to affordable, robust support to help manage this burden. You are not alone.