enlighten HR

12/10/2026

Well done to our amazing Holly Mapstone for completing the Run Bournemouth half marathon yesterday in aid of Stan Bowley Trust 🥳

We’re super proud of Holly’s charity work and how she manages to train while supporting us and our clients! 👏

BNI Brunel

08/10/2026

A question we get asked regularly: "Do I really need to write all of this down?" Yes, and here is why.

Documentation is the single biggest factor in successfully defending a tribunal claim. If you cannot show what happened and why, six months after the event, you can lose the claim on the paperwork alone.

That is not an exaggeration. That is how these cases go.

A short factual note made at the time, with the date, who was present, what was discussed and what was agreed, is enough. The key is doing it consistently and doing it at the time, not weeks later from memory.

From October 2026, the window for a claim arriving is twice as wide. Your records need to be ready for that.

Please get in touch with us if you need any help or advice on [email protected]

07/10/2026

We are all set up and ready for everyone at Riviera Connect with our partner Your Payroll Manager UK

Who's coming down today?

05/10/2026

Employment law is going through one of its biggest periods of change in years.
Some of it has already happened. The tribunal time limit doubled on 1 October. The sexual harassment duty strengthened this month. And from January 2027, employees can bring unfair dismissal claims after just six months.

If you run a business with employees, this affects you. The question is whether you want to understand it now or scramble to catch up later.

We are hosting a free Lunch and Learn on Wednesday 28 October, 12:00 to 13:00, for business owners, directors and managers who want a clear, practical picture of what is changing and what to do about it.

We will cover the ERA 2025 reforms, the qualifying period change, tribunal time limits, flexible working, zero-hours rights, family-friendly updates and the practical steps you should be taking now. Plus a live Q&A.

Free to attend. No sales pitch. Just a useful hour.

Register here: https://enlightenhr.com/free-employment-law-webinar-28th-october/

Join enlightenHR on 28 October for a free, jargon-free webinar on the Employment Rights Act 2025 and what it means for your business. Register for free.

01/10/2026

Most employers have stayed out of trouble on holiday pay for one reason: individual workers rarely bother to claim.

The Fair Work Agency is about to change that.

From next year it can inspect your entire workforce, not just respond to one complaint. Penalties of up to £20,000 per worker. And a window to fix things quietly before an investigation starts.

We have written a plain-English guide on what to check, where the errors usually are, and why sorting this autumn costs a lot less than leaving it.

Read our latest HR Advice article: "Holiday Pay and the Fair Work Agency" Your local HR consultants in Bristol, Bath and Torquay

30/09/2026

What made you first realise you needed HR support?

We love this question, because the answers are always honest.

For some business owners it is the tribunal letter. The ACAS notification that arrives on a Tuesday morning and makes your stomach drop.

For some it is the resignation. The person who was carrying something quietly for months and then leaves without much warning, taking knowledge and relationships with them.

For some it is the conversation that went badly. Something said in the wrong moment, in the wrong way, that becomes a formal complaint.

And for some, it is just a quiet moment where you realise how much is sitting on your shoulders. Every people decision, every difficult conversation, every contract question. All of it landing with you.

Whatever it was for you, we are willing to bet the business has been a lot less stressful since you had support in place.

What was the moment for you?
Drop it in the comments if you are happy to share. These conversations help other business owners recognise where they are.

25/09/2026

Your managers are your biggest HR risk.

Most HR problems we deal with started with a manager who noticed something was wrong but did not know what to do about it. So they did nothing. And the situation grew.

Under the new Employment Rights Act, employees have unfair dismissal protection from six months. A manager who avoids a difficult conversation in month two is creating a problem that arrives in month five.

Manager development is not a nice-to-have. It is how you protect the business.
Get in touch if you want to talk about what that could look like for your team.

23/09/2026

What a view for the Riviera Connect networking evening tonight at Hotel Indigo by IHG in Torquay 🌞

18/09/2026

Another interesting read from People Management

Tribunal finds HR coordinator was ‘set up to fail’ after employer made her focus on tasks she struggled with...

Tribunal finds HR coordinator was ‘set up to fail’ after employer made her focus on tasks she struggled with

17/09/2026

91% of employment tribunal claims settle before a full hearing.

That is the good news.

The bad news is that settling is still expensive, time-consuming, and stressful. And most of the cost comes not from the settlement itself but from the weeks of management time, legal preparation, and distraction that go into getting to that point.

Most small business owners think that tribunal claims happen to other businesses. To ones that did something obviously wrong.

That is not how it works.

Claims are brought because:
📍 A process was not followed correctly, even where the decision itself was fair.
📍 Documentation was not kept, so the employer cannot demonstrate what happened.
📍 The employee felt they were not heard, and a solicitor told them they had a case.

The most common thing we see when a claim arrives is not a business that behaved badly. It is a business that had good intentions but an incomplete process.

If you receive an ACAS early conciliation notification, you have 28 days to respond. What you do in those 28 days matters more than almost anything that came before.

Get in touch before you respond to anything. We help businesses assess whether to settle, identify weaknesses in the claim, and get the written response right the first time.

You can arrange a FREE HR consultation on our website: enlightenhr.com