There are significant changes happening to employment law in the UK.
Some have already arrived. Others are coming over the next few months and into 2027.
Statutory Sick Pay is now payable from the first day of sickness absence, eligibility for paternity and unpaid parental leave has changed, protections around harassment are being strengthened and, from January 2027, employees will gain ordinary unfair dismissal protection after six months rather than the current two years.
There are plenty of articles explaining what employers need to change in their policies and procedures as a result.
But I think there is another conversation we need to have.
Because changing a policy is relatively straightforward.
Changing the way we actually manage and communicate with people is harder.
And increasingly, I don't think employers can afford to ignore that part.
The first few months matter more than ever
The reduction in the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from two years to six months should make employers think carefully about what happens during those first few months of someone's employment.
Not because managers should become frightened of managing people.
Quite the opposite.
It means we need to get better at it.
If someone isn't meeting the required standard, tell them.
If expectations aren't clear, clarify them.
If something isn't working between a new employee and the rest of the team, don't leave it for three months hoping everyone will eventually get used to each other.
And if somebody is doing something brilliantly, tell them that too.
None of this should be revolutionary.
But we know it doesn't always happen.
I've worked with managers who have been frustrated with an employee for months, sometimes considerably longer, and yet when we start talking about what conversations have actually taken place, very little has been said directly to that person.
Everybody else may know there's a problem.
The employee sometimes doesn't.
That's not fair on anybody.
We put a lot of effort into recruitment. What happens afterwards?
We often spend considerable time and money finding the right person.
Then they arrive.
Here's your induction.
Here's your laptop.
Here's the person sitting next to you.
Off you go.
And somehow, we expect a group of people with completely different personalities, communication styles, backgrounds and experiences to work out how to communicate effectively with each other.
Sometimes they do.
Sometimes they don't.
One person thinks their colleague is rude. The colleague thinks they're simply being direct.
Someone asks lots of questions because they want to understand what they're doing. Their manager interprets those questions as challenging their authority.
One person likes to talk things through. Another needs time to think before responding.
One person wants regular feedback and reassurance. Someone else would find that incredibly irritating and would rather be trusted to get on with the job.
Neither is necessarily wrong.
They're different.
But without understanding those differences, we start attaching meaning to other people's behaviour.
She's difficult.
He's too sensitive.
She's always questioning me.
He never communicates.
And once we've decided what somebody is like, we start looking for evidence to prove ourselves right.
That's when relatively small differences can become much bigger relationship problems.
The way we work has changed
People's expectations of work have changed too.
I sometimes hear conversations about younger employees needing to toughen up, being too sensitive or expecting too much from their employers.
Whether we personally agree with that is almost irrelevant.
If you want to attract and retain good people, you need to understand what they need to do their best work.
Most people want to be treated with respect.
They want to understand what's expected of them.
They want to be able to ask a question without being made to feel stupid.
They want to be able to disagree without it becoming personal.
And they want to be spoken to like adults rather than robots or children who simply need to do what they're told.
That doesn't mean employees get their own way.
It doesn't mean managers can't challenge poor performance, set standards, give difficult feedback or say no.
Good workplaces aren't places where everybody agrees.
They're places where people know how to communicate when they don't.
And when I talk about stress, I don't mean a busy week
When we talk about work-related stress, workload is often the first thing that comes to mind.
But that's not the stress I'm talking about here.
I mean the stress that comes from unhealthy workplace relationships.
And that kind of stress isn't always obvious.
There may not be an argument.
Nobody may have raised a grievance.
On the surface, everyone might still be turning up, attending meetings and getting on with their work.
But underneath, things can be bubbling away.
Someone becomes quieter in meetings.
Two colleagues start avoiding each other.
Information isn't shared as freely.
People become more careful about who they speak to because they don't want to be seen as taking sides.
Or perhaps they do take a side because they feel more supportive towards one person than the other.
Slowly, the way the whole team communicates begins to change.
Collaboration reduces. Trust starts to disappear. People spend more time thinking about the relationship problem and less time focusing on the work they are actually there to do.
And by the time the problem becomes obvious, quite a lot of damage may already have been done.
Performance can begin to drop. Sick days or longer periods of absence can increase. People who were once engaged start withdrawing.
Sometimes good employees simply decide they've had enough and leave.
Then the impact spreads even further.
There are fewer people doing the work, which puts additional pressure on everyone who remains.
Managers spend more time dealing with absence, recruitment, complaints or tensions within the team.
Other employees become frustrated because they're picking up additional work.
Pressure increases.
And all of this takes attention away from what the organisation is actually trying to achieve.
Relationship problems rarely stay between two people.
They ripple through teams.
This is a health and safety issue too
When we hear "health and safety at work", many of us still immediately think about physical risks.
Wet floors. Machinery. Manual handling. Protective equipment.
But HSE's focus isn't only on preventing physical injury.
Employers also have a legal duty to assess and manage the risk of work-related stress.
HSE's Management Standards identify six areas that can contribute to work-related stress if they're poorly managed: Demands, Control, Support, Relationships, Role and Change.
Relationships are there for a reason.
Poor communication, unresolved conflict, bullying, unacceptable behaviour and difficult working relationships can all create unnecessary stress.
Yet relationship issues are incredibly easy to dismiss.
"They're both adults. They'll sort it out."
"It's just a personality clash."
"That's just what he's like."
"They don't have to like each other. They just have to work together."
And that last one is true.
They don't have to like each other.
But they do need to be able to communicate and work together effectively.
And sometimes people need help learning how to do that.
Soft skills are not a nice-to-have
I still hear communication, emotional intelligence, listening and conflict management described as "soft skills".
As though they're an optional extra.
Something useful if there's enough left in the training budget.
I would argue they're becoming some of the most important skills in the workplace.
You can employ incredibly talented people with excellent technical knowledge, but if they can't communicate, listen, ask questions, give feedback, handle disagreement or understand that somebody else might approach a situation differently, you're going to have problems.
Understanding personality differences doesn't mean putting everybody into boxes.
It's about helping people recognise that different doesn't automatically mean difficult.
Teach people how to ask open questions without worrying that they're going to offend someone.
Help them understand how their own communication changes when they're under pressure.
Give managers the confidence to address small issues before they become big ones.
Create opportunities for teams to talk about how they work together rather than waiting until relationships have already broken down.
Sometimes very simple questions can make an enormous difference:
How do you prefer to receive feedback?
What do you need from me when you're under pressure?
If something isn't working between us, how should we raise it?
What might I misunderstand about the way you communicate?
These aren't fluffy conversations.
They're preventative ones.
Policies matter. But conversations bring them to life.
There will be contracts to review, policies to update and procedures to change as employment legislation continues to evolve.
Of course there will.
But I hope organisations don't stop there.
Because you can have beautifully written policies and still have a workplace where nobody feels able to have an honest conversation.
The first few months of employment should be about much more than deciding whether somebody can technically do the job.
They're an opportunity to establish expectations, build relationships, give regular feedback, understand differences and create the foundations for how people are going to work together.
And when something isn't right, address it.
Early.
Respectfully.
Clearly.
Don't wait until somebody raises a grievance, goes off sick, stops performing or hands in their notice.
By then, the cost — both human and organisational — may already be considerably higher.
The workplace has changed.
Employment law is changing with it.
Perhaps now is the time to ask whether the way we lead, manage and communicate with people has changed enough too.
How healthy are the relationships in your workplace?
If you're not sure what's happening beneath the surface of your organisation, my Workplace Relationship Health Check can help identify where relationship issues, communication difficulties and unresolved tensions may be creating unnecessary stress or organisational risk.
Or, if you'd simply like to talk through what you're noticing in your team or organisation, book a call with me for an initial conversation.
Sometimes you don't need another policy.
You need to understand what's really happening between the people expected to work together every day.