People Matter - February 2026
HR Dept
Improving your leadership skills
On 20th February it’s National Leadership Day. There’s a leader in each of us, and there are many different styles of leadership. Is yours developed enough to make the full positive impact on your business that it could?
First, let’s address a common misconception: that leadership and management are the same thing. This is not true although the two traits do complement each other and even overlap at times.
You could write a book on this (and many people have), but if we could distil the distinction into one line it would be something like: leadership sets vision, direction and purpose; while management turns it all into reality through systems, process and coordination.
So, focusing on leadership, it is the hat you wear when you are inspiring your team, setting the tone for the organisation, motivating them, keeping morale up and so on.
It is not all about being front and centre stage, loud and in everyone’s face. Many leaders are effective quietly leading by example, having excellent listening skills and emotional intelligence (see our article on random acts of kindness for an example of the light touch).
The benefits of strong leadership are considerable. Here are a few of the main ones:
Productivity gains – We’ve put this at the top because ultimately it is at the heart of a thriving business. Really, however, better productivity is what follows on from all the other benefits, when you have a well-recruited, motivated team all pulling in the same direction.
Positive culture – Strong leadership imparts your values, goals and sense of purpose on those who follow you. It creates an environment where employees buy into the journey you are on and are eager to participate.
Better retention – When staff are aligned with your vision it gives them a strong reason to want to stick around and stay part of it. Higher staff turnover, or losing a key player can be costly, so this gain to be had through strong leadership is very valuable.
Decision making and innovation – Whatever your communication style, good leadership encompasses good communication. This will naturally empower your team to make good decisions for themselves and even contribute to your company’s innovation through the trust that strong leadership instils.
As we said, there is a strong leader in everyone. For a lucky few it comes completely naturally, but many people actively work on their leadership to fulfil their potential. We offer eLearning and in-person leadership training courses to suit your needs and budget. Get in touch if you would like to find out more.
Striking a nerve for employers?
While much attention of the Employment Rights Act falls upon April and beyond, one change has happened this month; although hopefully it won’t have too much effect on SMEs.
On 18th February a string of trade union rules were relaxed. The headlines are that trade unions no longer need to achieve support thresholds of 40% for strike ballots of important public services and 50% turnout thresholds in any strike ballots.
Additionally, unions do not need to provide employers with details surrounding the number of workers involved in balloting, nor appoint a picket supervisor. Employers can no longer impose work notices on trade unions for minimum service levels during strike action.
If you do find your business affected though, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Shared parental leave requests
Shared parental leave, the forgotten child of the coalition government, is ten years old, nearly eleven. It was introduced to make it easier for fathers to engage with parenting newborns and for mothers to have more options for returning to work. It’s available for adopting couples and other family models too.
Figures from the public sector showed that fewer than one in sixty workers share parental leave with partners, while HMRC data shows in total that 22,700 people received statutory shared parental pay in 2024-25.
So it is not particularly common, but what do you do if you receive a request? Well, one of the reasons for the low take up is that it’s fiendishly complicated.
There’s eligibility to consider, which includes checking that both parties share a responsibility for the baby at birth, each “parent” has at least 26 weeks of continuous employment with their respective employers and are earning a sufficient amount against a reference wage, and how it interacts with other family leaves and pay like maternity, paternity and adoption.
Parents can share up to 50 weeks of shared parental leave and 37 weeks of shared parental pay, taken in one go or in up to at least three blocks (more blocks with your agreement). They must give you at least eight weeks' notice. Applications should be made on an in-house form from your company handbook, or if you do not have one, Acas provide a template.
If you receive a request, and are unsure how to handle it correctly, we can help.
Top things you need to do to prepare for April's changes
As has been well touted, 2026 – and particularly April – is going to be a busy time for employment law changes.
There are the statutory pay changes, which come every year. Most of the pays, like maternity, are rising from £187.18 per week to £194.32 per week. Statutory sick pay is different – rising from £118.75 to £123.25 per week. And of course there is the national living wage which for people aged 21 and over rises 4.1% to £12.71. The national minimum wage for younger workers rises to £10.85 per hour for 18–20-year-olds, and £8 per hour for 16–17-year-olds and apprentices.
The Employment Rights Act is where most of the additional change comes in. Biggest amongst these for SMEs is the changes to statutory sick pay which becomes payable from day one (as opposed to day four), and the lower earnings limit is removed.
We also see the launch of the Fair Work Agency, the specific inclusion of sexual harassment within whistle-blowing rules, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave becoming a day one right, the removal of the restriction preventing paternity leave being taken after shared parental leave and a number of trade union rules being relaxed (from February).
So what does this mean for you? Well, the sooner you can plan for the changes the better. Here are four areas to focus on:
Budget planning – The chances are you will be paying out more for statutory sick pay, and for national living wage and/or knock-on effects as it ripples up the pay bands.
Policy reviews – The new rules touch upon many policies in a typical SME’s company handbook, just think about the day one paternity leave rights as one example. Take the time now to review what will need to be amended. But remember, more changes will be coming as we move into 2027.
Absence management – The changes to statutory sick pay are sure to lead to a rise in absence for many businesses. Many will be legitimate absences but to stand your business in good stead, ensure you have a robust absence management system in place and that line managers are trained up.
Meeting compliance – It is not just you that needs to understand all the new rules. Make sure your managers and employees know them too, through good communication, training and systems that are put in place.
Whether through our retained service (which automatically includes policy updates for example) or a one-off project, we are here to support SMEs like you. Get in touch, whenever you need assistance.
Random acts of kindness
If Blue Monday back in January is supposedly the day when people are most likely to feel down in the dumps, 17th February is a contender for its direct counterpart. It’s Random Act of Kindness Day.
It needs little explanation – the idea is you do something unexpectedly nice for someone you know, or even a stranger. Of course, in an HR context we are talking about doing it for your team or encouraging them to perform such kindnesses amongst themselves.
The benefit to business is the little boost to morale it provides and, in the bigger picture, it is an example of a small building block of a strong positive company culture, aiding productivity, recruitment and retention.
Random acts of kindness are best when they are authentic. They can be as simple as an unexpected “well done”, or a small gift like a coffee or chocolate bar out of the blue. Being more structured you could build a charity event around it like some volunteering or a cake bake. Or you could gamify it in your business, like having a bingo card of kindnesses, with a small prize for the winner.
A true culture of random acts of kindness is not confined to one day a year. So you could think of ways to blend it more permanently into your management style.
Burnout vs Boreout
Just about everyone knows the term burnout. But despite being coined as far back as 2007, you mightn’t have heard of boreout. It’s burnout’s polar opposite: not enough work or dynamism, but strangely it shares some of the corporate symptoms like stress, poor health, absenteeism and staff turnover. In other words, it is something to address.
At boreout’s heart is a feeling of lack of importance and value. Sometimes employees may lean into this appearing to be more busy than they really are. We all know someone like that!
There are numerous strategies you could follow to counter it. How about mixing up workflows; advertising for volunteers for special projects to drive the business forward; job crafting where employees shape their own job description (won’t always be possible)? If nothing is working, some more robust line management may be required if you want to regain control of the situation
