People Matter - February 2026

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?

Trade unions are a feature of industrialised economies, and Ireland is no exception.

Where you have unionised employees, it is important to tread carefully on certain matters.

Perhaps the number one thing for employers to understands is that you cannot discriminate against someone because they are in a trade union or because of union activity. This means, for example, that any dismissal related to trade unionism will automatically be treated as unfair dismissal.

Trade unions may get involved with pay and conditions negotiations on behalf of their members – know as collective bargaining – and can also provide legal protection in disputes as well as training and advice.

If you ever have a union issue within your business and feel out of your depth, we can help.

Understanding parental leave and parent’s leave

In addition to paid maternity, paternity and adoptive leave which are available depending on employees status, there are two other types of parenting leave which can cause confusion to employers and employees alike.

Although they have similar names – parental leave and parent’s leave – they work in distinctly different ways. Here’s a brief break down.

Parental leave is available to each parent for each child they have until age 12 (16 where there is disability or long-term illness). It is unpaid. Unless the child is close to the cut off point, parental leave requires a year’s service before it can be taken.

Up to 26 weeks can be taken for each child, either in a continuous period or in two separate blocks of at least six weeks (with a ten week plus gap). They need to give you six weeks’ notice, and you can postpone but not refuse it if they are eligible. However, if you find they are not using the leave for caring for a child, you are entitled to cancel it.

Parent’s leave is for employee’s with very young children (under age two). It allows for up to nine weeks of leave, which is supported by parent’s benefit (currently €289 pw), if they have paid sufficient social insurance contributions. Some employers choose to top this up to their full wage, but there is no obligation to do so.

They need to give you at least six weeks’ notice. If it is inconvenient for the business you may postpone an eligible request once for up to 12 weeks, but you may not refuse it entirely if they meet the qualifying criteria.

For more information, or help handling requests compliantly, talk to us.

Top things you need to do to prepare for 2026’s employment law changes

Every year, we see employment law changes, and 2026 is no exception.

We’ve already seen the national minimum wage increase €0.61 on 1st January, meaning it now stands at €14.15 per hour.

This coincided with the long-awaited introduction of auto-enrolment pensions. In year one, this sees both you and each employee having to pay 1.5% of their salary into a pension scheme. This will rise in future years.

And on 7th January, increased (EU) transparency obligations were introduced, including employee rights to request pay information. For later in the year, keep an eye out for plans to improve public awareness of the benefits of collective bargaining and union membership, and in December a mandate that all workers on digital platforms, where they are under employer direction and control, must be considered employed.

Notably not changing for now is statutory sick pay entitlement which remains at five days per year, and a delayed implementation of aspects of the (EU) AI Act.

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 auto-enrolment will impact cash flow, as will national minimum wage increases and/or their knock-on effects as they ripple up the pay bands.

Policy reviews – The new rules touch upon many policies in a typical SME’s company handbook, just think about pay transparency 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 – Statutory sick pay is still relatively new but will be sure to have led 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