Knowledge centre
Practical HR advice for business owners
Explore practical guidance, real employee situations and expert advice to help you deal confidently with difficult people issues, before they become expensive.
Guidance from Samantha Newton FCIPD, Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a regular columnist on small-business people management. Read her published articles →
Browse by topic
Find guidance for your situation
Grievances
Handling complaints fairly and keeping the business protected.
Disciplinaries
Running a fair, defensible disciplinary process.
Performance
Managing underperformance the right way.
Long-term sickness
Managing absence with fairness and care.
Investigations
Fair, independent workplace investigations.
Redundancy
Genuine redundancy, handled properly.
Restructure
Reshaping the team without the legal risk.
Settlement & exits
Clean, fair exits that can't be unpicked.
Probation
Ending or extending probation safely.
Bullying & harassment
Responding to complaints calmly and correctly.
Workplace conflict
Resolving tension before it becomes formal.
Manager support
Backing your managers on people decisions.
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Featured
Real situations, real outcomes
Disciplinary
A gross-misconduct dismissal that held, with no tribunal claim
An employee had been falsifying timesheets for three months.
Dismissal upheld. No tribunal claim.
Redundancy
Four redundancies completed properly, no challenge
A lost contract meant four roles had to go.
Four redundancies completed. No claims.
Long-term sickness absence
Four months off with stress, back at work with a real plan
She'd been off for months. No one knew what to say.
Phased return agreed within weeks. Employee retained.
Ask Samantha
Plain-English answers to the employee questions owners search most: dismissal, grievances, sickness, redundancy and more.
Browse the answers →FAQs
Straight answers to the questions business owners ask most about difficult employee situations.
Browse FAQs →Free guides & downloads
Practical, plain-English guides you can download and use the moment an employee situation lands.
Get the guides →Free guides
Practical guides by topic
Not sure which applies to you?
Browse the common situations owners bring to Samantha, in plain English.
Articles
Plain-English insight for business owners
Guide for business owners · 6 min read
The 5 Employee Situations That Catch Business Owners Out
Running a business means doing a dozen jobs you were never trained for. For most owners, the people side causes the most sleepless…
Read the article →Guide for business owners · 7 min read
Can I Dismiss an Employee Who Is Off Sick?
It is one of the most anxious questions an owner can face: an employee has been off sick for weeks or months, the business is carr…
Read the article →Guide for business owners · 5 min read
Think Probation Protects Your Business? Think Again.
Many owners think that if a new employee is still on probation, they can simply end the employment if things are not working out. …
Read the article →More articles on the way. For Samantha's published columns, see her author page →
Coming soon
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Got a live situation?
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