Title: Mid-Year Check: Are Your Managers Equipped for the New Employment Landscape?
Meta Description:
With the April 2026 employment law changes now bedding in, and day one unfair dismissal rights on the horizon from January 2027, is your management team truly ready? Use this mid-year checkpoint to identify the gaps and build manager confidence before problems escalate.
Blog Body:
It is now a few months since the employment law changes came into effect in April 2026. For many SME leaders, the run-up to that date was busy, reviewing contracts, updating handbooks, and making sure the basics were in place. But the real question now is not whether your paperwork was ready. It is whether your managers are.
Employment law does not operate in a vacuum. The changes that came into force in April only create risk if the people managing your teams day-to-day are not equipped to handle people issues clearly, fairly, and consistently. And in our experience, that is where the gaps most often appear.
This is your mid-year checkpoint.
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What Changed in April 2026 and Why It Matters
The April 2026 changes brought significant new obligations for employers. And with day one unfair dismissal rights coming into force from 1st January 2027, the direction of travel is clear. From that date, employees who have reached six months’ service will have full unfair dismissal protection, regardless of when they started. In practical terms, that means anyone already employed, and anyone starting on or before 1st July 2026, will have those rights from the new year.
Probation periods are capped at six months, with no extensions. Employers must follow a fair, documented process to terminate anyone who has reached six months of service.
What this means in practice is that the informal, flexible approach to people management that many SMEs have historically relied on is no longer a safe option. The two-year buffer is gone. The ability to extend probation and buy more time is gone. What remains is a requirement to manage people clearly, proportionately, and with proper documentation from the outset.
For business owners and senior leaders, that shift is manageable if your managers are confident and equipped. If they are not, it becomes a source of significant legal and commercial risk.
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The Gaps That Are Already Showing Up
A few months in, the gaps we are seeing are not primarily in contracts or handbooks. They are in manager behaviour and confidence.
Managers who are unsure how to have a direct performance conversation are avoiding them. Managers who have not documented early concerns have no paper trail to fall back on. Managers who feel uncomfortable with conflict are allowing issues to drift, hoping they will resolve on their own. And managers who have lost confidence in a team member are, in some cases, reaching for the wrong process entirely.
We are seeing situations where redundancy is being used as a label for what is actually a performance, conduct, or capability issue. It is happening not out of bad faith, but because managers feel they have run out of road. When concerns have not been addressed early, formally enough, or with proper documentation, the prospect of a capability or conduct process feels daunting, and redundancy can start to feel like a simpler route.
It is not. Tribunals look beyond labels and examine the genuine reason for dismissal. A genuine redundancy situation exists because the business needs fewer people to perform a particular type of work, not because a manager has lost confidence in a specific individual. Mislabelling creates legal risk, damages team trust, and misses the opportunity to properly support or manage the individual.
These are the gaps that matter most right now.
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What Managers Need to Be Doing Differently
The employment law changes make certain behaviours non-negotiable. Managers need to be having honest, documented conversations early, setting clear expectations from day one of probation, giving structured feedback throughout, and making people decisions that are proportionate, fair, and evidenced.
That sounds straightforward. In practice, it requires confidence, skill, and a clear understanding of both the manager’s role and the process behind it.
Managers need to understand their own management style and how it affects the way they communicate. They need to know how to have a constructive one-to-one that is more than a catch-up. They need to be able to set SMART objectives, delegate effectively, and coach rather than simply direct. And when things go wrong, they need to be able to manage conduct, performance, or sickness absence in a way that is fair, documented, and legally sound.
These are not instinctive skills for most people, particularly those who were promoted into management because they were good at their job, rather than because they had been trained to lead people.
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The Mid-Year Checkpoint: Questions Every Leader Should Be Asking
Use this as a practical prompt. For each question, consider whether your honest answer is yes, sometimes, or not yet.
- – Do your managers understand the April 2026 employment law changes and what they mean day-to-day?
- Are probation reviews being conducted with clear documentation and structured feedback?
- Are performance concerns being raised early, with records of conversations and agreed actions?
- Are managers confident enough to have direct, honest conversations without avoiding or delaying?
- Is your team handling people issues consistently across the business?
- Do your managers know the difference between a performance issue and a genuine redundancy situation?
- Are one-to-ones being used as a genuine management tool, not just a diary commitment?
- With day one unfair dismissal rights arriving in January 2027, are your managers ready to manage fairly from the very start of employment?
If the answer to several of these is sometimes or not yet, that is not unusual. But it is worth addressing, because the cost of inaction is higher than it has ever been.
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How OneHR’s First Line Management Skills Training Helps
OneHR’s First Line Management Skills Training is designed specifically for first-line managers, supervisors, and team leaders, the people in your business who are dealing with people issues day-to-day and who most need to feel equipped and confident.
The training is delivered across three practical modules of approximately 2.5 hours each, and is available in-house or as an open course, delivered remotely via Microsoft Teams or face-to-face.
Module 1: The Role of the Line Manager covers the fundamentals: understanding the role itself, exploring your own management style, effective communication, active listening, and day-to-day responsibilities. This module is particularly valuable for managers who stepped into the role without formal training, or who have been managing for years without ever having the space to reflect on how they do it.
Module 2: Developing Your Team focuses on the practical skills that make the difference between a manager who drives performance and one who simply oversees it. Coaching versus training, effective delegation, time management, holding constructive one-to-ones, and defining SMART objectives. These are the building blocks of proactive, confident people management.
Module 3: Managing People Issues is where the new employment law changes become directly relevant. This module covers managing conduct, performance, sickness absence, flexible working requests, and grievances. It equips managers with the knowledge and confidence to handle these situations fairly, proportionately, and with proper process, reducing the risk of things escalating into formal cases or legal exposure.
The training is interactive and case study-based, designed for real-world application rather than theoretical knowledge. If your managers are going to manage people well under the new legal landscape, they need practical skills, not just awareness.
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Need a Sounding Board Before Something Escalates?
If you are looking at your management team and recognising some of the gaps described here, or if something is already starting to feel like it might become a problem, it is worth getting a conversation in place before things go further.
OneHR works with SME leaders to bring clarity, proportion, and calm expertise to people management, whether that is through training, retained support, or simply a sounding board at the right moment.
The new employment landscape asks more of your managers than ever before. The good news is that with the right support, confidence is entirely buildable.
Get in touch with the OneHR team.
People matters. Properly handled.
