The employer’s checklist for 2025
Happy New Year!
It’s 2025, and it’s time to make sure your house is in order.
We’ve created a new checklist that will guide you through the key areas you should be looking at to get the very best out of your team and business this year.
Including legal compliance, HR technology and the entire employee life cycle.
Here are the top 10 areas you should be looking at:
1. Make sure you stay legally compliant
2. Leverage HR technology to save time and cost
3. Attract the best people with a great employer brand
4. Find the right people with a legally compliant recruitment process
5. Give new starters a great onboarding experience
6. Retain your team and keep them happy
7. Invest in your team’s performance and your company’s success
8. Say goodbye to employees in the right way
9. Avoid dodgy Glassdoor reviews
10. Get strategic support from an independent HR Consultant
You will find the full checklist here.
🍾 GFHR is 15 years old!
This month marks 15 years of GFHR! We are very proud to celebrate this huge milestone and want to say a big thank you to all our clients and contacts who have helped us along the way.
We have some exciting plans for later on in the year to mark the occasion along with the unveiling of our new GFHR branding and website – watch this space!
Dates for your diaries:
We already have our stands booked at a number of local business shows and would love to see you there.
- Tunbridge Wells Town Hall Open House and Business Expo takes place on Thursday 27 February at 10am
- West Kent Expo’25 will take place on Wednesday 12 March at The River Centre, Tonbridge
Brits will spend 25 years of their life looking at a screen…
Here’s a statistic that might make you want to turn off your laptop and hide your phone: A study has found that Brits will spend a staggering 25 years (that’s 223,015 hours!) in front of their screens over their lifetime.
Excessive screen time can impact health and cause symptoms such as headaches, eyestrain and poor sleep. So, it’s no surprise that people are being warned to cut back. From setting screen-free boundaries to savouring phone-free social moments, it’s time to discover how to reclaim our time and well-being.
Read more here.
Is alcohol abuse quietly undermining your workplace?
With 17 million days lost annually to alcohol-related sickness, it’s an issue no employer can afford to overlook. Whether it’s a casual tipple or excessive consumption, some employees, especially those in high-stress or manual roles, are more vulnerable.
This highlights why preventive and supportive measures are crucial for all organisations. We can help you to navigate these issues.
Read more here.
93% of young people in the UK have encountered negative treatment at work because of their age. This has increased from 88% just 3 years ago. Sadly, 26% of those who reported age-based discrimination said it led them to lose interest in working altogether.
All young people deserve a pathway to success, so it’s really important to bridge generational gaps and create a more inclusive workplace.
Leader and manager development is the HR industry’s biggest priority for 2025
A Gartner report (a leading research and advisory firm) has found that leader and manager development will remain the priority for HR leaders worldwide in 2025.
The report highlights the increasing pressures on managers. It states that 75% of managers struggle to cope with their responsibilities, with only 36% feeling that their organisation’s current management training programmes effectively prepares leaders for the future.
This makes us ask: How prepared are your managers to lead your team this year?
You know what they say… people don’t leave bad jobs; they leave bad managers.
Bad management poses HUGE risks to your business, including:
- High staff turnover and low employee retention
- Decreased employee engagement and productivity
- Higher risk of being taken to an employment tribunal
What’s the solution to this?
You guessed it… Management training.
Management training can also be a great way to recognise the excellent management competencies that your managers already possess through formal acknowledgement and accreditation.
Should I be conducting exit interviews?
It’s not a necessity, but it could help you to get some useful insights. You may learn about competitor practices. You may gain valuable feedback and identify training requirements or manager development gaps. In some instances, feedback may help you to discover and address an issue you didn’t know existed before it becomes a wider problem. Ultimately the feedback provided as part of exit interviews can help you to reduce staff turnover.
How should I support employees who may be participating in Ramadan?
In 2025, Ramadan is expected to begin on Friday, 28 February and conclude on Sunday, 30 March. The exact dates depend upon the sighting of the moon.
Don’t make assumptions about who may be participating. Educate your managers, be flexible with working patterns and accommodate annual leave requests, where possible. It’s a good idea to talk to participating employees before Ramadan so that you can make reasonable adjustments.
Is it my responsibility to ensure employees use their holiday entitlement?
Ultimately, it’s a shared responsibility. Employees should plan their time off, but you, as an employer, must provide opportunities and encourage its use to comply with the law.
Practical steps include sending periodic reminders about holiday balances, ensuring you have a clear policy outlining how and when holidays should be taken and encouraging staff to book time off, especially if they are approaching year-end with unused entitlement. If you use an HR Information System, you may be able to run a report showing unused holiday allowance.
