Feeling that mid-winter morale dip? The one where everyone is showing up but the spark has gone a bit flat?

This episode is about turning that around quickly and sensibly. No extra budget. No balloons. No forced fun or another all-hands meeting that everyone secretly dreads. Just appreciation that actually lands.

We dig into what really works in small teams, where culture spreads fast for better or worse. It comes down to a simple habit that takes about 15 seconds. Name a specific action, link it to a real impact, and say you want more of it. That is it. Done properly, it builds confidence, cuts background noise, and nudges the right behaviours to repeat.

I walk through a five-minute routine designed for busy managers. One specific message each day. A short weekly team shout-out with two clear wins. And a monthly impact note that people actually remember. Small, consistent actions beat grand gestures every time.

We also talk about appreciation as trust, not praise for the sake of it. Giving someone meaningful work. Asking for their judgement. Letting them lead a client conversation or shape a decision. That kind of recognition fuels development instead of eye-rolls.

Because not everyone wants public praise, we tackle the awkward bit head on. There is one question that removes most of the discomfort:

“When you’ve done a great job, how do you like to be recognised?”

The answers vary. Private thanks. Public praise. More autonomy. Time to learn. Being trusted with something important. All of it counts if it matches the person.

We draw some clear boundaries too. Appreciation is not a bribe. It is not a way to dodge performance conversations. And it is definitely not a once-a-year exercise. You will hear the common mistakes to avoid, like only praising the loudest voices, waiting for big wins, or focusing on personality instead of behaviour.

To get you started, I share a simple checklist and a seven-day appreciation challenge you can try immediately. When recognition is consistent, cynicism fades surprisingly fast.

People repeat what gets noticed. Over time, those repeats become your culture and your edge.

If this sparks ideas, follow the show, share it with a manager who needs the nudge, and leave a quick review so more teams find practical tools that actually work.

Thank you for tuning in to Buzzing About HR with Kate Underwood!
If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review—your feedback helps us grow and reach more people like you.

Have questions or need HR advice? Reach out to Kate Underwood HR & Training at www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email us on buzz@kateunderwoodhr.co.uk or follow us on social media for more tips, resources, and updates.

Until next time, keep buzzing and take care of your people!

In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we start with something small that quietly disappeared, and took more with it than we realised. The paper round. Not as nostalgia, but as a reminder of how many young people used to learn routine, responsibility, and judgement long before they stepped into adult workplaces that now expect a lot and explain very little.

In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we start with something small that quietly disappeared, and took a lot with it. The paper round. Not as a misty-eyed trip down memory lane, but as a reminder of how many young people used to learn the basics of work before they ever stepped into adult jobs that now expect confidence, judgement, and common sense from day one.

We talk through a real moment on a manufacturing floor where a young apprentice made a poor judgement call just as a VIP tour walked past. It could have ended in blame or punishment. Instead, it forced us to stop and ask a better question. Had we actually taught what “professional” looks like, or had we just assumed they would know?

That one moment changed how we approached induction. We got much clearer about boundaries, humour at work, how to speak up, how to treat colleagues and leaders, and where the lines really sit. The result was growth, confidence, and someone who stayed and learned, rather than someone who left feeling ashamed or confused. It was a good reminder that when the gap is knowledge rather than intent, guidance works far better than discipline.

From there, we zoom out and look at what early work looks like now. Retail Saturdays are rarer. Hospitality roles are harder to come by. Paper rounds have all but gone. In their place are online selling, tutoring, creative gigs, app work, and side hustles. Some of these are brilliant. Many are unstructured, unsupervised, and offer very little feedback, which means young people miss out on learning how work actually works.

This episode is really about rebuilding that first step into working life. Short, structured shifts. Holiday roles with a clear purpose. Clear expectations. And mentoring that turns a first job into a safe place to practise being an adult at work, rather than a sink or swim experience.

We also talk through the practical bits for UK employers. What you can and cannot ask under-18s to do. Working hours. Permits. Pay. And the standards that should never drop, no matter how young someone is. Safety. Respect. Clarity. And paying people properly.

If you hire young people, this is about building a pipeline and doing something genuinely positive for your community. If you are a parent or teacher, it gives you language to push for roles that teach responsibility without overwhelming teenagers. And if you are a young worker, there are practical tips for finding structure, building confidence, and understanding how effort links to reward at work.

Subscribe for more honest conversations about work, share this with someone who hires teens, and leave a review with your first job story. I would love to hear what you learned.

Thank you for tuning in to Buzzing About HR with Kate Underwood!
If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review—your feedback helps us grow and reach more people like you.

Have questions or need HR advice? Reach out to Kate Underwood HR & Training at www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email us on buzz@kateunderwoodhr.co.uk or follow us on social media for more tips, resources, and updates.

Until next time, keep buzzing and take care of your people!

Deadlines that sit a couple of years away can feel comforting. Plenty of time. Nothing urgent. Until the small, everyday habits quietly harden into rules you never meant to create.

In this episode of Buzzing About HR, we look at the UK Employment Rights Bill and why the real risk for small businesses is not the legislation itself, but what happens in the meantime. The vague conversations. The informal promises. The inconsistent decisions that feel harmless now but come back to bite later.

Kate talks through how ERB risk really builds in day-to-day working life. The kitchen table agreement that turns into a formal dispute. The “we’ve always done it this way” approach that collapses the first time it is challenged. And how to prepare sensibly, without panic, policy overload, or spending your weekends rewriting documents you do not yet need.

A big theme running through the Employment Rights Bill is reasonableness. Not being nice. Not saying yes to everything. But making decisions that fit your business, applying them consistently, and being able to explain them calmly and clearly. You will hear practical examples of what a reasonable no sounds like, why blanket refusals on flexible working are risky, and why copying big-company HR approaches often backfires in small teams.

Kate also shares a quick consistency sense check that reveals hidden risk in minutes. If two people in the same role ask for the same thing, do they get the same answer, and can you explain why? If not, that is where problems start long before the law ever changes.

To keep this manageable, the episode sets out a phased approach to ERB readiness that works for small businesses. Right now, the focus is on habits rather than paperwork. Clear language. Agreed working patterns. Managers who feel confident having proper conversations instead of avoiding them. Later comes alignment, making sure contracts match reality and decisions are recorded properly. By the time the bigger changes land, you should be refining, not firefighting.

And this is where many businesses struggle. Not with policies, but with managers freezing in the moment when someone asks for flexibility, raises a concern, or pushes back on a decision.

If that sounds familiar, Cake, Coffee and Compliance is designed for exactly this gap. Launching in March, it helps managers handle tricky conversations with confidence, apply rules consistently, and make reasonable decisions without panic or second-guessing.

You can register here to find out more about Coffee, Cake and Compliance and be the first to hear when it opens:

https://kateunderwoodhr.co.uk/cake-coffee-compliance

Subscribe, share this episode with a fellow business owner or manager, and as you listen, ask yourself one simple question. Which habit do you need to fix first?

Thank you for tuning in to Buzzing About HR with Kate Underwood!
If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review—your feedback helps us grow and reach more people like you.

Have questions or need HR advice? Reach out to Kate Underwood HR & Training at www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email us on buzz@kateunderwoodhr.co.uk or follow us on social media for more tips, resources, and updates.

Until next time, keep buzzing and take care of your people!