5 things to review before the second half of the year

Time for a quick check-in now it's almost halfway through 2026.

Ask yourself these 3 questions:

• Are you getting the best out of your team?

• Do people issues take up more of your time than they should?

• Are you managing your people in the right way or are you just reacting to problems as they land?

If the answer to any of those is "I'm not sure," the 5 areas below will help you to work out where the gaps are and what to focus on before H2.

1. Absence: what are the trends telling you?

Pull your absence data from January to June and look at it properly.

Not just the number of days lost but the patterns. Is it the same people? The same team? The same time of month? Sometimes absence clusters around a particular manager and that tells you something important.

With day-1 SSP now in force, you may already be feeling the financial impact of short-term absence more than you used to.

And, when you're costing absence, don't just count the days. Factor in what it actually costs you: agency cover, overtime for the rest of the team, delayed work, the time you personally spend rearranging things. In a small business, even a few days of unplanned absence can hit hard.

2. Turnover: who have you lost and why?

Think about who has left since January. Were those departures avoidable? Did you see them coming or did they catch you off guard?

More importantly, were they the people you could afford to lose or the ones you really needed to keep?

Replacement cost is one of the most underestimated expenses in a small business. By the time you factor in recruitment fees, the time spent interviewing, training a new person up and the months it takes before they are fully productive, losing one good employee can easily cost you tens of thousands.

Now ask yourself an uncomfortable question: are the right people staying or just the ones who have nowhere else to go?

If your best performers left and your underperformers are still sitting comfortably, this could be a signal that something needs to change.

3. Performance: are the right people in the right roles?

We see this a lot: underperformers get left alone because it feels easier than dealing with it. Meanwhile, your best people pick up the slack, get frustrated and eventually leave.

This is an expensive cycle that no business owner wants to be in.

On the other side, are your strongest people being stretched and developed? Or are they doing the same thing they were doing in January with no sign of progression? Good people don't stay where they feel stuck.

4. Compliance: have you kept up with 2026 changes?

The Employment Rights Act is rolling out in phases and several changes have already landed this year.

Have you actioned the April changes? Contracts updated, policies reviewed, SSP adjustments made?

The 6-month unfair dismissal qualifying period coming into force on 1 January 2027 takes effect for anyone hired from 1 July 2026. If you haven't prepared your probation and dismissal processes for that, you are running out of time.

October brings further changes, including the new duty to prevent sexual harassment and stronger trade union access requirements.

If you're not sure which changes apply to you and which ones you've already dealt with, that gap in knowledge is a risk in itself.

5. Manager capability: are your managers equipped for H2?

Your managers are the people making day-to-day decisions about your team: reviews, absences, conduct issues, etc.

Have they had the training they need for the new legal landscape? Are they handling issues consistently across teams or is one manager following process while another wings it?

Do they know what is coming in the second half of the year?

Under the current rules, any gaps can create real exposure. Your managers need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

What your answers tell you

If you scored yourself red or amber on more than one of these 5 areas, the second half of the year needs a plan. Not more of the same.

Doing nothing different and hoping that things will improve is how problems escalate.

Do you need help with your HR? Now's the ideal time

An experienced HR consultant will sit down with you, review your H1 people data and help you to build a focused plan for the second half of the year.

Halfway through the year is the perfect time to take stock. Get in touch and we'll run through your key areas together.