09/06/2026
Your mid-year big question to answer:
Are you getting the best out of your team? Or are people issues eating into your time (and money)?
A mid-year check-in is a great way to assess how well your business is running from an HR point of view.
These are the areas I recommend looking at:
🦉 Absence trends
your data from January to June. Look for patterns by person, team or manager.
Cost it properly, not just days lost but cover, overtime and the time you personally spend juggling things around.
Day-1 SSP means short-term absence hits your budget faster now.
🦉 Turnover
Who left in H1 and could you have seen it coming?
Work out the real replacement cost: recruitment, training, lost knowledge, ramp-up time.
And be honest about whether the right people are staying or just the ones with no better options.
🦉 Performance
Have probation reviews actually been done?
Are underperformers being addressed or quietly left to coast?
Are your strongest people being developed or are they picking up everyone else's slack and getting fed up?
That cycle costs more than most business owners realise.
🦉 Compliance
April's ERA changes should already be sorted. The 6-month unfair dismissal qualifying period lands on 1 January 2027, affecting any new hires from 1 July 2026 onwards.
October 2026 brings more changes too.
🦉 Manager capability
Are your managers trained on the new rules? Are they handling things consistently? Do they know what's around the corner?
A well-meaning manager making a poorly documented call is one of the most common risks we see.
If you're unsure on the answers to more than one of these, the second half of the year needs a plan.
Get in touch and we can help you to build one.
