Grounded Human Resources

Grounded Human Resources Grounded Human Resources is a York based Human Resources (HR) Consultancy designed to give you down to earth, jargon free, compassionate HR advice and support.

We are delighted to introduce our newest team member, Scarlett Ruby Bullock.She has joined us to take the lead with the ...
01/09/2026

We are delighted to introduce our newest team member, Scarlett Ruby Bullock.

She has joined us to take the lead with the HR and Business Administration Support to our clients and to us.

Scarlett Ruby joins us from the University of York where earlier this year she met Caroline who was involved in the University of York’s School for Business and Society’s ‘Pathways into HR’ event.

Here, Caroline spoke on a panel of HR Professionals to students about her career in HR. By demonstrating to students, the diverse routes into the field, and the current challenges that employers and job seekers are facing, Caroline inspired the room with her advice around AI-supported job applications, gaining experience, and improving confidence in sharing ideas.

This engagement goes to show you the importance of building connections and engaging with young people early.

Thank you to Fabien Baugard, Dr Juliet Kele, and Professor Katherina Bader for organising this event!

Summer holidays are finally here, marking the end of another eventful school year. From exams to school leavers, it's be...
04/08/2026

Summer holidays are finally here, marking the end of another eventful school year. From exams to school leavers, it's been a busy year for all of us at Grounded HR.

We understand the importance of disconnecting from social media and those enticing little red notification dots. That's why we're taking a break for the next six weeks.

We'll still be working with our brilliant clients and welcoming new enquiries, but for a few weeks, it's time to dial down the workload and enjoy spending time with our friends and families.

Are you embracing a summer switch-off? ☀️

Diversity and equality initiatives within a business will sometimes trigger pushback from staff believing the culture ha...
28/07/2026

Diversity and equality initiatives within a business will sometimes trigger pushback from staff believing the culture has gone “too woke”. The temptation will be to play down or row back on some initiatives. We’ve all seen it play out - throw the minority staff under the bus in order to keep the peace.

Being a true ally means…
1. Taking advantage of these conflicts to let the bad-faith employees identify themselves and allowing management to take swift action and set precedent.
2. Reward and engage allies; demonstrate how valued they are for building a respectful and supportive environment (even if that appreciation does need to be handled with discretion at times).

📰Read my blog here! https://groundedhr.co.uk/how-to-be-an-ally
🔗View my LinkedIn here! https://lnkd.in/eqKZ9D2s

We don’t need rainbow cupcakes and a once-a-year, supportive LinkedIn post. We need action. We need to know that diversi...
24/07/2026

We don’t need rainbow cupcakes and a once-a-year, supportive LinkedIn post. We need action.

We need to know that diversity and equality are a fundamental part of the company we’re a part of. And that can include:

SMART Equity Initiatives:
Specific; Measurable; Achievable; Relevant; and Time-Bound goals developed in consultation with members of the impacted communities with quarterly reviews on progress. And then you can congratulate yourself once a year if deserved.

Sponsorship and Volunteering Initiatives:
Provide volunteering time in lieu for employees - especially for minority causes - and actively encourage and measure participation. Let team members guide choices for corporate sponsorship and, where possible, favour smaller-scale grassroots events where the support will have a much bigger impact.

Vetted, Unconditional Benefits Policies:
Ensure that company policies are unambiguously inclusive of LGBTQIA+ staff - don’t just rely on assumptions and expected interpretations. Pensions, leave policies, insurance, healthcare… they all should make explicit mention of diverse family structures, specific leave reasons, gender-specific medical benefits, etc.

And this includes Employee Assistance Programs. Please, rigorously vet your providers and ensure they can provide appropriate levels of care for minoritised staff. Health partners who insist an employee “resolve [their] gender issues” or “finish their transition” before offering mental health support can do significant harm to a vulnerable person near breaking point.

📰 Read my blog here! https://groundedhr.co.uk/how-to-be-an-ally
🔗 View my LinkedIn here! https://lnkd.in/eqKZ9D2s

In this current climate, what can employers and businesses do to actually make a difference and support LGBTQIA+ staff; ...
21/07/2026

In this current climate, what can employers and businesses do to actually make a difference and support LGBTQIA+ staff; customers; and visitors?

Well to start it takes more than wearing a rainbow lanyard and posting some “thoughts and prayers” pinkwashed LinkedIn statuses, all the while staying silent during actual workplace discrimination. It takes having the courage to speak out - immediately - when a minoritised colleague is talked over; deadnamed; or dismissed. And it means proactively interrogating company policies, recruitment practices, benefits packages, and other underlying practices.

Active allyship demands boundaries with teeth. For example, never out someone without their explicit consent. Exposing transition history; s*xual preferences; or deadname is a profound violation of safety and dignity and requires swift and consequential disciplinary action.

Inclusion needs to be treated as an infrastructure issue. Your entire corporate setup needs to be overhauled. You need concrete policies and actions to safeguard your workforce - even if that comes into conflict with hostile state guidance.

What does this mean for employers/HR Professionals?

This includes things like…

• Zero-Tolerance Outing Policy
• Instant, Discreet Preference Updates
• Privileged Access Control
• Normalisation of Pronouns
• Blind Recruitment
• Gender Neutral Spaces

📰 Read my blog here! https://groundedhr.co.uk/how-to-be-an-ally
🔗View my LinkedIn here! https://lnkd.in/eqKZ9D2s

In case the news slipped you by, in April 2025 the Supreme Court ruled that the term ‘s*x’ within the Equality Act 2010 ...
16/07/2026

In case the news slipped you by, in April 2025 the Supreme Court ruled that the term ‘s*x’ within the Equality Act 2010 refers strictly to assigned s*x at birth. A ruling which has been increasingly weaponised and used by the growing “gender critical” movement. In May this year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission released its guidance on the case which, as Freedom of Information Act requests uncovering structural gender-critical bias within the commission have since revealed, formalized transgender exclusionary policy in both the workplace and society at large (note: at time of writing the guidance is still to be approved by Parliament).

Under the guise of “proportionate means to a legitimate aim”, transgender protections have been slashed again as the UK continues its slide on LGBTQIA+ rights.

What happens when lived gender is uncoupled from the statutory definition of ‘s*x’?

Let’s take a trans woman who “passes” and is in a relationship with another woman. Now, imagine she is a target for homophobic discrimination or harassment as a result of this relationship. If she files a s*xual orientation claim, a hostile employer can argue that because she is “biologically male”, the relationship is statutorily heteros*xual - erasing the homophobia claim. If she pivots to "Gender Reassignment" protections, the employer escapes liability because the perpetrator was unaware she was transgender.

What does this mean for employers/HR Professionals?

Biological reductionism will fundamentally break reporting mechanisms designed to ensure that minorities are treated fairly. And, yes, this is going to hurt cis women along the way as we watch:

· A false compression of the Gender Pay Gap when pay gap figures hide disparities between men and women.

· A statutory shield created for wage and career suppression, creating a gaping hole in accountability making it much easier for hostile employers to suppress a trans woman’s wages; overlook her for promotions; or make her redundant without triggering red flags on a gender-based equality audit.

· A distortion of grievance data where reductionism blinds HR departments to its scope. Threatening the safety of all women.

· An environment of suspicion that hurts all women. Such as JK Rowling’s promotion of biological policing to foster hyper-surveillance and punish individuals for deviating from patriarchal standards or behaviour and presentation.

Therefore, for businesses, implementing these gatekeeping practices seems like the easiest way to protect themselves from the fallout of the EHRC ruling - right up until they see discrimination claims (which carry uncapped financial awards) from the very people supposedly being protected.

📰 Read my blog here! https://groundedhr.co.uk/how-to-be-an-ally

🔗 View my LinkedIn here! https://lnkd.in/eqKZ9D2s

In Part 1 we discussed how there are two distinct sides to the LGBTQIA+ community when it comes to workplace satisfactio...
14/07/2026

In Part 1 we discussed how there are two distinct sides to the LGBTQIA+ community when it comes to workplace satisfaction, each with different needs and support structures. And if we look at the numbers, it’s clear that while acceptance for s*xual orientation still has some way to go, employees with gender diverse identities are failing entirely.

The CIPD Employment Relations Survey on LGBT+ Inclusion (see in above; 1) demonstrates the stark experience gap between Heteros*xual/Cisgender (Cishet), LGB+ Employee, and Trans Employee cohorts.

As you can see over half of trans employees experiencing workplace conflict, and a third outright dissatisfied with their place of work, it’s clear that gender diversity initiatives are out of their depth.

And that’s if a trans person is even hired in the first place. Research by Crossland Employment Solicitors revealed 33% of UK employers openly admitting they would be less likely to hire a transgender applicant (2). And - as we continue to lag behind other industries - that figure rises to a terrifying 45% in the tech sector.

1.https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/comms/about-us/influencing-public-policy/misc-policy/lgbt-consultation-final-version_tcm18-109324.pdf
2. https://www.crosslandsolicitors.com/site/hr-hub/transgender-discrimination-in-UK-workplaces

📰Read my blog here! https://groundedhr.co.uk/how-to-be-an-ally
🔗View my LinkedIn here! https://lnkd.in/eqKZ9D2s

This is Part 2 of a two-part series exploring the realities of workplace equality for the LGBTQIA+ community, based on m...
09/07/2026

This is Part 2 of a two-part series exploring the realities of workplace equality for the LGBTQIA+ community, based on my own personal experiences and the wider political and legislative climate.

In Part 1: Musing of a Trans Woman in Tech I looked at my own journey as a q***r, neurodivergent trans woman navigating the corporate world. In Part 2, we look at the infrastructure in that landscape: analysing metrics; recent case law; and give some pragmatic steps you can take to be a genuine ally to your minoritised staff.

📰 Read my blog here! https://lnkd.in/eyhFDskP

🔗 View my LinkedIn here! https://lnkd.in/eqKZ9D2s

My company’s policy of acceptance is written into our company values; those values are completely meaningless unless the...
07/07/2026

My company’s policy of acceptance is written into our company values; those values are completely meaningless unless they’re followed through every single day. They need to be fiercely guarded by hiring decisions. Interview processes need to filter for empathy; respect; and authenticity, so you don’t just end up with begrudging compliance.

It is no coincidence that we have a low staff turnover. My team members aren’t "tolerant" because HR tells them they have to be; they’re just genuinely good people who treat human dignity as the baseline expectation.

Creating a safe, inclusive, and genuinely respectful workplace is not an act of corporate charity. While it is absolutely the right thing to do morally, it benefits the business directly. A workplace where employees don’t have to spend half of their daily energy holding up a mask just to survive is a workplace that can direct that collective energy into creating something truly exceptional.

📰 Read my blog here! https://groundedhr.co.uk/musings-of-a-trans-woman-in-tech

🔗 View my LinkedIn here! https://lnkd.in/eqKZ9D2s

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Culture is only functional if it runs from top to bottom and is driven by an organic understanding of what minoritised s...
02/07/2026

Culture is only functional if it runs from top to bottom and is driven by an organic understanding of what minoritised staff actually need to thrive. For me, what I want (and need) is simple:

● I want to be treated like any other woman in the room (without systemic misogyny for any of us, please).
● I want to feel comfortable and safe enough to speak freely about my identity and journey without constantly self-editing or censoring my history.
● I want to know that my presence in front of clients is not seen as a liability.
● I want to know that if external prejudice does occur, leadership will unequivocally have my back rather than throwing me under the bus to appease a client's bias.
● I want to feel valued and accepted for who I am, and what I bring to the role.

What we need from HR:
A team that implicitly recognises the psychological weight of an administrative requirement and moves early to support the individual.

📰Read my blog here! https://groundedhr.co.uk/musings-of-a-trans-woman-in-tech

🔗View my LinkedIn here! https://lnkd.in/eqKZ9D2s

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