What do you do when an employee breaches the company dress code? According to research, 63% of the public say they would consider face and neck tattoos to be unprofessional. In this episode of HR:ER, we share the unexpected challenges HR professionals face when an employee's personal choices collide with workplace policies. Our HR crisis story involves an employee in a customer-facing role who let loose on a stag do and returned with a 'middle finger' tattoo. Join us as we dissect the complexities of managing such situations, such as addressing dress code, personal hygiene, tattoos and pierc ..read more

Can employees pack up and work from anywhere? With the rise of remote work spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a surge in digital nomads opting to work from abroad. But is it really feasible? What are the legal, logistical, and team challenges that come with it? This follows after an employee who relocated to Finland for the duration of the ski season without telling her employer who then noticed when she saw ski slopes in her Team's background rather than her 'usual' office setup. Our hosts discuss the legal considerations for both employees and employers, including tax implic ..read more

Facing an employee who's pulling a 'sicky'? It's a common HR dilemma, which we tackle in our latest HR:ER podcast! A lucky employee won 10k on a scratch card and booked a holiday without authorisation, quoting "I'll just pull a sicky" when their holiday request was rejected. So what can HRs do? We share emergency measures HRs can implement to prevent 'sickies' happening in the workplace, including: - What steps should HR take when an employee threatens to call in sick after being denied time off? - What disciplinary actions or consequences should employers consider for employees who take u ..read more

What do you do when you catch an employee viewing inappropriate content, notably OnlyFans, on a work computer? How do you untangle the web when the OnlyFans account in question, is someone else who also works for your business? This is the crazy story that we're discussing in our next podcast episode of HR:ER, as our HR crisis story is about an employee who not only riddled his computer with viruses but also confessed to accessing the OnlyFans profile of someone that they directly line manage. We talk about how to handle this in the workplace, as well as: Should side hustles be allowed? Wh ..read more

In today's workforce, mental health challenges affect a staggering 84% of workers annually. This prevalence has surged in recent years, paralleling the rise of conditions such as ADHD and Autism, leaving many employers grappling with how to navigate this complex terrain effectively. But where do we draw the line between health conditions and violence in the workplace? In our latest HR:ER episode, our crisis story focuses on an employee who had a mental health outburst at work, which ended up with him punching a colleague and swearing at a customer. We dissect emergency protocols for managing ..read more

AI (Artificial Intelligence) has no doubt become an everyday tool in the modern workplace, but when does it become classed as cheating? Our next HR crisis story is about an employee using AI to do all his work and then spending the rest of his time playing virtual poker and snooker. Causing issues with the employer due to the quality of his work, specifically with the accuracy of some of the content. In this episode, we cover the issues HR professionals face when it comes to AI misuse in the workplace. Including: - How can HR professionals and employers stay ahead of the curve to detect an ..read more

Welcome to our first episode of the HR: ER podcast, where we get into dealing with your HR Emergencies! Our first episode doesn't disappoint, as our HR crisis story is a unusual but serious one. It begins with an employee, whose admiration for a famous model went a little too far! This all ended up with an employee caught using their client's hot tub, sniffing their t-shirt and getting reported for sexual harassment in the workplace. This begs the questions: - What is classed as sexual harassment in the workplace? - How do you deal with any concerns of sexual harassment in the workplace ..read more

HR: ER is the emergency room for business owners, HR professionals and anyone else who is responsible for managing or employing a team of people. Hosted by Hroes founder Elissa Thursfield, with 15 years of first-hand lawyer and consulting experience and software service specialist Oliver Robinson they provide you with a generous dose of insights and practical advice. From hiring nightmares to compliance chaos, the unexpected to the downright disastrous "HR: ER" pulls back the curtain on events that have unfolded in workplaces around the world, the challenges HR professionals face daily the j ..read more