What if HR

What if HR Modern HR for small businesses, startups and charities in the UK. Taking the ‘what-ifs’ out of

Taking a short break. Available by email for anything urgent - speak later ⭐️
19/10/2025

Taking a short break. Available by email for anything urgent - speak later ⭐️

If you're a founder between hires 3-30, here are 5 essential steps for building people infrastructure to fuel growth. ...
09/10/2025

If you're a founder between hires 3-30, here are 5 essential steps for building people infrastructure to fuel growth.

How to evidence your accurate right to work check if you are hiring a Ukrainian:
10/04/2022

How to evidence your accurate right to work check if you are hiring a Ukrainian:

Are you prepared for all the changes coming in 2022? Prepare your business:
24/01/2022

Are you prepared for all the changes coming in 2022? Prepare your business:

Here are THREE most common reasons small businesses hire HR:1. Compliance, of course.Initial setup, contacts, policies a...
13/01/2022

Here are THREE most common reasons small businesses hire HR:

1. Compliance, of course.
Initial setup, contacts, policies and updates. This traditionally sits with legal and HR.

2. What Good Looks Like?
To find out what it is that they don't know that they need to know. Employee engagement, the importance of onboarding, transparent communication and many other approaches and processes will be highlighted in this point.

3. Survive and Improve through Change.
This is the ultimate reason HR exists and matters. We support people through change who in turn support all other moving business parts. You may want to change your business direction and goals, you may need to hire more or less, you may need to restructure and so on. HR will be your trusted partner to make it happen.

is the answer?

Our team are on hand at any point in your journey. Get in touch ☺️

Just came across an interesting recruitment idea I simply must share.In a book about selling, the author (who is also an...
04/12/2021

Just came across an interesting recruitment idea I simply must share.

In a book about selling, the author (who is also an owner of a large sales-related education business) tells a story about Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, and concludes that the guy always looked for people who are “doers” and quickly take action. He didn’t care about their education.

Then he says, “I also look for such people”.

“Are you someone who loves to get stuff done? Send me your CV at [email protected] with Sam Walton in the subject”.

Now, this is page 231 of his book.😳

If he actually receives a bunch of CVs from people who’ve made it to this part of his book and remembered to put Sam’s name as a subject line… I think he is onto a ✨winner✨

How can YOU use this method for your business?

Through any information that you put out into the world!

Business newsletters, blogs, website, any social media or any writing you do to communicate with your customers.

Pepper your valuable pieces of content with subtle and relevant links to your careers page or, better yet, to the CEO’s inbox.

Create serendipity.

This adds beautifully to your standard speculative CVs page.

With a bit of creativity, you can connect with the exact value or skill you are seeking to find.

I am adding it to my list of ideas 💡 just saying as is.




Since my twenties, I have been interested in psychology and business. I searched for a profession that would combine the...
26/11/2021

Since my twenties, I have been interested in psychology and business. I searched for a profession that would combine the two and, voila, discovered HR.

Here is a quick recap of what happened next:

1. Moved countries (Russia to the UK) and excelled academically, earning a Masters in HR Management (and the Best Overseas Student Award).

2. Went on an HR journey from HR Coordinator to Manager and external HR Consultant working for companies in retail, professional services and tech.

(3. I almost forgot - Had a Child! - this was life-changing 👶)

4. Left employment to start a business and do more of what I love!

5. 𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝑯𝑹 - a modern HR consultancy.
--> with my team of talented independent experts, we create 𝐬̳𝐢̳𝐦̳𝐩̳𝐥̳𝐞̳ ̳𝐦̳𝐨̳𝐝̳𝐞̳𝐫̳𝐧̳ ̳𝐬̳𝐨̳𝐥̳𝐮̳𝐭̳𝐢̳𝐨̳𝐧̳𝐬̳ f̳o̳r̳ ̳a̳l̳l̳ ̳c̳o̳m̳m̳o̳n̳ ̳b̳u̳s̳i̳n̳e̳s̳s̳ ̳p̳r̳o̳b̳l̳e̳m̳s̳. From the first setup and documentation to improvements, scaling and dealing with people-related issues along the way.

On a more personal note:

🤓 I love to spend time... thinking. About everything! That means spending a lot of time with myself 👀

👍🏻 I am a forever optimist who believes in equality and keeps an open mind.

💚 I nourish kindness and courage as the fundamental values that guide me through life.

✅ My top Gallup (Clifton) strengths are: Futuristic, Intellection, Positivity, Input, Learner

🥾 My favourite thing to do is hiking in beautiful places!

Nice to meet you ☺️
------

If you are looking for help, I offer a 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 to all new contacts on the following topics:
- employment documentation
- practical employment law
- recruitment
- employee engagement

DM to book! I'd love to help.
Also, visit www.whatifhr.co.uk for further information.

💫💫💫

You leave someone either a little better or a little worse, you choose.
18/11/2021

You leave someone either a little better or a little worse, you choose.

18/11/2021

From a book about Dale Carnegie. Remember how you make others feel?

✅POLICIES vs ✅GUIDELINESNow, this is a conversation taking place now:- Switching to guidelines. - Reasons why guidelines...
12/11/2021

✅POLICIES vs ✅GUIDELINES

Now, this is a conversation taking place now:

- Switching to guidelines.
- Reasons why guidelines are better.
- How to write guidelines.
- Cool companies banning policies,
and. so. on

Among numerous definitions of a policy, we can find this:

Business policies are defined as “the formal rules, procedures and guidelines that businesses put in place to hire, train, assess, and reward the members of their workforce.”

Yes, policy is born formal. It outlines the scope and eligibility and lays out the rules.

Guidelines are perceived as more lenient. They nudge the readers towards the right choice varies with the context.

Yet, policies can be written like guidelines too. It’s more about semantics than substance. It’s down to you how prescriptive or flex you make it.

Here are some general tips on writing your policy or guideline:

- Make it short and sweet. e.g. dress code policy can be a paragraph.

- Write for the majority and deal with the outliers and offenders separately.

- Less specific - more generalisation.

- Get your legal blocks in - Grievance, Disciplinary, Capability, Health and Safety… + anything regulated for your business, e.g. CQC or FCA.

- Less is more - not everything needs to be a policy or a guideline.

- Incorporate values and make them the core of decision-making.

- Use the language that is typical for you culture.

- It’s easier to read active over passive verb forms and second person over third, e.g. ‘all employees are required to’ is less engaging than ‘you will need to’.

What if HR specialise in writing policies/guidelines and other employment documentation and can help you tailor your style to the audience/culture and values of your organisation.

Get in touch 😎





















I have recently completed a form called HR1 - advance notification of redundancies.If you are not familiar, it’s a forma...
02/11/2021

I have recently completed a form called HR1 - advance notification of redundancies.

If you are not familiar, it’s a formal compulsory way of notifying the government when there are over 20 redundancies planned within 90 days or less.

The idea is that the government then shares this information with the relevant departments and offers assistance to the employees facing dismissal, e.g. training or job brokering services.

Failing to do this is a criminal offence and could attract a fine of up to £5,000.

My observations:

✉️ HR1 can be completed and filed by a third party (in my case, a provider of HR services)

📊 You do not need to supply a precise number of potential redundancies. It is an estimate and is likely to change in the course of the consultation. So don’t worry too much about the numbers.

📆 Date of the first proposed dismissal is the date of the redundancy notice and not the actual leaving date.

📌 You will not receive any immediate notifications after submitting the form to the government email address. Don’t hold your breath😅

📮Give a copy of this form to the reps before you email it to the Gov.

☑️ The whole process is relatively straightforward and is just an important ✅ to check.

The form is available at www.gov.uk with the guidance notes.

If you completed the form before, what else would you add to my list of observations?

If you are not familiar with the process, hope this gives you a bit more context to the type of information the government expects to see.




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