Since 1 October, staff have six months rather than three to bring most employment tribunal claims. Plenty of small employers will read that as a bigger legal risk. I think the real change is simpler: whatever happened with a member of staff now has to be remembered, accurately, for twice as long. The only defence that holds up over six months is writing things down when they happen.
Small firms run on informal conversations. A word in the van, a chat at the end of a shift, a few WhatsApp messages. That works fine until someone disputes it half a year later and nobody can say exactly what was agreed or when. A limited company with eight staff and a sole trader with one apprentice face exactly the same rule. The difference is that the sole trader carries any award personally.
The fix costs minutes. After any awkward conversation about performance, pay, hours or behaviour, write a short dated note of what was said and agreed, and keep it somewhere you’ll find it. Keep emails and messages about complaints, and don’t tidy them away three months on out of old habit. Acas early conciliation can stretch the deadline further still, so a dispute can resurface later than you’d expect.
Some will call this more red tape aimed at businesses with no HR department. That’s fair as a complaint, but it doesn’t change what you should do. From 30 October employers must also take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, including by customers and clients, and the only way to show you took those steps is a record that you did.
So the question for this week isn’t “could someone claim?” It’s “if they did, could I show what happened?” How much of your staff management currently lives only in your head?