Kay Heald, Author at Kay Heald HR

Small Business Fraud Prevention
September 1^st, 2025 in Blog
Whether it’s internal mistakes or deliberate deception, workplace fraud poses real financial and reputational risks for small businesses. You may not be aware, but there is also a new law that establishes a corporate criminal offence of “failure to prevent fraud” (introduced on 1st Sptember 2025) under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 that aims to help increase transparency, disrupt economic crime and strengthen…
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Are Your Employees Vacation Hoarding?
June 30^th, 2025 in Blog
Vacation hoarding is a relatively new term used to describe the practice of delaying, carrying over or avoiding taking, entitled paid time off. According to research published earlier this year in The Guardian, only 35% of UK workers have actually been taking their full holiday allocation. Further data from Breathe’s 2024 Holiday Report, reveals almost a fifth of UK workers were leaving more than five days unclaimed at the end of their holiday…
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The Right to Switch Off is Important
March 4^th, 2025 in Blog
I’ve been writing about long working hours and ‘always-on’ cultures for at least a decade! The government may not be supporting legislation giving employees the ‘right to switch off’, but that doesn’t mean organisations should ignore the growing problem that is affecting the health and productivity of its people, and do something about it. The increased use of communication technologies is blurring the lines between…
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Employee Financial Literacy
November 1^st, 2024 in Blog
As the aftermath of the Autumn Budget is being assessed by employers and employees, this is a very important month to be looking at employee financial literacy. Employee financial literacy is more than just being able to add up, it is the ability to understand how money can be managed and refers to the skills and knowledge that allows employees to make informed and effective decisions about their financial resources. Financial education has been…
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Workplace Hormonal Health
October 10^th, 2024 in Blog
I started writing about hormonal health in the workplace over six years ago and although there have been great strides forward with regard to menopausal and perimenopausal awareness, recent studies suggest that there is still plenty of work to do to provide more workplace support. According to the CIPD’s 2023 survey, over a quarter of respondents said that menopause had a negative effect on their career progression, one in six considered…
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Good Employer Characteristics
August 7^th, 2024 in Blog
A new majority government means new approaches to employment I believe that for businesses, one of the most constructive things they can be doing right now, is check they are aligned with good employer characteristics. This will ensure they are best placed to embrace upcoming change and enable them to implement new ways of working effectively and efficiently with their people. Whilst we wait for more details to emerge on the government’s…
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Movement and Mental Health
May 3^rd, 2024 in Blog
There seem to be more ‘awareness’ weeks popping up than ever before, but there are definitely some that are more worthy of our attention than others. I believe Mental Health Awareness Week is one such example. Mental Health Awareness Week runs from 13th – 19th May and is organised by the Mental Health Foundation UK (MHF) who are a well-respected UK charity with a remit to help people stay well and try and prevent mental health problems…
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Purpose Driven Business
January 2^nd, 2024 in Blog
After another rollercoaster year of fast-paced change for businesses and their people, it doesn’t look like life in 2024 is going to slow down! The global climate crisis and rising energy prices, political unrest and armed conflicts, a struggling health service, plus the rapid rise of AI and other technological developments provide the backdrop to lives that are altogether more complex and confused, stretched and stressed. So, is there a…
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Workplace Sexual Harassment
August 29^th, 2023 in Blog
Wouldn’t it be great if we lived in an enlightened age where sexual harassment was an obsolete term describing something that only happened a very long time ago? Sadly, despite great strides forward in awareness and action, such as from the #MeToo movement, incidents of sexual harassment are still stubbornly on the increase. Figures from ONS and the Crime Survey of England and Wales state that there was a 31% increase in police recorded sexual…
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HR and Sustainability
June 9^th, 2023 in Blog
Were you aware that it was World Environment Day this week? Instigated by the United Nations Environment Programme, this awareness day has been held annually on 5th June since 1973, making World Environment Day 50 years old! It is one of the largest global platforms for environmental concerns and is used to highlight the imperative of global environmental pressures, which affects the wellbeing and economic development of people throughout the…
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