Speak Up Month: why early concerns save small businesses thousands
This Speak Up Month, your local HR consultancy for Harpenden and St Albans looks at why making it easier for your team to raise problems early is worth the effort.
Some figures crossed my desk today that I couldn't put to one side:
Single tribunal claims have risen 39% compared with a year ago.
There are 64,000 individual cases open and awaiting resolution.
Altogether, upwards of half a million claims are in the system at this moment.
My guess is that a lot of those cases began in much the same way, and need never have happened. A person had a problem at work and did not feel safe mentioning it, so it kept growing until it turned formal.
The reverse is also true. Employees who are happy at work, and who feel safe bringing issues up, tend not to file the kind of formal complaint that leaves an employer thousands of pounds out of pocket.
October is Speak Up Month. To my mind, that makes this a good time to look at how your business runs and ask one question: if something was wrong, would your people really bring it to you before it escalated?
Law changes that raise the price of silence
Because of the Employment Rights Act, the window for bringing a claim is widening and the sums that can be awarded are growing.
Since 1 October 2026, the time limit for tribunal claims has doubled, going from three months to six. Employees now get double the time to make up their minds about claiming.
In January 2027, the cap on unfair dismissal compensation goes completely, and the qualifying period falls to six months.
At the same time, the tribunal backlog stands at a record level. In some regions, hearing dates are now being set as far ahead as 2028 and 2029.
We look at the first of those changes in the doubled tribunal deadline and what it means for you.
Why smaller teams carry more risk
When a team is only five or ten strong, everybody knows everybody else.
You might expect that to make speaking up easier. Often it has the opposite effect.
People in small teams are wary of rocking the boat. Taking something to their manager may well mean taking it to the very person who signs their payslips. As a result nothing gets said, and the problem festers. When it does finally reach you, it has already turned into a resignation or a formal complaint.
What speaking up looks like in practice
A speak-up culture is not a suggestion box, and it is not an anonymous survey that nobody reads.
It is a workplace where employees truly believe that raising a concern will not be held against them. Getting there takes deliberate action from you.
In the businesses I see getting this right, four things stand out:
Managers who don't get defensive. If an issue is met with irritation or brushed aside, that employee will not raise anything again.
An informal resolution route outside the grievance process. A basic conversation framework, which managers reach for before things turn formal, is enough.
Regular check-ins. Managers actively ask employees how things are going, then genuinely follow up on the answers.
Clear, repeated communication that early concerns are welcome. Say so out loud, write it into your onboarding and keep on saying it.
It takes more than one telling before people believe it.
Silence or listening: which costs more?
In 2023/24, the average unfair dismissal payout came to £13,749. The average for discrimination claims was far higher, and age discrimination topped £100,000.
From January 2027, once the compensation cap on unfair dismissal is removed, those figures can only rise.
Set that against what it costs for a manager to hear a concern out, treat it seriously and resolve it before it goes any further.
No risk strategy is cheaper than making it easy for your people to say when something is wrong.
For practical steps, see how a speak-up culture helps you avoid an employment tribunal.
HR support for small businesses in Harpenden and St Albans
From our base in Harpenden, Progressive HR Solutions supports small employers in St Albans and throughout Hertfordshire and London.
We help you build processes in which problems come up early and get resolved before they turn into grievances or claims. Our work includes training your managers in honest conversations and designing informal resolution routes that are simple enough to be used.
If there is a team issue you have been putting off, acting sooner will cost you less.
