Thinking About Hiring Again? Make Sure Your HR Foundations Are Ready
Posted on September 25, 2026
There are signs that UK businesses may finally be becoming a little more confident about recruitment.
According to the latest KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs, permanent staff appointments increased during August for the first time since September 2022.
Temporary recruitment has also continued to grow, with temp billings increasing for five consecutive months.
But this isn’t a booming employment market.
Overall vacancies are still falling, candidate availability is increasing and many businesses remain cautious about committing to additional employment costs.
For SMEs considering recruiting again, that makes this a particularly important moment to get the basics right.
Hiring somebody is a significant commitment for an SME
For a large organisation, adding another employee to the payroll may be relatively routine.
For a business employing 10, 20 or 50 people, every new recruit represents a much bigger investment.
Salary is only part of the cost.
There are employer National Insurance contributions, pension contributions, holiday, benefits, equipment, management time and the potential cost of getting the recruitment decision wrong.
Then there are the HR responsibilities that come with employing someone.
- Contracts.
- Probation.
- Performance.
- Absence.
- Family leave.
- Flexible working.
- Grievances.
- Disciplinary issues.
- Redundancy.
And an employment-law landscape that continues to evolve.
Growth is a good time to check your HR foundations
One of the most common mistakes growing businesses make is waiting until there is an HR problem before reviewing how they manage people.
A better approach is to look at the foundations before headcount increases.
- Are your employment contracts up to date?
- Do your policies reflect current UK employment law?
- Do managers understand how to handle absence and performance issues?
- Are probation periods being actively managed?
- Do you have clear processes for grievances and disciplinary matters?
- Are you confident that managers understand when an issue needs to be escalated?
These things don’t need to create unnecessary bureaucracy.
Done properly, they make managing people easier.
More candidates doesn’t remove the risk of a bad hire
The current market presents another interesting challenge for SMEs.
The KPMG and REC research found that candidate availability increased at its fastest rate for three months during August. At the same time, overall vacancies fell for the 34th consecutive month.
That potentially creates a larger pool of applicants competing for fewer opportunities. But more applicants don’t necessarily make recruitment decisions easier.
Once somebody joins, a structured probation process becomes particularly important.
Clear objectives, regular conversations and documented feedback give both the employee and employer the best opportunity to establish whether the appointment is working.
Waiting until the end of probation to address concerns is rarely a good strategy.
HR should support growth – not get in its way
Most SMEs don’t need a large internal HR department.
What they do need is confidence that when an employment issue arises, somebody knows what to do.
That might mean having the right policies and processes in place.
It might mean giving managers practical guidance.
And occasionally it means having an experienced HR professional available when something more complicated happens.
That’s exactly what SME HR Consultancy provides.
We work exclusively with SMEs, providing practical HR support without unnecessary corporate bureaucracy.
So if your business is thinking about recruiting again, this may be a good time to ask a simple question:
Are your HR foundations ready for the next stage of growth?
If you’re unsure, SME HR Consultancy can help you find out.
Free 30-minute People Risk Triage
In 30 minutes we can sanity-check what’s most relevant from the Act for your business and identify your top priority actions.
Feel free to give us a call below, or book directly using the link.
https://calendly.com/jo-ferguson/30min
