Changes to employment rights law affecting more than 18 million British workers will be put under the spotlight at a major summit in Birmingham later this year.
Magara Law founder Roy Magara and IET Birmingham: Austin Court will host the workplace summit on December 8.
Announced by the Government in 2024, and coming into effect in January 2027, the next phase of the Employment Rights Act will reduce the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims to six months, remove the statutory compensation cap and make most "fire and rehire" practices automatically unfair.
Employment law firm Magara Law has announced the workplace summit ahead of the changes, bringing employers, HR professionals, people managers and business leaders together to look at how organisations can prepare.
Magara Law believes employers can no longer deal with those challenges in isolation, arguing that decisions in one area increasingly shape outcomes in another.
Hosted at IET Birmingham: Austin Court, the event will open with a civic address from the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Councillor Zaker Choudhry, before a programme of talks and discussions looking at what the changes will mean for employers in practice.
The programme brings together expertise from law, technology and leadership, with sessions covering workplace mediation, third-party harassment, AI, cyber security and how the changes from the Employment Rights Act will be felt in practice.
The speaker line-up includes Roy Magara and Shahrzad Seifi from Magara Law, employment barrister Adèle Akers, leadership trainer Mark Baglow, Pragmatyq founder Clinton Walker, AI and innovation thought leader Shehroze Junejo and JGA Recruitment Group CEO Nick Day
Nick Day, creator of The Fear Equation, will deliver a session titled The Fear Tax: What Uncertainty Is Really Costing Your Organisation. He said: "Every employer I meet knows what talent costs them. Very few know what hesitation costs. I see that second figure every week in recruitment. The role left open for six months because nobody wanted to make the decision.
"That is the Fear Tax, and most organisations pay it without ever seeing the invoice. Uncertainty is the one thing every employer in that room will have in common this December. What separates the organisations that come through it well is what their people do with that uncertainty."
Roy Magara said: "We're entering one of the biggest periods of change employers have faced in decades, and organisations are going to have to think differently about how they prepare for it.
“These aren't separate conversations anymore. Employment law, leadership, workplace culture and technology increasingly influence one another, and employers need to start looking at them that way too.
"We created the workplace summit to help employers make sense of those changes. We want people to leave with a clearer understanding of what's coming, what it means for their organisation and practical ideas they can start applying long before these reforms take effect.
"The organisations that adapt best to these changes won't necessarily be the ones with the biggest HR teams or legal budgets. They'll be the ones that start preparing now instead of waiting until change is forced upon them.
“The aim is for every employer who attends to leave better prepared for the decisions they'll need to make as these reforms begin to take effect.”
The workplace summit takes place on Tuesday December 8 at IET Birmingham: Austin Court from 9.30am to 4.15pm. Further information is available through Eventbrite.
