Episode summary: It's National Inclusion Week (14 to 20 September), with Global Workplace Culture Day on Friday 18 September, so Kate makes the case that culture is behaviour, not branding. Five small habits any manager can build this week, then the heart of it: culture is decided in awkward moments, and the person standing in the middle of those moments is almost never HR, it's a line manager who was never trained for it. This is also the launch episode for Cake, Coffee and Compliance, the manager training built for exactly that gap. Key points: Culture is not your values statement or your logo colours. It is the accumulated pattern of what your managers do in small moments on ordinary days.Five habits to build: learn how people want to work, make space for quiet voices, give credit out loud, handle the awkward moment, and follow through on the small things.Small businesses have the advantage. In a team of nine, culture is three people's habits, so it can change in a fortnight.Awkward moments never book themselves in. They happen in corridors at 4.15pm, and your line manager is the one standing there, usually with no training at all.From 30 October the preventative duty on sexual harassment rises to all reasonable steps, with a broader third-party harassment liability alongside it covering any protected characteristic, and it rests on managers noticing and acting in the moment.THE GROWL, our new segment: Hazel, our Wellbeing Officer, says the quiet part out loud about rainbow mugs and Christmas dos, and Kate agrees sideways.LAUNCH: Cake, Coffee and Compliance. Twenty one-hour sessions, Tuesdays at 9.30am, three blocks across the year, evergreen so there's no wrong time to join. Block 1 starts Tuesday 13 October. Every session hands over a real document your managers keep. No exam, and recordings are up within 24 hours. HR Business Partner and HR Excel clients get all twenty in their retainer. Priced per person plus VAT, cheaper the more places you buy, full table in the brochure.The first three sessions are all harassment, on 13, 20 and 27 October, landing before the 30 October deadline.Links: Cake, Coffee and Compliance, the training your managers were supposed to get and never did: kateunderwoodhr.co.uk/managersCall to action: Pick one habit and practise it for a fortnight. Then get your managers a place on Cake, Coffee and Compliance before Block 1 starts on Tuesday 13 October, so the three harassment sessions land before the duty changes on 30 October. If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love. And if you do it before 30th October 2026 you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter. We send out bite-sized tips, plain-English updates, and handy things you’ll actually use — no spam, no fluff. You can sign up here If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love. Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week. Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email buzz@kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, or follow along on social. Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.
