UK employers doubt HR processes would stand up in tribunal, study shows

Just one in six employers are confident their HR processes would stand up to tribunal scrutiny and, with the Employment Rights Bill looming on the horizon, employers are lacking conviction in the legal readiness of their HR practices. Those are the findings of a survey by WorkNest and they are worrying, particularly when set against the latest Ministry of Justice tribunal figures showing a continued rise in claims and a growing backlog of cases. We’ll speak to an employment lawyer helping clients prepare for what lies ahead.

The research is reported by People Management and shows just 16% of employers say they feel “very confident” that their HR practices would withstand tribunal challenge. The survey also highlights gaps in legal knowledge, inconsistent policies, and a lack of early risk assessment - all areas where HR can make a difference.

That’s particularly important in the current climate. The Ministry of Justice’s latest quarterly statistics which cover the period January to March 2025 show a 21% rise in single claim receipts compared to the same period last year. The backlog is also growing, with more than 491,000 cases now open across the tribunal system.

So what can HR do to reduce risk? Earlier, I spoke to employment lawyer Rebecca Sulley who joined me by phone Birmingham to discuss some of the practical steps that HR teams can take to help mitigate the risks: 

Rebecca Sulley: “So what we are suggesting to clients is that you be proactive, and that you have a look at your dismissal and disciplinary processes and see where improvements can be made. Now this is obviously partly good practice looking forward to when the Employment Rights Bill (ERB) comes in and the fact that it will apply to everyone regardless of their service, but it's making sure that you've got a fair and consistent policy and, perhaps, if there's line management guidance, that you're flagging exactly when they should be seeking input from HR to kind of cross check decisions effectively. You might also consider having a legal review in at that early stage, especially if you've got very high risk, or senior individuals who you're dismissing, just to have a flag in there to say before you go ahead and do it, speak with HR, and HR in turn might get some legal support because what you want to ensure is that you have a fair process, but also a consistent process because what we are finding is a lot more claimants are trying to rely on comparator cases and if you don't have that consistency they may be more likely to win a discrimination complaint. So HR input, manager checklists, and manager training as well is all very important to make sure you can defend a case if it comes to tribunal.”

Joe Glavina: “You mentioned we’re seeing more discrimination cases and the figures bear that out, so you’re saying training for managers will help defend cases.” 

Rebecca Sulley: “Yes, so we're getting a lot of requests for specifically manager training in terms of how to recognize and deal with people who have disabilities, making sure that they respond in a sensitive matter, and that they know what the obligations are for the employer. So we are seeing quite a lot of clients introducing reasonable adjustment passports. So they'll log when a reasonable adjustment has been agreed and the period, they'll make sure they review it, but that's also really helpful if the individual moves to another team, or there's a change in manager, they have something that's written down, and they don't have to go through the process of explaining to a new manager their condition and the adjustments they have. We've had a lot of success at tribunal in showing that that has really made the employer think about reasonable adjustments and helps in defending those types of claims. So certainly, it's very important to look at your policies and processes and have extra steps in place for people who need extra support in the workplace.”

Joe Glavina: “A point I know you’ve been stressing with clients is using early dispute resolution more aggressively, getting in there early and resolving the dispute before it blows up.”

Rebecca Sulley: “Yes, so I think one of the key things to have a think about is your exit interviews because that will quite often flag where there is an issue with an individual, or if they've raised a grievance on leaving and whilst you might not get the contact from Acas at the early conciliation stage, there's nothing stopping you from trying to mediate at that point where they're still an employee, or they might be about to leave the business, and try and invest in things such as mediation. It might be that you can hold mediations yourself internally between the parties to resolve things, or we know some companies are actually going externally and getting a trained mediator in, especially with very difficult situations, or very senior people, and trying to just resolve that dispute before it turns into an early conciliation. So certainly it's worth looking at how you can resolve the problem before it becomes a tribunal claim.”

Joe Glavina: “So finally Becci, a positive step, an action, you’d like to see HR professionals take going forward. What would that be?” 

Rebecca Sulley: “So I think something that is really helpful to do, and that a lot of our HR clients are doing, is monitoring things like grievances, or appeals, certainly tribunal claims, to really flag hotspot areas amongst the business where the managers might need more training, they might need external training, perhaps, or they might have to have a clearer guide for managers. That's really important because we do quite often see discrimination claims stemming from particular areas and, perhaps, particular individuals, and with things like harassment claims the tribunal are expecting HR to be proactive in monitoring and logging complaints. So if you're not already looking and addressing hotspot issues then I'd say you should be. Also, given that the ERB is going to be implemented sometime in the next couple of years, it's really looking at what you can do now to make sure your managers and your HR teams are addressing the changes that the ERB is going to make, so it's not such a big change when it actually comes. So really looking at what would happen if people get ‘day-one’ rights and looking at how that exposure might broaden and just making sure that your managers are really aware of what they will need to do going forward if that's a change from how you currently deal with and assess risk.”

The Ministry of Justice’s Tribunals Statistics for the January to March 2025 quarter – the most recent data we have – is available now from the government’s website. We’ve included a link to it in the transcript of this programme for you.

- Link to People Management article: ‘Only one in six employers confident their HR processes would stand up to challenge at tribunal, research finds’

- Link to Ministry of Justice’s Quarterly Tribunals Statistics: January to March 2025