UK Enterprise Awards 2026/ 56 Best Tech Industry HR Consultancy 2026 Peopling is a provider of pragmatic, practical HR solutions, supporting SMEs across the UK and Europe to handle people matters with confidence. It helps its clients to take a hands-on and fair approach, whether it’s in talent attraction, management, and development, or menopause in the workplace – achieving the right outcomes, managing risk, and nurturing a healthy and positive working environment for all. In light of Peopling’s success within the UK Enterprise Awards 2026, we speak to Founder, HR Maven, Director, and Menopause Coach, Karen Leigh to learn more. “We take a no-nonsense approach to people management,” Karen begins. “Where HR can sometimes feel overly process-led or disconnected from day-to-day realities, Peopling focuses on cutting through complexity, getting to the heart of issues and providing pragmatic, straightforward solutions. Our approach is collaborative, not directive, working alongside our clients and their people, listening, understanding, and supporting, to build confidence and deliver the right outcomes for them, their people, and the business.” Peopling’s services are particularly coming in useful for businesses with there being a huge amount of legislative change regarding UK employment law on the horizon, with this setting into motion now and over the next 1218 months. This is beginning to have a huge impact on the way small businesses run, with many having to reduce employee numbers or stop employing people altogether due to increased costs, 2025 budget changes, and national insurance/tax thresholds. Businesses are now being impacted by day one rights, statutory sick pay, and more, while larger employers will face major changes to mandatory reporting in 2027, including equality reporting for menopause action plans, as well as existing requirements for gender pay gap reporting. Peopling is also observing more businesses seeking to respond to rising employee absence and burnout, which leads to higher costs, with an increasing focus on employee wellbeing, retention, and ongoing professional development. Talent retention and wellbeing are a core focus within Peopling’s offering, and also within this, it looks to offer menopause workplace training and coaching to raise awareness and provide support. Vital toward Peopling’s work is staying up-todate with qualifications, systems, processes, emerging trends, legislation changes, what is being proposed and passed through parliament, and how this all impacts the employment landscape. The firm places great importance on staying abreast of case law and the rulings that are coming through the tribunal system and what that means in practice. This comes alongside networking and speaking to its clients and other businesses about their challenges, what they are facing in managing their business outside of HR, and how this impacts their People strategy. “Challenges are a learning point – How we respond, adapt, pivot, and/or grow to overcome them is where the learning lies.” In the world of HR, there has been a rapid adoption of AI and automation, too, with this being embedded into processes to improve efficiency and analytics. Karen has always been keen on using tech to enhance the customer experience and boost efficiency where possible, so this is business as usual at Peopling. The firm partners with both HRIS/ HCMS and ATS providers to ensure their clients have the right tools when needed. So, what’s next for the firm? Karen reveals, “I am currently building the menopause workplace training and coaching side of the business. These are increasingly needed areas of support in business – particularly larger businesses (over 250 employees) with the incoming mandatory reporting requirements in 2027. I have a strong blend of HR knowledge and menopause training, which makes me uniquely placed to support businesses and their HR teams in getting it right. “I recall how I felt when gender pay gap reporting came in and producing the first ever gender pay gap report for the organisation I worked in at the time. There was no template and the guidance was confusing. I worked with payroll on it and we were both completely stressed out by it. I can help take that stress away from teams producing their first action plans and looking at what they can actually do to educate their workforce and support women in menopause transition, about to go through it, and those working with people in menopause transition.” If Peopling could support your business, visit the company website for more information or reach out to Karen over email via karen.leigh@ peopling.co.uk. Company name: Peopling Ltd Contact name: Karen Leigh Website: www.peopling.co.uk Email: karen.leigh@peopling.co.uk
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