For owner-managed businesses with a difficult employee situation
Difficult employee situation? Get it handled properly, before your next move.
Grievances, disciplinaries, dismissals, appeals, investigations and redundancies, plus the everyday HR alongside it. I assess the risk, set out your options, and can run the process with you.
Your solicitor explains the law. ACAS sets the rules. I actually handle it with you.
Plenty of HR people will write you a contract. Far fewer will sit in the room when it gets difficult. That's the part I specialise in, and I've spent 25 years doing it.
Contracts, policies, the everyday HR. All of it, if you'd rather have one person who knows your business.
Samantha Newton FCIPD · Chartered Fellow CIPD
✓FCIPD Employee Relations specialist
✓25+ years' HR experience
✓Trusted by owner-managed businesses
✓Practical, commercial advice
Start here
What's happening right now?
Tap the one closest to yours. Each page sets out what needs to happen, what I can do, and what stays your decision as the employer.
From a second opinion to running the whole process
Some owners want a plan and will handle it themselves. Others want the process taken off their desk. Both are fine, and I will tell you honestly which one your situation needs.
Option one
The Sort It Session
£495 + VAT, fixed
A focused session on your situation. Where you stand, your realistic options, and a written plan within 48 hours, plus the letter or script for your immediate next step. Best when you are capable of running it yourself and want to know you are doing it right.
I take defined parts of the formal process and carry them out. Independent investigations, grievance and disciplinary processes, appeals, restructures and redundancies, and complex situations that have already become difficult.
·Scope, responsibilities, deliverables, timescales and fee agreed in writing before anything starts
·You remain the employer and you make the decisions. I do not decide outcomes on your behalf
·Samantha leads the work personally, with experienced associate support where agreed with you
An experienced adviser on call, so the next issue is caught early rather than after it has grown. Suits owners who would rather pick up the phone than wait for a problem to become formal. Formal casework is quoted separately and is not included unless we have expressly agreed it.
It has to be fair, and it has to be seen to be fair.
An investigation that looks biased is worse than no investigation at all. In an owner-managed business you usually know everyone involved, which makes it very hard to investigate credibly yourself.
I am brought in from outside to establish the facts, hear everyone properly, and produce a documented report you can rely on to make a decision. You remain the employer and the decision stays yours.
“She stepped in at short notice and supported us through a difficult HR issue with thorough, detailed advice. We've decided to continue working with her for all of our HR needs.”
Katie Adolphus · Google review
★★★★★
“I got in touch about a difficult team issue I was feeling anxious and emotional about. From the very beginning Samantha was exceptional, reassuring, calm and compassionate, while also firm and clear when needed. Everything was explained in plain English with no jargon. The documentation, scripts and clear do's and don'ts she provided were invaluable. Without that level of support, the outcome could have been very different.”
Eirlys Anderson · Google review
★★★★★
“A confidential, strategic HR project handled with commercial insight and calm expertise. They got to the heart of the issue, challenged where it counted, and guided us to a smoother restructure with reduced risk and stronger alignment across the business.”
Everyone can tell you what the rules are. Almost nobody will handle it with you.
When a people problem hits, you have options. Here's the honest difference, and why owner-managed businesses choose a specialist who deals with the situation itself, not just the theory.
Handle it yourself
Free, but one wrong step can turn a manageable issue into a costly claim. You carry all the risk.
A national HR helpline
A script and a call centre. A different person each time, usually on a long, tied-in contract.
Your solicitor
Explains the law and handles litigation, at solicitor rates. Not the day-to-day people management.
ACAS
Sets out the rules and the Code. Genuinely useful, but it won't handle your situation for you.
Hire your own HR person
Around £58,000 a year all in for an HR Manager, and the right call once the daily volume justifies it. Below that you can usually only afford someone junior, who then gets handed the hardest situations.
What I do
An external ER specialist (me)
One named FCIPD specialist, from outside the business, handling the situation with you. 25 years of experience for the few times a year you need it, instead of a salary for a level you can't justify full time. No call centre, no junior. And if you can handle it yourself, I'll tell you.
A mishandled dismissal can run into five figures, and from 1 January 2027 there is no cap at all on unfair dismissal compensation, plus 12 to 18 months of management time and stress. A focused session with me starts from £495 + VAT, one-off, with no retainer required and nothing to tie into, and a written action plan within 48 hours. The maths usually makes itself.
Owner-managed businesses, with or without someone doing HR internally.
Owners who want a difficult employee situation handled properly, without a corporate HR department or corporate fees. If you have someone doing HR already, I work alongside them for the situations that need an outside pair of hands, or someone genuinely independent.
Depending on what it needs, I will either talk you through it or take it off your hands. That can mean running the investigation myself, chairing or sitting in on the hearing, and writing the letters, so the process is handled properly and you are not the one doing it.
“I brought Sam in to represent my consultancy on a complex TUPE transfer. The client couldn’t tell the difference, seamless, flexible and closely aligned with my approach.”
Laura Mathews · HR consultant, on bringing Samantha in to cover her own client
We use cookies to see how the site is used and to show you relevant ads. Analytics and marketing cookies are only set if you accept. Read our Cookie Policy.
Essential · required for the site to workAlways on
Verify membership →