Last night, over dinner with two fellow CEOs, one simple question sparked a surprisingly deep conversation: “At what point does the regulation of employment law stop employers caring about their people?”.
It’s a provocative question, because it forces leaders to examine not just what they do for their staff, but why they do it. In this blog, our CEO Rob Fisher shares his reflections, on what is a pertinent topic right now, with the Employment Rights Act changes coming into force.
Background to employment law
Employment law exists for important reasons, such as fairness, safety, equity and consistency. Most of us would agree that regulations set essential guardrails that protect people from exploitation and provide a baseline for good work.
But like many things in business, intent is so important. Regulation can encourage positive behaviour, or it can unintentionally create a culture where employers follow the rules but forget the reason behind them.
Three key themes around regulation
As our conversation unfolded, three themes emerged.
Compliance isn’t care and it never will be
Laws tell us the minimum standards. Care is what sits above that. You can be fully compliant and still be a poor employer.
You can follow every rule and still create a culture where people feel unheard, undervalued or replaceable.
In my opinion, care is a leadership choice not a legal requirement.
One of my peers put it perfectly, “If the only reason you treat people well is because the law tells you to, you’ve missed the point of leadership entirely.”
Over‑regulation risks turning people into processes
Most regulations are well‑intentioned. But when layers of policy pile on top of each other, unintended consequences appear:
- Managers become afraid to have honest conversations
- Documentation replaces dialogue
- HR becomes the ‘police’, not the business partner
- Decisions become more about defence rather than doing what’s right.
And when that happens, we risk shifting from supporting people to managing risk.
The danger? People start to feel like compliance tasks, not people.
Ironically, the more procedural things become, the easier it is to distance ourselves from the human impact of our decisions.
The best employers care, because they care…
Every CEO at that table agreed: Regulation sets the grounding and leadership sets the standard.
Some of the most caring workplaces I’ve seen operate with policies that are simple, human, and based on trust. Their leaders ask “What’s the right thing to do?”.
And often, the right thing:
- happens earlier than the process requires
- goes further than the policy prescribes
- communicates more openly than the law demands
Regulation may protect employees from bad employers, but it will never turn a bad employer into a good one. Caring takes intention and emotional intelligence, and legislation can’t mandate these things.
So, when does regulation stop employers caring? Well in my view, it doesn’t. It’s about leadership. So, you don’t lose sight of your people. You have meaningful conversations rather than ticking boxes, and you do the right thing.
Conclusion
As a CEO, our responsibility isn’t simply to comply.
It’s to create a workplace where people feel valued, trusted and supported, not because the law says so, but because it’s the foundation of a great place to work, and a great business.
If we get that right, caring never stops.
