Major event launched for businesses over payroll and HR crackdown
Businesses in Yorkshire are being urged to attend a free ‘strategic survival summit’ to help them deal with the most significant payroll and HR shake-up in a generation.
Azets, a UK top 10 accountancy and business advisory firm in King Street, Leeds, has joined forces with Leeds Business Growth Service and The Knowledge Exchange (TKE) at Leeds Beckett University for the event.
Titled ‘What Every Employer Needs to Know: 2026 Payroll & HR Compliance’, it is being held on 21 April from 9am to 11am at the Rose Bowl in Portland Way, Leeds.
It follows the April 6 launch of new regulations for pay roll and employment law as well as the launch of the government’s new Fair Work Agency with tough enforcement powers.
Julie Gunnell, Associate Director of Payroll Growth at Azets, who is based in Yorkshire, said: “This is the most significant shake-up of payroll and HR in a generation.
“Our event will be a strategic survival summit designed to equip business owners, HR directors and payroll professionals with the knowledge, skills and tactics to navigate this rapidly shifting regulatory landscape.
“Employers in the Leeds area are strongly encouraged to attend to help them develop a clear and actionable roadmap for compliance to protect their businesses, people and profitability.”
The event will cover:
- Audit Defence – learn HMRC’s 2026 ‘hot zones’ and how to spot red flags in your payroll before an inspector does
- The Fair Work Agency launch – Understand the powers of the new ‘super-regulator’ and what its enforcement looks like in practice
- Budget Protection – discover practical ways to manage the financial impact of increased National Insurance and new National Minimum Wage thresholds
- The New HR Reality – How to manage the six-month unfair dismissal window and ‘day one’ rights without paralysing recruitment or culture
- Survival Guide – a step-by-step checklist to ensure your business is fully compliant.
The event is free and will feature speakers from Azets including Hannah-Jane (H-J) Dobbie, Head of HR Consultancy, who will be discussing the latest changes in employment law.
Under the regulations which came into force on April 6, HR and payroll teams must now work more closely together to comply with new rules that mean accurate records of holiday entitlement, holiday pay calculations and annual leave must be retained centrally for six years.
Employment law changes – including day one rights for paternity leave, parental leave and Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) – also took effect from April 6.
According to latest business activity figures from the Office for National Statistics, as of March 2025, there were 2.73 million VAT and/or PAYE businesses in the UK, with 191,000 (7%) in Yorkshire and The Humber.
Latest government research has also highlighted that 900,000 UK workers annually have holiday pay withheld, worth £2.1 billion, and nearly 20% of minimum wage workers are underpaid.
Visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-every-employer-needs-to-know-2026-payroll-hr-compliance-tickets-1985304364798 to sign up.