HR for offices and professional services
For agencies, consultancies and small offices with 1 to 49 staff. Offices have only a few extra rules of their own, about monitoring and working from home. The rest is the HR every employer needs, and we do it for you.
- Extra rules we handle
- Monitoring and working from home
- Health and safety add-on
- From summer 2027
- Who it’s for
- 1 to 49 staff in England, Scotland and Wales
The extra rules in your industry
Each one switches on from what you tell us when you join, and goes into the same contracts, policies and records as the rest of your HR.
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The rule
Staff must be told about monitoring
What it means for youIf you monitor email, phones or CCTV, staff must know what you monitor and why. Hidden monitoring is hard to justify, except in rare cases such as suspected crime.
What we doWe add a monitoring policy and a notice to staff, and name the monitoring in their privacy notice. Where the risk is high, we draft a risk assessment for your HR expert to sign off. Any hidden monitoring needs your sign-off with your HR expert.
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The rule
Staff can ask to work from home from day one
What it means for youA request to work from home, or to change hours, is a flexible working request, and staff can make one from their first day. You have 2 months to decide, and must discuss it with them before refusing. Expected from autumn 2027: you can only refuse where that’s reasonable, on one of the set grounds.
What we doYour handbook’s homeworking policy says which roles can work from home and what equipment you provide. We log each request with its 2-month deadline, record the discussion and write the decision. Your HR expert signs off any refusal.
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The rule
Screen users need workstation checks and training
What it means for youIf your staff work at screens, you need to check their workstations and give them training.
What we doFrom summer 2027, the optional health and safety add-on includes screen workstation checks and a short screen-work course for staff.
What we ask when you join
A short form about your business and your staff picks your contracts and policies. Founding members fill it in during December, and you can type your staff in or upload a spreadsheet.
For an office, two of these answers set up your extra rules: which roles can work from home, and whether you monitor staff.
- Each person’s role, and which roles can work from home or hybrid.
- Whether you monitor email, phones or CCTV, and why.
- How pay works: salary, hourly or overtime, your probation length, and any notice above the legal minimum.
- Whether you use freelancers or other self-employed people, since who counts as an employee is a question for your HR expert.
- Whether anyone drives for work, so we can add licence checks and a driving-for-work policy.
The rest of your HR
Everything else works the way it does for any other business.
- Contracts and documentsContracts for every employee, your handbook and policies, and letters, kept up to date with the law.Included
- Starters and leaversOne link for each new starter, with the right-to-work check and the contract, and final pay worked out for leavers.Included
- Disciplinaries and dismissalsEvery process run step by step, and every dismissal checked by your HR expert.Included
- Health and safety add-onOptional, from summer 2027, with offices among the first businesses it covers.Summer 2027
Questions
Can you add a clause stopping staff taking clients when they leave?
Yes, if you want one. Clauses like this, called restrictive covenants, stop someone working for a competitor or approaching your clients for a set time after they leave. Each one goes to our employment solicitor case by case, written with the scope, length and area you need rather than from a standard template, and we’ll tell you before any work starts if there’s a fee.
Do I need the health and safety add-on?
It’s optional. From 5 staff, you need a written health and safety policy; without the add-on, Mirith, our assistant, flags that and links the free template from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). From summer 2027, the add-on gives you the policy, risk assessments, screen workstation checks and reminders, with a qualified health and safety adviser for anything Mirith can’t answer. What the add-on covers and costs
Do you run payroll?
No. We send whoever runs your payroll a summary of what’s changed each pay period, such as starters, leavers, pay changes and statutory pay due, but we don’t run payroll or file with HMRC.
Your HR team, from January 2027.
Start with the free checklist. Reserve your founding price, and we set you up in January. It’s refundable until launch.
Not ready yet? Get the free 1 January 2027 checklist.