Get the boring things rightbefore they get expensive.
Contracts that match what people actually do, policies that reflect the law as it is now, and a handbook someone might read.
Book a call →Nobody looks until something goes wrong
The contract was a template from the first ten hires and hasn’t changed since, even though half the team is now remote and three people are in another country. The policies were written by someone who left. There’s no handbook, or there’s a handbook from 2023 that contradicts what actually happens.
What happens when it finally matters →
None of this matters until it matters. Then someone resigns and you find the restrictive covenant is unenforceable, or a grievance lands and the procedure you’re meant to follow doesn’t exist, or an employee asks a question about flexible working and the answer you give sets a precedent you didn’t intend.
Employment law is also moving. The changes to unfair dismissal rights from 2027 and the harassment duty from October 2026 both need documents that most scale-ups haven’t updated yet.
What HR documents does a UK company legally need?
Every UK employee must receive a written statement of employment particulars on or before their first day. You are also expected to have a disciplinary and grievance procedure that employees can access. Beyond that the legal list is short, but a handbook and a core policy set are what make it possible to act consistently when something goes wrong.
The honest audit
This is roughly what I find in a business of eighty people that has never had a People lead. It’s not negligence, it’s just what happens when hiring moves faster than paperwork.
The pattern I see is that the missing document and the live problem arrive in the same week, and by then your options have narrowed to the expensive ones.
01Audit
What exists, what’s out of date, and what’s genuinely risky rather than just untidy. You get a prioritised list, not a lecture.
02Contracts
Rebuilt for how you actually work, per jurisdiction. Remote, hybrid, contractors, and anyone employed outside the UK.
03Core policies
The set you’re legally required to have, plus the ones that stop problems: absence, family leave, flexible working, disciplinary, grievance, harassment.
04Handbook
Written in plain English and short enough that a new starter reads it. A handbook nobody opens protects nobody.
05Process
Right to work, onboarding, offboarding, and what a manager does when someone raises something.
06Manager guidance
The documents are only half of it. Managers need to know what to do in the first hour of something going wrong.
The full set
- Employment contracts for the UK, Ireland and other jurisdictions you employ in
- Contractor and consultancy agreements where you use them
- Core policy set, written to current legislation
- Employee handbook people can actually use
- Right to work, onboarding and offboarding processes
- Manager guidance for when something goes wrong
- Readiness for the October 2026 harassment duty and the 2027 unfair dismissal changes
- Everything in editable format so you can maintain it
Where something needs formal legal sign-off, I’ll say so and work with your solicitors rather than pretending otherwise.
What founders ask
What are we actually required to have?
Less than most people assume, and the legal minimum is a low bar. The written statement of particulars is required from day one. A disciplinary and grievance procedure is expected. Everything else is about whether you want to be able to act when something happens.
Do we need a handbook?
Not legally. In practice it saves you answering the same question forty times and stops managers inventing policy on the spot.
We employ people in Ireland. Is that different?
Yes, meaningfully. Statutory entitlements, notice and required documentation differ. Using a UK contract for an Irish employee is one of the more common problems I’m asked to unpick.
How long does it take?
Three to five weeks for a full foundations build, depending on how many jurisdictions and how much already exists.
Can we just buy templates?
You can, and for a very small business that might be enough. The risk is a template set that contradicts itself and doesn’t match how you actually operate, which is worse than having nothing because it looks like a policy you’ve breached.