HR FAQs for small businesses

Yes. Even if you only have one employee, you still have legal HR responsibilities around contracts, right-to-work checks, payroll, pensions, and basic policies. You do not need an in-house HR department, but you do need someone competent keeping you compliant.

Most SMEs bring in external HR when DIY spreadsheets and Googling start to feel risky — typically from around 5 to 10 employees or when the first serious issue appears, such as a grievance, sickness absence, performance problem, or dismissal. It is usually cheaper to get advice early than to fix a messy process later.

You need written employment terms from day one, right-to-work checks, payroll and pensions set up correctly, and clear policies on things like disciplinary, grievance, sickness and holiday. You also need to keep proper records of employment, absence and pay.

HR advice focuses on people processes and what is practical day to day, while employment law advice focuses on legal risk, tribunal exposure and how a judge may view your decisions. With Electra HR you get both perspectives aligned, because your HR support is backed by a practising solicitor.

For most small businesses, outsourced HR is far more cost-effective than hiring a full-time HR manager on £30k–£50k. You pay for the level of support you actually need, instead of carrying a permanent salary before it is justified.

Electra HR is built for founders, startups and SMEs in Kent and the South East who want straight-talking HR support that matches how they actually run the business. We mainly work with employers, but we can occasionally help employees in a genuine bind who need clear, commercial guidance.

Electra HR is run through Bonsai Law, an SRA-regulated firm, so your HR and legal strategy are joined up from the start instead of being bolted together once things escalate. You get prevention-first HR with proper legal backup, rather than being handed off to a stranger the moment things get serious.

We focus on startups and SMEs in Kent and the South East of England, including businesses without any in-house HR function at all. If in doubt, ask — if we are not the right fit, we will say so.

Yes. If a people issue is snowballing into a dispute, director exit or shareholder tension, we can step in quickly and get HR and legal strategy pointing in the same direction. We would still rather help you early, but we are used to firefighting when needed.

No. We are female-founded and female-led, but our focus is on working with businesses that want fair, sane workplaces and are not trying to brush problems under the carpet. If you want honest advice rather than someone to rubber-stamp bad behaviour, you are in the right place.

Legal professional privilege is what can keep your advice emails and notes out of disclosure if a dispute ends up in tribunal or court. If communications are not privileged, they can be ordered to be handed over and put under a microscope.

Often they are not, because legal advice privilege normally applies to confidential communications between a client and a qualified lawyer, not a generic HR adviser. That means HR advice you thought was just between you and your consultant can end up as evidence.

Because Electra HR is run by a practising solicitor through an SRA-regulated law firm, there is a clear path to legal professional privilege that a typical HR consultancy simply cannot offer. That can make a big difference if a situation turns litigious.

If there is any realistic risk of dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, complex sickness, TUPE, or serious allegations, it is safer to bring a solicitor into the conversation early. Getting the legal framing right up front often reduces both risk and cost later.

Yes. With Electra HR you do not have to retell the story to a new law firm when things escalate, because Bonsai Law is already in the picture. We can dial legal input up or down depending on how spicy the situation becomes.

Typical outsourced HR includes contracts and onboarding, policies, handbooks, performance and absence management support, and advice when issues crop up. Electra HR adds legal oversight and a prevention-first approach on top of that core support.

Most SMEs prefer a fixed-fee retainer that covers day-to-day queries, document drafting and proactive check-ins, with separate pricing for heavy disputes or formal investigations. We can also work on a project or sanity-check basis if you are not ready for an ongoing arrangement.

Yes. We can audit what you already have, tidy up contracts and policies, and then give you a clear, manageable HR framework that fits the size and pace of your business. The idea is to give you enough structure to stay safe without drowning you in paperwork.

You might save a bit of time now, but you are increasing the chances of costly disputes, fines, reputational damage and painful exit negotiations later. Most nightmare cases started as small, fixable issues that no one dealt with properly.

You send us the basics of what is going on, we sanity-check the situation, and we agree the lightest-touch way to help that still keeps you safe. Sometimes that is a quick call; sometimes it is a bit more involved — but you will know where you stand quickly.