Start with the HR job in front of you.
Choose the situation you need to sort. Each guide gives you the direct answer, a practical route, the maintained official source and an honest line around what software can decide.
Source review: 19 July 2026 · seven maintained guides
Which HR guide should I read first?
Read the guide that matches the decision you need to make, not the HR label you think you ought to learn. Hiring your first people needs an order of operations. Leave friction needs a written rule and the real working pattern. A new starter needs a timed plan with owners. Employee-data sprawl needs a purpose and access map. A creaking spreadsheet needs a controlled handover.
These pages are deliberately not a substitute handbook. They help a small team move from “we should sort HR” to a specific output another authorised person can inspect. Bank-holiday planning needs the verified dates and one written allowance rule. Current official sources remain the authority for legal rules and exceptions.
Seven common jobs. Seven useful outputs.
Each route has its own decision model and visual examples, but the same compact provenance, boundary and next-step grammar.
HR for startups
Put the first UK employment decisions in a sensible order, without building a miniature corporate HR department.
You leave withA six-decision setup orderOpen guide 02Leave requests keep becoming debatesManaging annual leave
Turn entitlement, working patterns, requests and team coverage into one explainable small-team rule.
You leave withA written rule and evidence trailOpen guide 03A starter is joining soonOnboarding checklist
Give every pre-start, first-day and first-month task an owner and a useful definition of done.
You leave withA timed, owner-led checklistOpen guide 04Employee data is scatteredGDPR for HR
Map the purpose, minimum data, access, retention and rights route for employee records.
You leave withA purpose, access and retention mapOpen guide 05The people spreadsheet is creakingMoving HR off spreadsheets
Choose one source, reduce the data, map it, test awkward records and reconcile before retiring the old master.
You leave withA controlled migration planOpen guide 06Bank holidays keep surprising the planUK bank holidays
The verified 2026 and 2027 dates for all three UK nations, plus what bank holidays do to holiday entitlement.
You leave withVerified dates and one clear ruleOpen guide 07Which statutory rate applies right now?UK statutory rates for employers
Every statutory rate an employer needs for 2026/27 — SSP, minimum wage, redundancy, notice, holiday, employer NI and pensions — dated, sourced and shared with our calculators.
You leave withEvery rate, dated and sourcedOpen guideA guide should help with the next real decision.
A definition can be accurate and still leave the work untouched. HollyHR guides connect the maintained rule to the inputs, owner and evidence that make a small-team process dependable.
The annual-leave route, for example, moves from entitlement to working pattern, request and recorded decision. The migration route moves from inventory to a reconciled cutover. The shape changes because the job changes.
Know which voice is speaking.
The direct answer and checklist are practical guidance. The source section points to the maintained public authority. The product boundary states exactly where HollyHR supports the record and where a human, payroll service or qualified adviser still owns the decision.
That separation matters. It keeps a useful guide from turning into legal theatre, and keeps a product link from pretending HollyHR automates work it does not.
Useful without pretending to be a law firm.
Three quick answers about provenance, maintenance and product links.
Are HollyHR guides legal advice?
No. They are practical general information for small UK teams. Each guide links to maintained official guidance and separates that guidance from HollyHR product capability.
How are the guides kept current?
Every guide shows a real reviewed date, the official sources used and the events that should trigger a fresh review. We do not label a page legally reviewed when it has not been.
Do I need to use HollyHR to use the guides?
No. The checklists and decision models are useful on their own. Product links appear where HollyHR can genuinely support the record or workflow, with one visible boundary on every guide.
Turn the useful part into a repeatable process.
Explore the working HollyHR product, or join early access and tell us which people process is creating the most avoidable admin.