An HR consultant helps a business handle anything to do with employing people: contracts, policies, disciplinary and grievance processes, hiring, firing, absence, performance, and the legal duties that come with all of it. For a UK small business, that usually means giving you the answer to a question you would otherwise spend three days Googling, and giving you the paperwork to back it up.

If you have a person in your business and you pay them, you have HR obligations. An HR consultant is the person who helps you discharge those obligations without hiring a full-time HR manager you cannot afford.

The five things a UK HR consultant typically does

1. Writes your contracts of employment

Every employee in the UK is entitled to a written statement of their main terms on or before their first day of work (Employment Rights Act 1996, updated by the Employment Rights Act 2025). An HR consultant drafts these so they are compliant, role-specific, and reflect how you actually work. The cost typically ranges from £150 for a templated single contract to £695 or more for a bespoke contracts and handbook bundle.

2. Writes your employee handbook and policy suite

The core policies most SMEs need: disciplinary, grievance, sickness, holiday, family leave, equality and diversity, data protection, working time, and lone working if applicable. The handbook ties them together with practical guidance for managers and employees.

3. Handles day-to-day employee issues

Someone going off sick repeatedly. A disciplinary that needs an ACAS-compliant process. A grievance complaint. A capability concern. An HR consultant gives you the script, attends the meeting if needed, and writes the outcome letters.

4. Keeps you compliant as the law changes

Employment law moves. The Employment Rights Act 2025 phased provisions land through 2026 and 2027. A retained HR consultant tells you what is changing, when, and what you need to do about it.

5. Sets up the systems

For SMEs that have outgrown spreadsheets, an HR consultant typically configures an HR information system (HRIS) like Breathe HR so that employee records, holidays, absence, contracts and policies live in one place rather than across email threads and folders.

What an HR consultant does not do

• Payroll. That is your accountant or a payroll bureau.
• Recruitment headhunting. Some HR consultants write job adverts and interview scripts (we do). Most do not source candidates.
• Tax and pensions advice. Auto-enrolment compliance overlaps but the tax mechanics are an accountant’s job.
• Health and safety inspections. We provide templates and policy. A specialist H&S consultant does the on-site inspection work.

When does a UK SME need an HR consultant?

There are three trigger points where most businesses we work with call us.

1. You hire your first employee. You need a compliant contract from day one. Mistakes here become contractual problems that are hard to undo later.

2. You hit 5 to 10 employees. At this size, situations start to arise faster than you can Google them. A retainer that gives you on-call advice pays for itself the first time you avoid an unfair dismissal claim.

3. Something has gone wrong. A disciplinary that should have been handled by the book was not. An employee has raised a formal grievance. Someone has been off sick for three months. These are the moments where having an HR consultant on speed dial matters.

How much does an HR consultant cost in the UK?

Three common pricing models:

Retainer: a fixed monthly fee. Typically £199 to £999 per month for SMEs depending on headcount and what is included. Most retainers include unlimited phone and email advice plus a set number of monthly hours for tailored work.

One-off projects: fixed fees for specific deliverables. A compliance audit typically costs £495 to £1,500. A contracts and handbook bundle costs £495 to £1,500.

Hourly: for ad-hoc work, typically £85 to £150 per hour plus VAT, billed in 15-minute blocks.

The 6-month HR Foundation Programme we run is a productised hybrid: fixed monthly fee for a defined scope. £449 per month for six months for a typical SME, £2,694 total.

What to look for in an HR consultant

• CIPD-qualified or equivalent experience. Look for a documented track record.
• Plain English, not jargon. If their first call is full of “stakeholder engagement” and “people strategy”, you will get a slide deck instead of a fixed contract.
• Fixed fees on at least the standard work (contracts, handbook, audit). Hourly billing on routine work is a signal that pricing has not been thought through.
• Clear scope on what is in and out of the retainer. Complex multi-day cases (tribunal preparation, multi-person redundancy) usually sit outside retainers and are quoted as separate projects.
• Sector experience. Trades, hospitality, care and professional services each have specific employment law nuances. Generic HR support sometimes misses them.

Beagle HR in 30 seconds

Beagle HR is a Surrey-based, founder-led HR consultancy supporting small and medium-sized UK businesses. We offer retained HR support from £249 per month, one-off HR compliance audits from £495, contracts and policy bundles from £695, and a 6-month HR Foundation Programme from £449 per month for SMEs putting their HR in place from scratch.

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