Outsourced HR for hospitality and care businesses in the South East
Quick answer: Hospitality and care are the two sectors where HR goes wrong fastest, for the same reason: shift patterns, high turnover, young or sponsored workers, and managers who are running a service rather than sitting at a desk. Beagle HR works with restaurants, hotels, cafes, care homes and domiciliary providers across Surrey, Hampshire and south west London from an office on Weybridge High Street. We come on site, because in these sectors most of the problems cannot be sorted out over email.
Why these two sectors are different
Most HR advice is written for an office. It assumes everyone starts at nine, works a fixed week, and can be pulled into a meeting room. Almost none of that is true in a kitchen or on a care rota.
| The problem | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Shift patterns and working time | Split shifts, overtime, on-call, sleep-ins, unpaid breaks that were not actually taken. Holiday pay calculated on basic rate when it should include regular overtime and allowances. |
| Turnover | A team that turns over faster than the paperwork does. New starters working weeks before anyone issues a contract, which is a breach from day one. |
| Young and part-time workers | Different minimum wage bands, restrictions on hours for under-18s, and April rate changes that need catching before payroll runs, not after. |
| Sponsored workers | Care in particular. Sponsor licence duties, reporting changes, right to work checks that have to be right rather than nearly right. |
| Regulated inspection | For care, CQC will ask about recruitment records, supervision, training and safeguarding. HR paperwork is inspection evidence, not admin. |
| Managers who are not managers | The person handling a grievance is a head chef or a registered manager with a service to run. They need a script and someone on the end of the phone, not a policy PDF. |
What we do for hospitality and care employers
- Contracts that fit shift work. Written terms that reflect how you actually roster, including hours, overtime, breaks, and what happens when the rota changes.
- Holiday and pay that survives an audit. Getting accrual and holiday pay right for irregular hours, and catching the April rate changes before payroll rather than after.
- Onboarding that keeps up with turnover. Right to work checks, contracts issued for electronic signature, and a new starter process that works when you are hiring four people in a week.
- Disciplinaries and grievances handled properly, including coming to site to run the meeting where that is the right call.
- Absence and sickness, including the return to work conversation nobody has time for, and the long-term cases that drift because everyone is being kind.
- Inspection-ready records for care providers, so what CQC asks for already exists.
Where we work
Beagle HR is based at The IncuHive Space, 68 High Street, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 8BL. We work across Weybridge, Walton-on-Thames, Esher, Cobham, Chertsey, Woking, Guildford, Epsom, Leatherhead, Reigate, Camberley, Farnham, into Hampshire and across south west London. For hospitality and care we come to you, because rotas do not pause for meetings and the useful conversations happen on site.
Frequently asked questions
Do you understand shift-based businesses, or is this generic HR?
Dan Caruso spent fifteen years running shop floors, supervisor teams and operational roles before founding Beagle HR in 2020. He has run the rota at six on a Saturday morning. That is the difference between advice that works on paper and advice that works on a Friday night service.
Can you help with a CQC inspection?
We get the HR side of the evidence in order: recruitment and selection records, right to work, supervision and appraisal records, training logs, and the policies inspectors expect to see. We are not a CQC consultancy and will say so where you need one, but the people paperwork is usually where providers lose marks and that part we handle.
We have very high turnover. Is a retainer worth it?
High turnover is the argument for one, not against it. The businesses that get caught out are the ones issuing contracts weeks late, missing right to work checks in a rush, and paying holiday on the wrong basis across dozens of leavers. A retainer means the process runs the same way every time, whoever is doing the hiring that week.
How quickly can you get to us?
From Weybridge, most of Surrey is within forty minutes. We hold appointments for urgent employee issues, and if something has happened this morning you can usually speak to someone this morning. Support hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, with an urgent line outside them.
Book a free 15-minute call or ring 01932 620100 and we will tell you where you stand.