For employers: running a UK company of 20 to 1,000 people
Handbooks, policies, checklists and calculators for the person who has to make the company work - whether your title is HR manager, operations director, office manager or founder. Organised by the job in front of you, checked against the primary source and free to use.
Handbook and policies
What the law requires in writing, what is optional, and wording you can edit.
Employee handbook template
Fourteen sections with starter wording, and the line between handbook and contract.
Read the handbook → HandbookHR policies required by law
The short legal list, the compulsory documents, and what changes at five employees.
Read the handbook → TemplateCode of conduct
Ten clauses on behaviour, conflicts, gifts, confidentiality and raising a concern.
Get the template → TemplateDisciplinary policy
The Acas Code in the order a case runs, from informal word to appeal.
Get the template → TemplateEqual opportunities policy
The Equality Act in a policy your managers can apply.
Get the policy → TemplateWhistleblowing policy
Updated for the 2026 changes, with day-one protection explained.
Get the policy →More policies
Grievance procedure · Sickness absence · Anti-harassment · Hybrid working · TOIL · Expenses · Benefits · Medical appointments · Carer's leave · DBS checks
Hiring, onboarding and leaving
From the job description to the day the laptop comes back.
Fair recruitment
What you can and cannot ask, and how to score candidates so the decision stands up.
Read the guide → GuideRight to work checks
The three check routes, what to keep and the follow-up dates that must not slip.
Read the guide → GuideNew starter onboarding checklist
Before day one, the first week and the first ninety days.
Read the guide → GuideEmployee offboarding checklist
Notice, final pay and holiday, the P45, equipment, access and records, in order.
Read the guide → GuideGiving references
What you must, may and should not say.
Read the guide →Documents for the job
Job description · Interview scorecard · Offer letter · Written statement · New starter checklist · Exit interview form · Probation in 2027 · DBS checks · Cost per hire
Time, rotas and absence
The questions your team is searching for too - answered from the side that has to run it.
Changing employee shifts
How much notice to give, what a change must never break, and the 2027 reforms.
Read the guide → GuideTOIL rules for employers
No statute governs it. The three legal limits and the six decisions a scheme needs.
Read the guide → GuideSickness trigger points
Setting review points that hold up, and the absences that must not be counted.
Read the guide → GuideAnnual leave explained
The 5.6 weeks, bank holidays, part-timers, carry-over and holiday pay.
Read the guide →Tools and templates
4-week rolling rota · Timesheet · TOIL tracker · Return-to-work questions · Bradford Factor calculator · Pro-rata holiday · Rest between shifts · 48-hour opt-out · Fit notes
Managing people
Performance, conduct, complaints and the conversations in between.
The disciplinary procedure
The Acas Code step by step, written for a company without an HR department.
Read the guide → GuideHandling a grievance
What to do from the day a complaint lands to the appeal.
Read the guide → GuideOne-to-ones that work
A structure for the meeting most managers improvise.
Read the guide → GuideThe duty to prevent sexual harassment
What reasonable steps look like in a company your size.
Read the guide → TemplateAppraisal form
A review form that leaves a fair written record.
Get the form → GuideWorkplace investigations
The six Acas steps, suspension and companions.
Read the guide →Pay, expenses and benefits
The figures that change every April, and the sums behind a hire, a leaver and a claim.
UK statutory rates 2026/27
Every figure an employer needs in one table, each checked against gov.uk.
See the rates → CalculatorTrue cost of an employee
Salary plus employer National Insurance, pension and the rest.
Cost a hire → TemplateExpenses policy
What is reimbursed, what evidence is needed and who approves it.
Get the template → GuideAutomatic enrolment
Who must be enrolled, when, and what you have to tell them.
Read the guide →More on pay
Overtime pay · Salaried minimum wage check · Mileage claims · Subsistence rates · Company sick pay · Payroll cut-off dates · Redundancy cost · Notice pay
Compliance, safety and records
The duties with deadlines attached, and the records that prove you met them.
Health and safety for small businesses
Policy, risk assessment, accident records, RIDDOR deadlines, screens, first aid and fire.
Read the handbook → TemplateHealth and safety policy
The three parts the Health and Safety Executive asks for, ready to adapt.
Get the template → TemplateHR data retention schedule
How long to keep each kind of record, and why.
Get the template → GuideSubject access requests
What an employee can ask for, the deadline and what you can withhold.
Read the guide → GuideDuties by number of employees
What starts at 1, 5, 10, 20, 21, 50 and 250.
Read the guide → GuideRIDDOR reporting
What to report, by when, and the record to keep.
Read the guide → TemplateDSE workstation checklist
For office, home and hybrid workers.
Get the checklist → TemplateEmployee privacy notice
With the 2026 complaints wording.
Get the notice →Running the company
CoDash is short for company dashboard, so this is not only about HR.
Company asset register
Fourteen columns to track kit by person, plus the return clause for leavers.
Get the register → TemplateHybrid working policy
Office days, equipment, home workstation checks, security and costs.
Get the template → GuideThe HR board report
The people numbers a board actually reads, and how to present them.
Read the guide → By sectorHow it works in your sector
Which parts of the dashboard carry the weight in fourteen kinds of company.
Find your sector → TemplateSupplier register
Contracts, renewals and data processing in one list.
Get the register →The numbers behind it
UK staff turnover statistics · UK sickness absence statistics · UK tribunal statistics · Staff turnover calculator · Absence cost calculator
Choosing software
When the spreadsheet stops coping. Honest comparisons, including the cases where it has not yet.
How to choose HR software
The questions that separate the shortlist, in the order to ask them.
Read the guide → GuideWhat HR software costs in the UK
Each vendor's own published price, dated, in one table.
See the prices → ComparisonHR software vs spreadsheets
When a spreadsheet is still the right answer, and the point at which it is not.
Read the comparison → CoDashCoDash pricing
Two plans, priced per person, with the full feature list on the page.
See pricing → ComparisonCoDash vs BrightHR
Prices, contract terms and what each includes.
Read the comparison → ComparisonCoDash vs Employment Hero
Plans, add-ons and a worked example.
Read the comparison →More on switching
Requirements checklist · Switching HR software · All comparisons · What CoDash covers · Security
One dashboard for the whole company
CoDash brings people records, time off, rotas, policies, training, expenses and the asset register into one place for UK teams of 20 to 1,000. The demo is open - no form, no call.
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