Exceed’s HR Support for SMEs, means you’ll stop stressing over HR and get the confidence to manage correctly.
Our HR experts deliver compliant contracts, policies, handbooks and correspondence – plus a reassuring helpline for managers – so your team stays focused on growth.
HR Support for SMEs
£15
per employee per month
We support you and your managers with compliant HR documents and written employee correspondence.
Qualified HR experts
Phone, email and zoom/teams
Compliant admin and updates
£15 per employee per month is based on a three-year term, paid monthly, and excludes optional add-ons. Alternative terms and rates are available.
Minimum fee: £150 per month (equivalent to 10 employees). Set-up cost: £5 per employee.
Add-Ons
Add these optional extras to outsourced HR Support to meet the precise needs of your business.
From £24
per business per month
RECOMMENDED
Custom Projects
£100 per hour
PAID MONTHLY
Easily Combine HR Support
and SME Payroll Services
UPGRADE to Full HR Management
+ Fast-Track Your Growth
At just £15 per employee per month, Exceed’s outsourced HR support for SMEs
is a fraction of the cost of an in-house HR Manager or team.
In-House HR Manager
Estimate for a UK-based employee includes:
* Source: Indeed.com 5/11/2025, based on figures updated 27/10/25. Employer’s NI and pension based on 2025/26 thresholds and rates.
If you were to employ an HR Manager, additional employment costs your business may incur include:
HR Support by Exceed
Outsourced HR support by Exceed is just £15 per employee per month.
Local Authority Director, 32 employees
“As a publicly funded authority, we have to focus our limited resources on service delivery, rather than HR and payroll paperwork. We outsourced our HR department to Exceed several years ago and it works really well. Their advice on HR matters is very practical and they get our weekly and monthly payrolls done without a fuss.”
HR Support for SMEs
£15
per employee per month
Small Business Owner, 15 employees
“The day-to-day running of our business meant ‘real HR’ was always on the back burner – until we decided to stop firefighting and outsource it to Exceed. Lynne stepped in, sorted our contracts and policies, and helped us fix some tricky performance and attendance issues. It’s a huge relief knowing we have Exceed to support us going forward.”
Start Up Business Owner, 9 employees
“We had a great team, but payroll issues were costing us. When we outsourced payroll to Exceed the troubleshooting and paperwork all left my desk… so I asked them to look after our HR too. We’ve now got proper contracts in place and well-trained managers, and I spend most of my time on product development and sales.”
Exceed provides HR Support for SMEs, Full HR Management (an outsourced HR department) and SME Payroll Services for businesses and organisations in the UK and crown dependencies.
Our services are always tailored to be compliant with the relevant legislation in that jurisdiction and to suit each individual client.
With outsourced HR Support for SMEs by Exceed, your SME can consult our HR experts during 252 days of the year (260 weekdays less 8 public holidays).
Whereas, if you employ an in-house HR Manager, they’ll cost your business an annual salary PLUS all related employment costs. And, if they take 25 days holiday and 10 days sickness in addition to 8 public holidays, and they may only work for 217 days each year.
This means your business has access to 35 EXTRA days of potential support by outsourcing HR to Exceed, for a small fraction of the cost of an in-house hire (see table above).
With HR Support for SMEs and Full HR Management by Exceed, your staff remain employees of your business or organisation throughout – you will not lose control of your people.
Exceed will simply provide professional outsourced HR (and payroll) services to support you and your team.
If Exceed manages your holiday requests, you will still be in complete control, as holidays requests will be sent to your business for authorisation.
Once authorised, Exceed will look after the administration of the holidays as well as absence reporting.
It is a legal requirement to give all employees a written statement of particulars of employment.
Having a staff handbook isn’t a legal requirement in itself, but it gives you an opportunity to set out in detail what you expect from your staff.
It is a means of sharing with employees important information about your organisation and how it works on a day-to-day basis.
An employee handbook is also a handy place to keep forms (or links to them) for sickness self-certification, requesting holidays, claiming expenses and so on.
Outsourcing to Exceed helps with all of this.
Exceed takes the confidentiality and protection of all data very seriously, as explained in our Privacy Policy.
If you have any particular questions or concerns, please Get in Touch.
You can outsource your HR and payroll/pensions administration to Exceed at any point in the year.
Depending on the timing, we may need certain information from you, such as previously recovered statutory payments, but we will guide you through it step-by-step.
Before we onboard your business, we’ll agree a transparent contract which clearly defines our service, including:
The minimum term for SME Payroll Services, HR Support for SMEs or Full HR Management by Exceed is 1 year.
Contracts are also available for 2, 3, 4 or 5 years.
Contracts do not automatically renew and can be cancelled at the end of the term, with break clauses also available within longer term contracts.
Please Get in Touch for more details.
Exceed’s outsourced HR and payroll packages are all charged monthly, on a per employee basis.
As your business grows, your monthly fee simply increases (or decreases) according to the number of staff employed at the time of your invoice. This is subject to our minimum fee (equivalent to 10 employees), and a one-off set up cost of £5 per employee for HR Support.
You can upgrade any time from SME Payroll Services or HR Support for SMEs, to Payroll PLUS HR Support, or to Full HR Management which includes FREE Payroll.
You can also add-on optional extras like HR Software (recommended), Bespoke HR for custom HR projects, Employee Payments and Weekly Payroll, all of which are charged monthly too.
Please allow 2 to 3 weeks for us to transfer your HR and/or payroll to Exceed.
The actual time needed will depend on a number of factors such as the size of your business, payment frequencies and the availability of information and documentation.
If you have a specific deadline, we’ll happily work towards that – although we prefer to take the time to get everything right, rather than rush to complete onboarding too quickly.
