What should an HR portal include?
A UK HR portal should include employee records, holiday and absence booking, sickness reporting with Statutory Sick Pay, family leave, onboarding with right to work checks, performance reviews, training records, policies and documents, and reports, with each person seeing only what their role allows. Beyond those basics, the right mix depends on how your organisation works, which is why it pays to try a working portal before choosing one.
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026
- Self service for staff: holiday balance, sickness reporting, expenses, documents and personal details.
- Manager tools: approvals with clash warnings, a team calendar, return to work chats and reviews.
- UK rules built in: 5.6 weeks holiday, Statutory Sick Pay, statutory family leave and pay, flexible working and right to work checks.
- Compliance records: subject access requests, the accident book, retention and sexual harassment prevention.
- Roles and permissions, two factor sign in, encryption of sensitive details and an audit trail.
The core of an HR portal
Every HR portal needs a reliable record of who works for you and on what terms, and a way for people to handle routine requests without emailing HR.
- People records: personal and contact details, job, manager, location, contract and pay history, kept effective dated so you can see what was true on any date
- Holiday and absence: requests, manager approval, balances that update themselves and a team calendar
- Sickness: self reporting, fit notes, return to work chats and absence triggers such as the Bradford Factor
- Documents and policies: contracts, letters and handbooks, with a record of who has read the latest version
If a portal cannot do these well, the rest does not matter.
UK specific features to look for
UK employment rules are detailed, and generic HR software often leaves them to spreadsheets. Check that the portal handles:
- holiday of at least 5.6 weeks, pro rata for part time staff and 12.07% accrual for irregular hours workers
- bank holidays that differ between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
- Statutory Sick Pay under the rules in force at the time, including the changes from April 2026
- maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, neonatal care and bereavement leave, with key dates and statutory pay
- flexible working as a day one right, with the statutory business reasons for refusal
- grievance and disciplinary stages that follow the ACAS Code of Practice
- right to work checks with follow up dates
- subject access requests tracked against the one month deadline, and gender pay gap reporting
Features that make people actually use it
A portal only saves time if staff and managers use it. The features that help most are the ones that answer questions before they are asked:
- an Ask HR assistant that answers everyday questions from each person's own records
- a welcome portal for new starters before their first day
- notifications for approvals, expiring certificates and deadlines
- news, shout outs and anonymous pulse surveys
- a layout that works properly on a phone
You can see all of these working in our HR portal software demo.
Security and permissions
HR data is some of the most sensitive information an organisation holds, so permissions matter as much as features. Look for role based access, so a line manager sees their own team and payroll sees pay, but neither sees health details they do not need. Sensitive fields such as bank details and sickness reasons should be encrypted, sign in should use two factor authentication, and the portal should keep an audit trail of changes and of who opened sensitive details. Built in tools for subject access requests and retention help with UK GDPR.
What is the difference between an HR portal and HR software?
They usually mean the same thing. HR portal tends to describe the logged in part staff and managers use for self service, while HR software can also mean back office tools used only by HR.
Does a small business need an HR portal?
Not always. A very small team can manage with a shared calendar and a handbook, but once you are tracking holiday, sickness and documents for more than a handful of people, a portal saves time and reduces mistakes.
Should an HR portal include payroll?
Usually not directly. Most organisations keep a dedicated payroll provider and have the HR portal send it approved changes, absences and expenses, which keeps payroll accurate without replacing it.
Can I see an example of a full HR portal?
Yes. Our live demo at hr-demo.varsuite.co.uk is a complete HR portal for a sample UK company, and you can sign in as HR, a manager, an employee, payroll, a director or a new starter.
Get The Signal
Practical notes on AI, websites and automation for UK businesses. One useful email at a time, unsubscribe whenever.
Still want to ask it in person?
Tell us what you are building and we will give you a straight answer, and a plan, within 72 hours.