HR HeroThe problem: a holiday spreadsheet and a filing cabinet

An HR system for the people who run the desks.

Your recruiters look after hundreds of workers. HR Hero looks after them. Leave, absence, reviews and the paperwork of employing people, in the system they already have open.

Talk to us See what is in it

23 named rulesEach with a UK default, its basis and a confirmed mark.
5.6 weeksThe statutory minimum every entitlement is checked against.
Nobody approves their ownRequests go to the line manager, or to the HR admins for that branch.

HR Hero Example Recruitment

Export PDFBook leave

My ProfileHolidaysTeam 1Leave CalendarDocuments & ReviewsCompany

BCBeth C.Director

JMJo M.Branch manager

HTHal T.Finance manager

SPSam P.Senior recruiter

PRPriya R.RecruiterLeave askedOff 21 Dec

ALAlex L.Compliance officer

Your holiday left14.5 days

Team approvals

PRPriya R.Annual leave

Dates: Mon 21 Dec to Tue 29 Dec
Counts as: 5 working days
Also off: Sam P., Wed and Thu

ApproveDeclineApproved by Jo M. Balance updated. Decision recorded.

Off this week

Alex L.Training, Thu
Hal T.Annual leave, Fri

Screens are drawn from the real product with made-up data.

A holiday request, start to finishThe problem: leave agreed in a corridor and counted by hand

The system does the sums. A manager makes the call.

HR Hero counts the days, routes the request and keeps the record. Whether somebody can have Christmas week off is still a person's decision.

1CountEntitlement, rounded up
2AskBooked in under a minute
3DecideWho else is off
4DiaryAn invitation, by email

Step 1

Part-time holiday, rounded the right way

Entitlement is worked out from the hours and days a person really works, then checked against the UK statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks. Every rounding goes up, in the employee's favour, so a part-time sum can never land below the legal floor.

Set entitlement by role, then adjust for one person. Each adjustment is logged.
Carry-over limit and expiry are rules you set.
Bank holidays are synced from GOV.UK.

RDRob D.Works Mon, Wed, Fri

Statutory minimum5.6 weeks
Days worked a week× 3
Works out at16.8 days
Entitlement, rounded up17 days

Rounded up to the next half day. Never down.

Step 2

Leave booked in under a minute

Pick the dates, a leave type and a half day if you need one. Before you send it you see what the request costs in working days and what you will have left. Weekends and bank holidays are left out of the count for you.

Six leave types: annual, sick, compassionate, unpaid, training and other.
It goes to your line manager, or to the HR admins for your branch if you have none.
Nobody approves their own.

Book leave Priya R.

DraftWith Jo M.Approved

Leave typeAnnual leave

Half dayNo, whole days

First day offMon 21 Dec 2026

Last day offTue 29 Dec 2026

This request: 5 working days
Left out: 1 weekend, 2 bank holidays
Left after this: 9.5 days

Approved by Jo M. Your balance has been updated.

Step 3

Who is off, before you say yes

The Holidays tab carries a month calendar of approved and pending leave. Managers and HR admins get a wider leave calendar and a list of their direct reports' requests waiting for an answer. Each request shows who else is off at the same time.

Colleagues see only annual leave, training or away. Never the reason.
Reasons for sick and compassionate leave are never put in an email.

Leave Calendar w/c 21 December

My teamEveryone

	M	T	W	T	F
Sam P.			Leave	Leave	Bank hol
Priya R.	Asked	Asked	Asked	Asked	Bank hol
Alex L.		Training			Bank hol
Rob D.				Away	Bank hol

If this is approved: two of four off on Wednesday, three on Thursday.

ApprovedPendingTraining

Step 4

Approved leave in the diary

Switch the rule on and approved holiday goes to the person and their manager as a standard calendar invitation, by email.

Cancel the leave and the invitation is withdrawn.
There is also a team leave feed to subscribe to.

Leave approved: Priya R., 21 to 29 December5 working days. 9.5 days left this year.

EExample Recruitment09:41To: Priya R. and Jo M.

Annual leave: Priya R.

Annual leave: Priya R.Mon 21 Dec to Tue 29 Dec

PRJMAdded to both diaries

What else it does

Beyond the holiday request.

Somebody phones in sickAbsence recorded when it happens
Every HR rule on one screen23 named rules, confirmed or not
Who reports to whomAn org chart nobody has to maintain
Reviews and shout-outsReviews that can be found again
The holiday spreadsheetBefore and after

Absence recorded when it happens

A recruiter phones in sick at 6am. Anyone above them in the reporting line records it, once. Sickness does not come off the holiday balance. TalentCore then works out each person's Bradford Factor from the absences already recorded.

Frequent short absences weigh more than one long one.
The amber and red thresholds are yours to set.
It is a prompt for a conversation, shown only to those allowed to see it.

Record absence for Sam P.

TypeSick

DayWed 11 Nov 2026

Record absenceRecorded by Jo M. at 06:14

Holiday balance: 12 days, unchanged
Sickness, 12 months: 3 spells, 4 days

Bradford Factor363 × 3 × 4 days

Every HR rule on one screen

Leave year start, carry-over, who records sickness, fit note timing, probation length, review interval, survey anonymity. Each is a named rule with a sensible UK default and the reasoning written beside it. Each shows whether somebody in your business has confirmed it.

23 named rules, each with its basis: law or convention.
You can see which policies were decided on purpose and which still run on a default.

HR Rules 23 rules

19 confirmed

Standard holiday entitlementLaw
28 daysConfirmed
Days that can carry into next yearLaw
5 daysConfirmed
Fit note needed afterLaw
7 daysConfirmed
Probation lengthConvention
6 monthsSet, not confirmedConfirmed
How often a review is dueConvention
12 monthsSet, not confirmed
Are staff surveys anonymousConvention
YesConfirmed

Example values. The defaults and the reasoning ship with the product.

An org chart nobody has to maintain

Every member of staff has one HR profile: job title, department, line manager, start date and history, kept apart from agency worker records. The org chart draws itself from those reporting lines, with the board on its own panel at the top.

HR admins drag a card to change who somebody reports to.
Two people can never end up managing each other.
Exports to one landscape PDF page.

BCBeth C.Director

JMJo M.Branch manager3 reports2 reports

HTHal T.Finance managerNo reports1 report

SPSam P.Senior recruiter

PRPriya R.Recruiter

RDRob D.Payroll clerkReports to Jo M.Reports to Hal T.

Reporting line changed. His leave requests now go to Hal T.

Reviews that can be found again

Managers set objectives, rate performance and write comments. The employee acknowledges the review and can add their own. Review questions are yours to configure, and every review stays on the profile as a history.

Between reviews there is the shout-out board. Anyone can post a short public thank you to a colleague, and the whole team sees it.

Review Priya R., November 2026

Objective 1Fill rate at Depot 1 above 95%
Met
Objective 2Take on the Sample Retail account
Met

Overall

Acknowledged by Priya R. 11 Nov 2026, with her own comments.

Recent Shout-Outs

SPSam P. to Priya R.Covered three no-shows before 7am and still made the client call.

JMJo M. to Alex L.Audit pack ready a day early. Thank you.

Before

A holiday spreadsheet and a filing cabinet

Leave agreed in a corridor and typed up later, or not
Part-time allowances worked out by hand
Policies decided once and never written down

With TalentCore

One record, one set of rules, one queue

Requests follow the reporting line to the right person
Entitlement is worked out from the pattern each person works
Every HR rule is named, explained and confirmed by somebody

Leave approved: Priya R., 21 to 29 December5 working days. 9.5 days left this year.

Also in HR Hero

The paperwork of employing people.

9 more parts

The problem: a second system for every piece of paperwork. Nine more parts, all on the same staff record. None of them needs a second system or a second login.

HR Analytics
Documents and contracts
Staff surveys
Wellbeing hub
Staff driving licences
Staff right to work
Company assets
All employees and HR admin
Benefits and perks

HR Analytics

How many people are off at once, how much holiday is still untaken and which weeks are tight. A per-person report answers four practical questions and holds no score or ranking. A manager can be given their own team without seeing everybody's sickness record.

30 Nov7 Dec14 Dec21 Dec28 Dec4 Jan

Documents and contracts

Upload a contract, a policy update or a letter to a profile and ask for an acknowledgement. The employee is told, confirms they have read it, and you can see who has and who has not, with a date.

Sam P.Read 9 Nov
Priya R.Read 9 Nov
Alex L.To readRead today
Rob D.To read

Staff surveys

Build a survey from text, multiple choice and rating questions, and send it to everyone or a chosen group. Staff answer from their HR Hero home. Whether answers are anonymous is a rule you set.

How manageable was your workload this month?

Anonymous

Wellbeing hub

Support numbers, a guided breathing exercise and an anonymous speak-up form that reaches a designated contact without naming the sender. Managers and HR see mood trends for the group only, never one person's answers.

Breathe inSpeak up, without your name on it

Support numbersOpen
Speak upNo name sent
Team moodGroup only

Staff driving licences

Staff who drive for work upload their licence so HR can carry out checks. The number is stored encrypted and revealed only on purpose, with the reveal logged. Each endorsement is recorded with the date it comes off the licence.

Licence number••••• •••••• •••••EXAMP 601150 AB9CD

Revealed by Alex L. at 10:02. Logged.

Staff right to work

For your own employees TalentCore records the check itself: date, method, outcome and expiry, with a warning as an expiry comes near. The same discipline the platform applies to agency workers.

Checked: 3 Mar 2026
Method: Online share code
Outcome: Right to work
Permission ends: 2 Mar 2028

Company assets

Phones, laptops and anything else with a tag: who has it, what it cost, when it was issued and what happened to it in the end. It has its own permission, so it can go to whoever looks after kit.

Laptop, tag 0142Priya R.
Phone, tag 0077Sam P.
Laptop, tag 0098Returned

All employees and HR admin

HR sees every employee with department, start date and balance, plus a queue of every pending request. HR admin is its own permission, scoped to the branches a person is assigned to. The list can be exported.

Name	Started	Days left
Sam P.	2021	12
Priya R.	2023	9.5
Alex L.	2020	6

Benefits and perks

Everything the company offers its people, listed in one place for staff to browse. Useful for new starters, and a reminder for everyone else of what you already pay for.

PensionHealth coverCycle schemeEye tests

Why it matters

The rules are the same for everyone.

For recruiters and for leaders

For recruiters

Your own admin, done in a minute.

Book leave and see your balance without asking anybody.
See who is away before you promise a client a call back from a colleague.
Your contract, your policies and your reviews are always where you can find them.

TalentCore for recruiters

For business leaders

Policy you decided, not policy you assumed.

Approval follows the reporting line and every decision is recorded.
Part-time holiday rounded the wrong way is a classic quiet breach. Here it cannot happen.
Delegate HR safely: HR admin is its own permission, scoped by branch.

TalentCore for business leaders

The specifics

The leave rules and the rounding.

8 rules

Each line is how the product behaves today.

23: Named HR rules, each with a UK default, its basis and a confirmed mark.
6: Leave types: annual, sick, compassionate, unpaid, training, other.
5.6weeks: The statutory minimum every entitlement is checked against.
3: Survey question types: text, choice and rating.
Rounded up, never down: Every rounding in an entitlement sum goes in the employee's favour.
Nobody approves their own: Requests go to the line manager, or to the HR admins for that branch.
Reasons stay private: Sick and compassionate reasons are never shown to colleagues or put in emails.
Two views of analytics: Own team, or everyone. Two separate permissions.

How it connects

The same login as the desk.

6 links

Tell us where your holiday spreadsheet lives.

A person who knows recruitment reads every message and replies. We will show you the same team, with the rules written down.

Talk to us info@talentcorecrm.com