Business & Technology
Employment Hero launches HeroForce UK employment model
Employment Hero has launched HeroForce in the UK, a managed employment model for small and medium-sized businesses.
HeroForce lets businesses hire and manage staff while Employment Hero acts as the legal employer. The client business retains operational control over who is hired, how work is carried out and how long the engagement lasts, while Employment Hero handles payroll, tax and compliance.
The launch brings a model more commonly used for overseas hiring into domestic UK employment. HeroForce is positioned as an evolution of the Employer of Record structure, which businesses use to employ staff in foreign markets without setting up local entities.
In the UK, Employment Hero manages PAYE, National Insurance contributions, pension auto-enrolment and statutory payments including holiday pay, Statutory Sick Pay, and Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay. Workers employed through the arrangement keep their employment contracts and statutory protections under UK law.
Cost pressure
The launch comes as smaller employers assess the impact of changing employment rules and rising administrative costs. Employment Hero cited commissioned research showing that one in five SMEs planned to increase their use of contractors or temporary staff in response to the Employment Rights Act, while others had become more cautious about hiring.
The same research pointed to a broader burden on smaller firms, citing estimates that regulatory compliance costs SMEs £36 billion a year and accounts for 379 million working hours. That backdrop underpins the company’s pitch for a model that shifts formal employment obligations away from the client business.
AI layer
HeroForce uses Employment Hero’s in-house Hero AI system to automate compliance checks, payroll calculations and administrative tasks across the employment cycle. It also includes AI-assisted candidate matching and screening tools designed to help managers rank applicants against set criteria.
The service therefore covers both recruitment and ongoing employment administration. For customers, the proposition is not only about hiring workers but also about managing the legal and payroll framework once those workers are in place.
Employment Hero already provides HR, payroll and recruitment software, and says it serves more than 350,000 businesses and manages more than 2.5 million employees worldwide. HeroForce is available in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Kevin Fitzgerald, UK Managing Director, Employment Hero, said: “Employment is one of the world’s oldest and most common legal contracts used by businesses. We all depend on it, yet the infrastructure behind it remains highly manual and fragmented. The EOR model transformed international hiring by simplifying complexity.”
“HeroForce helps bring that same clarity to UK employment,” said Fitzgerald.
“Today, compliance and cost risks, especially in light of the Employment Rights Act, are the number one concern for SMEs,” added Fitzgerald. “Many are so worried about getting it wrong that they’re resorting to workarounds or avoiding traditional employment altogether. HeroForce is built to help restore confidence and backed by Employment Hero’s team of experts in payroll and employment law, so SMEs never have to navigate employment alone.”
Market shift
The launch reflects a broader shift in how employment services firms are trying to support smaller businesses facing tighter labour regulation and higher administrative costs. Software suppliers and outsourcing groups are increasingly moving beyond HR systems alone towards models that take on more direct responsibility for compliance and payroll execution.
For UK employers, one attraction of these arrangements is the transfer of legal and administrative risk. Businesses can still direct day-to-day work and staffing decisions, but the formal employer assumes responsibility for statutory processes and documentation.
That distinction may matter most for smaller firms without in-house HR or employment law teams. It also creates a different competitive position for providers such as Employment Hero, which is seeking to combine software, automation and direct employment administration in a single offering.
According to the company, HeroForce operates as an employment business under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. Workers engaged through the model are entitled to key information documents and retain protections covering paid holiday, pension entitlements, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal.
Employment Hero says the system behind HeroForce has been built on 12 years of regulatory integrations, payroll infrastructure and employment law expertise. Its argument is that while the technology layer can reduce manual work, the core of the UK offering is the transfer of employer obligations from the SME to Employment Hero itself.
The Blewbury Bread Co was launched to immediate success six years ago from the garage of its founder, Jack O’Nolan, where every loaf and treat has been baked since then.
Since then, the bakers have expanded to stock the Bread Shed at Savages Garden Centre in Blewbury, Root One Garden Centre near Didcot Mr & Mrs Park’s Butchers in Cholsey and Brightwell Village Stores.
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They’re now preparing for their biggest expansion yet, into their very own bakery and shop in St Peter’s Place, Wallingford.
With their final bake in Blewbury finished off on Saturday, April 18, the new opening is imminent.
A statement from head baker said: “I can’t lie, it was a bit of a moment – almost bang on six years to the day when we started, the first loaf being baked in our domestic ovens in April 2020.
“It was sadly time to say goodbye to the garage bakery, as we look to move forward onto our next step, on St. Peter’s Street in Wallingford.
“While the baking is moving to our new premises, I want to reassure you that will keep our site at Savages Blewbury going.
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“We couldn’t have made it this far without the support of our Blewbury customers, and we’d very much like to continue to serve you from the village it all started in.
“This journey has also certainly been a team effort, with a lot of support from family and friends, helping with baking, shaping, market stalls and all the team we’ve had over the last few years.
“We look forward to seeing you all very soon in Wallingford, and to continue to serve you in Blewbury too.”
The Wallingford premises will now become the independent business’ only baking space, and will offer loaves, pastries, savouries, sweet treats and more over the counter, too.
A proposal to refit and refurbish the ground floor retail unit, on the corner with Wood Street, was submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council in March.
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New signage and branding has now gone up at the shop with a teaser that it is ‘opening soon’.
Mr O’Nolan added that the first-ever brick and mortar site has come at the right time for the business, from its humble beginnings delivering loaves during the pandemic, selling flour for charity and hosting pop ups at pubs and garden centres.
No official opening date has yet been announced but customers are advised to ‘watch this space’.
Rumours have been swirling over where popular artisan coffee and bakery chain Gail’s will be opening its newest site in Banbury.
They began after job postings for roles at the new cafe indicated it would be coming to the Oxfordshire town, though the location of the workplace was not specified.
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Now, a building control application for works to refit the new site lodged with Cherwell District Council have revealed more details.
Gail’s Ltd applied to fit out unit 17 of Banbury Gateway, in Acorn Way, Banbury, to form a ‘Gail’s Bakery Coffee Shop’, according to the application.
It will take the place of the Starbucks which previously occupied the unit, but closed last October after a decade of trading from the retail park.
Situated between The Works and McDonalds, the shop opened in October 2015.
Starbucks declined to give a reason for the closure but said they ‘regularly review’ their stores for their market relevance.
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The initial notice for the Gail’s Bakery building works was accepted by the council and they were set to begin on Wednesday, April 22.
No opening date for the new cafe has been announced so far.
Gail’s Bakery was approached but declined to comment on the new opening.
Fluke has published research showing that data centre professionals have low confidence in the accuracy of infrastructure testing data. The findings also highlight widespread concern over whether the UK can support its AI ambitions.
The survey of more than 150 data centre professionals found that only 22% fully trust their test and measurement data to reflect real-world operating conditions. Confidence fell to 19% when respondents were asked about peak load or failure scenarios.
That lack of confidence appears to be affecting day-to-day operations. Half of respondents said they experience unplanned outages or major performance disruptions at least once a year, while 10% reported monthly incidents and 8% said disruptions occur weekly.
Legacy equipment was a recurring concern. Nearly two-thirds of respondents, or 65%, said outdated testing tools increase the risk of downtime and compliance failures within their organisations.
Monitoring Gaps
The research also pointed to weak visibility across core systems. While respondents broadly agreed that regular maintenance is important for reducing downtime, only 28% said they have real-time or predictive monitoring across critical infrastructure such as power, cooling and networks.
One in five said maintenance is carried out no more than quarterly. Adoption of automation, AI diagnostics and predictive monitoring also remains limited, with only 10% saying those systems have been fully implemented. A further 22% said such tools were in pilot programmes, while 19% described deployments as being at an early stage.
Skills shortages emerged as the main reason for poor confidence in infrastructure data. Some 43% of respondents cited skills and training gaps as the biggest barrier, ahead of time pressures during commissioning at 16%, inconsistent testing processes at 11% and budget constraints at 10%.
The findings suggest operators are being squeezed between rising demand and operational discipline. Forty-two per cent of respondents said time pressure creates occasional compliance risks, while 17% said it makes it significantly harder to meet changing connector and certification requirements.
AI Pressure
The results come as AI-related demand adds to existing strain on data centre infrastructure. Operators are being asked to expand capacity while maintaining uptime, testing discipline and regulatory compliance.
Against that backdrop, only half of respondents said the UK data centre sector is operationally ready to scale for AI, cloud and hyperscale demand over the next five years. Just 7% said the UK currently has the infrastructure resilience and operational standards needed to support its stated ambition of becoming an AI leader, while 28% pointed to significant infrastructure gaps.
The headline figure in the wider survey was even starker: 93% of professionals believe the UK lacks the necessary infrastructure to support those ambitions.
The responses reflect a sector facing both physical and organisational constraints. Demand for denser computing environments, more complex fibre networks and tighter performance requirements is increasing, but many operators still appear to rely on older testing and maintenance methods.
Mike Slevin, Director of EMEA Market at Fluke, said the issue is not a lack of understanding about the need for better processes.
“What’s striking here is that organisations already know what needs to be done. There’s broad recognition that regular maintenance and better monitoring are critical to reducing downtime, yet in practice, adoption is lagging,” he said. “That gap between awareness and action is where risk builds. When testing isn’t consistent and monitoring isn’t real-time, small issues can quickly escalate into outages.”
The survey was conducted among global data centre professionals at Data Centre World London. It asked 11 questions on infrastructure confidence, data accuracy under real-world conditions, operational risk, and testing, monitoring and maintenance practices.
Slevin said the technical demands created by AI workloads are narrowing the margin for error in data centre operations.
“AI is redefining the demands placed on data centre infrastructure. With higher-density architecture and increasingly complex fibre environments, multi-fibre testing has become paramount as the margin for error narrows,” he said. “If organisations can’t confidently validate performance under real-world conditions, they risk building AI on unstable foundations. The challenge now is ensuring that capacity is resilient and ready for sustained demand.”
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