What AdviserPlus does

AdviserPlus Business Solutions Ltd is a UK-based HR technology and advisory services provider founded in 2001 and operating as part of the Empowering People Group. The company's flagship product is empower®, a cloud-based employee relations case management platform built on Microsoft Azure infrastructure with telephony integration via Twilio. empower® delivers guided digital workflows for line managers, real-time HR analytics dashboards, automated case creation (e.g., for short-term absences), and full audit trails, enabling managers to self-serve up to 90% of ER matters. Complementary modules include meeting manager® for streamlining redundancy, TUPE, and organizational change consultations, plus a People Analytics dashboard for trend and risk visibility.

AdviserPlus operates a bundled go-to-market combining SaaS subscription licensing for empower®, an outsourced HR Advice Line staffed by CIPD-qualified advisers, project-based HR consultancy (policy review, redundancy support, DEI, organizational change), and learning and development services. The company serves two primary customer segments: large UK enterprises (500+ employees) under the ERaaS (Employee Relations as a Service) model, and SMEs via sister brand Halborns offering fixed-fee unlimited employment law advice from £205 per month. Enterprise pricing is custom and quote-based, with documented outcomes including up to 50% reduction in employment tribunal claims, up to 65% reduction in ER advisory costs, and 10% reduction in sickness absence rates. Named enterprise customers span retail (Starbucks UK, Currys, Wickes, Sainsbury's, The Body Shop, STARK UK, WHSmith, The Gym Group), utilities (United Utilities), transport (Network Rail), and public sector (Bradford Council, NHS Herts Valley CCG, Maximus).

The company distributes primarily through a direct enterprise field sales motion targeting HR directors and CHROs via consultative discovery, demos, and ROI-led selling, supported by an active content marketing engine (whitepapers, webinars, CIPD Festival of Work presence) and targeted LinkedIn advertising. The group structure includes Halborns (employment law), Working Transitions (outplacement), and Learning Nexus (eLearning), enabling cross-sell of legally privileged advice, career transition, and learning into the core ER proposition. The company employs 251-500 staff including 200+ qualified HR professionals, holds ISO27001:2022 and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications, and won the HR Excellence Awards 2025 Best HR Technology Strategy award alongside STARK UK. Geographic scope is UK-only with no disclosed international expansion or external funding rounds.

Name

AdviserPlus

Legal name

AdviserPlus Business Solutions Ltd

Website

https://adviserplus.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

AdviserPlus is a UK-based HR technology and advisory firm that sells the empower® case management platform alongside outsourced HR advice, consultancy, and employment law services, primarily to large UK enterprises and SMEs via the Halborns brand.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

HR Case Management Software

NAICS

Human Resources Consulting Services (541612)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

HR Policy, Governance, Compliance & Risk Advisory (BPACAJAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Onboarding, Offboarding & Employee Lifecycle Administration (BPACAHAL)

Keywords

• HR case management software
• Employee relations advisory
• Outsourced HR services
• Employment law advice
• HR consultancy

Headquarters

HQ city

Bromborough

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. empower® Software Licensing: SaaS-based case management software with subscription licensing for the empower® platform, providing ER case management, guided workflows, and analytics.
2. HR Advice Line Services: Outsourced HR advisory services with CIPD-qualified experts providing unlimited day-to-day employment law advice, either as standalone service or bundled with technology platform.
3. Halborns SME Employment Law Service: Fixed-fee unlimited employment law advice for SMEs from as little as £205 per month, including access to compliant document platform.
4. HR Consultancy: Project-based and ongoing HR consultancy including policy reviews, redundancy support, DEI consultation, and organizational change management.
5. Learning & Development: eLearning courses and expert coaching services for manager capability building and organizational development.
6. meeting manager®: Technology and support services for consultation meeting management during redundancies, TUPE, and organizational change.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

AdviserPlus provides the empower® employee relations case management software platform—an Azure-hosted SaaS system with guided digital manager journeys, real-time HR analytics, and 24/7 self-service capabilities—paired with outsourced HR advisory services delivered by CIPD-qualified UK-based advisers. Its portfolio extends to HR consultancy (policy reviews, redundancy support, DEI, equal pay risk), meeting manager® consultation technology, learning and development programmes, and, through sister brand Halborns, employment law advice and legally privileged ER legal services for SMEs.

Product overview

AdviserPlus is a UK-based HR case management software provider and advisory services firm operating as part of the Empowering People Group. Its core product is the award-winning empower® employee relations case management system, which combines guided digital manager journeys, real-time analytics dashboards, and full audit trails to enable managers to self-serve up to 90% of ER matters. This platform is complemented by an outsourced HR Advice Line staffed by CIPD-qualified advisers, HR consultancy services, learning & development programmes, and legal services through sister brand Halborns. Supporting modules include meeting manager® for streamlining large-scale consultation processes (redundancies, TUPE, T&C changes, MARS). AdviserPlus collectively brands this integrated approach as Employee Relations as a Service (ERaaS), positioning itself as a single destination for ER technology, advisory expertise, and manager empowerment.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• empower®: Award-winning employee relations case management software platform that enables managers to self-serve up to 90% of ER matters, with guided digital journeys and expert HR backup.
• Halborns
• meeting manager®

Products and services

• empower® Case Management System Award-winning employee relations (ER) case management software that guides line managers through digital journeys, centralises case records, delivers real-time HR analytics dashboards, and enables managers to self-serve up to 90% of ER matters with step-by-step workflow support, built-in prompts, and audit trails. Sells to enterprise HR teams (500+ employees) and integrates with the Advice Line service.
• Outsourced HR Advice Line Outsourced HR advice line staffed by CIPD-qualified UK-based advisers who act as a seamless extension of the client's HR team, providing unlimited day-to-day employment law guidance and coaching managers in real time during case handling. Available standalone or bundled with the empower® platform.
• meeting manager® Proprietary consultation meeting technology that streamlines large-scale consultation processes including redundancies, TUPE transfers, terms and conditions changes, and Mutually Agreed Resignation Schemes (MARS), featuring automated scheduling, built-in meeting scripts, note-taking support, and real-time MI dashboards.
• HR Consultancy Project-based and ongoing HR advisory services covering policy review and harmonisation, HR project support, equality and diversity consultancy, equal pay risk reviews, redundancy support, and organisational change management, delivered by a team of over 200 HR professionals.
• Learning & Development ELearning courses and expert coaching services designed to build manager capability and confidence in handling employee relations matters, delivered face-to-face, remotely, or electronically.
• Halborns SME Employment Law Service Proactive, solutions-focused employment law advice for UK SMEs offering fixed-fee unlimited day-to-day advice, access to a compliant document portal, contract and handbook reviews (the 3Cs: compliance, commerciality, contemporary tone), with subscription pricing from £205 per month. Halborns is part of the Empowering People Group.
• Halborns Legal Services Employment law legal services delivered through sister company Halborns covering ET preparation and representation, settlement agreements, and embedding legal privilege into employee relations processes to reduce organisational risk.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 90% of ER tasks self-served by managers
• +8 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• STARK UKcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSTARK UK partnered with AdviserPlus for ER transformation using the empower® platform and Advice Line Service. The partnership delivered 60% reduction in tribunal claims and 65% decrease in legal costs, winning the Best HR Technology Strategy award at HR Excellence Awards 2025.
• The Body ShopcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Body Shop partnered with AdviserPlus group legal division Halborns for legally privileged ER advisory services. Delivered 49% faster case closure and 45% reduction in ER case volumes in first 12 months.
• Starbucks UKcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStarbucks UK implemented empower® to reduce absence rates by 10% and empower line managers with guided digital journeys for ER matters.
• CurryscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCurrys implemented empower® enabling managers to lead 88% of ER tasks, transforming the HR operating model.
• WickescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWickes partnership delivered 50% reduction in employment tribunal claims through empowered line manager self-service.
• IRIS Software Group LimitedsupportingTechnology or IntegrationIRIS provides recruitment software via the AdviserPlus website, processing job applications as a data processor under data protection laws.
• Honch Data LimitedsupportingTechnology or IntegrationMarketing data supplier providing business contact data for sales and marketing purposes on legitimate interest basis.
• CognismsupportingTechnology or IntegrationMarketing list provider integrated with HubSpot for CRM data filtering, providing business contact data for marketing purposes.
• HubSpotsupportingTechnology or IntegrationMarketing automation and CRM platform used for email marketing, marketing automation, and customer relationship management.
• Google AnalyticssupportingTechnology or IntegrationWebsite traffic monitoring and analytics reporting service for understanding user interaction with AdviserPlus website.
• Twilio IncsupportingTechnology or IntegrationTelephony services provider for HR advice line, with call recordings stored in Microsoft Azure.
• Microsoft AzuresupportingTechnology or IntegrationCloud hosting platform for client data and call recording storage.
• Working Transitions LtdcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGroup company within Empowering People Group providing career transition and outplacement services, used for supporting employees during organizational change.
• Halborns LtdcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGroup company providing specialist employment law services including legally privileged ER advice, ET preparation, and tribunal representation.
• Learning Nexus LtdsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerGroup company providing digital learning solutions and eLearning courses for manager development and organizational training.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Personio: European HRIS for SMB and mid-market companies with HR, payroll and people analytics capabilities, competing for the same UK mid-market digital HR transformation budgets.
• HiBob: Mid-market, modern HRIS platform with growing UK presence and people operations focus, increasingly an alternative to empower® for digital HR transformation projects in mid-market employers.

Direct peers

• Peninsula Group: UK HR, employment law and H&S consultancy primarily serving SMEs. Comparable to AdviserPlus's Halborns SME service, offering fixed-fee employment law advice plus HR software in the same price band.
• IRIS HR: UK HR and payroll software provider already partnered with AdviserPlus for recruitment technology. Directly comparable to empower® as UK HR/payroll software targeting small and mid-market employers.
• Croner (Reabur): Long-established UK employment law, HR and health & safety advisory firm. Closely comparable to AdviserPlus on the HR advice line and compliance advisory side, with similar UK mid-market customer base.
• Access People HR: UK HR and payroll software suite from The Access Group, delivering HRIS functionality with workflow and case management features that overlap empower®'s UK enterprise positioning.
• Citation: UK-based HR, employment law and health & safety advisory firm with strong presence in the SME segment. Highly comparable to the SME/employment law side of AdviserPlus (Halborns) given overlapping customer profile and bundled advisory + tech model.

Regional players

• MHR: UK-focused HR, payroll and people solutions provider with a strong UK customer base, comparable to AdviserPlus on its domestic, UK-enterprise positioning.

Broad incumbents

• Workday: Global cloud HRIS and financial management suite increasingly expanding into HR case management and employee experience, competing with empower® at the enterprise end of the same buyer personas.
• ServiceNow HR Service Delivery: Enterprise service management platform with an HR Service Delivery module providing case management, workflows and knowledge, a broader incumbent competing for the same HR case management RFPs.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/adviserplus
• Xx.com/AdviserPlus_

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A2 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about AdviserPlus