Aut viam inveniam aut faciam I shall find a way, or make one
A way through the process, even when it feels stacked against you.
Practical, experienced support for people facing disciplinary action or needing to raise a grievance. Someone in your corner who knows how these processes actually run and how to structure your case properly.
The route through a case
Every disciplinary or grievance case moves through the same rough waypoints. Knowing what's coming next is half the battle.
Notice received
Understanding exactly what you've been told, what it means, and what the clock is now doing.
Making sense of the case against you
Reading the allegation or complaint properly and working out what actually needs answering.
Structuring your response
Turning your account into something clear, ordered, and hard to pick apart.
Preparing for the hearing
Knowing what to expect in the room, what to say, and what to leave out.
After the outcome
Working out what the decision means and whether there's an appeal worth making.
Support built around where you are in the process.
Each of these can stand alone or run together as a case moves forward. Support is practical and case-specific, not generic template advice.
Disciplinary support
Help understanding an allegation, preparing your account, and working through the process from notice to outcome.
Grievance structuring
Turning a list of frustrations into a grievance that's clear, evidenced, and takes the right form for your organisation.
Case preparation & documentation
Building a paper trail, organising evidence, and drafting the correspondence a case depends on.
Hearing preparation
Thorough briefing on what to expect, how hearings run, and how to handle yourself in the room. I'll attend in person where an employer's policy allows it; where it doesn't, preparation beforehand is where the real difference gets made.
Correspondence review
A second pair of experienced eyes on letters, statements, and responses before they go anywhere.
Appeals
Working out whether an outcome is worth appealing, then building the strongest possible case for it if so.
A common question
"Why not just use ACAS?"
A fair question. ACAS is a genuinely good, free service. It's worth being clear though about what it actually gives you and what it doesn't.
ACAS gives you
- Advice based on whatever you happen to tell them
- General rules: what an employer should or shouldn't do
- The same guidance you could find on their website yourself
- No one asking follow-up questions or drawing out details you didn't think to mention
ViamHR gives you
- Someone asking the questions that pull the full picture out of you
- That guidance applied specifically to your case, not generic rules
- Structure: a proper paper trail, a properly built response
- Someone making sure every base is actually covered before it matters
ACAS tells you what the rules say. This is about making sure your specific case is actually built properly around them.
Another common question
"I've got a union rep, why would I need this?"
Be in a union. Everyone should be. A workplace with strong union membership is a safer, fairer workplace for everyone in it. That's not a caveat: it's the starting point.
This isn't positioned against that. It isn't for people whose rep already has the time and experience to build their case properly either, if that's you, you're in good hands already. It's for the gap that sometimes exists alongside good union representation: reps carrying a lot of cases at once, or a situation where having someone with no other stake in the workplace look at things fresh is genuinely useful. Having sat on the union side of that table for years myself, I've seen how often even a strong rep still benefits from another set of eyes on a case, not instead of the union, alongside it.
Your union rep is often exactly what you need
- Representation and negotiation rights the union provides directly
- Deep knowledge of your specific workplace and its history
- Collective backing, part of what union membership is for
Where a second set of eyes can still help
- Extra capacity when a rep is stretched across many cases
- A fresh, impartial read with no other workplace relationships to weigh up
- Time spent purely on structuring your case properly
- Support that sits alongside your union rep, not in place of them
Pricing
Clear, fixed fees, paid upfront.
No hourly rate, no running total, no surprise invoice. Each package has a fixed price agreed before anything starts, and work begins once payment is received.
Tier 1
Case Review & Structuring
£300
- Full review of your situation and any documents received
- Your written response or grievance structured properly
- One round of feedback on a draft
Tier 2
Full Case Support
£700
- Everything in Case Review & Structuring
- Ongoing correspondence review as the case develops
- Hearing preparation: what to expect and how to present yourself
- Support available at each stage through to the hearing
Tier 3
Complete Support Through to Outcome
£1,100
- Everything in Full Case Support
- Help interpreting the outcome once it's issued
- A full appeal built and structured, if one's worth pursuing
Changing your mind
What happens if your case grows.
Cases don't always turn out how you expect them to at the start, so it's entirely possible to begin with Case Review & Structuring and later decide you need Full Case Support, or beyond. Because a good amount of groundwork carries over, you won't pay full price twice. When you move up a tier, you'll receive credit for 50% of what you've already paid towards the next package. This isn't a discount for indecision: moving up a tier later will always cost a little more in total than choosing the fuller package from the outset, but it means you're never penalised heavily for a case that simply grew, and the work already done isn't wasted.
Pricing for employers is scoped individually depending on what's needed, get in touch for a quote.
For Employers
Practical, proportionate and affordable HR support for small employers.
For businesses with fewer than 20 employees who don't need, or can't yet justify, a full-time HR department.
The problem this solves
When you're the owner, you're often the HR department too.
In a small business, difficult conversations get harder precisely because everyone knows each other. Managing a disciplinary, a grievance, or a performance issue with someone you see every day, whose family you know, is a genuinely different proposition to doing it in a large organisation with proper distance built in.
An independent external adviser brings the objectivity, consistency, and experience that's hard to manufacture from inside a small team. The aim is to protect both sides: a fair, well-documented process protects the employee, and it protects you as the employer too, whatever the outcome turns out to be.
What's covered
Support across the situations that actually come up.
Policy development & review
A complete suite of HR policies built from professionally developed templates, then tailored to your business, your management structure, and how you actually work.
Disciplinary & grievance handling
Guidance through the process from notice to outcome, with the paperwork built properly at every stage.
Workplace investigations
Structured, impartial investigations, properly documented, so any decision that follows is on solid ground.
Absence management
A clear, consistent approach to managing absence fairly, including the difficult long-term cases.
Capability & performance management
A proper process for addressing underperformance, giving people a genuine chance to improve while protecting the business.
Letters & documentation
Drafting and reviewing letters, procedures, investigation reports, meeting notes, and outcome letters, so every stage is properly recorded.
Why outsource this
Support only when you actually need it.
Many small employers only need HR support when something's gone wrong. Outsourcing that support as and when it's needed is often far more cost-effective than employing a full-time HR manager for problems that might only come up a handful of times a year.
The aim isn't unnecessary bureaucracy. It's policies and processes that are practical, proportionate, and actually usable.
What this is and isn't
- Practical HR consultancy and procedural support
- Not legal advice or a reserved legal service
- Policies built from professional templates, tailored to your business
- Independent of any single side, aimed at a fair process for everyone
About
Decades spent on the other side of the table from where you're sitting now.
ViamHR grew out of years spent representing people through exactly this kind of process: disciplinaries, grievances, hearings, appeals. Not from a textbook. From sitting alongside people while it was actually happening to them.
Most people only face a process like this once or twice in their working life. I've seen hundreds of them.
That experience is what's on offer here: practical, grounded, and focused entirely on getting your case into the best possible shape.
What this is and isn't
- Experienced, practical case support, not formal legal advice
- Not a solicitor or regulated legal service
- Not currently a CIPD-qualified HR consultant
- Independent of your employer, working for you
FAQ
Questions people usually have before getting in touch.
If something's not covered here, it's still worth asking, every situation is a little different.
Can you come into the hearing with me?
Only if your employer's own policy allows it. The legal right to be accompanied only covers a fellow worker or certified union rep, not external advisors. Where I can't be in the room, the preparation beforehand is where the work happens.
Is this legal advice?
No. It's experienced, practical support, not a substitute for a solicitor or your union where one's available.
How is this different from ACAS?
ACAS gives general guidance based on what you tell them. This is that guidance applied specifically to your case, with someone drawing out the details that matter.
I've already got a union rep, do I still need this?
Not instead of them. Sometimes alongside them, for extra capacity or a fresh, impartial read.
Is everything confidential?
Yes, every enquiry remains confidential, whether or not it goes any further.
How quickly can you help and what happens next?
Enquiries are answered within one working day. From there, I'll get a sense of where you are in the process and set out what support looks like before anything starts.
Can you help if I'm already partway through a process?
Yes, you can bring me in at any stage, notice, hearing prep, or after an outcome.
Do you only work with people locally?
No, support works over email, phone, and video, wherever you are.
How does payment work?
Payment is upfront and not invoiced afterwards. Work begins once payment is received.
Why not just use ChatGPT or another AI tool?
AI can explain general rules but it doesn't know your specific situation. It doesn't ask the follow-up questions that pull out what actually matters and it can get things confidently wrong with no accountability. This is a confidential conversation with someone who's actually sat through hundreds of these cases, not a generic answer to whatever you happen to type in.
Contact
Tell me where you are in the process.
A short outline of your situation is enough to start with. Everything you share is treated in confidence.