🎯 FREE FOR FOUNDERS WITH 1–50 EMPLOYEES

Startup HR Compliance Roadmap — Built for Your Startup in 10 Minutes

Answer 15 questions about your startup. Get a personalized compliance plan with quarterly action items, risk alerts, and exact deadlines — tailored to your province and headcount.

350+
Founders Served
10 min
To Complete
4.8/5
Avg. Rating
12 mo
Coverage

✓ Instant PDF delivery · ✓ Tailored to your province · ✓ No credit card required

Used by 350+ startup founders across Canada to build their first HR infrastructure

THE PROBLEM

One Missed Deadline Can Cost More Than Your Last Funding Round

Employment laws are a minefield. Most founders don't realize they're violating them until it's too late.

💸

Tax Audits Are Brutal

Misclassifying even one contractor? The IRS can hold you personally liable — back taxes, penalties, and interest going back 3+ years.

Avg. penalty: $15K-$50K
⚖️

State/Regional Compliance Varies

California has different requirements than Texas. One generic employee handbook could expose you to wrongful dismissal claims.

Settlement: $10K-$30K per case

Reactive HR Is Expensive

Waiting until you need an HR system means scrambling during growth. Bad hires, no documentation, messy terminations.

Cost of bad hire: 2-3x salary
🤯

Generic Advice Doesn't Work

You've read 10 blog posts that all say different things. Your lawyer charges $400/hr. You need a plan built for your state, headcount, and stage.

Legal consultation: $400-$600/hr
HOW IT WORKS

Three Steps. Ten Minutes. Done.

No signup required. No sales call. Just answer a few questions and get your plan.

1

Answer 15 Questions

About your startup, headcount, province, hiring plans, and current HR setup. Takes about 5 minutes.

2

Get Your Custom Roadmap

Delivered as an instant PDF with quarterly action items, compliance alerts, risk levels, and owner assignments.

3

Follow the Plan

Check items off as you grow. Know exactly what to tackle each quarter — no more guessing, no more scrambling.

SEE WHAT YOU GET

Here's a Real Q1 Plan for a 5-Person SaaS Startup

Actual action items from a Q1 roadmap for a 5-person SaaS startup

Q1 2026 Priorities - TechCo (5 employees)
SAMPLE

Register for Workers' Compensation Insurance

⏱️ 2 hours👤 CEO🚨 COMPLIANCE

Most states require workers' comp insurance within days of hiring your first employee. Failure to register = fines of $1,000+/day. Complete online with your business registration and payroll info.

Draft Employment Contracts with Legal Compliance

⏱️ 4 hours👤 External lawyer⚖️ LEGAL RISK: HIGH

Generic contracts from the internet often contain illegal termination clauses. One bad clause = entire contract void = expensive wrongful dismissal. Get region-specific templates reviewed by employment counsel.

Implement Time Tracking System

⏱️ 3 hours👤 CEO📋 BEST PRACTICE

You legally must track hours for non-exempt employees under FLSA (and state laws). Even if everyone's salaried, tracking protects you in disputes. Free tools: Clockify, Toggl. Document overtime policies now.

Create Workplace Health & Safety Policy

⏱️ 2 hours👤 CEO🚨 COMPLIANCE

Required under OSHA and state laws for most businesses. Must be in writing, signed by employees. Covers workplace violence, harassment, and emergency procedures. Template available in your full roadmap.

Review Contractor vs. Employee Classifications

⏱️ 1 hour👤 CEO + Accountant⚖️ LEGAL RISK: CRITICAL

The IRS uses a multi-factor test. If you control how/when they work and provide tools, they're employees. Misclassification = back taxes + penalties for ALL past payments. Audit yourself now.

Set Up Employee Onboarding Checklist

⏱️ 3 hours👤 CEO📋 BEST PRACTICE

Standardize your onboarding process to ensure consistent experience and legal compliance across all new hires...

Establish Anti-Harassment Policy & Training

⏱️ 4 hours👤 External lawyer🚨 COMPLIANCE

Required in many states once you reach specific headcount thresholds. Document policy and conduct training...

+ 18 more action items in your full roadmap...
FOUNDER STORIES

What Founders Say After Getting Their Roadmap

We were treating our first 3 hires as contractors. This roadmap flagged the IRS risk immediately and gave us step-by-step instructions to fix it before we got audited. Probably saved us $30K in penalties.

SM
Sarah Mitchell
Co-founder, FitStack

I was Googling 'when do I need an employee handbook' at 11pm before our 6th hire started. This roadmap told me exactly what I needed, when I needed it, and what could wait. Actually actionable.

JC
James Chen
Founder, DataFlow Analytics

We had zero HR infrastructure at 12 people. This roadmap gave us a 6-month catch-up plan with priorities ranked by legal risk. Knocked out the critical stuff in a month. No more winging it.

AK
Amanda Kim
Founder, HealthTech Labs
THE DIFFERENCE

Before vs. After Your Roadmap

❌ Winging It

  • ×Spending $400/hr asking lawyers basic questions about when to do things
  • ×One audit away from a $15K IRS penalty for contractor misclassification
  • ×Using generic employment contracts that violate state laws in your jurisdiction
  • ×No documentation = $25K settlement the first time you need to let someone go
  • ×Reactive scrambling every time you hit a new headcount milestone

✓ With Your Roadmap

  • Milestone-based checklist: "At 5 employees, do X. At 10, do Y. At 25, do Z."
  • State/region-specific compliance alerts so you don't get blindsided by local rules
  • Know exactly when you need a lawyer vs. when you can DIY with templates
  • Document everything properly from Day 1 so terminations are clean
  • Proactive HR that scales with you instead of catching up later
WHAT'S INCLUDED

Everything In Your Roadmap

📋

Quarterly Action Items

15–25 prioritized tasks per quarter. You'll know exactly what to tackle this month — and what can wait.

🚨

Compliance Alerts

State/region-specific deadlines for workers' comp, employment standards, privacy laws, and wage & hour requirements

👥

Owner Assignments

Every task has a name on it. Know what you handle, what your ops person handles, and where you actually need a lawyer.

⏱️

Time Estimates

Hours per task so you can actually plan your quarter and budget time

⚖️

Risk Assessment

Legal risk level (High/Medium/Low) + financial impact of non-compliance

📊

Executive Summary

A one-page brief you can hand to your co-founder, board, or first HR hire so everyone's aligned.

QUESTIONS

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, the roadmap is completely free — no credit card, no trial, no hidden upsell wall. We built this to help founders get the basics right. Down the road, we offer premium tools for founders who want ongoing HR support, but the roadmap itself is yours to keep forever.

Very. Your roadmap is generated based on your province, headcount, industry, hiring plans, and current HR setup. A 5-person SaaS startup in Ontario gets a completely different plan than a 20-person e-commerce company in British Columbia. This isn't a generic template — it's built from your specific answers.

For early-stage startups (under ~25 employees), yes — this roadmap can serve as your HR playbook. It tells you exactly what you can handle yourself, what needs a template, and where you genuinely need a lawyer or HR consultant. Most founders find they can DIY 70-80% of early HR with this plan.

Roadmaps are customized to your province-specific compliance requirements, headcount, and startup stage. If you're outside Canada, the roadmap still provides a useful HR framework, but legal alerts may not be jurisdiction-specific.

HR Roadmap was built by a team of startup operators and employment law researchers who've been through the same compliance headaches. The content is reviewed by licensed HR professionals. That said, this is educational guidance — not legal advice. For complex situations, we'll tell you exactly when to loop in a lawyer.

Your Roadmap Is 10 Minutes Away

Answer a few questions about your startup. Get a custom 12-month compliance plan — free, instant, and built for your state.

Build My Roadmap Now →

🔒 No credit card required · Instant PDF delivery · Tailored to your state