Client-site deployment: HR rules for staff who work at a customer's office

A support engineer from a Pune firm has worked four months inside a manufacturing customer's plant office. The client's security guard has stopped her at the gate twice for a missing pass. Her own manager is two hours away. When a client lead asks her to stay late on Saturday, she is not sure whom to ask.

Client-site work is routine in IT services, and it leaves HR gaps that only show up in small moments like these. This post lists the rules to write down before a person starts at a customer's office.

An employee at a customer's office takes direction from two places. The client lead sets daily priorities and the firm's manager owns pay, leave and performance. Without a written line between them, either side may overstep. The employee ends up with two sets of rules on dress, hours, access and conduct.

A clear policy keeps the client relationship healthy and protects the employee. It also helps the delivery head answer questions the same way across accounts.

• Client lead: daily tasks, priorities, work location within the site, site safety and security rules.
• Firm's manager: leave approval, attendance records, pay, appraisal, discipline and grievances.
• Account head: changes to team size, extra hours and any request outside the contract.
• HR: policy questions, welfare and escalations the manager cannot settle.

Put this in a one-page note and attach it to the joining pack. Share it with the client lead as well, so the same expectations are on both sides.

1. 1

   Working hours and overtime

   State the working hours, the process for extra hours, and who approves them. Make clear that a client lead's verbal request is not approval until the firm's manager confirms.

2. 2

   Leave and holidays

   Say whose holiday list applies, how leave is requested, and how to handle clashes between the client's shutdown days and the firm's list.

3. 3

   Access and equipment

   List badges, laptops, VPN and shared drives, who issues them and who takes them back. Add the steps if a device is lost.

4. 4

   Conduct at the client site

   Clients often have their own codes on behaviour, dress and data. The employee follows the stricter one, and the firm's manager is told of any breach.

5. 5

   Confidentiality and data

   Spell out what may be copied, where it may be stored, and what may not leave the site. Repeat it in the joining pack for each account.

6. 6

   Safety and incident reporting

   Give a phone number for the firm's manager and HR, and ask staff to report accidents, harassment or pressure straight away, however small.

7. 7

   Welfare checks

   Hold a monthly call with each person at a client site, separate from project status.

Some customers ask for staff to be removed, replaced or kept for a minimum period. Others restrict hiring of the firm's people. Have the delivery head and HR read the commercial terms together, and note anything that affects the person: replacement rights, background checks the client runs, restrictions on moving staff. If the contract and the people policy disagree, the employee pays the price.

Employee, client, site address and start date.
Reporting line at the client and at the firm.
Working hours and who approves a change.
Leave process and which holiday list applies.
Access items issued, date of issue and return.
Client rules the employee must follow, attached.
Data and confidentiality rules for this account.
Contacts for the firm's manager, HR and the account head.
Date of first monthly check-in call.

Two people of the same grade may sit at different client sites, one near home and one in another city. Decide how the firm treats travel, accommodation and local costs, and write the principle down. The amounts are a company decision based on location, client terms and what the business can carry. When two accounts are treated differently without a reason anyone can state, the story spreads through the team chat in a day.

Also decide what happens when a client site closes or the project ends early. Staff should know whether they return to the office, move to another account or join a bench, and who tells them. A person who hears about the end of an assignment from the client first will question the firm's care for them.

Visit the site in the first fortnight. Meet the client lead, see the desk, and ask the employee what is unclear. Check how lunch, transport and facilities work. Small problems like a missing parking pass can erode a person's trust in the firm faster than a delayed hike.

Collect client feedback in writing every month, even a few lines. This gives you evidence at appraisal time and reduces the chance that the review rests on a single phone call.

Custom software firms often send small teams of developers and testers. These teams need rules on pairing with the client's staff, using the client's tools, and sharing code. The custom software companies page describes common patterns, including how teams are structured and how knowledge moves between client and vendor.

Write the rules into your HR policies and governance set so that each new account starts from the same page. When someone leaves a client site, the notice period and knowledge transfer approach helps protect the account.