The first HR policies for a 10 to 50 person agency or studio

A creative studio grows from eight people to twenty-two in a year. The founder is still the one who says yes to a Saturday shoot, a late revision and a friend who wants to work from home for a month. Then a designer asks if her weekend work earns a day off, and nobody can say. There is no wrong answer yet because there is no written one.

This post lists the first policies a small agency or studio needs, the order to write them in, and what each one should settle. It is meant to be used this week, not filed away.

Agency work runs on client deadlines. Pitches land on Fridays, campaigns launch on holidays, and a client call can move a whole day. Without written rules, every exception becomes a favour, and favours are remembered. People compare notes in the team chat. A short, fair set of policies replaces those comparisons with a page everybody can point to.

The marketing, advertising and creative agencies page describes how these teams are usually structured. The policies below suit that structure.

1. 1

   Working hours and weekly off

   State the normal day, the weekly off and how late client work is requested and approved. Name who can ask for extra hours.

2. 2

   Leave and holidays

   List the leave types, how to apply, who approves and how clashes with client deadlines are resolved. Say what happens to unused leave.

3. 3

   Extra work and compensatory time

   Say how weekend or night work is recorded and whether it earns time off, pay or neither. Pick one rule and apply it to everyone.

4. 4

   Remote and hybrid work

   Say which roles can work away from the studio, which days need presence, and how people stay reachable during client hours.

5. 5

   Conduct and client confidentiality

   Cover respectful behaviour, use of client files, social media posts about client work and what happens to files when someone leaves.

6. 6

   Raising a concern

   Name two people a staff member can approach, how the concern is recorded and what the person who raised it can expect to hear back.

Of all six, the extra-work rule causes the most quiet resentment. A designer who delivered a pitch deck over a weekend and a copywriter who left at six both think the other is treated better. Decide the rule once. Some studios give a day off in lieu, some pay for approved extra hours, some build slack into the following week. Each is workable if it is written and applied evenly.

Keep a simple log with date, person, hours, approver and client. It also shows you which clients repeatedly cause late work, which is useful in a pricing conversation. For tracking effort against client work, see utilisation and billable hours in a digital agency.

• Use short sentences and the words your team actually says.
• Give one worked example for each rule, such as a weekend launch.
• Put the owner of each policy at the top, so people know whom to ask.
• Keep the whole set short enough to read in one sitting.

Many studios use freelance designers and writers beside employees. Do not hand them the staff policy. Their terms belong in a written agreement covering scope, ownership of work, confidentiality, payment timing and what happens if the project stops. Discuss that agreement with your own adviser. Keep a separate one-page working guide for freelancers on file naming, review rounds and who approves what.

Title and effective date.
Who this applies to.
Why this policy exists, in two sentences.
The rule, in plain words.
One worked example.
Who approves exceptions.
Where to record the request.
Who owns this page and when it is next reviewed.

Each policy needs a place where requests and approvals are kept. A shared sheet for leave and extra work is enough at this size. Give each row a date, a name, an approver and a status. When a dispute comes up months later, the sheet answers it in a minute. Choose one place and tell the team that anything outside it does not count. Review the sheet monthly for patterns such as one person always covering late work.

Share a draft with two or three team members before the full launch. Ask which line they would argue with. Fix the unclear lines, then walk the whole team through the pages in a thirty-minute call. Have each person confirm in writing that they have read it. Store the signed copies in one folder.

Review the set after six months. By then, you will know which rules people ignore, which caused arguments and which need an example. Performance reviews and incentives come next, once the basics hold. See performance reviews for writers, designers and editors and incentives for agency account managers.

If you would rather start from a tested structure, the HR policy packages give you drafts built for small teams, which you then adapt to your studio and review with your adviser.