Shapes vs. Breathe

Shapes is an all-encompassing HR platform that integrates every facet of employee management into one streamlined system, enabling AI agents to efficiently manage administrative duties while allowing teams to craft personalized tools through straightforward descriptions. By unifying all employee data, Shapes facilitates the creation of dashboards, visualizations, trackers, simulators, and workflows in plain language, which can be shared across the entire organization. The AI agents not only aid users but also oversee entire processes such as onboarding, reporting, employee support, offboarding, and leave management, utilizing contextual company insights to pinpoint areas needing improvement. Beyond these capabilities, the platform includes features like a people directory, time-off management, attendance tracking, surveys, document management with e-signatures, performance assessments, growth tracking, workflows, and people analytics. Teams can design policies, automate payroll based on hours worked, archive handbooks and procedures, collect signatures, track goals, assess performance, and convert employee information into actionable AI-driven insights. Moreover, Shapes enhances HR functionalities, fostering improved collaboration and operational efficiency throughout all departments within an organization, ultimately leading to a more engaged workforce. Additionally, the platform's user-friendly interface ensures that even non-technical team members can navigate and utilize its features effectively.

If your employee details are spread across spreadsheets, emails and disconnected apps, Breathe brings them together. It's a UK HR platform launched in 2012 for small and medium-sized businesses. More than 17,000 of them use it, along with over 1,000 UK HR consultancies. Three everyday HR problems Breathe fixes Information everywhere: one central, accurate record for every employee. Endless chasing: staff book leave, sign documents electronically and follow shared workflows. A small HR team: start with the essentials and add more as you grow. The essentials: Core HR Store records and documents securely, manage holiday and leave, track sickness and absence, and let staff update their own details. Collect e-signatures, set goals, run one-to-ones and reviews, and spot trends with built-in reports. Optional extras Rota, Time and Attendance: plan shifts and track hours Expenses: claims, receipts and manager sign-off Recruitment: advertise roles and follow each candidate Health and Safety: risk assessments, incidents and compliance evidence e-Learning: assign UK-specific courses and see who's completed what Breathe is also building an AI Assistant to answer HR and policy questions, and plans to launch payroll in late 2026. Who gets the most from it UK organisations with up to 200 people, particularly charities, schools, healthcare, retail, start-ups and professional services firms with lean HR. If you need multinational payroll, global compliance or enterprise workforce planning, weigh it up first. Pricing, support and security Plans start from £24 a month for your whole organisation, with no long-term contracts or hidden fees. Try it free for 14 days, with UK-based support from setup onwards. Breathe holds ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 accreditation and keeps your data in UK data centres, protected by encryption and access controls.