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Fractional HR, Boston, Massachusetts

Fractional HR for Boston small businesses

Bevel HR runs the people function for Boston companies with 10–75 employees, compliance, onboarding, payroll, and employee relations, so founders can get back to the business. Senior HR and people & culture support, starting at $1,800/month.

$1,800/mo
Starting retainer
~25%
Of a full-time HR hire
Days
To start, not months
Who we help in Boston

Boston businesses that need real HR, not another tool.

We work with biotech and life sciences, universities and edtech, healthcare systems, venture-backed startups, and professional services across Greater Boston. If you have 10–75 employees and HR keeps landing on the founder or ops lead, that's exactly who Bevel HR is built for.

01
HR keeps landing on the founder
Boston's biotech and university ecosystems hire dense, credentialed teams fast, and Massachusetts has one of the most employer-unforgiving rulebooks in the country, and every offer letter, complaint, and policy question routes straight to the top. That's founder time you can't get back.
02
Hiring fast with no system
Headcount is climbing faster than your process. Each new hire gets a slightly different, mostly improvised start, and the inconsistency surfaces as early attrition.
03
Massachusetts compliance gaps piling up
Massachusetts runs Paid Family and Medical Leave with employer contributions, has earned sick time, strict independent-contractor classification (the toughest ABC test in the nation), the Wage Act with treble-damages exposure for late or missed pay, and a Pay Transparency law phasing in. For Boston employers, misclassification and Wage Act mistakes are the costliest errors.
04
A full-time hire doesn't pencil out
A full-time manager is a six-figure all-in cost for a job that isn't yet full-time at your headcount. You need the seniority, not the forty hours.

HR compliance in Massachusetts, what Boston employers need to know

Massachusetts runs Paid Family and Medical Leave with employer contributions, has earned sick time, strict independent-contractor classification (the toughest ABC test in the nation), the Wage Act with treble-damages exposure for late or missed pay, and a Pay Transparency law phasing in. For Boston employers, misclassification and Wage Act mistakes are the costliest errors. If you're also hiring remotely across state lines, the complexity compounds fast. We track state-specific requirements for every client so you're never blindsided by a rule you didn't know applied. See our multi-state hiring and HR compliance services.

Fractional HR in Boston

Why Boston businesses bring in fractional HR

In Greater Boston, the employers that come to us tend to share a pattern: boston's biotech and university ecosystems hire dense, credentialed teams fast, and Massachusetts has one of the most employer-unforgiving rulebooks in the country.

Our Boston clients span biotech and life sciences, universities and edtech, healthcare systems, venture-backed startups, and professional services, and the common thread is growth arriving faster than HR infrastructure.

Massachusetts runs Paid Family and Medical Leave with employer contributions, has earned sick time, strict independent-contractor classification (the toughest ABC test in the nation), the Wage Act with treble-damages exposure for late or missed pay, and a Pay Transparency law phasing in. For Boston employers, misclassification and Wage Act mistakes are the costliest errors. That's the kind of exposure we close quietly, before it turns into a claim.

The Boston market

What HR actually looks like in Boston

Boston is biotech, higher education, healthcare, and financial services, stacked densely. The Kendall Square and Seaport clusters hold one of the world's deepest life-sciences economies, the hospital systems are enormous employers, and the universities seed a constant stream of startups that scale quickly and hire technical talent at a premium.

Massachusetts is a strict employment-law state. It has a strong paid family and medical leave program (PFML), earned sick time, a high minimum wage, pay-transparency requirements phasing in, and some of the most employee-protective wage rules in the country, including treble damages for wage violations that make mistakes genuinely expensive.

For a Boston company, the treble-damages exposure alone makes wage-and-hour accuracy non-negotiable, and the biotech hiring pace makes it easy to slip. We keep Massachusetts compliance airtight so a payroll error does not triple. More on compliance.

Fractional HR services & pricing

Senior HR for Boston businesses. A fraction of the cost.

Monthly retainers that flex with your company. Minimum 3-month engagement, cancel anytime after. Fully remote, we can start the same week you sign. Full pricing & comparison →

Foundation
$1,800/mo
6–8 hrs/mo · 1–20 employees

  • Dedicated HR request channel
  • Compliance monitoring & calendar
  • On-call Q&A (up to 2 hrs/mo)
  • New-hire paperwork guidance
  • One policy update per month
  • Monthly People Report
Get started
Embedded
$6,500/mo
22–26 hrs/mo · 40–75 employees

  • Everything in Growth
  • Leadership team attendance
  • People strategy & org design
  • Comp benchmarking
  • Manager coaching
  • HRIS implementation
  • Quarterly board report
  • 4-hr urgent response SLA
Get started
Common questions

Questions from Boston businesses

How much does fractional HR cost for a Boston business?

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Bevel HR retainers start at $1,800/month for Boston businesses with 1–20 employees. Most Boston clients at 15–40 employees land on the Growth package at $3,500/month, roughly 25% of the ~$70,000–$90,000 fully loaded annual cost of a full-time HR manager.

What Massachusetts employment laws do Boston employers need to know?

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Massachusetts is unforgiving: the Wage Act imposes automatic triple damages for late or unpaid wages, the independent-contractor test is the strictest in the US, and PFML plus earned sick time both apply. Boston employers get burned most often on contractor misclassification and Wage Act timing.

Do you work with Boston businesses remotely?

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Absolutely. We serve Boston entirely remotely, which in practice means quicker turnaround than a single in-house generalist who's pulled in ten directions. Everything runs over video, Slack, and shared systems.

How quickly can you start with a Boston business?

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Within days of a signed agreement. Book a free 30-minute HR Assessment this week; if it's a fit, you'll have a proposal within 24 hours. Week one is your HR Audit, we review your current setup and surface what actually matters in Greater Boston.

What size Boston companies do you work with?

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We focus on Boston businesses with 10–75 employees, the stage where HR is too complex to ignore but a full-time hire doesn't pencil out yet. We commonly work with biotech and life sciences, universities and edtech, healthcare systems, venture-backed startups, and professional services.
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Fractional HR in other markets

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Get started in Boston

Ready to get HR off your plate?

Book a free 30-minute HR Assessment. We'll look at your Boston business, find your biggest exposure, and tell you what to prioritize. No pitch, no obligation.