You’re thinking of employing someone? Great news! This is a positive sign that your business is thriving.

Taking on employees can be a lucrative move – whether you are hiring for someone’s particular expertise to grow your business, expanding your services, or making use of an extra pair of hands so you can dedicate your precious time to scaling the business.

Employing someone isn’t straightforward (nothing ever is in business, right?) and you’ll need to take on new responsibilities, so we have put together some handy tips to bear in mind when taking this exciting step.

 

1 – Know your facts.

There are numerous responsibilities you will take on when employing someone, so it’s important to have knowledge of employees’ basic statutory rights, employment law, and your PAYE obligations. It might be worth hiring an expert to help you navigate new company policies and contracts to ensure you are compliant as necessary.

 

2 – Get insured.

You’ll need to get Employment Liability Insurance when taking someone on – this is a legal requirement and is there to protect your staff if they get injured or become ill as a result of working for your business. It’s a relatively small monthly cost to ensure you aren’t liable if something goes wrong.

 

3- Be careful not to discriminate.

When recruiting you’ll need to ensure you are not discriminating against anyone in the process. Ensure you have a thorough job advert, which clearly states the skills you require for the job.

Don’t ask questions or make decisions based on a candidate’s ‘protected characteristics’  – which include gender and gender reassignment, race, age, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and marriage, and civil partnership.

 

4- Can you afford it?

There will be costs involved when hiring someone. You’ll need to check:

  • What the National Minimum wage is
  • How much National Insurance you’ll have to pay
  • How much sick pay your employee is entitled to
  • How much you’ll need to pay towards their pension
  • Maternity / Paternity leave costs (this will include direct payments to your employee along with taking on someone to cover their absence, should you need to)

 

5- Register as an Employer.

Once you’ve done all of the above checks and you are prepared to take on an employee, you’ll need to register as an employer with HMRC. You’ll find all of the information you need on the GOV.UK website along with the online forms to submit. Click here for more info.

 

Soldi Partners is able to offer friendly, reliable, and simplified support for your business at all stages.

If you’d like to discuss anything covered in this article, get in touch.