Taking on your first employee
Posted on 26th November 2018
As a business grows so do the demands on the owner. For some this will lead to making the decision to hire their first employee. But finding the right person is only the start of the process. Before taking on your first employee take a look below at the additional requirements that you take on when employing people.
Employment checks
You have a legal responsibility to check that the employee has the right to work. This could be as simple as checking a passport or as complicated as checking the right to work for an overseas worker.
Payroll
The new employee will want to get paid (and not paying less than the minimum wage is definitely not an option!) so you will need some form of payroll.
This will require registering for PAYE with HMRC and then processing the payroll every time you pay someone.
Running a payroll involves calculating the Tax and National Insurance, calculating what is left to pay the employee, issuing payslips to show these calculations and submitting returns to HMRC with these calculations.
Pension
If you staff meet certain criteria then they may also need to be enrolled for a workplace pension (known as Auto-enrolment). This is a legal requirement and not only involves administering your employees’ pension enrolment and deductions but also is a cost to you as you contribute to their pension as well.
Insurance
Once you have an employee you also have to have Employers Liability Insurance. This protects you should the worst happen and your employee has an accident or falls ill as a result of their work activities. This is a legal requirement and failure to comply can result in large fines.
Legal
Having an employee brings with it a lot of extra legal considerations. An employee brings with it lots of rights and responsibilities and it is important that you are aware of these and comply with them.
Examples of these can be, but are not limited to, Contract of employments, health and safety in the workplace, working hours, minimum wage, unfair dismissal, discrimination legislation, to name a few.
Don’t be put off
While the extra burden may seem scary it shouldn’t be seen as a barrier to taking that leap to becoming an employer. But getting the right advice and help at the outset prevents a lot of pain or cost later.
Getting the procedures or help in place at the start for all the points mentioned above makes it a lot easier than leaving it to the last moment and getting it wrong and then having to fix it after the event.
Talk to us to see how we can help you start of on the right track and take some of the ongoing burden away from you. Call the team at Holmes and Company on 01525 851101 or contact us here
Tagged as: Accounting, Salary
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