Facts worth knowing about Employing Staff

 

When you start employing staff there are many things to consider.

  • How to hire right candidate?
  • What are your obligations?
  • What are the employees’ rights?

 

More and more small businesses are starting to hire employees because of the benefits this can bring to the business.  Advancement that may seem like an expense in practice can save you time and money and take the business to the next level.

 

At first, you need to know the law

There are many laws that protect employee’s rights. You should be aware of them while hiring a new person. Some fundamental ones are as follows:

Employment contract

The best way to save misunderstandings and ensure that you and your employee both know what to expect is to sort our writing agreement.

This is required by law to provide employees with a written statement within 2 months of starting work. This should include main terms like pay, holiday, working hours.

 

Wages

You can’t deduct employee’s wages without having a contractual right to do so, having a separate written agreement signed by this person or if this is required due to tax purposes.

Cost

Before employing person, think about what you can afford as total pay is often more than just a salary. It may also include costs of pensions, loans or traveling and meals allowances, employers National Insurance.

Each employee has the right to be paid at least the Minimum Wage or the National Living Wage.

Click her for the minimal wages table
https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates

Maternity leave

An employee has right to 52 weeks’ maternity leave which includes 39 weeks’ maternity pay. You can find information on website HMRC
:https://www.gov.uk/employers-maternity-pay-leave

You can get yourself more familiar with the employment law and get free advice from Acas ACAS Employment Law Support For UK Employers.

 

Attendance

Managing staff attendance may be difficult by it is important to ensure you control your cost.

You should keep contact with sick employee, talk to them when they return and check if they are able to perform their duties. You may consider flexible working hours to help staff return to work promptly. Record of employees’ absences should be kept.

 

Discipline and grievances

This is a legal right for the employees to know the discipline or grievance at your practice.

This also allows you to set your boundaries and ensure that all members of staff know the rules regarding absence, health and safety, standards and performance, timekeeping or using company facilities. In case of breaking the rules, disciplinary procedure needs to be taken.

 

Notice

Each employee is entitled to at least one-week paid notice if he worked for you for one month or more, two weeks after two full years. This period continues to increase by one week per year up to maximum of 12 weeks.

 

Unfair dismissal

There need to be a good reason to dismiss someone – you need to prove that you have acted in fair way. This means that you have informed the employee of the problem regarding their performance and provided an opportunity to appeal.

Some reasons such as pregnancy or trade union membership are automatically treated as unfair.

 

 

Recruitment and training process

 

To find right candidate you need to ensure that the job description contains all the information including duties and personal skills required for this position.

Advertising can be effective using variety of sources such as Jobcentre, recruitment agencies, internet and press or social media platforms.

Remember that you cannot discriminate potential candidates against their sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief, gender, age, civil status, pregnancy or maternity.

To get the best out of the new employee quickly you should provide them with the training which helps them getting familiar with new role, colleagues and work environment.

 

Communication

Communication is the key in many aspects. You benefit the most if your employees know the business, the term and conditions of employment, disciplinary and grievance procedures and how to perform their jobs. This will increase their level of commitment to the organization.

Even though there are many obligations and rules you need to follow while hiring people, there are many benefits of this situation. Skills and abilities of your employees may add serious value to your company. This also allows you to focus on developing your business and in practice perform much more.

 

Please contact us if you require any more guidance on hiring new staff and cost associated with it.

Greenlight Accountancy Team 😊