How to Employ Your First Employee

At some point in the growth of your business you realise that you can no longer go it alone. There are a wide variety of laws, obligations, taxes and statutory records that can trip you up when you don’t know what you’re dealing with.

Lack of knowledge is not a defence, so ensure you find out what you have to do at an early stage. It will save you time, money and worry. This book has been written with the intention of helping you to avoid these types of sticky situations. The real success of hiring your first employee lies in following the correct procedures, adhering to the requirements of legislation and taking action at an early stage.

Preface

It happens to almost every successful business owner. At some point in the growth of your business you realise that you can no longer go it alone. Most business owners are well aware of the problems and costs of employment, and will initially try to use outsourced support. If that works well for you, there’s no reason not to use it, though be careful about the over-use of so-called self-employed workers who clearly are not genuinely running their own business.

However there may well come a time when your business has expanded and it can’t be done on an outsourced basis. Then it’s time to think about employing someone. There are a wide variety of laws, obligations, taxes and statutory records that can trip you up when you don’t know what you’re dealing with.

Lack of knowledge is not a defence, so ensure you find out what you have to do at an early stage. It will save you time, money and worry. This book has been written with the intention of helping you to avoid these types of sticky situations. The real success of hiring your first employee lies in following the correct procedures, adhering to the requirements of legislation and taking action at an early stage.

Content

Preface

About the author

Miscellaneous notes

1. Overview of the Ebook
   1. Introduction 12
   2. Who counts as an employee?
   3. Recruitment and pre-employment checks
   4. Contracts of employment
   5. The first few months
   6. Employee rights
   7. What if the employee just doesn’t work out?
   8. Correcting performance or misconduct
   9. Health and safety responsibilities
   10. Additional legal responsibilities
2. Who counts as an employee?
   1. Introduction
   2. Employed or self-employed?
   3. Agency staff
   4. Interns and work experience students
3. Recruitment and pre-employment checks
   1. Introduction
   2. Basics of recruitment
   3. References
   4. Medicals
   5. Immigration checks
   6. CRB checks
4. Contracts of employment
   1. Introduction
   2. Where is the contract contained?
   3. Legal requirements
   4. Extra terms
   5. Updates and amendments
5. The first few months
   1. Introduction
   2. Purpose of probation
   3. Less favourable terms during probation
   4. Extending the probation
   5. Dismissal at the end of probation
   6. Dismissal after expiry of the probation period
6. Employee rights
   1. Introduction
   2. Pay
   3. Pension
   4. Sick pay
   5. Hours of work and breaks
   6. Holiday
   7. Discrimination
   8. Family friendly rights
   9. Time off
7. Dispute resolution
   1. Redundancy
   2. Young people
8. What if the employee just doesn’t work out?
   1. Introduction
   2. Dismissal during or at the end of probation
   3. Dismissal after the end of the probation
   4. Dismissal – the minimum procedure
9. Correcting poor performance or misconduct
   1. Introduction
   2. Poor performance
   3. Misconduct
   4. The correction process
10. Health and safety responsibilities
    1. Introduction
    2. Policy statement
    3. Risk assessment
    4. Employers’ responsibilities
    5. Employees’ responsibilities
    6. Sanctions
11. Additional legal responsibilities
    1. Introduction
    2. Employers’ liability insurance
    3. NICs
    4. Statutory records
    5. Data protection
12. Where Next?

    Preface