There are six main things which you need to complete, when you are employing your first employee.
- Firstly, you will need to decide how much you are going to pay that employee.
All employees must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage – this is the minimum pay per hour almost all workers are entitled to by the law.
Even if you are a SME, you still have to pay your employees minimum wage. Depending on the employees age, and if they are an apprentice, will depend on the rate of minimum wage.
There is a National Minimum Wage calculator available, if you want to check if the salary is acceptable and to see if an employer owes an employee payment from past jobs.
- You will then need to ensure that the employee has the legal right to work within the UK and you may want to do some additional employment checks as well.
To do this, you will need to find out if the worker has a UK passport and take copies of the relevant parts of the passport, and find out if they are a British citizen but not including;
- British Nationals Overseas e.g. China
- British protected persons (from former British Empire);
- British subjects e.g. from India before 1949;
- British Overseas Territories citizens;
- British Overseas citizens e.g. from Kenya.
- Thirdly, depending on the field of work (e.g. working with children or in healthcare), you may need to apply for a DBS check.
The Criminal Records Bureau and the Independent Safeguarding Authority now work together, to become the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
- Employment insurance – you will need employers’ liability insurance as soon as you have an employee.
The insurance policy must cover the business for at least £5 million and be provided by an authorise insurer. This insurance will help you pay any compensation, if an employee is injured or falls ill due to the work they are doing.
Beware, if you do not have this, you can be fined £2,500 each day and fined £1,000 if you do not display your certificate.
- Written details of the job to the employee.
You will need to give the employee a written statement of employment if they are going to be working for you for more than one month.
This statement must, at least include;
- The businesses name;
- The employee’s name, job title or a description of the work and start date;
- How much and how often they will be paid;
- Hours of work and holiday entitlement (including public holiday entitlement);
- Notice period;
- How to complain about a grievance, disciplinary and dismissal;
- Pensions;
- Type of job e.g. temporary, fixed-term;
- Address of where they will be working.
- Register as an employer.
HMRC will need you to register as an employer up to four weeks before your employee is due to be paid their first wage.
This needs to be done if you are starting to employ staff, or if you are starting to use subcontractors for construction work. If you are employing yourself e.g. a director, then you must also be registered.
The process can take up to two weeks, however you can’t register more than two months before you start paying people.
For any more information contact us today on 01909 512 120 or email info@loftusstowe.com