Staff woes, getting ready to chuck it all in

[Steve Bullman]

3 hours ago, LeeGray said:

I’d say employing someone at £10 full time with usual benefits as above is costing £15/hr. Stick time not billable to customers as an hour everyday average and you’re at £120/8 hr day - 7hrs billing so more like £17 for every hour your billing before all other costs. 

At those rates your staff are basically not making you any money at all.  There should be profit on everything, not just a rate to cover your staffs existence 

[chopper brown]

25 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

At those rates your staff are basically not making you any money at all.  There should be profit on everything, not just a rate to cover your staffs existence 

Completely agree with this and if you don't build profit into your costs, then when gear breaks or insurance goes up where is the money coming from.

 

It won't be coming out of wages. 

 

Jim

[aspenarb]

I have had to revise our H&S due to the caliber of our staff.

 

 

 

[Khriss]

( was response to the crowd on here having a go - handbags at dawn et Al.  Problys one too many Babychams be fr bedtime ) 

[Scott95]

17 hours ago, Jonny69 said:

Have you tried employing someone with no previous experience of trees, landscaping or college? 

 

Maybe you could mold someone to suit what you want them to do. They may turn out a lot more useful than you expect, but it will take time. 

Had all sorts over the years.  Molding someone is the route i'd go down if I could choose but it never really seems to pan out

[Scott95]

Cheers for all the comments anyway guys.  Some good stuff posted.  I'm still no closer to deciding what to do however ?

[LeeGray]

11 hours ago, Steve Bullman said:

At those rates your staff are basically not making you any money at all.  There should be profit on everything, not just a rate to cover your staffs existence 

Just to be clear I was saying at £10/hr its costing £17 not charging £17 per hour. I think a man with some kit would need to be £40 to be sustainably profitable or at least 2 men and a lad would want to be £100. Personally I charge £25-28 plus vat/hr for a start but really prefer to price a job to make money on it. My calculation for the £10/hr are based on what I think the bloke who worked for me on the books for years used to cost. Took me a while to realise and just laid him off recently after two sickness absences looked like turning into full on health problems. Making someone else’s wages is hard work, even harder when there at home with there feet up!

Edited October 3, 2018 by LeeGray

[aspenarb]

8 minutes ago, LeeGray said:

Making someone else’s wages is hard work, even harder when there at home with there feet up!

 

When I am asked how many people work here I always say about half

 

Bob

[benedmonds]

4 minutes ago, LeeGray said:

Took me a while to realise and just laid him off recently after two sickness absences looked like turning into full on health problems...!

Not sure if that is legal.. In fact I am pretty sure admitting that could lead to a unfair dismissal

[Squaredy]

7 minutes ago, LeeGray said:

Took me a while to realise and just laid him off recently after two sickness absences looked like turning into full on health problems. Making someone else’s wages is hard work, even harder when there at home with there feet up!

Yes it is difficult isn't it?  I don't know how small employers manage these days since the government stopped re-imbursing SSP.  It is no wonder zero hours contracts and sub-contracting is popular.

 

I only employ one person full time PAYE and he is a great worker.  Hopefully he will never have a lot of sick days, but I couldn't keep him on for too long if he did start having a lot of sick.  I was going to take another (much older) person on full time next year, but I realised I couldn't as he does have health problems and I simply couldn't afford to pay him for weeks in hospital etc.  Shame as he would have probably been a great asset and he really wanted the job.