Advice from business owners who full time employ staff

[swinny]

Hi there,

 

I'm wanting some advice on what is there to consider? What is there to look out for? Anything to consider when looking to take on a full time employee?

 

Is there any way to safe guard your business? Probation period to see if candidate is suitable?

 

What needs to be in an employment contract?

 

Pensions etc....

 

A few people have said its cheaper and easier having full time staff... ?

 

Am I Mad? lol

 

All info greatly appreciated

 

Cheers

Edited October 24, 2018 by swinny

[swinny]

Nobody got any input? Thought this would be a good subject

[Steve Bullman]

Not an employer, but having seen from the outside in you most definetly need as long as a probation period that you are allowed.  I'm not sure what this is though.  Most people will try and shine for their probation period of lets say a month. But it often takes time for their heads to drop, by which time you are simply stuck with them thanks to our stupid employment laws.  Also as time goes on their personality traits start to come out more, or as one of my friends puts it 'they all let the weird out eventually'.....again you are stuck with them at this point.

 

This is where I think zero hour contracts are good, its just a shame too many employers abuse them.

[Wolfie]

Too much to say for a morning break post Swinny, I’ll try and post this evening.
For now, I’ll say it’s a ball ache employee people and unless you pay an accountant to deal with payroll & pension, then pay a hr type company to sort contracts.

[Steve Bullman]

4 minutes ago, EdwardC said:

Employment laws aren't stupid. They're there to protect both parties.

Heavily weighted towards the employee

[Squaredy]

58 minutes ago, EdwardC said:

Employment laws aren't stupid. They're there to protect both parties.

Not sure what protection an employer gets....!

[Squaredy]

19 hours ago, swinny said:

Hi there,

 

I'm wanting some advice on what is there to consider? What is there to look out for? Anything to consider when looking to take on a full time employee?

 

Is there any way to safe guard your business? Probation period to see if candidate is suitable?

 

What needs to be in an employment contract?

 

Pensions etc....

 

A few people have said its cheaper and easier having full time staff... ?

 

Am I Mad? lol

 

All info greatly appreciated

 

Cheers

It is all about the person you employ and what they will be like in a year or two or ten.  If you find out it is not working out for you it is a nightmare to get rid of them.  You will probably end up paying full redundancy unless you have really good evidence of gross misconduct, because it is simply too risky not to.  Luckily in the first few years redundancy payments are not very high.  The other thing is it is simply not very nice sacking someone - no matter what the reason.

 

You will have to give them minimum wage of course (bear in mind this is promised to hit £10 an hour for over twenty-fives pretty soon) and a pension which you will need to contribute to, and you will have to pay 12% or so employer's NI as well as what you deduct from their wage and hand over to HMRC.  They will be entitled to 28 days paid holiday as a legal minimum, maternity pay or paternity pay possibly.

 

If they are unwell (or claim to be) for more than four consecutive days you will have to pay them Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) which you used to be able to claim back from HMRC, but now you cannot.  So if they develop a long-term condition, or simply decide they are not happy with the job and go on the sick for any of those reasons which are impossible to prove or disprove (depression, unspecified back or neck problems) you will have to pay them up to six months for them to not work.

 

You don't have to have a written contract, as a contract will be deemed to exist anyway, but you might want one to set out clearly a few rules; but take care as if your contract is all about protecting you as an employer it could fall foul of the Unfair Contract Terms act.

 

All in all it is a bit of a minefield, which is why so many people are just employed on a part-time cash in hand basis.  If you need this person to work for you full time you may have little choice but to take them on the books.  But if the work is sporadic or part-time it might be a lot less hassle to treat them as a subby.  Even if you are having to pay 60% more per hour or per day this is probably better for you in the long run.

[Inoff the Red]

11 hours ago, Squaredy said:

 

 

You don't have to have a written contract, as a contract will be deemed to exist anyway, but you might want one to set out clearly a few rules; but take care as if your contract is all about protecting you as an employer it could fall foul of the Unfair Contract Terms act.

 

.

Actually, if the employees employment is scheduled to last a month or more then you are obliged to provide a written statement of employment particulars.

See here:-

https://www.gov.uk/employment-contracts-and-conditions/written-statement-of-employment-particulars

 

Employing someone without having a contract of employment is a huge risk because of the almost inevitable uncertainty over terms covering, for example, holiday entitlement, sick pay, hours, duties and responsibilities, overtime, expenses etc etc etc.

 

 

[Ty Korrigan]

Now I am back on my feet after the liquidation of my Ltd company, I once again turn my thoughts to expanding my empire.

However, a chill runs through my bones at the thought of employing some-one.

Here, in a country where employees have all the rights and even the Arc de Triomphe is not safe from vandalism by the angry masses the tax burden is at an all time high of 55.7% recuperated by the state.

Officially, an employee on the SMIC or minimum wage would cost me only 12.50euros per hour net for the wage element but once you climb up the wage scale the social charges levied on the employeur reach an eyewatering 66% up from around 48% 2 years ago.

Once you have taken an employees share of the fixed costs, tools, training, breakages, extra insurances, average sick days into account (Employeurs are to pay instead of the state) wasted time per hour (smokers, smartphone addicts and those who work less effectively without constant supervision) the actual cost is around 3 times the salary.

This effectively means that for small businesses on low margins, the boss is often just working to support the business and employee. Larger businesses being better insulated by state aid and incentives.

Letting an employee go exposes the employeur to punative charges.

I've looked at running a co-op style of arb business but this requires a minimum of 7 which represents at least 500k turnover. 

 Ooooh, I've given myself a headache thinking about it all...

    Stuart

 

[Ty Korrigan]

I left out feeding them.

My employees 'pannier' allowance ran to around 3k EACH.

Officially I only need to have fed them after a certain distance from base but hey, that is generally accepted as just getting complicated so it is often a sit down 3-4 course with drinks most days.

TBH, not entirely unwelcome either...

  Stuart