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New Employers

Top Tips for New Employers | Support for Growing Businesses | Accountancy Support in Bristol
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Top Tips for New Employers

As a business owner, there are many tasks to juggle and many hours to work. On top of this if you wish to grow your business, comes the challenge of employment. To ensure successful growth you must employ the right people but more importantly you have to look after these people and make sure they feel valued in what they do, in order to retain them.

It is vital that from day one of becoming an employer you have the right tools in place to make sure you know what your legal obligations are, that you stay compliant and remain up to date with any changes. There are 10 key areas which you should always be aware of;

  • Salary
  • National minimum wage
  • Holiday entitlement
  • The written statement
  • Flexible working
  • The right to be accompanied
  • Maternity leave
  • Notice
  • Discrimination
  • Unfair dismissal

When you start your employment journey we suggest you make sure you are 100% clear on the following:

Knowing the law

This is probably the most important item you need to be clear on and something that you must continue to remain up to date with.

Ensuring you have a suitable and legally binding employment contract

Put in writing an employment contract that outlines the full job specification, salary, holiday entitlement and working hours. Make sure copies are signed, dated and safely secured in case of future use.

Paying the right rates

Research what the correct salary scale is for the role you are looking to fill and make sure the monthly outgoing is what you can ultimately afford. It is important to remember that when looking at costs you need to consider pensions, loans, travel and subsistence as well as the salary.

Recruiting the right people

Make sure that when you prepare your job description it is accurate and accurately reflects the role that you have available. Ensure you list the skills required and the personal qualities you are looking for in a new member of team. Try to establish what some of your current weaker skills are and try to make sure the new recruit is strong in some of these areas.

When advertising for the role make sure you capitalise on your own resources before using a recruitment agency. Advertise the role on your website and make good use of social media tools, in particular LinkedIn.

Implementing a 6-week induction programme and a continual ongoing training programme for all employees

Don’t just expect your new member of staff to work at full capacity from day one. Implement them slowly in to the business, pay specific attention to training them correctly and don’t rush this process, it should take a good 6-weeks for them to find their feet. Never stop supporting them and make sure you regularly review their training needs.

Being very specific on your protocol for discipline and grievances

Any new employee needs to be full clear on company rules, there should be no uncertainty around absences, health and safety, standard of performance, timekeeping and use of company equipment.

Should any problems arise then they will need to be dealt with quickly and efficiently, you should have a clear and well documented disciplinary procedure.

Pay specific attention to managing attendance, making sure sickness attendance is clearly defined and practices are in place to get employees back to work as soon as possible.

You must manage sickness absence and make sure you keep in contact with the employee who is away from the office. Upon their return, you need to have an immediate review with them and ensure they are able to resume their normal work activities. Again, make sure everything is clearly documented and stored in the personnel file of the employee

Communicating regularly with all the team

It is very important that you communicate well with all staff members (this is as important as keeping a regular line of communication with your clients). Make sure you provide a monthly update on the business, any new clients that have been signed up and new products or services being introduced. Make sure they continually feel part of the team and encourage them to share their own personal news or success stories.

By paying proper attention to these points you should be better placed to start employing staff and enjoy growing your business.

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