You’re a new business and you’re employing staff for the first time. You’ve carried out the recruitment and selection process and found the perfect applicant(s). Here are 5 things you need to do before they start work.
Decide salary
You must decide how much you are going to pay your staff and it must be at least the National Minimum Wage.
Carry out checks
Employers have an obligation to ensure that potential employees have a legal right to work in the UK. It is a criminal offence to knowingly employ an illegal migrant worker and you can also be fined up to £20,000 for each illegal worker unless you have obtained a ‘statutory excuse’. There are three steps to obtaining a statutory excuse:
Step 1 – Ask the applicant to provide documents. The Home Office has a list of documents (referred to as ‘List A’ and ‘List B’) that an employer can ask for. The documents must be original and not copies.
Step 2 – Verify the documents. You have to make sure that the documents are valid and that they belong to the person you are checking. You should undertake visual checks by comparing photographs and dates of birth with the appearance and apparent age of the applicant. You should also check that the dates for the applicant’s right to work in the UK have not expired and that they have permission to carry out the type of work on offer.
Depending on the type of document provided, you may have to carry out further checks. The documents included in List A establish a continuous statutory excuse for the duration of that person’s employment with you whilst those in List B establish a time-limited statutory excuse and you will be required to conduct a follow-up check in order to retain your statutory excuse.
Step 3 – Make copies of the document(s). You have to make clear copies of each document in a format which can’t be altered and keep a record of the date on which you made the check.
If these steps are carried out at the point of recruitment you will have a statutory excuse even if the employee is later found to be an illegal migrant. If you are concerned about employing someone you can clarify an individual’s right to work with the Employer Checking Service.
You may have to do other employment checks such as references and qualifications, medicals, and a criminal records check if you work in a field that requires one.
Get employer’s liability insurance
As soon as you become an employer you need employer’s liability insurance which must come from an authorised insurer. This covers you if an employee is injured or becomes ill due to the nature of the work they do for you. If you are not properly insured you can be fined £2,500 for every day you are not insured.
Send written statement of employment
Send the successful applicant written terms and conditions of employment. You can make a verbal offer of employment to the applicant but by law you must give them a ‘written statement of employment particulars’ within 2 months of them starting work if the employment contract lasts for a month or more.
Register with HMRC
You have to register with HM Revenue and Customs before you pay new employees, even if you are only employing yourself as the sole director of a limited company. You can register online here.
Employing staff – contracts and policies
We have a wide selection of employment contracts and policies to help first time employers and existing employers alike.
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