The Freelance Recruiting Bible: Preparing for your New Employee

As a new employer, you will be responsible for the Health and Safety of your employee, paying and processing their salary, possibly making tax and National insurance contributions, and will be required by law to keep records about this. You have opened your doors to be responsible for another being (think of it as something like having a child, but with more forms to sign!) As an employer, unfortunately ignorance is not bliss, so make sure you know all you need to know to protect you and your employee.

You’ll have to make sure they have a safe place to work, have the tools they need to do their jobs, are well trained and know what is required of them. Simple?? It’s not so bad if you try and take it one step at a time, or contact one set of agencies at a time. Obviously, the country you live in and work in will have different rules for employers to follow, most notably usually to do with tax and salary. All other areas of employee management are basically based in common sense and good management, so, while the legal requirements will change slightly, the basic principles are the same. Remember to properly look at your responsibilities and ensure you check with the relevant Government department or agency for your country.

Rough guide to preparing for your employee:

What do you have to do with the workplace? Is it fit to work in? Do you have the right insurances or cover for your employee? This will again differ from nation to nation. In the UK, an employer needs employer’s liability insurance, and to carry out various Health and Safety rules, depending on the size of the business, the risk of the business and the number of employees. An office-type job is often low risk, and having low numbers of employees (like 1) will usually mean that the business is allowed a little more flexibility matched to their size.

What do you have to do with their salary? Find out what your responsibilities are as far as recording the money you pay them, the way you pay them and the frequency of their salary. I don’t know any country where cash in hand is the norm, therefore you will definitely have to keep records, and provide information to your employee. Normally, the size of the business or the sector has no bearing on processing salary, as that’s really the employee’s rights to be given their money in a certain way and of course the tax collector isn’t usually picky about business size (no offence tax dudes)!

Have you thought about where the new bod will work? What about safe working? How is their job designed? Is it likely that your employee is going to be sat in a cupboard under your stairs (to be avoided at all costs really!) Run through these things and prepare a ‘risk assessment’ of their work and tasks, even if it’s just a brief one (remember you’re legally obliged to do some things – don’t use this as a substitute). Is it going to harm them if they don’t do it in a certain way? You should really take advice on this if you’re not sure, even from a colleague in the industry or from a Chamber of Commerce or a local government department, who can all help you to understand where you stand with regard to an employee.