Key Employment Considerations

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by Rebecca Lister | 14th Jan 2025

Employment Essentials – What You Need To Know

As the New Year begins, now is the perfect time to hire a new employee. Whether this be someone to help you manage the demands of a growing business or to undertake tasks you no longer have time for, knowing what you need to do as an employer can be confusing.

Hiring your first employee or taking on your 100th, there are certain things you should be doing to ensure you are fulfilling your legal obligations. Read on to find our recommended employment essentials.

Hiring Your First Employee

If you are looking to hire your first employee, there are a number of things you will need to do to set yourself up as an employer. While this can be a little tricky to get your head around, ensuring you do your research will ensure you understand your legal requirements.

Below, we have outlined key employment considerations that are likely to arise when hiring a first employee.

• Look to obtain Employers Liability Insurance. Employers Liability Insurance covers the costs of employees’ claims for illness or injury that may arise as a result of their work due to employers’ negligence. It is a legal requirement to have this in place for most businesses with employees and you may be fined if you do not have this in place. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure you have this insurance in place, as soon as you become an employer. Your policy must cover you for at least £5 million and come from an authorised insurer.
• Give consideration around how much you are willing to pay. When considering remuneration, ensuring you are not paying less than the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage. For more guidance on this, the government website provides handy guidance for employers to help you work out the minimum wage you should be paying.
• When it comes to remuneration, it is important to consider starting salary. You will want to consider market rates and any wider employee benefits and entitlements such as annual leave, parental leave, company car, flexible working arrangements and private medical insurance. You should also give thought to how you will pay your employees. This can be managed by yourself, or you may wish to look at outsourcing to a payroll provider.
• Certain areas of work may have extra requirements when it comes to hiring. You should check DBS eligibility for further guidance.
• You must ensure you are undertaking relevant checks to prove an employee has the legal right to work in the UK before they start working for you. This can be checking someone’s passport, relevant documents or ensuring they have the relevant visas. This has become ever more important with fines for employing those without the right to work in the UK skyrocketing to up to £60,000 for each illegal worker. You can be sent to jail for 5 years and have to pay an unlimited fine if you’re found guilty of employing someone who you knew or had ‘reasonable cause to believe’ did not have the right to work in the UK. Ensuring your right-to-work checks are robust helps to prevent any nasty surprises.
• You should look to register as an employer with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) when you start to employ staff. You must register before the first pay day. Beware it can take up to 20 days to get your employer PAYE reference number, so looking to register promptly is a good idea to ensure you are not caught out.
• Employers are obliged to provide employees with a written statement of particulars, often referred to as an employment contract. You must provide all employees with this before employment begins. When preparing the contract, there are numerous specific areas that must be covered. These include, the employers/employees’ name, the start date, job title, amongst many more. Ensuring that you include all the necessary information as specified by the law will help you uphold your duty and avoid any issues in the future. For more information on this, read our article on “Employment Essentials- What Is An Employment Contract”.
• You should also give some thought to employment policies and procedures you will need to have in place. These could include how you will deal with grievances or disciplinary issues, health and safety, data protection amongst many more. Preparing a staff handbook clearly outlining terms of employment and employee rights for distribution to all new staff is a way to ensure everyone is aware of what policies are in place.
• Employers need to provide a workplace pension scheme for all eligible staff. Eligible staff include those who are aged between 22 and the state pension age, earn at least £10,000 a year and work in the UK. As an employer, you are required to pay at least 3% of your employees “qualifying earnings” into your pension scheme. Check your scheme’s requirements beforehand to know what your obligations are.

General Recruitment Tips

When it comes to recruiting, there are no set processes for how you should undertake this as an organisation. However, you must be mindful that you are following a fair process.

Discrimination:

When it comes to advertising, interviewing and deciding on your new hire, you must be mindful of the laws on discrimination. You must not discriminate against a candidate due to any of the protected characteristics; age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Having an equality and diversity policy in place is a way to ensure you are undertaking the process fairly and with due consideration to the law.

Advertising:

Advertising vacancies is very important in ensuring you get the right person for the role. Advertising the role clearly across multiple platforms using keywords indicating responsibilities, working hours – full or part time – and future opportunities, is a great way to maximise visibility and increase your chance of attracting top talent.

Simplify the application process:

When it comes to applying for a job, candidates may be put off by long and confusing processes. Having simple, clearly explained and timely processes is a great way to ensure that you are getting quality applications from keen individuals.

How Can We Help?

Here at Eclipse HR, we are best positioned to help you navigate all of the employment considerations involved in the hiring process. Whether helping with the recruitment process itself or providing you with employment contracts, employment policies, employee handbook templates, or reviewing the documents you currently have in place.

Our expert HR consultants have years of experience in dealing with such matters across a variety of different sectors and keep up to date on any forthcoming employment law changes that may affect your obligations as an employer.

If you do require any support or guidance relating to employment considerations, or wish to discuss any other employment related matter, feel free to get in touch.

Author: Rebecca Lister
Rebecca supports the Eclipse HR team and our clients across a range of tasks. Alongside her role, she is studying for an Integrated Masters in Advanced Legal Practice (MLaw) at the University of Kent. Her academic focus, particularly in employment law, complements her practical experience and deepens her understanding of HR in action.

Disclaimer: Information and reference materials included within Eclipse HR Limited articles and blogs are provided free of charge and for reference purposes only.  They are not intended as a substitute for legal advice, or professional or other advice in regards to specific circumstances.  Whilst every effort is made to ensure the contents are correct on website publication, they should be considered for guidance purposes only.