To grow your business successfully, at some point you will need to employ staff or use the skills of a freelancer.
Whether you’re a sole trader placing your trust in someone else for the very first time, or a seasoned recruiter, here are my top tips to taking the headache out of hiring.
Who should I choose?
First things first, it’s important you choose the right person for your business. Mistakes can be costly and at worst detrimental to the reputation of your company.
If you already employ staff, use your top performers as a benchmark. List what makes them so good at their job, both in terms of their skill sets and personality traits. This can then form the basis of selection criteria for anyone you interview.
Apart from benchmarking amongst existing employees, psychometric testing will help you assess whether someone is up to the job intellectually and can cope with any stresses it may bring. There are a number of companies providing psychometric testing online, including http://www.psychometricadvantage.co.uk/ and http://www.findingpotential.com.
Where do I find them?
Recruitment advertising can be very expensive, so to keep costs down, why not try social networking sites?
Even if you avoid it like the plague, lots of people you know will be on Facebook and they in turn will know lots of other people – get a few of them to post your job vacancy and soon it will be appearing on the home pages of thousands of people. LinkedIn is generally the network for professionals so make sure you post the job advert on your LinkedIn profile too. The same is true of Twitter, which is fast becoming a corporate choice for social networking. Follow some people who you think might be right for the job and tweet!
Know your rights
With more employees comes responsibility and a higher risk of unwittingly breaking the law – particularly when it comes to discrimination. For example, it may be rude in polite company, but did you know it is illegal to ask how old someone is when applying for a job? Business Link provides an overview of discrimination law and how it might affect your business. http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/.
Pay day
Once you’ve recruited the right candidate, you’ll have to pay them a salary, deduct their income tax and National Insurance contributions, and if applicable, student loans.
You’ll need your employee’s P45 from the previous employer in order to add them to your books, and if they don’t have one, then you will have to complete a P46 to get a tax code from HMRC.
A record needs to be kept of all salary deductions made, including National Insurance contributions (NICs), tax and student loan deductions. HMRC provides a P11 for you to record these details.
Tax and national insurance will be deducted from your employee’s salary every month. If you’re paying below a certain threshold, you can pay on a three-monthly basis, although from a cash flow point of view, it can be advantageous to pay monthly.
Pay slips for employees should include the gross pay for the week or the month, cumulative gross pay for the tax year to date, tax NI and any student loans deducted for the period. The HMRC provides PAYE advice for employers here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/index.htm
When it comes to holiday and sick pay, things can get complicated, so it may be worth talking to a professional. Visit http://www.accountsassist.co.uk/accounts.php for cost-effective accountancy, specifically designed for small businesses.
Temporary staff
If you need help on a specific project, or have a short-term back-log of work, temporary workers might just be the solution – especially in the current economic climate.
Freelancers can provide flexible support, helping projects to be completed quickly, without the cost of additional overheads that full-time employees require.
The Internet has made sourcing and being a freelancer much easier, with sites like People Per Hour, http://www.peopleperhour.com, allowing businesses to post short-term jobs which are then bidded on by those looking for work. The site makes its money by taking commission on the jobs won, so much more cost-effective than traditional recruiting channels.
If you’re in the happy position of needing more staff, that’s great, it means your business is growing and you never know what skills and ideas a new member of the team might bring to the table. Happy hiring!
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