Employing some one part time

rammster

We are a chamber of 3 locum GPs, we are hoping to employ a receptionist who can work from home and make and field calls directed from local surgeries offering us locum work. The receptionist could then make bookings on our online calendars.
I feel if somebody did this for 3 hours a day part time between 9-12 it would be suffice. We would be able to pay 100 pounds each, and the receptionists sallary would grow as we grow.

Now what is the legal work behind employing some one. Could some one guide me towards it.

We are not a company at the moment - do we have to be a company for doing this.

Chamber of GPs however is a legal entity

Please can someone guide us?

fengirl_2

There are several things to think about here and I wonder if your accountant might be the best person to ask. Any individual, partnership or company can employ someone.
1. Employment law - your worker will need a contract and written terms and conditions of employment. You will need various policies such as annual, sick, maternity and paternity leave, disciplinary, grievance, etc. Se www.acas.gov.uk
2. Tax law. You will need to register as employers with HMRC and operate PAYE on your employee's pay. See www.hmrc.gov.uk
3. Health and safety. You need to check that your employee's working environment is suitable, etc.
4. There are issues about supervision where an employee is working remotely. You will need to think about how you will make sure they are doing what you want them to do and how you will deal with things if they go wrong.

Savvy_Sue

You will also need to give some thought to how you cover for your receptionist when s/he is sick / on leave. Maybe each of you could take it in turns to have the calls forwarded to you, maybe you need a relief receptionist ...

You might find that there are already virtual PA services who could do this for you?

rammster

tell me a bit more about the virtual PA services as this seems more fool proof

Savvy_Sue

I've never used one, but you could google, and if you want someone local (so that you could meet them and perhaps have them on site occasionally) try "virtual pa" plus your nearest town or a county. There's quite a few for Somerset, for example.

You'd need to consider whether you went for an agency or an individual. Either might be able to provide the relief cover you need, an individual might have reciprocal arrangements with someone offering a similar service.

alphason

Rammster,

I have sent you a PM, Thanks.

ukbill69

Im sure there will be a lot of people will bite you arm off for the work. My girlfriend would like to do this. But id suggest doing this as self employed.