Employing staff

anamenottaken

Mistral001 wrote: »

The employer does not have to pay for sickness pay. They have to pay statutary sick pay after three days if the employee has a sick note from the doctor and then claims that back from the government. So in effect the employer does not have to pay for days not worked due to sickness.

However, many companies have sick pay schemes or pay for insurance so the the Stautary Sick Pay of £80 odd per week is topped up to full salary.

Staff are expected to self-certify for the first SEVEN days of absence.

From the HMRC website,

You can't automatically recover SSP. You can only recover any SSP you've paid in a tax month that's over and above 13 per cent of your gross Class 1 NICs liability for that month. This is known as the 'Percentage Threshold Scheme' (PTS). Unless you qualify under the PTS, you are not entitled to recover any SSP.

Savvy_Sue

OP, if you want someone there at regular hours every week, then a zero hours contract isn't going to work for you, or even a minimum hours plus overtime.

With sick pay, I'd recommend starting by only offering SSP: you can if you like improve that later by paying eg full pay for 2 weeks and half pay for 2 weeks after - say - 6 months, and increase the length of full and half pay periods as time goes by, but if you have more than one member of staff it's generally wise to offer the same T&C to everyone. Also be aware that one of our managers was told at an Equal Ops training that increasing benefits with length of service may be seen as age discrimination ...

Slinky

Don't forget to look at Employers Liability Insurance, you can be fined up to £2500 PER DAY!! if you don't have it.

paulwf

MummyMummy wrote: »

Im worried about a zero cntract as from what ive read employees dnt have to work if you ask them to?

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

OP, if you want someone there at regular hours every week, then a zero hours contract isn't going to work for you, or even a minimum hours plus overtime.

My experience has been that zero hours contracts work absolutely fine as long as you discuss with the employee how it works from the start and also be a responsible employer and don't abuse the system by dropping their hours right down at random. I've never once had a staff member refuse to do a shift because of their contract type. You simply arrange holidays and general leave well in advance with the employee.

OTOH if you give someone set hours and then find you need to significantly vary it you have made life difficult for yourself. Perhaps start with zero hours until you've done a trial and worked everything out and then set regular hours?

Colin2511

hi Op, if you are a member of FSB then you can find a lot of draft documents you can use on their site - they have templates just to put your name in. (also they help with legal advise)

Agree with others re employer liability, and from your other bits:

PAYROLL
HMRC have a free online Payroll (used to be their CD rom) - that is great for small number of employees, you put the gross wage in, and it will calculate NI, Tax, (so you can work out net) + any Employer NI you need to give - this will also help with starting person, end of year forms etc (and if they leave you can generate their P45 and send to tax man) - all online, and all free...I use this and simply then use a blank form that someone created (could have even been on here a few years ago) - for a wage slip that gives them all the info they need, but putting each months details in.

EMPLOYING
Also, is it really just as straight forward as getting employers insurance, interviewing and choosing who i want to work for me, registering as an employer and then getting an accountant to sort the rest for me? -YES - BUT when you interview take notes, as you may need to explain why someone did NOT get the job (so you can prove you were not discriminiating if anyone accused you of, better to be safe than sorry) - there are standard application forms you can use, (google for free ones) - and then make sure you ask them all teh same questions

I understand i need to draw up a contract (with a solicitor would be ideal) and a staff handbook - search on line - for £100 it might be worth the FSB membership to get them, or business link used to have similar (not checked in a while)
and that i need to allow a certain amount of paid holidays (but i can decide when the holidays are taken and if bank holidays are used too), - depending on how many days week depends on their holidays -hhmm...our staff use the chart on the wall, to see when they can book holidays (ie its not the peak period which is blocked out,) and not when other staff are off) - but I would not necessarily tell staff when they can have their holidays (more like you can take this week, but not this week as XX staff are off)
i need to allow a break if working 6 continuous hours and drinking water needs to be available, Dont forget a loo!
i need to pay for sick days and i would need to pay for maternity pay if that ever came up (terrible use of phrase there!!)...again you dont have to pay full pay, but only SSP and SMP - depending on time served etc - but the calculators on HMRC can help with this, and the new employer helpline does help. You will need std sickness details to go in their contract, and from experience it is better to get the compassionate leave on in the handbook, as I left this too late and it bit me on the bum!

Is there anything else thats part of the basics that ive missed out? Ive also read about offering silly contracted hours (but then offering 'over time') to get out of paying more holiday pay/maternity pay etc as you only pay what the employee is contracted to? Is that right/legal? - Again not sure what you mean about "Getting out of" paying maternity etc, as for hourly staff this is worked on last XX weeks average (I cannot remember the details, as its a long time since I had this) - Holidays at ours are worked on their normal working week (but its only Xmas they do overtime, so not regular - I think if they did same overtime every week you could be in sticky wicket

Is there anything else thats part of the basics that ive missed out? HSE - Induction Checklist, Training inc. Fire Drill, First Aid Kit, No Smoking Policy etc (things that seem common sense will not be if it all goes sour and you have to prove you told someone and nothing is trained or in writing)

anamenottaken

Colin2511 wrote: »

hand that i need to allow a certain amount of paid holidays (but i can decide when the holidays are taken and if bank holidays are used too), - depending on how many days week depends on their holidays -hhmm...our staff use the chart on the wall, to see when they can book holidays (ie its not the peak period which is blocked out,) and not when other staff are off) - but I would not necessarily tell staff when they can have their holidays (more like you can take this week, but not this week as XX staff are off)

The OP was stating their understanding of the law. The understanding was correct - that they have to allow paid holidays but that they can if they wish specify when the holidays are taken.

I think most of us have had employers who don't give precise dates but have various systems for authorising leave which is convenient for the business.