Some words of wisdom from our advisory partners at Citrus HR on things to be aware of when making your first hire.
Building – remaining legally compliant
Once you’ve got your basic HR in place, you’re in a good position to tackle the next step – remaining legally compliant. This is a vital part of running a successful business and will stop you running into any big difficulties further down the line. When you’re new to HR, the volume of compliance-based admin can come as quite a shock. As an employer you’ll need to consider:
- liability insurance
- applicant checks
- pension auto-enrolment
- health and safety
- employment contracts
- right-to-work checks
All of these are essential and any business caught without them can incur hefty fines.
As a small business owner, you’re also legally required to have certain employment policies in place, such as disciplinary and grievance procedures. There are other policies you might want to consider as well – it’s good practice to be clear on issues like maternity leave and sickness absence.
Good to know, but where do I start?
Knowing where to start can be difficult, but we’d recommend providing your staff with an employee handbook. This way, you can lay out to your team how you will deal with situations and what you will expect from them.
An employee handbook (also known as a staff handbook or employee manual) is a collection of documents and policies outlining everything employees need to know about working at your company. Having them all in one place gives your new team easy access to the details and gives you peace of mind that everyone is on the same page.
When it comes to picking policies our HR team is here to help; they will happily review any existing contracts and policies you have – ensuring you’re legally compliant. They’ll also provide you with all the policies and contracts you need tailored specifically to your industry, making it as easy as possible for you.
Expanding – growing your business
Your people will play a huge part in the growth of your business. We all know how important it is to recruit new talent, but it is easy to overlook another key factor – keeping the people you already have.
Reliable HR processes, like an easy system for booking holiday, will help you nurture the trust and respect that a growing team needs, which will help build a positive culture. However, creating a fun working environment will never outweigh the negative impact of things such as repeated payroll errors, so it’s extremely important that you get this right.
We know how much time and effort goes into hiring the right people, but having simple and effective HR and payroll software makes it easier to hold on to them.
Staff surveys are a good way to keep your ear to the ground and monitor how your people are feeling and what you can do to improve their motivation and morale. You can see the results in a very visual report; and tracks changes over time. Remember that happy, engaged employees are productive employees. A study by Gallup indicated that engaged workers are 21% more productive, exhibit lower turnover rates, and lower absenteeism rates compared to those who aren’t engaged. Yet another reason for being a great employer!
Appraisals are another great way to engage your people and show how much you value them as individuals. It’s important to keep a proper account of what is said in these meetings and using your software to store appraisal information in one, secure place will make it much easier to access. This means that you’ll be able to act on the discussions you’ve had and shows your people you’re investing time and attention into them.
Lifestyle – making time for you
There is one thing that all business owners need more of – time. There’s never enough of it, which is why so many are often dismayed at how much of their day they need to spend on being an employer. The harder you work, the less time you feel you have.
This can be a problem because you’ve got a lot to do: a business to run, customers to delight, deals to close – and there’s a mountain of HR-related tasks that can’t be ignored.
This is why we work with thousands of small businesses – helping them navigate the tricky waters of HR and employment law, and delivering this through our powerful, yet simple, software to make your life as easy as possible.
Words by Sophia James from Citrus HR
