There comes a time in any business when you need to think about hiring people to help you out in running the business for the future. Whether you are in need of one or two people, or a whole fleet of people, you can be sure that there is plenty that you are going to need to consider in order to make sure you are doing it right. If you have so far been running your business with just you or you and your business partner, then you might find that there is a shocking amount that you suddenly need to do or change when you start to hire people. The truth is that hiring people makes business much more complex, and you are going to need to be ready for many of these changes to ensure that you are not doing anything wrong. In this article, we are going to look at some of the issues involved in hiring your first employees, so that you can be a little more prepared for it.
Roles & Responsibilities
It is important to make sure that you are clear from the outset on what the roles and responsibilities of each individual is going to be. This is important when you are starting out as a small team, because it stops people treading on each other’s toes in any way. Let’s say that it is currently just you and your business partner working for this company. Then you hire two more people: you are going to need to have it very clear in your own minds what the limits of those employees’ roles will be, and where the responsibility crosses over with your own. In fact, you and your partner will need to write this down and think about what it means for you. You need to have it very clear before you start the hiring process too, as it will inform what kind of skills and so on you are actually looking for in your employees. It is important for the sake of those employees too, as if they do not know exactly where they lie in relation to the business as a whole, then you can’t expect them to be happy in their work. Figure out the roles first up, and you will make everything much easier.
Don’t Rush It
It can be tempting to just go out there and grab the first person who wants to work for you, and this is such a strong tendency that you will need to work very hard to stop yourself from doing this. Make sure that you allow yourself to spend time finding the best people for your business, as it is the quality of those people that will ensure the quality of the finished product or service that you are offering customers. Be sure to have a clear sense of what you are looking for in employees, and go through a rigorous recruitment process in order to make sure that you are finding the best possible people for the job. If you can do that, you will end up with a strong, small team who are going to be able to offer you plenty in the way of skills and passion. And that is all that matters.
Payment & Tax
One of the ways in which running your business becomes suddenly more complex with employees on board is that you have to think about paying them, and the tax issues involved with that. If it has just been you and your partner so far, then you have probably been taking profits out of your business via shares, and that is not something that you have to class as income or tax. But when you have employees, you need to pay them, and you need to declare and pay the income tax on that too, as well as any national insurance contributions and so on. The best way to make sure that you are getting this right is to speak to a business accountant. They can advise you as to what you need to do, and even practicalities like what software you might want to use for paychecks and so on. As long as you get this right, you will have one of the more difficult aspects of the business down pat.
Health & Safety
As an employer, you now also have a responsibility to ensure that you are keeping your employees as safe as possible at work, whatever it takes to do so. That means that you need to follow essential legal procedures for health and safety, to make sure that you are looking after your employees properly. If you struggle to know what these are, you will be able to find information online on the government website, and you might also request an information pack from the same. As an employer, having the help of the likes of www.akdlawyers.com will make a difference too, so it’s important to look into this carefully.
Sociability
There is nothing wrong with being sociable with your new employees – in fact, it might be that you want to do this to make sure that you are going to be able to make the job as enjoyable for them as possible. The more that you are able to socialize with your employees, the more that you will enjoy working with them, and them with you, so that is absolutely something to think about here. Make sure for that reason that you hire people who you feel you can get along with. If you don’t, it might not bode well for the future of the business on the whole, and you could find yourself struggling to really enjoy your own business work in the future too, which is absolutely not where you want to be. See https://www.inc.com/john-boitnott/5-signs-its-time-to-hire-your-first-employee.html for more.
