Employers tips

Recruitment and getting started

• Taking on staff - the options
• Check your legal responsibilities when taking on an employee
• Widen your choice of employees to improve competitiveness
• Recruiting and interviewing
• Recruiting directors
• Employing part-time workers
• Employing young people
• Employing family members and voluntary staff
• Recruiting and employing disabled people
• Using contractors and subcontractors
• Ensuring your workers are eligible to work in the UK
• Getting new workers started

Paperwork

• Create a written statement of employment
• Employment status
• Make a job offer and pre-employment checks
• The employment contract
• Change an employee's terms of employment
• Set yourself up as an employer
• Keep the right staff records
• Comply with data protection legislation

Paying your staff

• Set the right pay rates
• Understanding National Minimum Wage law
• Pay - an overview of obligations
• PAYE: the basics
• National Insurance: the basics
• Understand Statutory Sick Pay
• Outsource your payroll
• Individuals, companies and IR35
• Avoid common PAYE mistakes

Pension schemes

• Know your legal obligations on pensions
• Running a pension scheme
• Pension planning for the self-employed
• Choose the right pension scheme

Setting the rules

• Set up employment policies for your business
• Smoking policies, drugs and alcohol abuse
• Monitoring and security of staff

Working time and time off

• Manage absence and sickness
• Allowing time off work
• Hours, rest breaks and the working week
• Know how much holiday to give your staff
• Manage overtime
• Maternity, paternity and adoption - an overview
• Managing expectant and new mothers at work
• Managing paternity and adoption leave and pay
• Sunday working and night working
• Benefits of flexible working
• Employees working from home
• Choose the right type of flexible working

Equal opportunities

• Prevent discrimination and value diversity
• Access and facilities for disabled people

Health, safety and working environment

• Importance of health, safety & environment to your business
• Your responsibilities for health, safety and the environment
• Health & safety performance indicator
• Meet minimum workplace standards
• Record and report an accident or incident
• Occupational health and welfare: an overview
• How to deal with stress
• Liability insurance

Employee representatives and trade unions

• Working with employee representatives
• Work effectively with trade unions
• Rights to trade union membership
• Recognising a trade union - the issues
• Applications for trade union recognition

Organisational change

• Responsibilities to employees if you buy or sell a business
• Check tax & legal issues when selling a business
• Reorganisations, restructures and other major changes

Skills and training

• Create a personal development plan
• Evaluate your training
• Fit the training to your needs
• Turn underperformance into high performance
• Develop your management team
• Set up in-house training
• How to find a training provider/course
• Learning through networking with others
• Skills and training for directors and owners
• Lead and motivate your staff

Motivation

• Implement staff incentive schemes
• Use appraisals to manage performance
• Set up employee share schemes
• Meet the need for work-life balance
• Control staff turnover
• Inform and consult your employees

Dismissals, redundancies and other exits

• End employment correctly
• Workers leaving: the basics
• Issue the correct periods of notice
• Dismissal
• Making an employee redundant
• Handling potential redundancies
• When an employee resigns
• When an employee retires
• When an employee leaves through ill health
• When an employee dies
• Sort out tax matters when an employee leaves

Disciplinary problems, disputes and grievances

• Handling discipline and grievance issues
• Follow the correct disciplinary procedure
• Bullying and harassment
• Reduce the risk of employment tribunal claims
• Handling employment tribunal claims
• Industrial disputes

Keeping up to date with changes in employment legislation and HR practices is a full time job. We have pulled together some useful information from the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Disability Rights Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality to give you a direct link to information relating to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.

This will help you stay within the law when writing your job advertisements.

This information is provided by the Equal Opportunities Commission and is subject to crown copyright.

This information is provided by the Disability Rights Commission and is subject to crown copyright.

This information is provided by the Commission For Racial Equality and is subject to crown copyright.

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