Considering Hiring a Team Member?

You’re dropping the ball because you are running low on time, the quality of your work is taking a downward turn, too many things are slipping by because you are wearing too many hats at once and you can’t seem to catch your breath...this is a common sign that the time may be right to hire a team member.

Hiring a team member can alleviate the overwhelm of running a business by delegating tasks and transferring the workload. This frees up your time to focus on leading your business whilst more administrative tasks are still being completed. You can’t possibly think of the bigger picture when you’re constantly in the day-to-day tasks. How will you be able to grow if you’re constantly working in your business rather than on your business?

You may be sitting here nodding your head, thinking this is exactly what you need so that you can claim back your time and reignite your passion for your business -  whilst having the business grow at the same time!

But how?

There are a few fundamentals that need to be put in place before you hire a team member to ensure that the process is working like a well-oiled machine. This prevents wasting time and money if you have all of your processes in order.

So what do you need to do?

Before You Hire

Would it be a Simplified Operations blog if we didn’t focus on the processes of a business? Audit your business. Make a list of all of the tasks you do so that you can identify exactly what tasks you need to delegate, from that you can create a defined job description and role brief for when you start your candidate search.

Once you know the tasks that will be required, create an employee manual for that specific role. Within this manual, you can add your Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) so that your new employee knows exactly how you would like the task to be completed. When creating SOPs, ensure that they are easy to read, and have step-by-step instructions. The aim is for the onboarded team member to be able to pick up the SOP and know exactly how to handle the task. Don’t forget to add your company vision and values within the manual. This will educate the newly employed to gain a better understanding of where your business is headed and the core values that run deep within everything you do.

Training Videos are super helpful and also cater to visual learners. Breaking down a project or task within a visual format allows the employee to complete the task alongside the video. It is great because you are showing the employee what to do, without actually being around. It’s also a resource that you can create once and repurpose for multiple hires.

The Hiring Process

The first step is to figure out whether you will be doing the hiring in-house or outsourcing the task. We have multiple resources at our fingertips these days that we can outsource the hiring process altogether. Some companies prefer to allow an agency to take care of the logistics as hiring can take up a lot of time.

The second step would be to determine whether the role is better fitted for a contractor or an employee that will be hired under your business. For the remaining steps let’s agree that we are employing rather than contracting our team members.

Stellar questions are a must! When you have the time with a potential employee, it is crucial to ask really good questions that delve into their experience pertaining to the advertised role. At the end of the day, you want to hire the best candidate, the one that stands out to you- and that relies heavily on the questions you ask. 

At Simplified Operations we advise you to not skip out on the reference check. Yes, it sometimes can be difficult to get references from the candidates but these contacts have insights that are valuable to you. 

Lastly, when you do hire the employee ensure that the contract is kosher. It is advised to go through a legal team to make sure that everything you need to cover is in there and what is actually depicted in the contract is in fact legal.

Important Steps For You

Unfortunately for some, you can’t just register a business and start onboarding a team. There is a process that should be met in order for it to be legitimate. Here are the four things you will need to ensure that you are eligible to be an employer in the UK (requirements will differ between countries):

1. Register for a PAYE (pay-as-you-earn) reference number which is what the government uses to track tax payments made on behalf of employees

2. Register and purchase Employer’s Liability (EL) insurance, the minute you become an employer. You must purchase this from an authorised insurer and the amount of cover should be at least £5 million. This is really important as this insurance compensates your business if one of your employees become injured or ill due to the work that they do for you.

3. The world of taxes will be something you become very familiar with. As an employer, you will need to set these up. There are taxes that are payable by the employee which the employer must deduct and pay over to the government on their behalf, and then there are costs that the employer has to pay themselves. Those deducted and paid on behalf of the employee are National Insurance contributions, Income tax, and any pension they've opted to save. The costs to the employer are National Insurance and a minimum pension contribution (which the employee can opt-out of for a number of years if they want). There is a good easy-to-use calculator here which may make it clearer!

4. Decide on your method of payroll, whether you will outsource to an accounting team or you will be doing this independently.

There is a lot that goes into transitioning from a sole trader to an employer, a lot more than many realise. The good thing is that you don’t have to go at it alone. Contact us today to have a chat about building out your hiring process and gain clarity on which type of hire is the best fit for your organisation.