Hiring Employees - 29/11/2016
|Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.
Small Business Bookkeeping Tips
with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management Services
Date: 29 November 2016
Growth is obviously important to small business …
…and hiring employees is one way to grow quickly. But whether they’ve ventured down the path of hiring & firing or just heard about it from other colleagues the compliance maze can be overwhelming and an impediment to business growth.
So over the next couple of articles Small Biz Matters is here to help you disentangle some the maze of regulations, compliance and due diligence requirements.
Let’s firstly look at Engaging with Employees:
HIRING
· Start with a solid job description. It helps you to get straight what you expect from the employee and helps to choose the right candidate. Check out the employment websites to build your own!
· Nearly all workers in Australia are covered by a Modern Award; with over 122 options from its likely your new employee will be covered by one. It’s not just about minimum wage but also conditions including allowances and entitlements.
· All new employees MUST be given a copy of the National Employment Standards (NES) before they begin. You can get this via the FairWork Commission www.fairwork.gov.au
· Although it’s not a legal requirement you’d be quite mad to hire anyone without an employment contract in place. It protects both you and the employee and includes rates of pay, the terms and conditions of work and forms a binding legal agreement to which both parties agree. Check out www.legalvision.com.au for free downloads!
INDUCTION
· According to Safework NSW (formerly WorkCover NSW) as an employer “you are responsible for the health and safety of those in your workplace, including visitors. And, if you’re self-employed, you’re responsible for your own safety and the safety of others.” so equipment and the work environment MUST be properly maintained, contain adequate facilities, you MUST provide training, and then consult with all parties to identify hazards and assess risks along the way (including other business owners, employees and Safework NSW themselves. Check out www.safework.nsw.gov.au for more info.
· A solid Induction Procedure should include a “walk through” to indicate emergency exits, first aid kit location, facilities (like the kitchen) and how to report a workplace incident or near miss.
· It’s a great idea to have a Staff Manual which accompanies the employment agreement. It can be tailored to your business and covers employment aspects such as confidentiality, social media use, punctuality & appropriate dress… and helps to set expectations from your new employees. Although it is not legally binding you should ask the new employee to read & sign it and have a sentence in your employment contract that links the two documents. Remember to include the fact that the Staff Manual can change.
PAYROLL
· If there was ever a time to get set up on accounting software its BEFORE hiring employees. If you’ve been happily using spreadsheets they’re not going to cut it. You MUST issue payslips, end of year payment summaries and pay employees correctly and on time.
· All employees (and some contractors) MUST be paid 9.5% super into their Super fund (not their bank account) and since 1st July 2016 all employers needed to have SuperStream (which means payments must be electronically lodged)
· You may think you can engage with someone as a contractor instead of employing them but first check the ATO’s employee vs contractor survey tool to help you determine this. www.ato.gov.au
There are lots of great resources online and you can always listen to Small Biz each week for lots of great tips and tricks like these!
(Image courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/icma/)
