Time to hire your first member of staff

Yippee, you are doing well, it’s time to stop using family and friends and calling in favours and take that very grown up step of hiring your very first staff member.
Firstly, well done, that’s quite an achievement, feel very very proud.
Secondly, you are petrified right, well this blog post will hopefully calm things down. Now down to business.
The job description & person specification

1. Think about what you want them to do, and write that down, forget job titles at this stage, just think job content.
2. Think about what kind of person in terms of attributes, experience and qualifications (and be reasonable, I’ve come across 2 man bands operating from their front rooms wanting Oxbridge graduates, to do admin)
3. Research similar roles and no harm in having a nosey at what your competitors are doing (if it ain’t broke etc), this gives you some pointers to setting a salary
4. Once you have an idea of the salaries the competition are paying, you need to figure out if you can afford it, always remember you need to add another 30% plus in on costs to cover Employers NI (12% of total salary), pension (more of which later), their work environment, other benefits etc
5. You are now ready to draw up a job description (which describes the role) and a person specification (which describes the attributes at a minimum a person must have to be suitable).
6. Decide where you are going to find them, i.e. LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, websites, agencies, print media
7. Draft an ad for the job
8. Its always worth thinking about at this stage where you are actually going to put them, do you need to buy a desk, hire office space even, computers cost how much?

The interview
They’ve started to apply. Wow another milestone passed, people are interested and want to work for you, nervous yet?

• Work out in advance  of the interview what you want to learn from them
• Do you just want to have a one on one interview and deal with it all in one go
• Do you want a demonstration of their work presentation style
• Do you want someone else’s opinion
• Prepare well in advance, draft questions, give enough time per person (there is nothing worse that candidates bumping into one another in the corridor or reception.
• You’ve decided you’ve found the one!
• You need out of politeness to let the others down gently, you never know when you’ll bump into them again, so be nice.

You found your first staff member
(now the real fun starts)

• You need to offer them the job (provisionally usually), apply for references, make sure you have employers liability insurance (up to 5 million at least). Look at the partnership tab on this website which will help you.
• Give them written particulars which at a minimum should contain salary, pension arrangements, start and finish (where applicable), place of work, date of pay, where they are based, disciplinary and grievance processes, termination and leaving, probation, any benefits, confidentiality etc. If you don’t do this within 28 days of them starting well you have been told!
• Why not think about including a staff handbook (give us a call) and HR policies & procedures (again you know where we are) and you are covered.
• So references, qualifications all check out, terms are agreed and a start date sorted

Before they start
You need to think about a probation period, how you are going to pay them (we can point you to some brilliant payroll providers and accountants), what sort of induction (please have one) process you are going to have.
You are pretty much now ready to welcome your first employee. Good luck and well done, the second time is always easier.
You are on your way. Contact us if you need help with HR support or your first staff member in the future.