Employing new staff is an exciting time for employers, particularly if you are looking to grow your business or hire a specialist employee. When hiring a new employee to your small business or large company, you want to make sure that you have a clear idea of their role, duties and responsibilities.
While it can be tempting to rush the new staff employment process, there are some legal requirements that employers must take into account. Overlooking this part as an employer can leave you running into legal problems, which can make recruiting that new staff member more difficult.
This article explores how employers can get the process of employing new staff members right in 2022.
Things to do before recruiting a new staff member
Before you decide to recruit a new staff member to your business, there are a few things that need to be done. Registering with HMRC and taking out employers’ liability insurance from a registered insurance provider are two of the most important things you should do as an employer.
If you have recently employed a new staff member to your business, you need to make sure that you have registered with HMRC, four weeks before they get paid. As employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement for all businesses, it will protect you from paying compensation if an employee passes away or gets injured on the job.
If you fail to have employers’ liability insurance, then you could face a severe penalty for operating your business without insurance.
Write a clear job description and advertise the role
The next step in employing a new staff member is to write a clear job description for the role you are advertising for. When hiring a new staff member, you need to make sure that the job description outlines the position, as well as skills and responsibilities you want in this position. It is best practice to include the salary on your advert to ensure you are transparent with potential candidates. You can find guidance on how to attract Gen Z in our guide.
Writing a clear job description will ensure that job seekers know from the get-go that they're a good fit for the position they’ve applied for. It means that the applicant has a good indication of whether the company culture is right for them, saving both the employer and applicant time in the hiring process.
Once you’ve written your job description, you will need to advertise it on your company’s social media platforms, website, job boards and your networks. If you are an ICAEW Authorised Training Employer looking to recruit an ACA student you can advertise for free on our Training Vacancies platform. If you need more help finding the right candidate for the role you’ve advertised, then it might be worth working with a recruitment agency.
The interview process
Once you’ve received a number of applicants for the position you’ve advertised, you’ll need to begin the process of shortlisting them for the interview stage. If you have a huge number of applicants, then it’s worth doing phone interviews first before moving onto a formal interview either face-to-face or virtually.
The phone interview stage is a good opportunity to learn more about each applicant, their experience and why they’re interested in the position. Once you’ve whittled the applicants down to a small number, then you may want to hold face-to-face interviews with them at your company’s office or virtually.
When interviewing each applicant at this stage of the hiring process, it’s important that you use a standard set of interview questions. By doing this, it means that as an employer, you can compare their performance, before making a final decision on hiring a new staff member.
Make the job offer to the successful job applicant
After you’ve found the right applicant for your job, it’s time to send over the job offer to them. This will usually be done over the phone, with both confirmation of the salary and job title that the new staff member will be working at in your company.
Once you’ve made the verbal offer to the incoming staff member, who has accepted the position, you should follow it up with a formal written contract of employment. This document will list out their employment rights, as well as their responsibilities and duties in the position they’re working in the company.
You should also make sure that you inform other applicants that they’ve been unsuccessful in their application for the position you’ve advertised. After you’ve gone through the paperwork, getting your new staff member up and running, you can officially welcome them into the company.
Conclusion
Employing new staff members is an exciting time for any business so it’s important that you get that process running as smoothly as possible. We hope this guide will help make the recruitment process for employing new staff much easier so that you can make them feel part of your company.
Want to learn more about how you can make the employment process more inclusive? We have a piece that covers how to make the hiring process inclusive for everyone.