Employment Check List

Employing people seems a perfectly straightforward matter: hire them, then set them to work, but is it that easy?

Here are 7 things you need to do when employing people for the first time.

1.Decide how much to pay someone – you must pay your employee at least the National Minimum Wage (https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage)

2.Check if someone has the legal right to work (https://www.gov.uk/legal-right-work-uk) in the UK. You may have to do other employment checks as well.

3.Check if you need to apply for a DBS check (https://www.gov.uk/dbs-check-applicant-criminal-record) (formerly known as a CRB check) if you work in a field that requires one, e.g. with vulnerable people or security.

4.Get employment insurance – you need employers’ liability insurance (https://www.gov.uk/employers-liability-insurance) as soon as you become an employer.

5.Send details of the job (including terms and conditions) in writing to your employee. You need to give your employee a written statement of employment (https://www.gov.uk/employment-contracts-and-conditions/written-statement-of-employment-particulars) if you’re employing someone for more than 1 month.

6.Tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by registering as an employer (https://www.gov.uk/register-employer) – you can do this up to 4 weeks before you pay your new staff.

7.Check if you need to automatically enroll your staff (https://www.gov.uk/workplace-pensions-employers) into a workplace pension scheme.

Who qualifies as ‘Employed’?

Within the Church context it is not always easy to tell who is an employee, who is self-employed and who is a worker. A church administrator with fixed hours and an hourly rate might be easy to determine as an employee but what about an organist or bellringers?

Where to find help:

The Church of England website Parish Resources (https://www.parishresources.org.uk/people/paye/) has a number of helpful guides on a variety of issues, including on paying people, pension regulations and how to determine employment status for tax purposes.

For further information on being an employer see the Government website https://www.gov.uk/browse/employing-people.