Employing people - legal obligations

[FishfingersAreOK]

Hello - new to this topic so not sure if am in the right area. DH & I run our own company and have been employing a couple of family member to help as the business has grown. We are now looking in the next few months to taking on a couple more people which will take us to 5 people in total. There will potentially be more before the end of the year.

What do we need to do with regard to setting up/covering ourselves regarding employment law? What polices do we need? Do we have to do everything or are there small business exclusions. Where can I go to find this stuff out - if I google it it just seems to come up with law-firm adverts really - and I want basic, bog standard stuff.

We want to be a fair employer - but we also want to make sure we are not taken advantage of and cover our backs too.

We have employment contracts and payroll is sorted by our accountants. I have a Health and Safety consultant coming to see us soon about that element - and our lawyers are looking at the lease for taking over a premises.

Just want to look after the people side now. Please help and point me in the right direction.

Thank you

my employment law is somewhat vague but as well as contracts of employment you will need to provide employees with S1 statements (s1 Employment Rights Act 1996) this document must be provided within 2 months of the commencement of their employment and must contain information such as names of employer and employee, date when employment began, rate, method and frequency of pay, hours of work, holiday entitlement, job title, place of work, info regarding any collective agreements. Also other info such as grievance proceedure, sick pay pensions but if not in the document (ie there is a separate policy document setting this out) then this should be refered to.

A lot of this information is set out in the contract of employment.

Not sure what the current situation is with regards to providing/offering pension schemes. I know there were changes that came in last October so worth looking into. Also, it might be worth re-posting this in 'employment issues' as lots of employment lawyers/HR professionals lurk there.

This may be of some help - seems like a straightforward basic guide, particularly to the legan side: www.gov.uk/employing-staff

Also this has lots more general information, and a downloadable guide: www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2949

legan legal

It might be worth investigating one of the subscription HR services. I access one through my bank I pay an amount per month based on the number of employees I have. They helped me write my contracts, staff handbook, have sickness forms I can use, I can keep my records on the website and there is an excellent holiday calculator. Initially they sent a lovely lady out who just talked through potential pit falls with us and now we have a 24/7 advice line.
They have training on the website which I regularly do a bit of, they send a monthly and quarterly newsletters. Update contracts and handbook as the law changes and generally keep on top of changing legislation for me.
Best money I have ever spent.

Ooo that sounds good - can you (if you don't mind me asking) how much it is per employee - and which bank put you in contact. Will understand if you don't want to tell me. What is the name of the service - sounds perfect.