Checklist For Hiring Your First Employee

Our checklist guides you through the steps of hiring your first employee. In the beginning you’ll need to ensure your business is registered for employer taxes and you’re up to date with employer and workplace responsibilities. Then once you’ve hired employees, you’ll need to operate a payroll system. We take you through everything you need to know in between deciding you want to employ staff to making your crucial first hire.

As a business owner or a Limited Company, you are considered an employer once you’ve registered for employer’s PAYE tax. There are rules and regulations around being an employer and it’s important that you are aware of your responsibilities before you hire any staff. We have mentioned good resources to expand your knowledge of hiring employees below.

Think about the type of work you would like your employee to do. Does this person need to be qualified and trained or can they receive training on the job? Write a list of requirements for the role and determine the type of person you need to fulfil these duties. You can hire an intern, work experience or work trial placement, full, part-time or casual employee. There are many different options for hiring staff depending on the amount and complexity of work.

Before you decide who you want to employ, you need to understand the legal obligations you have as as an employer. For example, if you consider hiring an intern, work experience or work trial placement, you are still legally required to pay them the national minimum hourly rate of pay (€10.10 as of February 2020). Exceptions to this include hiring family relatives, work experience schemes and registered industrial apprenticeships. The Workplace Relations Commision (WRC) is a great resource for more information on employer obligations in Ireland.

Employers liability insurance is not a legal requirement in Ireland, but as an employer, you are responsible for the health and safety of your employees. When you’re hiring employees, you should consider the risk involved with your work or workplace. This insurance helps you meet the compensation if an employee makes a claim whilst working for you. For example, manufacturing, construction or agriculture industries usually have employers liability insurance because of the risk of injury or workplace accidents.

If you’re a bootstrapping Startup, you may not have funds to hire someone or perhaps you need help with administration tasks. As mentioned, it’s illegal to hire unpaid interns or work experience people. However, if you get involved with a student programme, you can source interns through this training programme. Student programmes, such as Intern Plus and ADC College, organise their students from countries outside of Ireland to come here for work experience and to improve their English language. Many higher education institutions also offer Erasmus for students who want to study or undertake a traineeship at a host company. You can take on an Erasmus Intern by creating a company profile on Erasmus Intern’s website.

When you’re hiring your first employee, think about developing clear processes to help you hire and train your new employee. For example, start with an interviewing procedure so you can ensure all the candidates are treated the same. Once you’ve chosen a successful candiate, create an induction and training and development process so you can integrate your new employee quickly and easily. There are lots of resources and best practices available online and if you need professional help, we recommend calling HR Team, who we’ve worked with in the past.