Hiring staff can be very time intensive and mundane; however, its necessary that you do the right legwork if you want to expand your company. In some cases, your recruits will become your biggest assets.
Here are 12 actions you can take to ensure you comply with Australian employment legislation.
1. Write a detailed job description
Make sure you know what kind of individual you want to recruit, what talents they’ll need, and how much you’re prepared to pay. Keep a precise record of each candidate’s strengths, flaws, and expectations throughout the recruiting process. When choosing your favourite candidate, you’ll need to refer back to this list.
2. Obtain a Tax File Number for each employee.
A Tax File Number (TFN) is a nine-digit number that must be used by every employee in order for the Australian Taxation Office to identify them (ATO). Each employee has a unique TFN.
Employees’ TFNs remain with them for the rest of their lives, even if they change employment or leave the country (only to return later). Their TFN does not alter whether they relocate to a different state or change their name.
A TFN is required to deal with the ATO as well as many other Australian government organisations. If your workers don’t have a TFN, they can apply for one online, but they’ll still need to go to a post office or an ATO office to complete the procedure.
3. Keep detailed tax records
You must maintain accurate tax records for your employees for a period of five years by law. It’s critical that you keep them safe, secure, and easy to reach. This should be possible with your accounting program.
4. Be aware of your tax responsibilities
You have tax and superannuation obligations when you hire someone for your business. It makes no difference whether you recruit contract labour, part-time employees, or full-time employees.
These responsibilities might extend to you and your family members if you are a director of your company.
You must be quite clear about your legal responsibilities. Consult your accountant to ensure that you comprehend them and are aware of your duties.
5. Keep track of important dates and responsibilities
When you’re running a small business, there are a lot of things to keep in mind. Your new employee should make things simpler for you. However, while they are getting up to speed with everything, you may discover that your workload rises initially.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) provides an app that can assist you. It can search up important dates and send you reminders or notifications about your tax and retirement requirements. If you’d rather reserve your desktop calendar for reminders, you may utilize the ATO’s reminder service, which automatically adds important dates to your calendar.
6. Obtain and display employee rights posters.
Under Australian employment law, all employees have some basic rights. Many employees, however, may be unaware of or misinformed about their rights. You are obligated to put posters in your workplace that explain employee rights to assist your employees.
The Fair Work Ombudsman’s website has further information about your rights and duties, as well as free tools for small enterprises.
7. Make sure you have workers’ compensation insurance.
What happens if one of your employees is hurt on the job? Workers’ compensation is a legal necessity for your employees. If your employees are wounded at work, this gives salary replacement and medical benefits.
As a business owner, you can also consider getting insurance like small business insurance or public liability insurance. These provide a layer of protection for your business. To learn more about public liability insurance, click here.
8. Put in place a payroll system.
When setting up your payroll, you can choose to handle everything yourself, use accounting software, or outsource the work to someone else. Regardless of what approach you use, each employee’s file should contain the full name, address, and contact information, including emergency contact information, a signed copy of their job contract (full-time or part-time), tax information, and chosen payment method and details, such as online banking, and any other pertinent information.
Create an electronic version of these data and save them to the cloud. These records must be preserved for a minimum of seven and a half years.
9. Make it simple for your staff to use all of your cloud applications.
Employees may require access to non-confidential corporate information like policies, training manuals, procedures, or job-specific instructions, depending on the nature of your organization. Consider using a cloud-based solution that allows each employee to access only his or her data using a unique password and login.
10. Be specific about your objectives and expectations
Even if you only have one employee, it’s critical to identify and agree on expectations from the start. This is a business partnership, thus mutual trust, respect, and honesty are essential. The better you treat your staff, the more committed they will be to your company.
Choose prudently when it comes to your employees, since they are your most precious asset.
It’s critical to follow the procedures above whether you’re recruiting one person or numerous. Don’t forget to consider how you’ll keep good employees and reward them for their efforts.
Keep in mind that your most significant asset is your workers. It’s difficult to locate good individuals. Hiring can also be time-consuming and costly.
If you follow the steps correctly, you’ll be able to recruit the proper personnel. And if you take care of your staff, they will remain with you longer and perform better.
