Emma Whiting, Partner at Torque Law, an award-winning employment legal practice, covers a topic that every growing SME business owner faces - taking on your first employee.
When Tiggy and I were at University together, many moons ago, we never imagined that we would end up running a law firm together. But, having made the decision, we’ve never looked back and Torque Law was born.
Three years down the line, we have faced many of the same challenges that our clients have when setting up. What became abundantly clear to us was the lack of resources available when looking to upscale. Yes, we’re employment specialists so we were already a step ahead knowing the legal requirements, but there were many other steps where we had to seek the advice of specialists. Google only takes you so far!
It wasn’t until we spoke to our umpteenth entrepreneur that we decided we couldn’t put it off any longer: there was a clear need for a comprehensive resource which examined the issue of taking on your first employee.
At the end of last year, we launched our free, downloadable, Guide to taking on your first employees. It was important to us that it extended beyond the recruitment process to include the entire employment relationship and extended beyond the pure legal considerations which is why the Guide includes signposts to recommended professionals and organisations who can provide non-legal support and assistance along the way.
There’s no getting around it, sometimes to do things right, it comes with a cost. As business owners ourselves, we are very conscious of this and very aware of the importance of cost certainty when starting up a business. Many of the pointers we’ve included require no expense or expert guidance but for some, such as the contract of employment and discipline & grievance procedures, we would highly recommend speaking to us to avoid any pitfalls later down the line.
There are other documents which you will need to put in place and could benefit from a legal eye, such as staff handbooks and privacy notices, but our fixed pricing menu options let you decide how you want to proceed. We guarantee each document will be tailored to your business regardless of which option you choose.
If you are considering taking on your first employee, or scaling up your business, then click on the link below and download the Guide (PDF, 771kb).
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