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How many employees do I need before …..?

In France, twice as many companies have exactly 49 employees as have 50 or more staff.  Why? Well as soon as they hit the magic 50, the employer has to worry about more employment laws.  Rather than employ the 50th member of staff, many business owners simply start up another company.

So what are the magic numbers in UK employment law?

One Employee

As soon as you employ one person,  you must follow employment law.  For example, you must:

• Issue your employees with a contract within two months of starting employment.
• Allow them to take family leave as long as they meet the necessary criteria.
• Display the Health and Safety at Work poster or issue them with the booklet.
• Check that they are eligible to work in the UK before they start working for you.
• Auto-enrol them when you reach your staging date.

5 or more employees

Once you reach 5 or more employees, you start to have additional health and safety issues to consider.

• You must have a written health and safety policy.
• Depending on your level of risk, you may need to have a first aider.  You will need to have an appointed person.

Redundancies

• If you are making 20 or more employees redundant, you need a longer consultation period.  You must also contact the Redundancy Payments Service.

But I just want to run my business

We know you did not start a business because you wanted to employ people – you employed people so that your business could grow.  We work with clients from those looking to take on their first employee, through to those who are more established.  Contact us to find out how we can help you focus on what you do best.