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Business compliance: Human resources
There are many legal requirements relating to the recruitment and employment of staff. Key areas to consider are set out below.
Employment law covers a wide range of specific matters relating to workers’ rights that you need to consider when employing staff including:
- Need for written contract of employment
- Wages, national minimum wage and the living wage
- Tax deductions and National Insurance contributions
- Holidays and working time
- Harassment, disciplinary and grievance procedures
- Redundancy and notice periods
- Auto enrolment pension.
Your business needs to have adequate insurance including public liability insurance and employers’ liability insurance. The latter is compulsory if you employ staff, freelancers, sub-contractors and volunteers.
The Equality Act ensures consistency in what employers and employees need to do to make their workplaces a fair environment and comply with the law. It protects people from discrimination in the workplace.
Safeguarding is used to define actions taken to protect vulnerable groups from harm. All businesses that work or come into contact with children or vulnerable adults need to have safeguarding policies and procedures in place.
You need to protect people who come into contact with your social business from abuse or mistreatment of any kind. This applies to your Board, your staff, your volunteers and your community who use your services. You will need to have appropriate safeguarding policies, processes and reporting in place to manage this including DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks where appropriate.