Are You Employing People? Looking to Employ?  – Newsletter, August 2018

 

Are You Employing People? Looking To Employ?

This month we’re focusing on employment – why employ people, how to employ people e.g. advertising for employees, how to vet prospective employees, what to do once you’ve chosen your ideal candidate(s), and what to do going forward e.g. employer filings, PAYE, KiwiSaver, etc.

A lot of business owners think they know the ropes when it comes to employing people, especially if they’ve been in business 15+ years. There are constantly changes in “best practice” and also changes within employment law and tax filing, which you need to ensure you’re staying on-top of the updates and implementing the changes within your business. Also, employing people 10 years’ ago was a lot different to how it is now – especially with social media available for employer’s to check out prospective employees (key question here though, is does it really give you the overall, real picture of the person, or simply a persona they’ve created for an online space?).

In this newsletter, we’ll talk about steps to consider when a vacancy arises in your business and the legal stuff – including tax obligations, like Employer Filing and KiwiSaver.

We will discuss parts of our newsletter in more depth over on our blog and/or Facebook page – so make sure you are “following” us on our blog and Facebook so you don’t miss anything. Use the buttons below to link to our blog and Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First Steps – A Vacancy Has Opened Within Your Business and You Need It Filled, So What Now?

There is a lot to do when it comes to finding a new employee, or new employees, which can be daunting – especially if you’re filling a gap left by a highly capable, long-serving member of staff that you don’t really want to leave but, if they absolutely must, then you want their replacement to be as good as them! Which, let’s face it, is unrealistic, and by having this view you really limit your future employee prospects – we’ll talk more about this further on.

So, the vacancy has opened up, and you need someone to fill the vacancy – what do you do to get this done? Below is a list of the steps you’ll need to take:

1) Plan the process
This entails:

• Deciding a date you ideally want the position filled by, to base the following dates upon;
• Deciding when (and where) to advertise the job;
• Deciding on a cut-off date for applications;
• Deciding on a date for interviews (and, possibly a back-up date for those applicants you may really, really want to interview but, unfortunately, they can’t make the date you originally put aside to interview);
• Deciding on a date to make a decision by – this could be a short-list date, with a second round of interviews then booked, or it could be the final decision;
• Deciding on a date to tell the successful applicant they’ve got the job, and the others they don’t;
• Deciding on an initial meeting date – informal discussion about the role, show the “newbie” around the office, discuss paperwork, book a date and time to complete paperwork/induction/issue uniform/etc;
• Deciding on the on-boarding process once your new staff member starts, e.g. what do they need to know, by when, and who is to teach them.

A good aide when planning the process in regards to dates as mentioned above is to have an A4 calendar with upcoming events already penciled in so you have an overview of what’s coming up and, therefore, what dates you need to avoid or work around within the hiring process.
[To replace a long-serving staff member means a “newbie” has to come in  and have time to learn and grow and fill the void with their own personality and way of getting things done. By expecting to find a carbon copy of your departing staff member, you’re closing your eyes to all the possibilities that await that may, if given the chance, actually exceed your wants and expectations. So, keep this in mind when writing your job description, description of ideal candidate, and when interviewing.]

2) Make sure you describe the job, and develop a job description

You’ll need to have a clear idea of:

• • The job to be done;
  • The hours and place of work;
  • The knowledge, personal characteristics, skills, experience, and qualifications required (or desired);
  • Training and development to be provided (if any);
  • Decide on your level of flexibility for preferred candidates – e.g. if the best applicant turns out to only be available between 0900 and 1500, will you make allowances for this? And, if so, will these allowances be for a short time to allow them to organise alternative arrangements to be able to fill the role’s expected hours, or will the allowances be ongoing?

 

You must know the above in order to write a detailed job description. How do you write a job description? There’s no set way; however, basic guidelines on what to include in a job description are:

• • Identify your business and its focus – you could include your company’s mission statement, values and so on;
  • Identify core tasks and responsibilities;
  • Describe the reporting lines of the job – who are they going to report to? Will anyone be reporting to them?;
  • Describe any minimum legal or educational requirements;
  • Describe ideal personal skills, knowledge and attributes;
  • Include performance measures for the job;
  • Include any authority the position has (financial and people);
  • What type of employment is being offered – full-time, part-time, permanent, casual, or fixed-term? (Note: There are legal requirements for each of these, which you must be aware of as the terms need to be within the employment agreement and agreed upon and, any changes made at a later date must be agreed upon with the employee – so be sure you know exactly what type of employment you’re offering from the outset);
  • Hours and place of work;
  • Salary (this is not a requirement, and many businesses do not list the salary offered for the position but choose to discuss this at a later date such as when interviewing. However, listing the salary on the job description may help you weed out applicants who you may take through to the interview stage only for the applicant to decline the position due to the offered salary).

 

3) Preparing a job advertisement

What do you include in a job advertisement? Firstly, it needs to be written in a way which reflects the personality of the company and also attracts the ideal candidate. To help you find the right writing style, think of how you communicate with your clients as you’d want the ideal candidate to communicate in a similar way. Also, think about the age of the candidate you’re trying to attract and use language accordingly.

Many people overlook that the job advertisement is advertising the company from the applicant’s point of view. Job advertisements that talk use terms like “are you looking for?”, “would you like a job that..”, which can really show you are thinking about the applicant as a person.

Other things to include are core parts of the job description, such as:

• • • Identify your business and its focus;
    • Identify core tasks and responsibilities;
    • Describe any minimum legal or educational requirements;
    • Describe ideal personal skills, knowledge and attributes;
    • What type of employment is being offered – full-time, part-time, permanent, casual, or fixed-term?;
    • Hours and place of work;
    • Salary.

   

Also, consider including interview date(s). Putting this in the job advertisement can help you to make allowances for those that may not be able to make the chosen date but end up being preferred candidates. If you know upon application they cannot make the specific date, you have more time to organise alternate dates.

You’ll also need to include an application form (if required); usually, employers will ask for a current CV or Resume with a Cover Letter which explains, briefly, why they want the position, why they are a good fit, and to convince you to look at their CV/Resume.

Next, you’ve got interviews and deciding on your new employee! We won’t go into detail on those parts here, however below are some links to some excellent information to assist you:
1) Employment.govt.nz – How To Hire
2) New Zealand Human Rights Commission – A-Z Pre-Employment Guide for Employers and Employees
3) Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – Overview of the Hiring Process
4) Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – Hiring an Employee
5) Inland Revenue – First-Time Employer’s Guide
6) Inland Revenue – Employer’s Guide

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Legal Requirements For Employers

• Employee deductions
  • For all of the required deductions, the first thing you need to do is make sure your new employee(s) complete a Tax Code Declaration form (IR330) – then you’ll know the correct amounts of the following to deduct. Have a look at the information on Tax Codes on Inland Revenue’s website here.
    • • You must deduct income tax (PAYE) from employee’s wages and pay these deductions and file both the Employer Monthly Schedule (IR348) and the Employer Deductions (IR345) forms to Inland Revenue. You can choose to do either Payday Filing, where you pay and file on each payday (in which case you do not submit an IR348, but rather your Employment Information along with the Employer Deductions (IR345) form, with payment), or you can do it once or twice monthly (depending on the total amount of wages you pay monthly) – click to read more about Filing returns and making payments.
      • You must deduct KiwiSaver Contributions, if your employee is a member of KiwiSaver and, if they are, you will also need to pay an Employer’s Contribution which is a minimum of 3% of their annual wage. You can view Inland Revenue’s KiwiSaver Employer Guide (KS4) here. Inland Revenue also have a handy page on their website which details what you need to do for new employee’s in regards to KiwiSaver and they also have a page detailing what you need to do if an employee decides to opt-out of KiwiSaver.
      • You must also deduct Student Loan repayments (this is part of their PAYE – their tax code will show if they are a Student Loan payer – take a look at the handy tips on Inland Revenue’s website here) and Child Support payments if your employee is liable for either, or both, of these. For Child Support payments, you do not need to do anything until Inland Revenue contacts you – for further information on Child Support, look at Inland Revenue’s website here.

     

• Employment responsibilities
  • The absolute basic employment responsibilities are, “the employer and employee:”
    • have to act and deal with each other in good faith;
    • have a responsibility not to act against the trust and confidence which is in all employment relationships;
    • should act reasonably towards one another.
    • Source: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
  • For more information about employment responsibilities, visit the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s website.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

---