Employment contracts for first employee

Hello! I am Gemma, a legal assistant at Lawyer Destroyer. Congratulations on hiring your first employee. This is an exciting step for your business, and I would be happy to explain exactly what documentation you need.

The legal position:

Under employment law in England and Wales, you are legally required to give your new hire a Written Statement of Employment Particulars.

Following changes to the law in recent years, you must give this written statement to them on or before their very first day of work. You can no longer wait a few weeks or until they have passed a probationary period.

What the written statement must include:

1. The names of your business and the employee.
2. The start date of their employment.
3. How much they will be paid and how often, for example weekly or monthly.
4. Their working hours and days, including any expected overtime or whether their shifts might vary.
5. Their holiday entitlement and holiday pay.
6. Any other benefits provided, such as sick pay or pension schemes.
7. The length of notice required by both sides to end the employment.
8. Their job title or a brief description of the role.
9. Their place of work.
10. Any mandatory training required for the role.
11. Details and conditions of any probationary period.

The practical reality:

While the written statement covers the strict legal minimum, most employers choose to put all of this information into a full Employment Contract. This is the most sensible practical step because a full contract protects your business as well as outlining the rights of the employee.

A good employment contract will cover all the mandatory points listed above, but will also include clauses to protect your commercial interests. For example, it is wise to add rules about keeping company information confidential, clarifying who owns the intellectual property of the work the employee creates, and adding restrictions to stop them taking your clients with them if they leave.

Other essential documents:

1. Disciplinary and grievance procedures. You must tell the employee in writing how to raise a grievance and how disciplinary matters will be handled. It is usually best to keep these procedures in a separate document, rather than the main contract, so you can update your processes easily in the future without needing to formally renegotiate the contract.

2. An employee privacy notice. Under data protection laws, you must explain to your new employee exactly how you will be collecting, using, keeping, and safely deleting their personal data, such as their bank details, emergency contacts, and sickness records.

Practical next steps:

1. Decide on the exact terms of the job, ensuring they meet the current legal minimums for the national minimum wage and holiday entitlement.
2. Prepare a standard written Employment Contract that contains all the required legal particulars and clearly sets out your commercial expectations.
3. Give this contract to your new employee before they start work, or on their first day at the latest, and ask them to sign and return a copy so you have a clear record.
4. Provide them with a copy of your disciplinary and grievance rules, alongside their privacy notice.

If you want a helpful starting point, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, widely known as ACAS, provides excellent free templates for written statements and contracts on their website. These are designed specifically for small businesses to ensure compliance with the law in England and Wales.

Please let me know if you would like me to explain any of these steps or documents in more detail!