Things to Think About Before You Hire Your First Employee

So business is booming to the point where you can’t keep up with all of your orders. It’s time to hire some help. This is great. Before you place that first help wanted ad, there are some things you need to think about before your hire your first employee. For starters, you’re going to need top notch software to help you keep up with all of your applicants. You will also need to make sure that you are following the law when it comes to having employees. Read the rest of this article for more ideas about what you need to think about before you hire your first employee:

Legal Things You Need To Think About
Before you hire your first employee, you need to make sure that you have your paperwork in order. There are things the government requires you to do before you hire an employee.  Here is a checklist of some things you’ll need to have in place before you hire your first employee:

• Employer Identification Number
• Register With Your State’s Labor Department
• Obtain Workers Compensation Insurance
• A Payroll System So You Can Withhold Taxes From Your Employees
• I-9 Forms For Each Employee
• File Taxes On Your Business
• Be Organized And Keep Up With Your Applicants

You will want to make sure you can keep up with where your applicants are in your hiring process. Using talent management software will help you with this. If you have a system in place to track your applicants, you can make sure that all your paperwork is in order and no one falls through the cracks.

Make Sure Your Office Is Safe For Your Employees
Another responsibility you will incur when you hire your first employee is safety. You have to make sure that your employees are going to be safe when they come to work. Nothing is going to make an employee quit faster than working in an unsafe environment. Furthermore, you risk having to deal with workers compensation claims if you don’t have a safe environment. Even if you just have people typing on computers, you have to make sure that your employees don’t suffer from eye strain, bad backs, or carpel tunnel. You need to make sure that your work environment is ergonomically correct.

Make sure that you provide the proper equipment so that your employees can keep themselves safe. Provide whatever gloves, goggles, or hard hats your employees may need so they can stay safe at work. If you don’t have these things in place, you could get in trouble with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Hiring your first employee is an exciting time. It is a sign of a profitable, growing business. Make sure you take your time now at the beginning of this journey. You don’t want to be in a position of having to pay to correct a mistake that could have been avoided. Using the right tools will help you make sure that you make the right decisions when it comes to growing your business.

Photo by Iurii Davydov | Shutterstock