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You're the Boss
Most businesses need employees to help with day-to-day operations. While hiring employees can certainly make it easier to get all the work done, even having a single employee can make operating your business more complicated.
We want to help you understand these issues because, as an employer, you are strengthening our community by creating jobs for others.
Hiring for the Needs of Your Business
Before hiring, determine how many employees you need and what specific jobs must be filled. Hiring the right number of employees is critical, especially during the early years of your business. If you hire too many employees, you may not be able to pay them, too few and you may not be able to meet the demands of your customers.
Legal and Financial Issues
Before you can pay your employees you'll need to set up a payroll plan and create a payroll account. You'll need to make deductions from their paycheques for income tax, employment insurance and federal pension plans. You also have to pay Worker's Compensation costs to protect your employees in the event they are injured while on the job. Because of the many new issues involved, you should seriously consider hiring a professional accountant or outsourcing to a payroll administration company.
Effective Management
In order to effectively manage your employees you'll need to establish work rules and policies. Maintain an open dialogue with all of your employees, and be prepared to discipline employees should they break with your policy. All of these rules, and any disagreements arising from them, should be recorded in order to prevent your company from being held liable for the actions of an employee.
The importance of managing your employees can't be overstated. Your employees aren't merely extra sets of hands; they are an investment in your company. If your employees are happy, and enjoy their work, they'll do their jobs more effectively. If they appreciate your business and its aims and policies, they're more likely to remain your employees for a long time.
Though it's of paramount importance to pay all of your bills in an accurate and timely fashion, the fact is your employees rely upon and plan around their payment schedule. Even a 'minor' delay of a single day in receiving a paycheque can cause an employee serious hardship. Should such delays happen repeatedly, employee morale will drop, your employees may quit with little or no notice, and they may even report you to the Better Business Bureau.
Payroll Deductions
Payroll isn't simply a matter of multiplying hourly wage by hours worked, or even of issuing regular cheques for salaried employees. There are literally dozens of factors that figure in to a single paycheque. You need to know the regulations for overtime and vacation pay. You need to know how to make deductions for income tax, employment insurance and federal and provincial pension plans. You will need to pay worker's compensation costs to cover your employees in case they are injured.
Your Payroll Plan
Unless you are a professional accountant, it's probably not a good idea to do your payroll yourself. There are numerous software packages that make payroll easier, but you'll still need good accounting skills, regardless of your choice of software. The decision to hire an accountant or outsource your payroll will be based largely on the overall size of your company. The advantage of having an accountant handle your payroll is that all of your finances will be consolidated. The disadvantage is payroll can be a lot of work, and as your business grows you may end up having to outsource payroll anyway.
Outsourcing Payroll
There are numerous companies that provide payroll service as their principal business. They rarely make mistakes, and you can rest assured they will account for everything and will be in full compliance with all federal and provincial regulations, no matter how complex your payroll structure.
Deciding on the payroll structure that is best for you and your employees is a critical step. Ideally, you want to maximize your administrative efficiency while minimizing costs. It pays to investigate all of the options in order to implement a payroll plan that will work for you now, and into the future. We're here to help.
Becoming an Employer
If your business becomes too large to run by yourself, you may need to hire extra personnel. The first step to becoming an employer is to get a Business Number, which will allow you to deduct income tax, Canada Pension Plan contributions and Employment Insurance premiums from your employee's wages. There are many rules and regulations to adhere to as an employer; make sure you comply with all of them before you bring new people on board.
Hiring: What to Look For
Of course you want to hire someone who can get the job done, but you also want someone you can get along with. You must be careful, however, when you interview potential employees. Avoid asking personal questions in an interview and stick to topics that relate directly to the duties you'll be asking them to perform. If you ask personal questions in an interview, and then give the job to someone else, you could be accused of discrimination.
It's also not a good idea to hire the cheapest labour you can get. It can be more expensive in the long run when you consider the supervision they may need, the training you have to provide and the rate of turnover that often accompanies low wage employees. It's a much better plan to hire more costly and more qualified workers who will get the job done right without any headaches.
Don't rush the hiring process. It's better to spend plenty of time and interview a lot of people than it is to hire the first qualified person that comes in the door. If you hire the right person the first time, the extra time spent will pay off – for you and your new employee.
Where to Look
There are a lot of options available to employers when looking for new personnel. Both the provincial and federal government have programs in place to put workers and businesses together, and there are many private employment services that can help you find the right candidate. The one method that has proven most effective overall to find employees is through referrals, acquaintances and other employees. In these cases, a lot of the initial screening process has been done for you. And best of all, it's free.
Small business owners have a range of options to successfully sell their business and reap the rewards of their hard work. Owners who hope to sell their business often must provide transferable equity to the prospective buyer, including the likelihood of retaining key employers.
To keep your top performers loyal to the business, you could offer comprehensive group benefits or employer-sponsored retirement plans. Through our partnership with Aviso Insurance Inc.* we can provide a group benefits plan that retains these key assets.
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