Hiring Your First Employee: A Guide for Tradespeople.

You have responsibilities before day one. In order:

1. Check they'll really be an employee, not self employed.
2. Work out the full cost, not just the wage.
3. Check their right to work in the UK, before they start.
4. Register as an employer with HMRC and set up payroll.
5. Get Employers' Liability insurance.
6. Give them their written terms.
7. Set up a workplace pension, if they qualify.
8. Check the risks of the job, and plan their first month.

• PAYE: Pay As You Earn, the system for taking tax and National Insurance out of wages.
• Payroll: working out and paying wages, and reporting them to HMRC.
• Employer National Insurance: a tax you pay on top of your employee's wages.
• Employment Allowance: a yearly amount many small employers can take off their employer National Insurance bill.
• National Living Wage: the legal minimum hourly pay for workers aged 21 and over.
• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): the minimum you must pay an employee who's off sick.
• Workplace pension: a pension you must set up and pay into for staff who qualify, sometimes called auto enrolment.
• Right to work check: checking someone is legally allowed to work in the UK.
• Written terms: the document setting out their job, pay, hours and holidays.

More than their wage:

• Employer National Insurance
• Pension
• Holiday and other paid leave
• Sick pay
• Insurance
• Payroll and paperwork
• Tools, PPE, van and training
• Your time supervising, and time they can't be charged out
• Quiet weeks

For 2026 to 2027:

• Employer National Insurance is 15% on earnings over £5,000 a year.
• Many small employers can claim the Employment Allowance, which takes up to £10,500 off the employer National Insurance bill (not if the only employee is a director).
• The National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for anyone 21 or over, from April 2026, with lower rates for younger workers and apprentices.
• Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week, or 80% of their average weekly earnings if that's lower. Since April 2026, it's paid from the first day off sick.

Only if that's genuinely how they work. Calling someone self employed doesn't make them so. It depends on how they actually work: who controls the work, whether they can send someone else, whether you have to offer work and they have to take it. Get advice if it's not clear.

Right to work

You must check they're allowed to work in the UK before you employ them: see their original documents with them present, or check online with a share code they give you. Keep copies while they work for you and for 2 years after, and note the date you checked. Skip it and you could face a civil penalty.

Insurance

Employers' Liability insurance of at least £5 million, from an authorised insurer. Without it, you can be fined £2,500 for every day you're not insured.

The rest

• Write the job down, and recruit fairly
• Register as an employer and set up payroll
• Give them their written terms
• Check the risks on the job and on the road
• Set up their workplace pension, if they qualify
• Keep their personal details safe

Who supervises them, what they need, and what they can and can't do on their own.

• Check the job is safe for their level of experience
• Give them their own logins, never yours
• Show them what to do in an emergency, and how to report problems
• Book regular check ins
• Note their training and what they're signed off on

Set safe ways of working, a trial period, the standard you expect, how to behave with customers, van and tool rules, how to report things, and who can approve spending or changes to a job.