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Answer:
  • Generally speaking, every organisation that employs staff must take out Employers Liability Insurance. The Charity Commission gives details of the insurance that charitable organisations must have: Charities and insurance - GOV. UK.
  • As an employer you must provide a workplace pension scheme. The Charity Commission gives this guidance: Set up and manage a workplace pension scheme: Employers and eligible staff - GOV.UK. For further information see the Pensions Regulator: New employers / The Pensions Regulator.
  • If your organisation works with children or vulnerable adults you must safeguard them.
  • You must comply with health and safety legislation (the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999) and protect your employees and others from harm. The Health and Safety Executive provides detailed guidance and risk assessment templates: Managing risks and risk assessment at work – Overview -HSE.
  • If your employees use computer screens daily for more than an hour you must do a workstation assessment. The Health and Safety Executive has a template which you can use: Display screen equipment (DSE) workstation checklist. You must also provide an eye test for regular computer users and glasses if an employee needs them only for that use.
  • Every employee must have a contract before they start, which sets out the main terms of their employment. This can be verbal but it’s good practice to put something in writing – you could use the template that ACAS provides: Templates for written statements | ACAS.
Answer:

Before you employ someone you will need to:

  • Have the right written policies which set out how any employees will be treated, protected and how you expect them to behave. The key ones are grievance, disciplinary, capability, safeguarding and code of conduct. There are a number of free templates available such as a code of conduct template from Charity Excellence: Charity Staff and Volunteer Code of Conduct Template and this grievance policy template from ACAS: Example grievance procedure / Acas. NCVO members can access their sample disciplinary procedure here: Sample disciplinary procedure | NCVO.
  • You should also consider writing policies on recruitment and equality, equity, diversity and inclusion.
  • Think about what it is you want the new person to do. Write a job description and person specification which sets out the duties of the role and the kind of skills and experience you are looking for. ACAS has a template which you can use to start: Job description templates / Acas. Include only the skills and experience which are necessary for the role so that you open it up to as many candidates as possible. Try to avoid gendered language and jargon. You can use an online tool to help with this: Gender Decoder: find subtle bias in job ads. Talk about your organisation, the work it does and why it’s a good place to work. As well as salary, say if there are any other benefits such as flexible working.
  • Consider and explain the working arrangements for the job, including how many hours per week the person will need to work, their holiday entitlement, duration of the contract, and any expectations around home working and evening/ weekend work.
  • Decide how much you are going to pay and what the hours will be. There is a legal minimum wage and many organisations choose to use London Living Wage as a minimum. Look at Tower Hamlets CVS and Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets websites to see what similar organisations are paying. You can also look at the annual salary surveys from recruiters such as Harris Hill and Charity Job. You should try to build realistic pay into your funding applications – it is important that people are paid fairly according to their skills and experience.
  • Identify what kind of employment is appropriate. There are several different kinds of status, including employee, worker or self-employed. There are rules around each of these – you can’t simply choose. This can be complicated, and there are more details here: Employment status and employment rights - GOV.UK. If you are unsure ACAS can give telephone advice through their helpline: Tel: 0300 123 1100 (Monday – Friday, 8.00am - 6.00pm). You can also use the government’s online tool, to help you decide the person’s employment status for tax purposes.
  • Make sure you have the right systems in place to be able to calculate and pay people’s wages, contribute to their pension, and make and pay the appropriate monthly tax and national insurance deductions.
Answer:

It can be useful to have a recruitment policy which sets out how you will recruit. It’s an important area to get right, both to ensure that you are not discriminating against anyone and to make sure that you get the right person for the job. There is a lot of information about how to make your recruitment as inclusive as possible. CIPD offers guidance here: Inclusive recruitment: Guide for employers / CIPD.

Write an advert for the role. Try to give an honest idea of what it involves and what kind of skills and experience you are looking for. It’s best to include the kind of employment you are offering, the length of the contract and the salary. NCVO gives guidance on this: Designing the role / NCVO.

Set a deadline that will allow people enough time to submit high quality applications. One month usually gives enough time.

Decide how you want people to apply. Some organisations ask applicants to fill in a form, whilst others ask for a CV and cover letter.

It is common to ask applicants to submit some equalities information about themselves at the same time as providing their application. Any personal details should only be used to help you assess the reach of your application process, should be kept separately to the applications, and should not feature in your decision making process.

Then you need to get the word out

  • Tower Hamlets CVS has a jobs page advertising a wide range of jobs and opportunities in voluntary and community groups in Tower Hamlets. It is free for members (and membership is free).
  • Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets has a page which advertises volunteer management roles and volunteer opportunities in Tower Hamlets.
  • Voluntary and community groups can advertise their vacancies for free on the council’s jobs portal. You can do that by emailing employers@towerhamlets.gov.uk.
  • Charity Job offers adverts which can reach a wider audience than Tower Hamlets (although you have to pay for them) and are particularly useful if there is a role that you are finding it hard to fill.
Answer:
  • Once the deadline has passed and all applications are received, read through all of them and narrow them down to a shortlist of those you want to interview.
  • Shortlisting and interviewing are usually done by a panel of people from your organisation, which can include some managers and some trustees. Having the same group of people look at the applications means they will all get the same consideration. Having diverse perspectives and experiences on the panel can help to balance out personal biases that sometimes happen when the work is done by just one person.
  • Shortlisting should assess how well an applicant’s application meets the person specification and/or is a good fit for the job description. It can help to use a scoring process to help with this.
Answer:

Many organisations do not reply to people who apply for jobs but it's always a good idea to let people know if they have not got an interview. At interview it’s best practice to treat all candidates the same, and a good way to do that is to decide on a list of questions (based on what you asked for in the person specification). You can then ask each candidate the same questions so you can compare the effectiveness of candidates’ answers to questions. If you are making notes in the interview you should keep them neutral as candidates can request to see them. They should be kept for a period defined in your data protection policy. Always ask if a candidate needs any adjustments to the interview to enable them to take part.

  • Interviews should be warm and welcoming. One way to help candidates feel at ease is to provide the questions 24 hours beforehand
  • Make sure you allow enough time for each interview, and for any tests or presentations you might ask candidates to complete. Build in some time for candidates to ask questions of the panel, and for the panel to discuss their decision.
  • NCVO gives some guidance on shortlisting and interviewing here: Shortlisting and interviewing for the role / NCVO.
Answer:

Starting work is a critical time, so it’s important to get things right. Spend some time thinking about what you want that person to do, what their objectives are, who they need to know, and what equipment they need.

Set up an induction. This means planning the first couple of weeks. Take the new starter through their contract, health & safety (fire exits, evacuation procedure, first aiders and first aid box), who their line manager is, IT arrangements, who to go to if they have questions and an introduction to colleagues. Starting a new job can be one of the most stressful life experiences, so do everything you can to make someone feel welcome especially in those first few weeks. A nice idea is to take them out for lunch with colleagues. Ask about any disabilities and reasonable adjustments they need. ACAS has a template to review that: Reasonable adjustments review template | Acas.

Answer:

There is detailed guidance on paying employees here: Payroll - GOV.UK. Paying employees should be done by someone suitably qualified who understands employment law.

You should always research providers and seek quotations to make sure you get a service that is suitable for your needs.

Answer:
The probationary period is a period of time (often six months) which acts as a trial period and should be specified in a contract. It is good practice to end the probationary period with a review meeting looking at what’s gone well, what could have gone better and what that person’s objectives are for the coming year. Any issues around a new employee’s capability, performance or conduct should be raised before the end of the probationary period (not for the first time at the review meeting), and this probationary period can be extended in writing if necessary.
Answer:

Every person who works for you needs a clear understanding of what they are supposed to be doing. This helps your organisation to achieve its goals, supports the person to do their best and ultimately creates happier teams. Everyone should have clear, short and long term objectives, and these should reflect some of the organisation’s objectives. If you have organisational values these should be included as well.

Book in regular 1-1 supervisions with your employee. Use a template so you remember to ask them the right questions. Record what is said in writing. This gives greater clarity on what has been agreed and avoids disputes.

Support your employees to perform well. CIPD has tools and guidance on performance management: Performance Management Factsheets / CIPD.

Answer:

You should make sure that your employees have the skills to do their jobs and to continue learning and thriving. CIPD offers a number of resources to identify and develop talented people: Talent management Factsheets / CIPD. It’s also really important that your line managers know how they can best support the employees they are managing:

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