As the owner of your own business, you have a great deal of freedom. You can choose your own hours, and work wherever suits you. You can choose how much salary to take, and how much to invest back into your business. How fast your business grows and which markets you choose to branch out into are all down to you as well. As soon as you start hiring staff, you will find yourself in the middle of dozens of regulations and legislation designed to protect your employees’ interests. You need to uphold the law, and you need to do it in the right way.
Once you have started to take on staff, you need some permanent office accommodation for your business. You may have worked from home before or been entirely mobile. With staff, you must provide them good quality premises from which to work. You may also need to ensure it is appropriate for members of the public or customers to visit as well. As such, you need to ensure you are up to date and familiar with health and safety regulations, and that you provide full accessibility in and around the building.
Some older buildings have heavy fire doors that are difficult for some people to open. You could try to install a fire door retainer to aid with accessibility. Ramps for access from street level are essential these days, and railings can be fitted quite easily to ensure further safety. There are other considerations within the building to think about too. You need to ensure your IT systems can be easily altered to cater for any sight impairments or difficulty with operating keyboards or a mouse.
It can be easy to get lost in all the requirements for health and safety, equality and accessibility. You are legally responsible as an employer and business owner, but you can take some of the weight off your shoulders by recruiting a specialist. You could also speak to a firm to undertake your compliance on your behalf. This can be quite expensive ongoing. Training up an employee to take responsibility may be a better option ongoing. Whichever way you choose to go, the responsibility will fall to you ultimately, so it is better to improve your own knowledge and understanding too.
Taking on staff means your business can grow rapidly, and you can utilize the extra knowledge your employees bring into the firm. You are required by law to advertise these positions fairly and recruit without any prejudice. You may be looking for the best personality fit for you. You cannot refuse an applicant on the grounds of any disability, health condition, race or lifestyle preferences. You need to be sure you are recruiting the best candidate for the job regardless of who they are. If you are in any doubt about interviewing process or employee contracts, there are plenty of helpful tips online. There are also recruitment agencies who can manage much of the process on your behalf. Take the time to look after your new staff, and they will look after your business growth.