Advice on hiring casual staff - pet care company

[The Dog House (Watford)]

Hi there, thanks for reading this thread.

I currently run a small business providing dog walking and pet services. We are slowly growing and now need to consider employing a casual worker to cover all of our customers requests. The hours that will be offered will vary from week to week depending on the business's needs and so flexibility is a must.

This will be my first venture into employing staff but obviously as the business grows, I hope this will just be the starting point so I want to set the standard now and get it right first time.

I am looking for advise on the best option to approach employing a casual worker - as the days / hours are to be negotiated each week, will they be classed as self employed?

From experience have you found it best to pay them the "going rate" for the job worked eg I charge a customer £13 for a 1 hour dog walk, should I pay the worker the £13, a mid point amount of say £7.50 or allow them to be paid in full by the customer then claim a percentage back from the employee?

All advice will be most welcome.

 

[Scalloway]

It is dangerous taking on some one to work for you as self employed as HMRC may decide that they are really employees and make you pay the tax you should have deducted. A zero hours contract may be the answer.

You can check if your proposal is likely to be employment by using this tool from HMRC.

https://www.gov.uk/employment-status-indicator

 

[PuddlePayroll]

I agree with Scalloway a zero hour contract may be your solution. They get a lot of bad press but as long as both parties are both clear and happy with the agreement that there is no obligation to offer work then it would be ideal.

 

[Newchodge]

You need to stay in control both of the employee and the clients. If the employee getrs paid by the client and then pays you a percentage, you may find you don't get the percentage and you lose the client to the employee.

You need a proper zero hours contract, under which you offer hours to the employee every week, which they can accept or refuse. You need to pay them an hourly rate that is, at least, minimum wage (currently £6.50 per hour for over 21's), you need to pay them for their holidays. You need a contract that prevents them stealing your clients.

If you would like help with threse things, please feel free to drop me a PM.

 

[BustersDogs]

I run a dog walking company with staff, and they are employed on zero hours contracts. It works for both of us, as I build up the work for them, but they are always free to say no - some of the staff don't want to walk certain dogs, which I accept as long as there is someone who doesn't mind! So they don't work through their own choice they don't get the hours, and therefore not the money. It also means my single parent staff member can ask for less hours during school holidays without having to faff about with 'flexible working' rules.

I pay an hourly rate, not per dog, otherwise if I only had one dog for them to walk they might not feel like getting out of bed for £7.50. They get all the holiday pay and even sick pay, which is 'expensive', but if you're charging the right amount for your services you will still make a profit.

You will need to ensure a robust cancellation policy with your customers though, as if I book my staff for work and the customer cancels I still pay the staff, as I've booked them. So the customer still has to pay me (or I take the hit).

When I read what rights a self employed person would have (ie the right to send someone else to do the work) I really don't want that happening! I also want to be in full control of when a dog is walked - if two dogs have booked solo walks 3 hours apart I don't want a dog walker taking them out together.

 

[The Dog House (Watford)]

Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to reply - I really appreciate your input. You have definitely given me some points to consider. I guess a zero hours contract is the way forward.

 

[carl.atkinson]

I think that the technical answer to your question is that you might be able to structure this arrangement as self employment if the "employees" personal circumstances were suitable (basically the "employee" would have to be a contractor), but it would probably not be worth the cost, risk, hassle and the more attractive option would be the zero hours contract.