Recruiting and hiring

When employing staff you must:

• decide how much to pay them – you must pay your employees at least the National Minimum Wage

• check if they have the right to work in the UK

• apply for a criminal records check (disclosure) if you work in a field that requires it, for example with vulnerable people or children

• get employers' liability insurance as soon as you become an employer

• send details of the job (including terms and conditions) in writing to your employees

• register as an employer with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – you can do this up to 4 weeks before you pay your new staff

Ways of employing staff

There are a number of different ways to find and employ staff for your business.

Find guidance on Business Gateway for employing people, including: 

• recruiting full or part-time employees
• fixed-term contracts
• agency workers, freelancers and outside contractors

Equality monitoring

You do not have to track how many job applications you get from different groups of people, or the characteristics of the people working for you.

If you collect personal information (like ethnicity, gender, faith, sexuality) about job applicants or staff, you must protect their data.

You must not discriminate against a candidate based on their personal information. Find out how to prevent recruitment discrimination on GOV.UK.

Checking 'right to work' documents

You must check that a job applicant is allowed to work in the UK before you employ them.

Find out how to check a job applicant's right to work on GOV.UK.

Recruiting young people

You can get help recruiting young people if your business joins the Young Person's Guarantee. The Young Person's Guarantee aims to connect people aged between 16-24 with an opportunity. This could be a job, apprenticeship or volunteering. By signing up to the guarantee, you get ongoing support from your local Developing the Young Workforce team. 

Find out about the Young Person's Guarantee at Skills Development Scotland. 

Certificate of Work Readiness

The Certificate of Work Readiness is an SQA Qualification. It can help you to recruit young people with the right skills in a cost-effective way.

It also allows young people to show the value they bring to the workplace.

The Certificate takes around 10 weeks to complete and includes a minimum of 190 hours work experience. This helps them earn an SQA qualification which proves they have the right experience. You then have the confidence that you're hiring a young person who knows how to perform their role.

Find out about Certificate of Work Readiness at Skills Development Scotland.

Child employment

The youngest age a child can work part-time is 13, except children involved in areas like television, theatre and modelling.

They can only start full-time work when they reach the minimum school leaving age.

Find out more about child employment on GOV.UK.

Recruiting disabled people

The job specification (or requirements) of a vacancy cannot exclude disabled people from applying.

However, some jobs may have an essential requirement which cannot be met with a reasonable adjustment.

Find out more about recruiting disabled people on GOV.UK. 

Employing people with convictions

Most convictions become 'spent' after a certain amount of time, which means they will not be shown on basic disclosures.

Employers should not turn someone down for a job because of a spent conviction.

Job applicants usually do not have to tell employers about spent convictions. However, some spent convictions have to be disclosed on higher level disclosures.