Overview

Many people whom are setting up a new business already have the technical and product knowledge which will enable them to produce or provide their goods or services. A smaller proportion of them will also have acquired some basic sales or marketing skills along the way. Some may also have been involved with staff management and supervision, including the recruitment and selection process. Normally, however, unless they have worked for a relatively small organisation, they will have relied on the advice and support of a personnel specialist to guide them through the legal nightmare of the recruitment, selection, and employment legalities and processes. Even before the advent of the European Union, this was not a matter for the faint-hearted, but nowadays, the legal requirements and obligations demand an extensive and detailed knowledge of the subject to avoid the risk of being caught out and falling foul of the law just by overlooking the smallest of details. This may sound like bad news, but quite simply, employing people is now becoming a hazardous and difficult procedure that many small firms try to avoid. In spite of repeated government boasts about how small firms will be the employment growth area of the future, if the costs of employing staff and the red tape involved are allowed to become disproportionate to the benefits, then small firms will either avoid employing staff or just employ the bare minimum, which defeats the government policy; or they will employ people in the grey economy by...