[Gary Humphreys]

For a few years now I have been thinking about taking on a lad/young person to help out but Jan and Feb slack periods and the odd slack week throughout the year put me off. I do think that as well as making the job easier,I could use a lad to knock out 30/40 leaflets after each job or pack away while I visit neighbouring business's to try and get more work.
Who has taken anyone on and uses them this way and has it been a benefit or a responsibility worth avoiding?
Would be interested in your experiences.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Apparently you can get an 18-21 year old who is on job seekers to work with you for free, not sure how but it'll be on a www.governement site somewhere, my mate has just got one and providing he turns up for work he gets his allowances paid.

Shaun

[Jim_77]

My worry would be what sort of quality of employee are you going to get through that though?!!

[Gary Humphreys]

I dont have a lot of patiience at the best of times so looking after a ''young person'' and explaining things over and over would be hard for me. So thats one of my fears also getting a thieving little git who creates more problems. These are all negatives of course. Does anyone have any positives experiences?

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Yes, positive experience. As I've been thinking exactly the same

You get what you pay for so you may get a better quality helper if you are prepared to pay more than minimum wage.

What you need to arrange is a "Zero Hours" contract. You offer your helper work and they can choose to accept or reject the hours offered. this means that when it's quiet you don't need the help and therefore you have no fixed costs to pay. The downside is that any good worked is unlikely to stick around for long if you leave long gaps between offereing them work.

O and you are legally obliged to pay holiday pay but that is not as bad as it sounds. Speak to the FPB or a solicitor who specialies in Employment law about it.

Rog

[Shaun_Ashmore]

The trick is to keep them motivated, you could have a bonus system ontop of basic wage, ie

Attendance bonus, if the person attends ever day of the week on time they get an extra £XX
Pay them extra at the end of the week if they work extra hours, keep a note of start and finish times everyday.

Most motivators are cash incentives but you could change to time off so if they work hard everyday for a min wage set by you then you could give them January off with pay.

Shaun

[Gary Humphreys]

And an extra payment for any jobs that come from leaflet distributing. All these ideas are good.

[Andrew Briscoe]

Regarding holidays, you could say the business closes during winter,
ie from 24 th Dec for 2 or 3 weeks and that they must take their holidays then.

He could then spend time the week or two after delivering leaflets,
solidly for a week, etc

Hopefully bringing work in for the end of Jan.

I was sent a guy the other week to re train, he was 55
tattoos on his neck,arms knuckles etc, and a pony tail
i was offered him for free, just to get him back used to work.
He made up all sorts of excuses why he couldnt do it,
didnt have the heart to tell him i wouldnt take him on anyway.

Andrew

i did have a guy worked for me , 60 yr old ex chem dry op, he was brill, now retired

[garyfindlay]

The way this governments going you`ll have to pay them to take someone on.

[derek west]

The way this governments going you`ll have to pay them to take someone on.

i'm afraid you all ready do pay the guv to take someone on, your NI goes up.

[PaulKing]

glad you said it i was thinking it.

[Mike Halliday]

if you are serious about growing your business then 2 things are inevitable, you will have to become VAT REG'D & you will have to take on a helper who can eventually can go out and clean solo.

I've worked as a 2 man team for 3 yrs, going back to being by myself would be like going back to using a portable from my truckmount.....  I would never consider it

[Gary Humphreys]

Glad for your positivity Mike