Being in business can be a daunting proposition. The owner of a small business has to be a Jack (or Jill) of all trades, or at least be across what is supposed to be happening in all aspects of their business. It’s easy to hire a new employee and plan to get back to complete all the paperwork required, but a crisis will strike and it goes to the bottom of the ‘to-do’ list. How do you get the paperwork right when you’re hiring a new employee?

Don’t reinvent the wheel

There are a ton of forms and guides out there but which one should you use? Do you contact your accountant or lawyer to get them to draft something? Well you can, or you can just go to the Fair Work Ombudsman’s website and find what you need.

They have a wide range of templates and guides on all sorts of documents you will need to recruit, sign up and administer your new staff member. Everything from working out what you’ll put into the job description and job ad through every phase to termination (if or when that happens). It can cover you in most eventualities, at little cost (your time, paper and ink).

You can easily download portable document format (pdf) or word versions of every form. Then you just need to type in the pertinent information, print it out and get it signed – job done.

It’s not just easy – it might save your bacon

If you work for a large organisation this is all handled by the Human Resources department. But when you’re in small business most of the time it’s down to you. So to make sure you don’t get yourself into strife, particularly if things go sour. There are templates to keep everything straight on both sides. It can also prove that you did your due diligence along the way.

There are templates for:

Employing staff, pay slips and record-keeping, hours of work, balancing work and family (leave forms etc), managing performance, managing underperformance and ending employment.

Actually there is too much to list here. But there are also Best Practice guides which will help you establish your workplace policies on things like bullying, code of conduct and health and safety. Working your way through these guides can save you big dollars in the long run.

So get it right, you’ll be glad you did.

Go here for a list of templates and guides on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

As with all areas of your business, if you have a specific issue consult a professional for further advice.

Follow this link to read a previous article which highlights why these forms are important.