Are you a successful entrepreneur hiring your first employee? Congratulations!

Now Here are some things you should consider:

Letter of Offer

Provide your new employee with a letter outlining the terms of their employment. Your new employee should sign the letter, confirming they understand and accept what your company is offering. The employee should keep the original and you should retain a copy on file.

Employment Contract

CFIB has helpful information when hiring an employee, including a sample Employment Contract. Be sure to look at "Reducing Employment Termination Exposure " .

Sometimes it's not clear whether a worker is an employee or self-employed. For clarification on this, check out the Canada Revenue Agency document Employee or Self-Employed and the information CFIB collaboratively worked on with the BC government on the subject.

Payroll

You'll need to open an account with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for the payroll deductions you have to make from your employee's pay cheque. To open an account contact Canada Revenue Agency at 1 800 959-5525 or register online. You must have your employee complete a TD-1 form in order to determine how much income tax to deduct.

There is also a requirement for the BC Tax form. You'll need to make the other required deductions from your employee's wages, such as Income Tax, Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

Some of these deductions have an employer's portion that must be paid. CRA has an on-line payroll deductions calculator to help you determine these deductions.

Workers Compensation and Occupational Health and Safety

You may need to open an account with Workers Compensation and pay premiums on behalf of your employee. These premiums must be paid by the employer and cannot be deducted from the employee's wages. To determine the requirements in BC please see the fact sheet produced by the BC WCB on "Do I have to register?"

When you have employees, it is important to be aware of Occupational Health & Safety regulations in the workplace.

Check for information on Occupational Health & Safety in BC for guidelines or requirements or for an overview see CFIB's web post on the rules for all new and young workers in the workplace. A call to your CFIB Business Counsellor can bring OH&S policy templates to your email address to help your business comply with legislation.

Employment Standards

As an employer you need to know about Employment Standards. These are the rules governing an employee's employment with you. They include vacation pay, regular hours, when to pay overtime, breaks, general holidays and more. You can visit the BC Government Employment Standards webpage or see our various web posts on the most commonly asked Employment Standards questions.

OK - now that you're ready to expand your business, follow these simple steps with your first hire, and continue to grow successfully!