The Taking on an Employee toolkit can be found on the Business Link website and takes employers through the process of hiring their first member of staff.
It explains the core legal obligations involved with taking on employees and includes information on setting pay, getting the right insurance, understanding tax requirements and checking a new employee’s right to work in the UK.
According to Lamb, the website was created following feedback to the government's Red Tape Challenge, which suggested that the current guidance was too complex.
He said: "For many one-person businesses, there is a belief that the process for taking on their first member of staff can be a daunting and overly complicated process. And with no one easily accessible source of guidance, it can really feel burdensome. The Taking on an Employee toolkit aims to tackle this problem and will help empower our sole-traders, our one person businesses, to take that next step.
"The Red Tape Challenge and the online toolkit we are launching today are just two of the many measures we are taking to tackle employment regulation and to make sure it doesn’t act as a deterrent in hiring staff. If we can provide the advice and information in a simple format, showing first-time employers that taking on staff can be a simple process, this will ultimately help in our efforts in creating jobs and encouraging growth."
