Employing your first staff: a step-by-step plan

Your business is growing and you have more work than you can handle. As your business gets busier, you may start looking for staff. But when is that convenient, and do you opt for temporary staff or permanent employment? See if it pays to hire staff. Hiring staff is a big step, but it also gives you the opportunity to grow. If you take on employees, you will have to deal with rules and risks.

Watch the animation aove to find out most important steps if you are taking on staff for the first time.

If you are going to take on an employee for the first time, you must register as an employer with the Netherlands Tax Administration and with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce KVK:

• Register as an employer with the Tax Administration. You will receive a payroll tax number. You need this in order to deduct payroll tax from your employee’s salary and file a return.

• Use the change form 14 to inform the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce KVK that you are employing staff. You must always notify KVK of any changes in your staffing.

You are required to check your employee’s identity before they start working for you. Keep a legible copy of the current identity document in your payroll records for any audits, for instance by the Netherlands Labour Authority. The copy must include all the particulars shown on the original. If you copy a passport or identity card, make sure the citizen service number (Burgerservicenummer, BSN) is clear.

Personnel and privacy

When you hire staff for the first time, you will have to deal with EU privacy rules, the GDPR. Read how to comply with the GDPR.

Personnel screening

You want to choose reliable staff. With employee screening, you can limit the risks. You must comply with the privacy rules of the GDPR when screening.

Agree on terms of employment, such as salary, working hours, and holidays. Verbal agreements on terms of employment are valid. However, it is better to put your agreements in writing. You do this in an employment contract. Conditions of employment are often already established in a CAO. In addition, you can offer secondary terms of employment, such as a learning and development budget, or flexible working hours. This has advantages, for example, a higher commitment of your employee. They cannot go against the law or the conditions in the CAO.

The most common employment conditions are:

• Salary and payslip

• Salary deductions and settlements

• Business hours and working hours

• Trial period

• Holiday leave and public holidays

• Holiday allowance

You must provide your employee with clear information on the most important labour conditions. This information should make the labour more transparent and predictable in advance.

Draw up an employment contract

The employment contract sets out the rights and obligations of the employee and the employer. Read more about the different employment contracts on KVK.nl. A non-compete clause protects your business if your employee leaves. You can agree a trial period with your new employee for up to 2 months.

You must pay your employee at least the statutory minimum wage or the youth minimum wage. The minimum wage applies to employees aged 21 and over. The youth minimum wage applies to employees between the ages of 15 and 21. Minimum wages are revised every 6 months, on 1 January and 1 July.

Your staff are entitled to a healthy and safe workplace. This is stated in the Working Conditions Act (Working Conditions Act, or Arbowet). The Working Conditions Act also applies when (your employees are) working from home. More relaxed working conditions rules apply to working from home.

As an employer, you must be supported by an occupational health and safety expert. For example, a company doctor or occupational health and safety service (arbodienst).

Make sure you put all the administration required into your payroll records before your employee starts working for you. This should include data for payroll taxes and social security, a copy of the employee’s identity document, and payslips.

There are rules for the payment of salary. And what you may or may not include in the salary. Your employee is legally entitled to at least 8% holiday allowance. With the payslip, you inform your employee on how the salary is structured.

You must deduct payroll taxes from the salary. You must pay these payroll taxes to the Netherlands Tax Administration. On the website of the Tax Administration you can download:

• Model Statement of data for payroll taxes
• Model wage statement (in Dutch)

If you design your own payslip, it must show the same data as the model.

When you hire staff for the first time, you will have to deal with EU privacy rules, the GDPR. Take extra measures to protect your staff's personal data.

You are obliged to offer your employee a pension scheme if a sector pension fund exists for your sector. If no sector pension fund exists, you can choose to offer your employees a pension scheme. Consult an independent adviser (scroll down to Check de onderneming waarmee u zaken wilt doen and search for pensioenadviseur).

If you hire staff, you may have to comply with more conditions within your company:

• As a business owner with employees, you must appoint at least one health and safety officer (preventiemedewerker). A health and safety officer deals with day-to-day health and safety within a business. Do you have 25 or fewer employees? Then as a director, you may be the health and safety officer yourself.
• You must ensure a safe (working) environment for your staff and visitors. An in-house emergency response worker (bedrijfshulpverlener, bhv’er) helps you do this.
• You are obliged to ensure that your employees can work safely and healthily. To this end, you must carry out a risk inventory and evaluation (RI&E).