There are huge benefits to you in employing younger (and older) people in your venue styling business, but do you know the law regarding child employment and what you as an employer need to do to be compliant?
Employing younger (and older) people in your venue styling business
We’ve always employed individuals from a wide range of ages in our business and are particularly passionate about employing those who might otherwise be overlooked or excluded.
For the older generation, reaching retirement age isn’t always something to look forward to, and many retirees go on to find a new job or vocation.
For the young people we’ve employed in our venue styling business, we have seen so many benefits. They have grown in confidence and learned about business by being involved in so many different aspects of ours. They had much more interesting CVs than their contemporaries and all of them, without exception, have gone on to have great careers in their chosen fields.
When I was growing up, I couldn’t wait to get my first job. It gave me such a good understanding of money, how to budget and save, and how to value what I earned.
Employing the older generation
The older generation have so much to offer and of those we have employed over the years, we particularly love the fact that they really are unflappable. Great for handling that emotional client on the phone, their wisdom and worldliness means they have all those traits we want in our staff, punctuality, no fluff and of course, years of knowledge and experience.
Employing the younger generation
It is commonly assumed – we know this because we’ve heard this from a lot of our friends over the years – that a child can’t work until they are 16.
This is not true!
Children can in fact work from the age of 13.
But what many people also don’t realise is that there are rules and regulations as to what those children can and can’t do, where they can and can’t work and when!
The specific rules can be found on gov.uk, but we’ve summarised the main points below:
At this point it’s worth clarifying what is meant by a “child” in these circumstances.
A “child” is a young person who hasn’t yet reached the minimum school leaving age.
This varies depending on where you live. In England for example it is the last Friday in June if they will be 16 by the end of the summer holidays.
The earliest age from which a child can work part-time is 13.
Employment Permit
All children require an Employment Permit issued by the education department of the local council before they can start working for you. This contains details of where and when (ie: which hours each week) they will be working, and it is signed by the parent and the business.
Restrictions
There are restrictions over where a child can work, and when a child can work.
There are further restrictions on the total number of hours they can work although the hours are more relaxed during school holidays.
Most unusual of all however, children can only work a maximum of 2 hours on Sundays, during term time or holidays!
Other things you might not know about employing children
- There are different rules for minimum wage
- You don’t necessarily need to operate a PAYE scheme.
- Children are entitled to holiday pay like any other worker. This means that this needs to be accrued from the point at which they start working for you.
So what are you waiting for?
There are so many benefits to employing children for both them and for you.
They are generally fast workers, often creative with new ideas, have good IT skills, and are quick and willing to learn new things. Plus they can often teach you new tricks too!
From the point of view as an employer, they are a relatively inexpensive workforce although they do require supervision, firstly due to their inexperience but also from a Health and Safety viewpoint.
It can be a real tonic to have young minds as part of the business. We have been sad to see all of our youngsters leave at the end of their employment!
Become a successful Venue Stylist
We hope this blog post has been useful to you.
However, if you feel slightly daunted by anything you’ve read in them, then do not worry as we take a deep dive into all of these topics in our Training & Mentoring programme! A programme dedicated to helping you make the right decisions when setting up, running and delivering your venue styling business.
Liz & Doug are a husband and wife team who have been running successful wedding and event related businesses for 29 years, most notably Stressfree – The Venue Transformers, one of the UK’s first venue styling companies. From working for big companies as consultants in the 1980 and 1990s, they went solo in 1995 and now believe that with the right know-how and support, anyone with the right attributes can become a successful venue stylist!
And if you’d like some one-on-one assistance, our Stressfree Business Audit is just one of the other ways in which we can help you.
The contents of this blog are for general information purposes only. You may wish to seek professional advice in relation to specific circumstances.