Part time employees – the full time benefits
During the past few years employing part-time workers has become more popular. With the governments proposed plans for flexible parental leave part-time employees may be seen as an easy way to cover the possibility of parents interchanging periods of leave with their partners i.e. mum taking leave, then dad and then mum again which could otherwise be an administrative headache to coordinate and cover for.
But what are the other advantages of having part-time employees in your team?
- It is possible to save money by hiring part-time staff, as each employee’s national insurance (NI) allowance means that employer’s NI doesn’t kick-in until you pay your employee £148 per week, and at 13.8%, this could be a considerable cost saving.
- Part time staff can bring flexibility to your business. During peak periods, it could be possible to increase their hours so that more work can be completed. This would also mean more staff available for holiday, parental or sick cover.
- Part time employees may enable you to have a greater diversity of skills. For example, if you could afford one full-time employee you could decide to hire a part-time bookkeeper and a part-time administrator for example. Rather than limiting yourself to just one type of employee that you require you get both, and as your business grows you have the option of increasing their hours as required.
- It may also mean you can retain valued employees, for instance after they have been on maternity leave, and have a wider pool from which to recruit from. There are many well qualified people out there who would be prepared to work, and to work hard, if they could only work on a flexible part-time basis.
If you plan and consider carefully which jobs in your organisation may be appropriate for either a part-time employee, or a job share then you may find that part-time staff can bring a huge benefit to your business.
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