Hiring Your First Employee – Onboarding and Setting Up Payroll

After searching long and hard for the right employee, you’ve found “the one.” 

You’ve made the offer, they’ve accepted, and now you need to think about the onboarding process. From first day processes to setting up payroll, an effective onboarding process is essential – it sets the foundation for your new employee, priming them for success. 

The Onboarding Process For a New Employee

Think back to when you were hired for your first job. It’s highly unlikely that you were just thrown into the wild, with zero preparation. 

Take it from us; nothing good can come from throwing new employees into the wild. 

Successful onboarding not only sets expectations from the beginning, it also shows your new employee how they can meet those expectations. It allows you to define success for their specific role and the company at large. 

What is onboarding?

In short: onboarding prepares your employee to take on their role effectively. You’ll introduce them to your business, go over the responsibilities and duties of the role, and start the groundwork for regular evaluation touchpoints.   

New hire onboarding checklist

• Before Day 1: Get your business ready. This could include letting any partners know in advance of a new hire, setting up your new employee’s workspace, or just reviewing the job description and duties, ensuring your new employee will have everything they need
• Day 1: Your main goal on the first day is to introduce your employee to the company and their role. Help them get oriented with your business and their new responsibilities.
  • Get started with introductions, a tour of the company, the individuals they’ll be working with/reporting to, and your goals for the business and the new role
  • Review the work schedule and hours
  • Go over the job responsibilities and duties, and be sure to explain the compensation and benefits
• Week 1: Get your employee started with some light tasks, and start setting up regular touchpoints.
  • Start them working with any initial tasks or assignments
  • It’s a good idea to begin each day with a quick, five-minute touchpoint. Check in on what they’re doing and if they’re experiencing any blockers or initial pain-points
  • Ensure your new employee has all logins, access passwords, etc.
  • Review performance and provide feedback on a regular basis
• Month 1: From here, you and your new employee should start finding a regular rhythm that works for the both of you.
  • Monitor their training progress and take note of any learning opportunities or knowledge gaps that arise. Be forward-thinking, and try and find opportunities that could foster their growth at the company
  • Continue to provide feedback on past projects and support for ongoing assignments
  • Set up regular one-on-one meetings where you can review their performance and open up the floor for any concerns your employee might have

Besides these regular touchpoints during onboarding, we strongly recommend implementing formal reviews at 6 months and again at the end of year. These reviews are a great opportunity to keep your employee engaged in their work by setting up longer-term goals to achieve, whether that’s working on building professional skills or working on a project with a larger scope. 

Setting Up Payroll 

Of course, an essential ingredient for successful onboarding with a new hire is setting up payroll. 

While larger companies can afford an internal employee to handle payroll, many small businesses use third-party companies that offer payroll services. Most services provide not only payroll, but can also prepare T4s, year-end reports, and other useful financial records. As an employer, you may not be handling your business’s payroll, but you’ll need to provide some information for payroll to run smoothly. 

If you’re looking for an all-inclusive payroll solution, we have you covered. PaymentEvolution offers fully customizable payroll, depending on the needs of your business. Fast, simple, and easily accessible, our software makes payroll simple, so that you can get back to all the other things you need to do. 

What information do you need to process payroll?

As an employer, you’ll need the following information for payroll:  

• Your business number
• Your employee’s full name
• If paying direct deposit, an account where payment is deposited; the name on the account should match the employee’s name
• Employee’s social insurance number
• Employee’s current address
• Employee date of birth
• Employee hire date
• Wages, hourly or salaried, and employment type (full-time, part-time)
• Any additional benefits you’ll be offering

What payroll taxes do employers pay?

As an employer, you’re responsible for remitting the following from your employee’s pay: 

• Canada Pension Plan (CPP)
• Employment Insurance (EI)
• Income taxes, both federal and provincial

Each province has its own payroll deductions; check the CRA payroll deduction table for more information if you’re unsure. 

Keep in mind that you may have other deductions to make as well, depending on the benefits package you’ve offered your employee.   

How do you remit payroll taxes?

If you’re handling payroll manually, you can use our payroll calculator to figure out the amount you need to withhold. Remittances are made to the payroll program account you created with the CRA. If you haven’t created one yet, you’ll need to have a payroll program account before the first remittance due date, which is the 15th day of the month following the month deductions begin.  

In the next installment of our hiring series, we’ll go over how to create a benefits package for your new employee.