In association with
Your employee’s first day or week
Being prepared for your employee’s first day at work will set you and your new staff member up for a great relationship. It’ll make them feel welcome, organised and confident.
On their first day
On an employee’s first day, you need to:
- confirm start and finish times
- agree the timing and duration of rest and meal breaks if not in the employment contract
- let them know who to contact if they’re sick or if there’s an emergency
- talk to them about any rules or policies that will apply to them
- set up their personnel file
- provide a health and safety briefing, including:
- supplying them with any safety equipment
- training them in its use
- your evacuation plan
- any hazards in the workplace
- make sure they have the knowledge and experience to do the job without hurting themselves or anyone else — if they don’t, make sure they’re supervised by someone more experienced while they learn.
You could also help new employees feel welcome by:
- introducing them to everyone else in the team
- assigning a workplace buddy to help them find everything they need
- arranging a morning tea
- checking in on them throughout the week.
Find out what you know about hiring and managing people.
Documents to complete
Tax code declaration
Every new employee needs to complete a tax code declaration.
Tax code declaration (IR330)(external link) — Inland Revenue
KiwiSaver
Employees who start a new job and meet the criteria for automatic enrolment must be enrolled in KiwiSaver, unless you offer an alternative superannuation scheme approved by the Financial Markets Authority, and are an exempt employer.
If you are an exempt employer, your employees may still choose to opt in to the KiwiSaver scheme, and you will need to make deductions and pay employer contributions to their KiwiSaver accounts. You must provide KiwiSaver information to all new employees and to any existing employees who ask for the information.
If they are already enrolled in KiwiSaver, they must give you a:
- KiwiSaver deduction form (KS2), or
- Application for savings suspension.
If they don’t opt-out, request a contributions holiday, or provide you with a deduction form, you need to make deductions at the standard rate of 3%.
Automatic enrolment(external link) — Inland Revenue
KiwiSaver deduction form (KS2)(external link) — Inland Revenue
Take a savings break(external link) — Inland Revenue
