What You Can Expect From Your First Employer

Congratulations, you’ve just been awarded your degree from university! Over the period of three or four years you found great success in higher education. But now things are about to change. New challenges await as you enter the world of modern business. There’s no net underneath to catch you if you fail. No advisor to give you a helping hand if you’re struggling with a job.

That said, you can expect your employer to provide you with certain things when you choose to work for them. if they are not providing you with these requirements, then you may want to think about leaving. In some cases, not protecting an employee in these ways could put a business owner on the wrong side of the law. What exactly are we talking about?

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Duty Of Care

If you’ve heard of duty of care and you’re not a lawyer, it might have cropped up during your time at school. A teacher has a duty of care for the children in their class. A principal has a duty of care to all the children in their school. Similarly, an employer has a duty of care to all the employees working in their office. This means it’s their responsibility to keep them safe and protect them from foreseeable danger.

Premises liability also has a part to play here. A business owner will be held legally accountable for any injury that occurs on their premises. For you, this means that if you are injured at work you have a legal right to sue and claim damages. Or, at the very least gain workers compensation. Most business owners provide workers compensation. This protects them from the possibility of a personal injury lawsuit.

It should be recognised that even with a duty of care, a business owner is not fully responsible for health and safety in the office. They might instead, switch the blame to other people in the company. For instance, on some level, you might be responsible for your own health and safety. If you see a hazard in the office, you will almost always be expected to report it or deal with it. Obviously, an office worker isn’t going to be expected to deal with stray electrical wires. But they might be expected to clean up a spill on the floor.

If you want to know more about this issue, you should check out Peninsula’s duty of care guidelines. The information they provide could be beneficial to both an employee and an employer.

Incentives To Work For A Business

Employee business incentives are not a legal requirement, obviously. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t seek them out when interviewing or applying for a job. Remember, in a way an interview is a two way street. An employer will be trying to find out what you can bring to their business. But you can also look into what they can offer you that other employers can’t. This is a particularly smart idea if you know that there are other offers for you on the table. Some of the incentives you should think about are holiday pay, health insurance and a business car. They are some of the common incentives that businesses provide when attempting to get employees to sign on the dotted line. You may not find that any of these are offered when applying for your first job. Remember, you will be starting off at the bottom of the ladder. You might have to take what you can get.

Fair Pay

There is a distinct and important difference between fair pay and a higher payment as an incentive. For your first job, you should be looking for a job that is offering fair pay. You should check online and find out what the average pay is for the job that you’re applying for. For instance, the average pay for a junior reporter is seventeen grand a year. Yet when applying for journalism jobs you might find that some businesses pay up to nineteen.  It’s a wide margin and one that you have to be careful of. You will ultimately have to choose whether having a job is worth a lower pay than you should be getting. Remember, if you think that you are being paid an unfair amount, you do have options. If you are part of a union you can speak to your union representative. Or, you can contact your employer. It’s not always the case that any changes will be made but there’s nothing stopping you enquiring.

Job Security

When you are recruited for a job, you can expect a certain level of job security. Job security means that as long as you complete your job to a high level, you will not be fired. Unless it is due to an economic situation that the business is facing. Even then, you still have rights as an employee. For instance, under TUPE and employee can not automatically be let go so that the business can switch to an outsourcing service. If you feel you were made redundant for unfair reasons, you can file a wrongful dismissal claim. If you have a case, you could win a lot of money in legal damages. But be aware this type of legal action does tend to leave a mark on a CV.

The exception of job security occurs if you are on a freelancing contract. There are a lot of advantages to freelancing but job security isn’t one of them. One of the advantages of using freelancers for a business owner is that they can let them go, almost whenever they please. This doesn’t mean that you should expect to be let go suddenly when freelancing. It does mean you shouldn’t expect any redundancy pay. Or other benefits that come with a full time contract. Employers are under no legal obligation to provide this.

These are just some of the issues your employers should address when you are hired to work for them. Remember, it’s an open market, and you can choose who you work for. Don’t be afraid to look for a better job if your employer isn’t offering the best incentives. Or, if they are not upholding their duty of care.

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