Hiring Paperwork for a Trade Business
Two documents do most of the work when you take someone on: a job description that filters applicants before you waste a week, and a checklist that gets them set up before day one.
Hiring your first employee is the point where a trade business stops being one bloke with a ute. The trade part you already know — you can tell in an hour whether someone can do the work. The part that catches people out is everything around it: what to put in the ad, what has to be sorted before they turn up, and what makes the difference between someone who's productive in a fortnight and someone who's still asking where things are in month three. This guide covers the paperwork side of taking someone on, from writing the role to the end of their first month.
Doing this job for a living? See job management in ServiceYak.
Before you advertise anything
Most hiring regret traces back to a decision made before the ad went up. Three questions are worth answering properly first:
- What kind of hire is this? Employee, apprentice, or subcontractor are genuinely different arrangements with different obligations, and the difference isn't yours to decide by preference — it depends on how the working relationship actually operates. The ATO and Fair Work both publish guidance on where the line sits, and getting it wrong is expensive to unwind, so check before you commit.
- Can the business carry it? A wage is the visible part. On top of it sit superannuation, workers compensation, leave, tools, a vehicle, insurance and the hours you'll spend supervising instead of billing. Work out the full annual cost before you decide what you can offer.
- What are you actually handing over? Write down the tasks that would leave your plate. If you can't fill a week, you may need a part-timer or a subbie rather than a full-time employee.
Pay rates, superannuation, leave entitlements and workers compensation are set by law and change over time — and awards, thresholds and premiums vary by trade and by state. Get your figures from Fair Work, the ATO and your state's workers compensation authority rather than from what someone told you at the supplier counter.
Writing the job description
The job description is a filter. Written well, half the wrong people don't apply and you spend your evenings reading applications worth reading. Written as three lines about a "great opportunity for a motivated tradie", you'll get fifty of them and none will be right.
| Section | What it needs to say |
|---|---|
| Job title | The real one, at the right level — "2nd year apprentice electrician", not "electrical team member" |
| Location and travel | The suburbs or region you work, and how far the runs go. This is the top reason good applicants withdraw late |
| Employment type | Full-time, part-time, casual or apprenticeship, and the expected start |
| The work, day to day | What they'd actually be doing on a Tuesday — the mix of job types, sites and clients |
| Must-haves | Licences, tickets, cards, a driver's licence, work rights. Keep this list genuinely non-negotiable |
| Nice-to-haves | Listed separately, so capable people don't screen themselves out over one item |
| Tools and vehicle | What you supply and what they bring. Assume nothing here — it's a common source of a bad first week |
| Hours and conditions | Start times, typical finish, on-call or after-hours expectations, overtime arrangements |
| Pay | A range, or the award classification you're paying against. Ads without pay get fewer and worse applicants |
| About the business | Size, the work you do, who you do it for. Two honest sentences beat a paragraph of adjectives |
Be specific about the parts of the job people leave over — the early starts, the travel, the weekend call-out roster. Every unpleasant fact you hide in the ad is one you'll pay for in month two when they quit over it.
Read the ad back before you post it and take out anything that describes a type of person rather than the work: age, gender, "young and energetic", "fits our culture". Discrimination law aside, those phrases don't filter for anything useful and they narrow the pool you're trying to widen.
Before their first day
The new-hire checklist exists so someone's first day isn't spent watching you sort things out that should have been ready. Work through it in the week before they start:
| Area | What has to be sorted |
|---|---|
| The offer and agreement | Written offer with position, pay, hours, start date and any probation, signed before day one |
| Employment records | Personal and emergency contact details, bank details, and the tax and super forms the ATO currently requires |
| Payroll | The employee set up in your payroll system and your first pay run tested before it's real |
| Licences verified | Sight the actual licence, ticket and card. Verify rather than take a photo of a photo |
| Insurance | Workers compensation cover in place, and your other policies checked to confirm they cover an additional worker |
| Vehicle and driving | Licence checked, vehicle allocated, fuel card, and your rules on private use in writing |
| Tools, PPE and uniform | Issued and recorded — what was given, when, and what comes back if they leave |
| Systems access | Phone, email, and a login to your job management software with the right permissions |
| Safety induction | Your safety documents, site rules, incident reporting process, and who they call when something goes wrong |
| First week planned | Which jobs, with whom. Pairing them with your best operator for the first week is the highest-return decision you'll make |
Do the safety induction on day one, before they're on the tools, and write down that you did it. It's the induction nobody gets around to and the one that matters most if something happens in week two.
The first month
The first month decides whether this hire works. It's also the only window where correcting a habit is easy — after that you're changing something that's already set.
- Say what good looks like. Be concrete for the first thirty days: the job types they should be running alone by the end of it, the standard of finish, how the paperwork comes back. Vague expectations are the most common reason a decent hire underperforms.
- Pair them with your best operator. Not your busiest one. Whoever they shadow in week one is the standard they'll copy for the next two years, so pick deliberately.
- Train them on your systems, not just your trade. How jobs get recorded, how photos and variations are captured, how timesheets work. Assume they've never seen your way of doing it, because they haven't.
- Short check-ins, weekly. Ten minutes in the ute counts. What's going well, what's confusing, what do they need. Early and casual beats a formal review after the problem has set.
- Give them a job of their own. Somewhere around week three, something small and low-risk they run start to finish. It's the fastest way to find out what they can genuinely do alone.
- Do a proper review at the end of the month. Written, both directions, before any probation period gets near its end. If it isn't working, this is the conversation where you can still do something about it fairly.
What to keep on file
Employment records aren't optional and the requirements are set by law — Fair Work publishes what has to be kept and for how long, and it's worth reading once rather than guessing. As a practical baseline, keep:
- The signed offer or employment agreement, and any later changes to pay or hours.
- Hours worked and leave taken, kept as you go rather than reconstructed.
- Pay records and superannuation contributions, per your payroll obligations.
- Licences, tickets and certifications with their expiry dates, diarised so a lapsed licence is caught before a site does.
- Inductions and training — what was covered, when, and who delivered it.
- Tools and equipment issued, so the return conversation is a list rather than an argument.
- Performance conversations, including the informal ones. A short dated note beats a perfect memory.
ServiceYak gives each of your people their own login, so jobs are assigned to a name, time and site notes are captured against the job as they work, and what a new hire actually did in their first month is visible without you standing next to them.
Frequently asked questions
Should my first hire be an employee, an apprentice or a subbie?
It depends on what you need. A subbie gives you flexibility and no ongoing wage commitment, but you don't control how they work and you can't rely on them being available. An employee gives you consistency and someone you can train your way, at a higher fixed cost. An apprentice is the cheapest hourly rate and the largest time investment from you. Whichever way you go, the classification has to match how the relationship actually operates — check the ATO and Fair Work guidance rather than choosing the label that suits you.
Do I need a written employment contract?
You need to give employees the information the law requires, and a written agreement is the practical way to do it — position, pay, hours, probation, notice, and anything specific like vehicle use or on-call. It also settles the arguments that otherwise happen in month six. Base it on the current award or agreement that applies to your trade and have it checked once.
Should I put the pay rate in the job ad?
Yes, or at least the award classification you're paying against. Ads without pay attract fewer applicants and more time-wasting, because good tradies with options don't chase a mystery number. A stated range also stops you spending three interviews on someone who was never going to accept.
How do I work out what an employee will actually cost me?
Start with the wage, then add superannuation, workers compensation, leave, tools, PPE, phone, vehicle and fuel, plus the billable hours you'll lose supervising them. The rates for super and workers comp are set externally and change, so take current figures from the ATO and your state authority rather than from memory. What you land on is the number your charge-out rate has to cover.