Hiring staff as an eenmanszaak: what you should know

When you become an employer for the first time, you will have new duties, obligations, risks and responsibilities. Use the checklist: Hiring staff for the first time. It will help you make sure you have everything in place and comply with the rules when you hire staff for the first time.

1. Can I hire staff as an ‘eenmanszaak’? 

Yes, you can hire staff as an eenmanszaak. An eenmanszaak is a legal structure where you are solely responsible for the business. So there is only one owner. When you take on staff, your legal structure remains the same. There is no limit to the number of employees you can employ as sole proprietorship.

Risks of the eenmanszaak

As an eenmanszaak with staff, you have additional financial risks. Because you are solely responsible for your business and you are privately liable for debts. Suppose your employee suffers a business accident, falls ill for a long time, becomes incapacitated for work, or you get into an industrial dispute, you suddenly face high costs that you have to pay yourself. If you cannot pay these costs from your business, you will have to pay this from your private assets. To reduce the risks, you can:

• Take out insurance: You can take out insurance against certain employee risks, such as absenteeism insurance. Read more about these and other employee insurances.
• Change legal structure: The legal structure determines, among other things, your company's liability for debts and your tax obligations. With a BV (private limited company), for example, you are not personally liable for debts. Read more about legal structures.

2. What does staff cost?

Staff costs more than just their gross wages. Think about fringe benefits, employee insurance and social security contributions. Ask your bookkeeper or accountant what a first employee will cost you and what the benefits are.

Hiring staff via a subsidy or scheme

There are various subsidies and allowances for hiring staff. For example, you may be able to make use of the labour cost compensation (LKV) or wage subsidies for taking on interns, employees over 56, or employees with a occupational limitation.

Read more about subsidies and allowances for employers.

3. What are my obligations as an employer?

The main obligations and rules when you first start hiring staff are:

• Register with the Netherlands Tax Administration: Register as an employer and receive a payroll tax number. You need this number to deduct payroll taxes from your employee's salary and file a tax return.
• Draw up an employment contract: Draw up a clear employment contract with agreements on wages, working hours and other conditions.
• Register with Netherlands Chamber of Commerce KVK: Notify the KVK that you are hiring staff via the change form to KVK.  If a client then requests an extract, your company registration will be correct.
• Personnel administration: Keep good records of all personnel matters.
• Working conditions: Ensure a safe and healthy working environment.
• Identity check: Check your employee' s identity and keep a copy of the identity document.
• Pension scheme: Offer a pension scheme if it is mandatory in your sector.

Read more about what rules and obligations you have if you want to hire staff.

4. How do I know whether a collective labour agreement (CAO) applies to my business?

Employers’ and employees’ organisations agree on wages and other employment conditions in a collective labour agreement: a CAO. CAOs apply to specific businesses or business sectors. You have to follow the agreements laid down in a CAO in these cases:

• If you have agreed upon the CAO with the unions (‘vakbonden’) yourself. 
• If you are a member of an employers’ organisation that has drawn up a CAO.
• If the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) has declared a CAO binding for your business sector.

Find a CAO

You can find a list of active CAOs (in Dutch) on the website of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. Use it to find out if a CAO applies to your business. 

5. What do I enter in an employment contract? 

You enter the arrangements you agree on with your employee in an employment contract. The most common employment conditions are:

• working hours
• wages
• withholdings and settlements (for instance, for a company car) 
• working hours
• holiday entitlement
• holiday allowance

CAO (collective labour agreements)

The employment conditions are usually also part of a CAO. If the CAO and the employment contract contradict each other, the CAO is leading. You can make additional arrangements, for instance for travel costs or bonuses. 

No CAO

Is there no cao that applies to your business sector? Then draw up the employment conditions with your staff yourself. Be aware that you have to pay minimum wage and observe the minimum holiday entitlement, among other legal provisions for employment conditions.  

6. Can I hire staff temporarily or flexibly?

Do you have seasonal peaks or more work for a short period? Then a temporary staff member, on-call worker or hiring a freelancer can be a solution. There are different types of employment agreements and options. Determine what best suits your situation.

7. What should I watch out for with the Employment Relationships Deregulation Act (Wet DBA)?

Are you considering hiring a freelancer for an assignment? Then avoid false self-employment. Determine whether someone is working independently for you, or is actually an employee. For example, it is important that the freelancer can determine their hours, does not work fixed hours and does not do the same work as your employees. In addition, pay attention to other points related to authority and self-employment:

• Authority relationship:

As a client, you are not allowed to say exactly how someone should do the work. If you hire a painter, you may say what colour you want, but not how they should paint.

• Independence:

The freelancer must use their own work items and not be completely absorbed into your business. For example, a freelance photographer uses their own camera and does not work in your office every day.

• Duration and nature of the assignment:

Short and specific assignments are better. Long assignments can look like a permanent job. A web designer will create a website for you in 3 months, but will not work for you after that to write texts or create other content for your website.

• Supervision:

You should not supervise too much how the freelancer does their work. A copywriter provides texts, and you only judge the end result, not every step of the writing process.

Tips:

• Contracts: make sure you have clear agreements on paper.
• Evaluate: regularly check if you are still in compliance.
• In doubt? Then use the government's online decision tool (in Dutch).

Read more about avoiding false self-employment.

8. How do I find staff?

Get started recruiting staff with the following articles and step-by-step guides:

• Create a job description in 6 steps
• Create a vacancy in 7 steps
• Discover 11 novel and time-tested ways to recruit staff
• Prepare well for the job interview
• Offer good employment conditions

When is it time to hire staff?

What is a good time to hire staff? Where do you find staff and what do you put in a job posting? How do you know if you can afford your first employee? 3 entrepreneurs share their experiences in the video below. Use the settings wheel for English subtitles.