How do you hire a UK employee in 2026?
The right-to-work check must happen before day one. Miss it and the civil penalty can reach £45,000 per employee. Teamed compresses all five hire steps to 48 hours for British, Irish, and settled-status workers.
· United Kingdom guide
Illustration · London, United Kingdom
The UK hire process has five steps. Offer letter, right-to-work check, Section 1 statement, onboarding admin, first payday.
The right-to-work check must happen before the employee starts. A first offence carries a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per employee.
The Section 1 statement must be given on or before day one. Teamed delivers all five steps in 48 hours for British, Irish, and settled-status hires.
What does the end-to-end UK hire process look like?
Five steps take you from accepted offer to first payslip. Offer letter, right-to-work check, Section 1 statement, onboarding admin, first payday.
Through Teamed, the full sequence takes 48 hours for most UK hires.
| Step | What happens | Owner | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Offer letter | Written offer with role, salary, start date, and key terms | Client / Teamed drafts | Same day after verbal accept |
| 2. Right-to-work check | Online or document-based check before the employee starts | Teamed | Within 24 hours of offer accept |
| 3. Section 1 statement | Written particulars of employment | Teamed (legal employer) | On or before day one |
| 4. Onboarding admin | PAYE registration, pension enrolment, benefits setup, P45 or starter checklist | Teamed | Days 1 to 7 |
| 5. First payday | First payslip issued, RTI filed with HMRC | Teamed | End of first pay period |
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Issue the offer letter
Send a written offer the same day as verbal acceptance. Include role, salary, start date, notice period of 1 week minimum by law, and any conditions such as right-to-work or references.
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Complete the right-to-work check
Run the Home Office online check or verify original documents before the employee starts. Save the certificate. This step cannot happen after day one.
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Issue the Section 1 statement
Written particulars must be given on or before day one. Teamed's standard UK contract covers all requirements. Clients sign off on commercial terms. Teamed signs as the legal employer.
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Complete onboarding admin
Register the employee on PAYE, enrol them in the pension scheme, collect their P45 or starter checklist, and set up bank details and benefits. This runs across days one to seven.
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Issue the first payslip and file RTI
Run the first payroll at the end of the first pay period. File the Full Payment Submission with HMRC on or before payday. The employee receives their payslip and is on the payroll record.
What must a UK offer letter include?
The offer letter is not the contract. It is the document the candidate decides against.
Include role title, line manager, start date, salary, working pattern, location, notice period, probation period, benefits summary, and any conditions.
Three traps to avoid in UK offer letters:
- Overstating discretionary benefits. Saying the bonus typically pays out at full target can become a contractual entitlement if the candidate relies on it.
- Inconsistent dates. If the offer letter states one start date and the contract states another, that inconsistency can become tribunal material.
- Promising things outside your authority. A commitment to promote after six months without manager sign-off creates a constructive dismissal angle if it is not honoured.
Teamed's standard UK offer letter template covers all required ground without overcommitting. Clients customise commercial elements. Teamed holds the legal-employer position.
Right-to-work checks: the day-zero compliance step
Every UK employer must check the right to work before the employee starts. There is no grace period.
A first offence carries a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per employee. Repeat offences can reach £60,000 per employee.
Online right-to-work check
Most employees prove right to work via the Home Office online checking service. The employee generates a share code (free of charge) that the employer enters along with the employee's date of birth. The system returns a certificate that the employer saves as their record.
The online check covers:
- British citizens with a current passport (via Identity Document Validation Technology)
- EU or EEA citizens with pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
- Non-British and non-Irish workers with an eVisa or UKVI account (physical Biometric Residence Permits and Biometric Residence Cards stopped being accepted as standalone evidence from 31 December 2024)
- Skilled Worker visa holders and other points-based system visa categories
Manual right-to-work check
Where the online route does not apply, original physical documents must be seen, copied, and date-stamped. List A documents establish a permanent right to work. List B documents establish a time-limited right to work. Time-limited documents require a follow-up check before expiry.
An employer must check that a job applicant is allowed to work in the UK before employing them. Failure to carry out a correct check removes the statutory excuse and exposes the employer to a civil penalty.
Follow-up checks for time-limited right to work
For employees whose right to work has an expiry date, the employer must run a follow-up check before the original right expires. Teamed calendars each follow-up automatically and notifies the employee ahead of the deadline.
The Section 1 statement: written particulars of employment
Every employee and worker must receive written particulars of employment on or before day one.
This is the legally binding document. The offer letter is not. The requirement comes from the Employment Rights Act 1996.
What the Section 1 statement must include:
- Names of employer and employee
- Date employment began and date continuous employment began
- Pay rate and payment intervals
- Hours of work and normal working hours
- Holiday entitlement, including public holidays and holiday pay calculation
- Sickness and sick pay terms
- Pension scheme details
- Notice required by employer and employee
- Job title or brief description
- Whether the role is permanent or fixed term
- Place of work and any mobility requirement
- Any collective agreements that apply
- Probationary period terms, if any
- Any training the employer requires the employee to complete
- Any additional benefits
- Disciplinary and grievance procedures
The Section 1 obligation extended to workers (not just employees) in April 2020. Anyone in a working relationship with Teamed Ltd gets the statement, including casual workers and zero-hours workers.
Teamed's standard UK contract is a full Section 1 statement. It is reviewed annually against current legislation. Clients choose commercial elements such as salary, notice extensions, bonus, and restrictive covenants. Teamed signs as the legal employer.
Onboarding admin in the first week
Days 1 to 7 cover PAYE registration, pension enrolment, P45 transfer or starter checklist, bank details, benefits setup, and access provisioning.
Teamed handles the payroll side. The client handles the cultural side.
| Onboarding task | Who does it | Day |
|---|---|---|
| Section 1 statement signed | Employee and Teamed | Day 0 or 1 |
| Right-to-work check completed | Teamed | Day 0 |
| P45 from previous employer, or new starter checklist | Employee submits to Teamed | Day 1 |
| PAYE registration with HMRC | Teamed | Days 1 to 3 |
| Pension auto-enrolment | Teamed | Day 1 of eligibility |
| Private medical or benefits enrolment | Teamed (admin) and Client (decision) | Days 1 to 7 |
| Bank details collected for BACS payment | Teamed | Days 1 to 7 |
| Equipment and system access | Client | Days 0 to 1 |
| Manager introduction and first-week plan | Client | Days 0 to 7 |
| 30-60-90 day plan documented | Client (manager) | Days 1 to 14 |
How does Teamed handle UK employment for you?
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in the United Kingdom for from $599 per employee per month, with zero FX mark-up in any currency.
Payroll, benefits, and the full UK employment law stack run on one platform.
Real HR and legal experts handle your UK hires, from the first offer letter through every RTI submission and year-end P60. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue. There is no setup fee and no exit fee. Employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
EOR payroll, contractor onboarding, and entity setup all live on one platform. A UK contractor who converts to PAYE keeps their record. Run the Crossover Calculator to see the month your UK hire is ready to graduate to your own entity. Start from the UK hiring overview. Each guide takes one layer of UK employment law.
Key sources: GOV.UK employing people, HMRC PAYE for employers, and ACAS employment advice.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to hire someone in the UK through Teamed?
Teamed's standard UK onboarding runs 24 hours from accepted offer to a start-ready employee. That covers right-to-work check, Section 1 statement, PAYE registration, and pension enrolment. The 48-hour window applies to British, Irish, and settled-status hires. Senior hires with custom commercial terms or employees needing visa sponsorship take longer.
What is a right-to-work check and when must it happen?
A right-to-work check confirms the employee has the legal right to work in the UK. It must happen before the employee starts work. The check can be done online via the Home Office service (for most categories including settled-status and Skilled Worker visa holders) or manually with original documents. Failure to check carries a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per employee for a first offence.
What is a Section 1 statement and when is it required?
A Section 1 statement is the written particulars of employment required under the Employment Rights Act 1996. It must be given to every employee and worker on or before their first day of work. It is the legally binding contract. The offer letter is not. The statement must include pay, hours, holidays of 5.6 weeks per year, notice, job title, probation terms, pension details, and disciplinary procedures.
What notice period applies during a UK probation period?
During probation the legal minimum notice from the employer is 1 week, and from the employee is 7 days. Teamed's standard UK contract sets a 7 days mutual notice period during probation. The probation period itself is commonly run up to six months by convention, though there is no fixed cap in UK law.
What is the minimum annual leave entitlement for a UK employee?
The minimum paid annual leave is 5.6 weeks per year, including public holidays. For a standard five-day week that is 28 days. The UK has 8 public bank holidays per year. Employers can count bank holidays toward the minimum or offer them on top.
The 24-hour onboarding works because we have removed every step that has to wait on another step. Right-to-work, payroll setup, pension, contract: all run in parallel from the moment the offer is accepted. The new starter spends day one doing the job, not filling forms.
The right-to-work check is not optional. It is the step that must happen before the contract starts.
The Section 1 statement is required on or before day one. Not within the first week. On or before day one.
Forty-eight hours from accept to start-ready is the standard. The admin is what we handle.
