Employing part-time workers

Advantages and other points to consider when employing part-time workers

The advantages of employing part-timers include:

• improved flexibility to manage workloads
• increased productivity as a result of happier staff
• reduced absenteeism and stress
• a wider pool of candidates for recruitment
• retention of valued employees
• increased ability of your business to respond to change

However, you may have to consider the potentially higher staffing costs of employing part-time workers, such as the extra induction, training and administration costs.

To qualify for statutory sick pay, maternity pay and basic state pension, part-time workers must earn more than the lower earnings limit. Those who earn less do not pay National Insurance, nor do their employers.

Benefits available to part-time workers
By law you are required to offer the same benefits pro rata as those you give full-time staff unless you can make an objective justification for not doing so. This applies to:

• access to pension schemes
• staff discounts
• health insurance
• company cars
• training
• subsidised mortgages
• profit sharing and share option schemes
• annual public holidays

See our guides on how to implement staff incentive schemes and how to set up employee share schemes.

Where benefits cannot be easily divided, eg health insurance or a car, employers can decide whether to withhold it from part-time workers. However, they must also show that the decision is justified on objective grounds.

To follow best practice, employers can decide to calculate the financial benefits pro rata and give that amount to the part-time worker, eg calculate the financial benefit of a company car and give half that amount in payment to part-time workers who work half the number of hours of full-time employees.

When scheduling training courses, by law you are required to do as much as possible to include part-time workers.

Read a factsheet on part-time workers on the DTI website.