Right to work checks and onboarding: getting day one right
General information for UK hospitality operators, not legal advice. If something here is wrong or out of date, the editorial policy explains how to report it.
Right to work checks, the written statement and policy sign-off all need evidencing before a new starter's first shift, not chased afterwards.
Right to work checks, a written statement of employment particulars and signed policy acknowledgements should all be complete before a new starter's first shift, not chased down afterwards. The checks in particular have to come first, because one carried out after someone has already worked does not protect the employer. Immigration rules are UK-wide, so the same obligation applies whether the site is in Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow or Belfast, and the order the tasks happen in matters more than the volume of paperwork.
Why hospitality onboarding slips
Hospitality turns staff over quickly, which makes onboarding a process repeated weekly across every site rather than a one-off compliance project. Each repetition is a chance for a step to be skipped under pressure, particularly when a shift is short-staffed and a new face is needed on the floor that evening. Unlike a project with a fixed end date, onboarding has no natural point at which anyone reviews the whole file, because the person doing the hiring is usually the person trying to fill the rota. The result is a pattern where the paperwork trails the person rather than preceding them, and the record meant to protect the business never quite catches up. The fix is rarely more forms. It is putting the two jobs, filling the shift and completing the file, into one sequence, which is the practical argument for hospitality rota software that costs the week live including employer National Insurance and pension, shows availability and booked holiday in the grid, and generates e-signed contracts from the same employee record.
Right to work checks: what the law requires
Before employment starts, an employer must either examine the applicant's original documents with the applicant present or use the online service where the applicant has supplied a share code. GOV.UK sets out how to check a job applicant's right to work and is explicit that biometric residence cards and permits can no longer be accepted, so anyone who would once have produced one should be asked for a share code instead. British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so their check is the original passport or passport card, or an identity service provider. A correct check has three parts that are easy to lose track of: confirming the documents are genuine, original, unchanged and belong to the person presenting them; taking a copy; and recording the date the check was made. An undated copy shows only that a document exists somewhere, not that the check happened before the first shift.
The consequence of getting this wrong sits with the employer. GOV.UK states that an employer may face a civil penalty for employing an illegal worker of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker where a correct check has not been carried out. Copies have to be kept during the person's employment and for two years after they stop working for the business, which means the file must survive a leaver, a manager change and a site handover. Treating the check as a hard stop, so that no verified check means no shift, is far easier to run than reconstructing it months later.
The written statement before the first shift
Employees and workers are entitled to a written statement of employment particulars, and GOV.UK splits it in two: the principal statement must be provided on the first day of employment, and the wider written statement within two months of the start. The principal statement covers pay, hours and days of work, job title or a description of the work, start date, holiday entitlement, notice and place of work, among other terms. That is a tighter deadline than many managers assume, and it reaches casual and part-time staff as well as full-time hires, so a zero-hours bar shift booked at short notice carries the same day-one entitlement as a permanent contract. A statement issued weeks after somebody has already worked several shifts is both a missed deadline and a weak position if a pay or hours dispute follows, because the terms were never agreed in writing before the work began. The mechanics, including what the statement must contain and how it differs from a full contract, are set out in a companion piece on the written statement of particulars.
Policies, training and role-appropriate sign-off
A signed contract and a completed immigration check cover the legal minimum, but a new starter also needs to acknowledge the policies that keep the business and its customers safe, and that acknowledgement has to be recorded rather than assumed. Food safety expectations, allergen handling, health and safety basics and the conduct policy are the ones most likely to be tested later, whether by an environmental health officer, a disciplinary hearing or a customer complaint about a reaction to an ingredient. Role-appropriate training follows the same logic: a kitchen porter and a chef need different modules, and a new bar team member needs the venue's refusals and licensing procedures before being left alone at the bar on a Friday night. Building that into a consistent sequence, rather than relying on a verbal handover from whoever trained the last person, is the difference between training that scales and training that degrades quietly with every new site or new manager. A companion piece on training hospitality teams at scale looks at holding that consistency across a growing team.
Young workers need extra checks at the offer stage
A young worker is somebody who has reached school leaving age but is under 18, and Acas sets the limits out in its guidance on young workers and work experience: no more than eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, and no work during the restricted period, which is 10pm to 6am, or 11pm to 7am where the contract allows work after 10pm. Hospitality is one of the listed exceptions rather than a sector with a flat ban. Work in a hotel, pub or restaurant may run until midnight or start from 4am where it is necessary, no adult worker is available to do it and the hours will not harm the young person's education or training, with adult supervision where that is needed for their protection. Nobody under 18 may work between midnight and 4am at all. Below school leaving age the position changes again: an employer of a child normally needs a permit from the local council's education department, and school leaving age itself differs between England, Scotland and Wales, so the rule that fitted the last hire may not fit this one. All of that belongs at the offer stage, before a rota is built around somebody who cannot lawfully work the shift.
Keeping onboarding consistent across sites
Where a business runs more than one site, onboarding drifts site by site, with each general manager forming a private view of what gets checked and what gets waved through on a busy weekend. That drift is where the exposure sits, because a check that is thorough at one site and rushed at another leaves the business only as protected as its weakest location, and a strong record at one site is unlikely to be treated as making up for a missing one at another. One checklist applied everywhere, with head office able to see which sites have gaps and which new starters are short of something, closes that without adding much time to any individual hire. Given how often hospitality staff leave within their first few months, the effort is worth weighing against the cost of replacing somebody, which a true cost of an employee calculator will put a figure on. The operational side of running several sites is covered further in a companion piece on managing multiple restaurant sites.
Keeping this on the record
What has to be evidenced is short: a dated right to work check with a copy kept for the length of employment and two years beyond it, a principal statement issued on the first day, acknowledged policies, and a record of the training assigned and completed. Hospitality rota software that costs the week live, shows availability and booked holiday and generates e-signed contracts, alongside training that files a PDF certificate into the employee's HR documents automatically, gives a manager one place to look before a new starter is scheduled rather than a folder to search. The check itself is still done by a person, and it is still done before the shift.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a valid right to work check?
Either the applicant's original documents examined with the applicant present, or an online check using a share code the applicant supplies. Biometric residence cards and permits can no longer be accepted, so ask for a share code instead. British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so their check is the original passport or passport card, or an identity service provider.
How long must the record of the check be kept?
GOV.UK says to keep copies during the person's employment and for two years after they stop working for the business, and to record the date the check was made. An undated copy does not show that the check happened before the first shift, so the date carries as much weight as the document itself.
When must a new starter get a written statement?
The principal statement must be provided on the first day of employment, and the wider written statement within two months of the start. It covers workers as well as employees, so casual and zero-hours staff are included rather than treated as a separate case.
Can a new starter work a shift before the check is complete?
No. The check has to be carried out correctly before employment starts. GOV.UK states that an employer who has not done so may face a civil penalty of up to 60,000 pounds for each illegal worker. The check is quick, but it has to come first rather than be fitted around a gap in the rota.
Do onboarding rules differ for young workers?
Yes. Somebody who has reached school leaving age but is under 18 must not work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week and is restricted between 10pm and 6am, although work in a hotel, pub or restaurant is one of the listed exceptions where set conditions are met. Nobody under 18 may work between midnight and 4am. Below school leaving age a local council permit is normally required.