The Employment Allowance was introduced in April 2014 for employers who pay Employers NIC. It is an allowance which negates the need to pay Employers NIC until the full amount has been claimed.
A worker's employment status is not a matter of choice and will be very relevant went it comes to Pension Auto-Enrolment.
If you have employees you will want to know how much more you can pay your employees before you have to pay employer National Insurance Contributions. HMRC have announced the thresholds for 2015-16 which will apply from 6 April 2015.