Employment Agreement
 

I'm hiring someone for a sophisticated operations position. Anyone have experience with employment agreements?

Mrm?

They can be a two-way street.

General primer:
Written Employment Contracts: Pros and Cons | Nolo.com

I do. You want someone writing it that knows their business. Overly broad and it is unenforceable, overly narrow and it is useless.

Give an hourly, daily or weekly rate. Never annual. They get fired after a month they can claim you owe them for the rest of the year's pay.

In my experience you only want a non-compete. And they are typically overly restrictive and frequently unenforceable as they limit the ability of the individual to work.

In the end you have to trust your instincts.

Yes. Both sides. What Hugh said.

It's a contract. Key on the important things, terms are key, be as specific as possible with the major points. Look up 'morality clause'.

What's your relationship with this person? It's kind of like a pre-nup.

I've got a few with my clients.

Brief synopsis / description of your business.

Compensation and time period. Monthly works well.

Invoicing and payment schedule.

Billeted list of what the person will provide for service.

Contract cancellation notification from both sides.

Those are the basics.

Buy a couple of hours of time from a good lawyer in your area. Employment law varies WIDELY from state to state. The execution of offer letters, contracts and non-compete agreements are very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

..... I certainly wouldn't rely on "free" info from a web forum. :o (sorry guys :D )

Good advice by all, thank you Gentlemen.

This. And has been stated above, very tough to enforce a non compete agreement. However, make sure the contract addresses protection of your client lists, suppliers, etc.

What is the reason to have an employment agreement? For the employer, why isn't it better to have an at-will employee that you can terminate for any reason or no reason at all at the drop of a hat? Seem like the main benefit of an employment agreement is to give the employee more legal rights, which as an employer I wouldn't want.

For that matter, do you want an employee or an independent contractor? I thought the former brings the burden of payroll tax withholdings, unemployment tax, social security filing, and so on.

I can see requiring the person - whether employee or contractor - to sign away any claims to intellectual property etc.

[QUOTE=jyl;7969383]What is the reason to have an employment agreement? For the employer, why isn't it better to have an at-will employee that you can terminate for any reason or no reason at all at the drop of a hat? Seem like the main benefit of an employment agreement is to give the employee more legal rights, which as an employer I wouldn't want.
[QUOTE]

Generally only for the reasons I pointed out above. When you hire someone that is going to be your intermediary with suppliers and clients you run the risk that they get tired of being the intermediary and decide to open up shop for themselves and make off with your client and supplier lists. The very lists you worked so hard to develope and cultivate.

The contract gives you recourse. It does not stop a person from doing something. If they are the sort of person that would steal from you then they will also ignore a contract. And the cost of pursuing them legally won't be small.

Trust your gut, treat your customers in a way that will discourage them from leaving for a new vendor.

Make sure you put a disclaimer in any employment agreement that it is an "at will" agreement. In other words, either of you can 'walk' away from each other without any cause or reason to do so.

Also, if your new employee has any access to proprietary information, put that into the contract concerning non-disclosure to other parties.