It’s that time of the year when employers are busily looking for new recruits and offering new opportunities. Effort and time is often put into the recruitment process. However, the employment agreements offered to the chosen candidates can be rushed, non-compliant, and not tailored to the employer’s organisation.
Along legal liability when employment agreements are non-complaint, organisations really are missing an opportunity to ensure that the document setting the foundation for the employment relationship fits with its values, expectations, nuances, and pre-emptively covers issues that it sees arise with its workforce. An up-front investment tends to pay dividends long into the future.
One-size fits all templates may be compliant if populated correctly (noting that often they are not populated correctly in the absence of legal support). Likewise, employment agreement templates drafted without legal input can be non-compliant from the get-go and can be very expensive. Generally speaking, those of us who catch, manage and resolve or litigate the legal issues arising out of employment agreements and relationships for our clients are generally best placed to draft them.
So, while we understand the temptation to rush out a template document to seek to secure a candidate, or cut costs by drafting an agreement in-house, we recommend taking a moment to consider whether now is the time to have that template reviewed, and/or have a new one drafted, that at a bare minimum meets legal compliance requirements, but better, sets the right tone and foundation for the employment relationships with your staff.
Our team is passionate about understanding our clients, building a lasting relationship, and by doing that, getting the employment agreement right. We understand this is often an urgent job, so we treat such instructions accordingly.
For more information
If you would like assistance with reviewing your employment agreement and/or putting a new document in place, please reach out so we can discuss further and provide a fee estimate. Feel free to contact us on 04 472 0020.
See more of our employment law articles here.
