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What to include in an employment contract

On Behalf of | May 8, 2019 | Contract Law

As the owner, manager or senior executive of a Texas business, your best bet at preventing contract disputes and similar issues may lie in crafting a strong and enforceable employment contract your workers must sign before becoming a part of your team. At the Kruckemeyer Law Firm, we recognize that carefully drafted employment contracts can prove to be a great line of defense if the relationship between your company and an employee does not work out. Throughout our firm’s history, we have helped many people navigate this and similar employment and contract-related matters.

According to Inc., one important consideration in drafting an employment contract is recognizing that the contract should protect both the employer and the employee. If your employment contract unfairly favors you, the employer, a prospective worker may be hard-pressed to sign it. Having an employment contract that favors the employee, meanwhile, can come back to bite you, should your relationship with that employee ultimately sour.

So, what types of considerations should a typical employment contract address? For starters, it should clearly outline the job duties and expectations, and it should also explicitly state how the employee will receive compensation for the work he or she performs. Most strong employment contracts also include sections that address non-compete and non-solicit clauses. Non-compete clauses dictate whether the employee will have any restrictions, should he or she leave your company and pursue work elsewhere. Non-solicit clauses, meanwhile, typically dictate that, should the employee leave your company, he or she cannot attempt to take other employees along with him or her.

You may, too, want to include sections in your employment contract that outline any severance packages you will offer your employee and what types of actions might be grounds for ending the employer-employee relationship. You can find more about contracts on our webpage.