How to update your employment contracts so they protect your agency

O*NO! You’ve realised your employment contracts haven’t been future-proofed and don’t do enough to protect your brand! You want to update them but are you legally entitled to?  

In our previous and first article (see “How to Protect Your Client Database from Walking out the Door” ), we discussed the importance of future-proofing your employment relationships and how this could be best achieved when you take new employees on board.  

Now, let’s think about your current employment contracts. Is your client database protected? What about your IP and confidential information? Can your staff take your clients with them when they leave? If you aren’t sure, or know your contracts need beefing up, it’s not too late for you to update your contracts to form part of your asset shield. The business of updating employment contracts cannot be done on a whim – here are our tips to guide you in doing so.  

Updating/revising an existing employment contract

• First and foremost, you must ensure that any amendment to an employment contract is done by mutual agreement otherwise your employees may be able to contest the validity of those amendments.  Put simply, contractual amendments are a two-way street. 

• Avoid frequent updates – these can be costly, time-consuming and messy and no one wants that much paperwork! Make sure you comprehensively cover all amendments you want to make in one go.  

• Your employees may not always jump at the idea of signing revised contracts, as these casts some speculation and uncertainty regarding changes in employment conditions. Pinpoint all changes and ensure they are explained clearly to them.

• To minimise your employees having objections or refusing to sign the revised contracts, pick an opportune time to make the change.  Some windows of opportunity in this context are when a change in your Award or legislation is introduced when your employee secures a promotion or has a change in job description/award or where there is a change in management or internal policies. 

Other steps you can take in clearly establishing your employees’ contractual obligations

An employment contract is undoubtedly the best place to start in future-proofing your employment relationships. But don’t rely solely on the contract as let’s face it, your employees may not have seen the colour of their contracts since they first joined. As a result, they could unknowingly breach their contractual obligations (however watertight these are) and potentially harm your brand, causing you to expend time and resources performing damage control.  Talk about a domino effect! 

Some proactive and practical steps you should take to put your employees in touch with their contractual obligations would be to maintain a regularly updated and easily accessible employee handbook or manual, schedule regular staff ‘house-keeping’ meetings and conduct occasional training in policy, procedure and compliance.

Takeaway

• An employment contract is the best place to start with future proofing your employment relationships. 

• Update your existing contracts to make them ‘bulletproof’.  

• Strategically time presenting your employees with new contracts to have a better chance of having them signed.

• Take proactive steps to remind your employees of their contractual obligations. Doing so will minimise the likelihood of you having to perform damage control where a breach occurs.  

Your next steps 

Go and check your employment contracts! If you’d like to ensure your a*rse is actually covered talk through your employment contracts with a legal expert - book your FREE 10 minute call here to get started.

Want new employment contracts so you know you’re covered? Head over to our online store and find our employment agreement templates that have been specifically tailored for Real Estate Agencies.

Boring legal stuff: This article is general information only and cannot be regarded as legal, financial or accounting advice as it does not take into account your personal circumstances. For tailored advice, please contact us. PS - congratulations if you have read this far, you must love legal disclaimers or are a sucker for punishment.