Employment Contract Checklist
The clauses an employment contract usually covers: pay, hours, duties, leave, termination, confidentiality and intellectual property.
Send the finished contract for signature with Gochi E-Sign, and keep the new starter's leave, team and manager in Gochi HR from their first day.
What this checklist covers
Use this list to brief whoever drafts your employment contracts, or to check a draft you already have. It covers the clauses most full-time employment contracts include. Employment law differs from country to country, so have the final contract checked by a qualified adviser before anyone signs it.
Sections to include
- Parties and start date: full legal names, start date and any probation period
- Role and responsibilities: job title, who the person reports to, and the main duties
- Pay: salary, how often it is paid, and when it is reviewed
- Working hours: normal hours, overtime and any flexible arrangements
- Leave: annual, sick, parental and family leave
- Ending the contract: notice periods, grounds for dismissal and what happens on the way out
- Intellectual property: who owns the work created during employment
- Confidentiality: protecting company information during and after employment
- Non-solicitation: whether the person may approach your clients and staff after leaving
How to use it
Go through the list with your draft and mark anything missing or unclear. Leave entitlements, notice periods and the rules on ending a contract are the parts most often set by local law, so they are the parts to check most carefully with your adviser, particularly for senior hires or roles with complex intellectual property.
If you employ people in more than one country, expect a separate contract for each country.
After the contract is signed
Keep the signed contract with the employee's record, where the people who need it can find it. Review it at the first annual review, and whenever the person's role or pay changes significantly.