Sourcing and hiring talent is fundamental to business growth, and you must get the process right. That’s why we’ve worked with legal experts and proofreaders to develop a simple employment agreement to use as you scale your workforce.
Sourcing and hiring talent is fundamental to business growth, and you must get the process right. That’s why we’ve worked with legal experts and proofreaders to develop a simple employment agreement to use as you scale your workforce.
What’s in this template?Employment is the process whereby a business hires an individual to perform specific tasks and responsibilities in exchange for an income.
The business in this context is the employer, and the individual is the employee.An employment contract is a legally binding agreement between employer and employee that lays out the terms and conditions for all parties to have a successful working relationship.
Employment contracts include information such as expected working hours, benefits, pay, conduct, and responsibilities.
Without a standard employment agreement in place, employers are not protected if employees don’t meet their role requirements. Conversely, employees are exposed if employers don’t fulfill their responsibilities.
What could have easily been mitigated with a contract can spiral into lawsuits and damaged reputations.
DISCLAIMER: We are not lawyers or a law firm and we do not provide legal, business or tax advice. We recommend you consult a lawyer or other appropriate professional before using any templates or agreements from this website.
If you’re in search of a straightforward hiring process, check out our basic employment contract template. It has all of the necessary information you need to onboard new talent and grows your business.
Click below to download our template todayThe problem with most traditional employment contracts is that they’re long and filled with confusing legal jargon. Employees spend more time querying the information in the agreement, and employers waste time explaining and clarifying details in the fine print.
Keeping your employment agreement simple with just the essential conditions makes the hiring process more approachable and easier to manage.
Generally speaking, there are five key components of a basic employment contract. Let’s explore some examples below.
It’s considered best practice to list the core responsibilities expected from your employee during their employment.
For example, if you’re hiring a sales consultant, they’d be responsible for:The useful thing about listing core duties for a role in a contract is that it forces your team to get clear about what you expect from each position. You also have the added benefit of copying and pasting duties across multiple applications if it’s the same role.
We recommend you regularly update this section as you assess the effectiveness of each position in your organization.
Salary details are crucial for all of your future employees, so it’s vital that you communicate pay accurately.
At this point in the application process, employees should be well aware of their compensation. Either from the job advertisement or through negotiations through the hiring contact. You just want to make sure that the employment contract you present reflects the conversations you’ve had with employees about their pay.
If there’s any doubt or confusion about what salary to add to the contract, reach out to your HR team or the employee directly, confirm the agreed figure.
In most conventional employment contracts, the employee benefits section can be quite lengthy as the company’s try to explain all of the rules and processes for receiving benefits.
A simple employment agreement is more about capturing the high-level benefits and then relying on internal documents from the company to outline specific processes about each benefit. This approach is helpful as it keeps your contract nice and concise while providing more detailed information about each benefit, so it’s easier for employees to understand.
Some organizations even create short internal videos on their intranets to explain staff perks and benefits.
In your employment contract, you must clearly describe the expected working hours per week for the role. Even better if you can communicate lunch breaks.
In addition to working hours, detail where your employee will be expected to work—which would be the principal place of employment.
In this day and age, you may need team members to work on different locations or remotely. So it’s a good idea to build some flexibility into your employment contract template where employees can work in a separate area as long as all parties agree.
One of the most referenced sections in a standard employment contract is the termination section. Employees move on and accept other positions, and they want to know what they need to do to end their employment.
It’s essential to include a notice period for when an employee can end their employment. This will be dependent on your local fair-work legislation and your business policy.
If you’re in search of a straightforward hiring process, check out our basic employment contract template. It has all of the necessary information you need to onboard new talent and grows your business.
