Imagine you’ve invested in a new piece of kit for your business. Something that’s going to help you grow and achieve your goals. It’s shiny, exciting and expensive… But then it doesn’t work properly, or at least not as you had expected it to. Would you push it into a corner and ignore it in the hope it fixed itself, or would you dig out the user manual and try to figure out what had gone wrong? 

I’m guessing you’ve gone for the latter – and yet, when the ‘thing’ that isn’t working as expected is an employee, many small business owners will put off dealing with an issue for as long as possible because they’re just not sure where they stand or what to do. 

This is where a well-drafted, tailored employment contract comes into play. Your contract is about as close as you’ll get to having a user manual for your team and, when written well, it’ll guide you in managing staff effectively, minimise problems in the employment relationship and help you deal with them quickly and effectively when they do.

Let’s be honest – there are plenty of free templates online which will cover the minimum legal requirements that have to be included in a ‘statement of particulars.’ However, you wouldn’t resort to the lowest common denominator in relation to any of the major commercial decisions of your business; why do it with your staff, your most valuable asset? Here are three crucial reasons why it’s important for any employer to have more:

1.You define the relationship you want from the start.

The contract governs the relationship between you and your employees. If you draft it right to start with, you get to set the tone of that relationship exactly how you want it to be. You get to decide how you want things to work, and to think ahead in terms of how a contract could work for you in the future, rather than just ticking a box.

2.A well-drafted contract will enable, not restrict you.

Many people think writing anything beyond the basics down will be restrictive. In fact, it will enable you to manage staff in the way you see fit and with clarity of expectations on both sides. It will support you when you need to make tough decisions by building your right to make those decisions into the contract.

3.Look to the future

Your business is continually evolving, and so is your relationship with your staff. They might be with you a long time and you don’t know at the start how your relationship with them is going to develop. The contract you issue at the start will remain in force for the duration of the employment; amending terms and conditions or imposing new ones isn’t straightforward, and risks souring relationships with valued staff. A little forethought and some decent drafting at the beginning saves all that.

So, what do you need to include? Well, there really is no ‘one size fits all.’ Every business is different and the culture, the sector, the kind of employees there are, the kind of jobs they do, the management style of the owner, client culture and expectations are just some of the things that impact on what terms would suit you best and in what language they need to be drafted. All small businesses are not the same!

If you’re ready to employ someone, or if you already have employees but haven’t reviewed your contracts for a while, please get in touch for a free, no obligation chat about how I might be able to help.