Rickerbys' HR Forum 06/02/08: Discussion summary
This is a summary of the discussions, which focussed on the issues surrounding the departure of a key employee from your business.
Notice options
Three main options (or a combination of these):
1. Working for the notice period.
2. Payment in lieu of notice.
3. Garden leave.
Discussed ways of motivating staff to co-operate in a handover and the difficulties with recruiting a suitable alternative during a notice period. Consider setting duties or targets which an employee must complete before releasing them from their notice early.
Garden leave is generally not felt to be beneficial, save for where the employer wanted to keep the employee out of the market place.
Three months is generally accepted to be a reasonable notice period, but it was noted that more senior employees may demand longer notice periods to protect their employment status and form part of a package in a redundancy situation. Generally it was felt that the notice period from an employer should be the same as that required from an employee, although if there was a differential, it would generally be the notice from the employer that was longer.
Confirmed the importance of ensuring contractual terms reflected the options that a business may wish to use.
Restricting staff following the termination of their employment
The types of restrictions may include:
• Not working for a competing business.
• Not soliciting or dealing with customers.
• Not disrupting suppliers.
• Not poaching other employees.
The period of restraint needs to be reasonable, it was noted that generally six or twelve months was standard. This would depend upon the circumstances. It was noted that a geographical restriction may be less meaningful given the nature of trade, particularly with the Internet.
It was noted that restrictions could be introduced at the initial contract stage, during employment on promotion, or as part of a managed departure, perhaps accompanied by a Compromise Agreement.
The reality of enforcing restrictions was discussed and the difficulty with obtaining evidence, particularly without involving valued customers into the dispute.
Protecting business information and property
Some practical steps which were suggested were that as property was distributed a full inventory was handed out and signed, which could be checked on departure.
Some organisations confirmed an employee’s obligations when they accepted their resignation, and this was felt to be effective. They could also be reminded of their obligations in person in an exit meeting. If employees were clearly advised what was permitted, this may deter them from stealing company property.
It was discussed that this was more difficult with e-mail, memory sticks and also home working. It did to a large degree rely on trust. It was helpful to have a clearly auditable IT system.
It was thought where a business was dismissing an employee, it was foreseeable that this could result in them feeling disgruntled, and employers should ensure they were prepared for this and manage the process appropriately.
Once an employee had resigned their conduct could be monitored or their access to certain confidential information restricted.
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