There’s never been a greater time to progress self-employed ambitions. With change always comes opportunity and for those with a burning ambition to do it for themselves, being out of sight means the opportunity to create, innovate and develop business opportunities which may not be aligned to your own.
It seems that ‘side hustling’ is on the increase so what can you do to protect your business…
- Post termination restrictions – keep them up to date as your business grows and as you promote internally (they’re interpreted at the point they were signed, so if they haven’t kept up with the individual’s progression at best there will be gaps in the protection they offer). Ensure they require the employee to flag to you when they have secured work elsewhere and make disclosing restrictions to a new employer imperative.
- Confidential information – call out the ‘crown jewels’ in your employment contract, store the information securely and don’t share passwords flippantly.
- Right to search – include provision to do so within your employment contract and don’t forget to carry out an all-important ‘data protection impact assessment’ if you’re planning on searching emails and browser history.
- Put appropriate security measures in place – ensure that documents are password protected and there is a system in place to alert you to a significant download of information.
- Right to veto working for others – ensure your employment contracts insist upon employees disclosing work for others and give you the right to ask them to stop doing so.
Get in touch to discuss reviewing and updating your employment contracts.