In the era of the internet, remote work, social gaming, and the metaverse - you'd think that companies would naturally be increasing their flexibility associated with their workforce. Letting employees work flexible hours from where they like. Giving them the freedom to get quality work done. Cut the micromanagement, restrictive practices, and overly-penalizing simple mistakes.
On a base level - this all seems rather obvious. However, when companies are struggling to retain quality staff, and "HIRING" signs are starting to look like wallpaper on commercial windows, you'd think none of this should even be a discussion point.
At least in our space, these desired industry trends are not the norm. For example, I recently had the opportunity to review one of the agreements for another firm in our industry, and I was in genuine shock.
People need the freedom to do their best work. They need to feel passionate about the projects they work on. They need to feel like each successive project is raising the bar. If something isn't working, identify the why and how. Then, move on with more knowledge than what you started with. When team members feel genuinely empowered to do their best work and feel like their contributions are valid and genuinely matter - you don't need restrictive hiring practices in place to force your team retention higher.
When you're a new employee, especially when it seems like you've been offered the dream role at a dream job, you don't want to risk jeopardizing this offer by doing something as insane as *gasp* trying to negotiate your employment agreement. As a result, industry newbies end up signing insanely hostile non-compete clauses, non-disparagement clauses (non-mutual, of course), and likely more without consulting a lawyer.
If your business relies on scaring your employees against leaving by making them feel like they'd never find another role they're qualified for outside your company, you need to re-think your approach. Reasonable non-competes are one thing; however, the thought of "would a court enforce that?" should never even be a passing thought.
Staff are not a tradable commodity.
- Devon
On a base level - this all seems rather obvious. However, when companies are struggling to retain quality staff, and "HIRING" signs are starting to look like wallpaper on commercial windows, you'd think none of this should even be a discussion point.
At least in our space, these desired industry trends are not the norm. For example, I recently had the opportunity to review one of the agreements for another firm in our industry, and I was in genuine shock.
People need the freedom to do their best work. They need to feel passionate about the projects they work on. They need to feel like each successive project is raising the bar. If something isn't working, identify the why and how. Then, move on with more knowledge than what you started with. When team members feel genuinely empowered to do their best work and feel like their contributions are valid and genuinely matter - you don't need restrictive hiring practices in place to force your team retention higher.
When you're a new employee, especially when it seems like you've been offered the dream role at a dream job, you don't want to risk jeopardizing this offer by doing something as insane as *gasp* trying to negotiate your employment agreement. As a result, industry newbies end up signing insanely hostile non-compete clauses, non-disparagement clauses (non-mutual, of course), and likely more without consulting a lawyer.
If your business relies on scaring your employees against leaving by making them feel like they'd never find another role they're qualified for outside your company, you need to re-think your approach. Reasonable non-competes are one thing; however, the thought of "would a court enforce that?" should never even be a passing thought.
Staff are not a tradable commodity.
- Devon