No matter where you may be in your life or how far along you are in your career, the experience of getting a new job will always prove to be a significant step no matter how you look at it. Over time, the list of openings that you’ll come across will become more attractive in terms of the benefits they provide. Yet, there’s one thing that stays the same: the importance of an employment contract.
Why Employment Contracts Are More Important Than Ever
After working hard to refine your skills and putting in the work during your job application process, you finally get the good news a few days after your interview process that there’s a job offer for you.
It’s important that you don’t rush through the process at this stage because the employment contract that you will receive will ultimately affects your entitlements as a new, current, and departing employee.
While it’s no secret that employment contracts have never been a minor matter, they’ve become an even more important fixture in recent years. With the rise of instances where employees ended up signing into oppressive working conditions and situations because of the contracts, it’s important to exercise the necessary care.
A Solution That You Can Use to Protect Yourself (And Why It Matters)
Unless you have a legal background or are a lawyer yourself, you probably don’t have the knowledge to properly assess an employment contract to protect yourself. To best understand why it’s vital to have a lawyer like Prowse Barrette (Previously Prowse Chowne)’s experts on call to assess or review an employment contract that will come after your application, here are a few critical reasons to consider:
1) They Help Simplify the Terms That Pertain to Your Bonuses and Options
When you want to know why it’s important to hire an employment lawyer to go over a contract, nothing makes for a strong point better than the fact that employees can end up selling themselves short based on their contracts.
The average employment contract is often filled with legal jargon, defined terms, and formal wording that make it hard to understand one’s bonuses and options. This means that a job experience (no matter how attractive it looks during the interview) can be hampered because employment contracts limit them through unfamiliar wording or confusing text.
With the help of an employment lawyer, you won’t ever need to worry about this problem happening to you because they will review the contract and summarize the important points for you. Once a contract is thoroughly reviewed, a legal expert can advise you regarding:
- bonus entitlements and calculations; and
- The process by which an employer determines whether or not to give you a bonus (i.e. if it’s discretionary or not).
2) They Help You Understand the Impact of Any Non-Compete or Non-Solicitation Clauses
Another critical and prevalent problem that has led to an increase in the need for employment lawyers is the use of non-compete or non-solicitation clauses in employment contracts.
With the professional field becoming filled with critical opportunities for growth and a better salary, companies have doubled down on adding non-compete and/ or non-solicitation clauses to their employment contracts to restrict their talented employees’ ability to leave their current position.
Suppose you fear that a non-solicitation clause may hamper your professional career and potential for development in the long run. In that case, hiring an employment lawyer to go over your contract at the outset is crucial. Once you let a legal expert help you out, you’ll be able to raise concerns or make amendments to your contract that will prove to be more helpful for your own best interests!
Conclusion
Compared to the old days of finding jobs where being hired simply involved hearing the word “yes” and coming in the next day, getting employed today requires a keener eye when it comes to paperwork. Thankfully, enlisting the services of a legal professional to go over an employment contract makes it easier to stay on top of any issues that you might run into along the way!
Prowse Barrette LLP is an Edmonton law firm with many employment lawyers on staff. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our services!