Are you worried that your employees will reveal your business, proprietary data or trade secrets, either now or after they leave your employ? If yes, perhaps an Employee Non Disclosure Agreement is the answer.
Instructing the HR department to have employees sign one of these agreements ensures that employees understand the need for confidentiality and the type of information that is confidential. Without a clear understanding of the issues, employees are more likely to reveal confidential information with no intent to do harm or to benefit personally.
Employee Non-Disclosure Agreements are legal contracts that you ask your employees to sign. The terms of the contract can be as simple as a few paragraphs, or complex enough to take several pages to outline.
Essentially, you stipulate the information that the employee must keep secret. You will want to include a general mention of the type of information that the agreement covers, as well as adding a clause stipulating the information is not limited to items on the list. You stipulate that the confidentiality must be maintained throughout the course of the employment as well as after employment ends.
You might include a clause stipulating the documents, both digital and paper, that must be returned or destroyed when the individual terminates their employment. You might also include a clause stating that you have the right to notify any future employer of the contract’s existence.
You might also include mention of you expectations as to how the employee will safeguard your confidential materials that are in his or her possession. Remember that briefcases and mobile computers are stolen routinely from parked automobiles, mobile and desktop computers fall prey to malware and hackers, wireless transmissions can be hacked – and so on.
If you deem it appropriate, you indicate your recourse in the event that the employee non disclosure agreement is violated.
Be aware that once the employee has left the company, your only recourse may be legal action. There are at least three instances in which a court may rule in the employee’s favor.
If, for existence, the information has become public knowledge or is available elsewhere, the contact could be invalid.
If the employee can demonstrate that they obtained the knowledge elsewhere, or that they already possessed the information at the time they accepted employment, the contract can be ruled invalid.
And lastly, if the event of a subpoena, the courts are likely to rule that the subpoena overrules the employee non disclosure agreement.
Nevertheless, if you word your document carefully and understand the conditions that can invalidate it, you are wise to use an employee non-disclosure agreement.
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Protect your confidentiality with a lawyer- approved non disclosure agreement. For a sample non-disclosure agreement and other business documents, visit Business Writing by Nightcats Multimedia.