Most employment contracts are "indefinite". That means the employment goes on until the employer decides to let the employee go or the employee decides to quit.

Choose this option if you know the employment will end on a specific date.

Many employment relationships start with a probation period, which is normally around 3 months. Up to 6 months is sometimes seen as well.  

During the probation period, the employer has the chance to see if the employee is suitable for the job. If not, the employer is free to end the employment without giving the employee the notice period that is usually needed when letting someone go.  

It's common for an employer to do some background checks, and the types will depend on the kind of job you're being hired to do. The background checks should be reasonably connected to the job duties. For example, a credit check is normally only done for employees that will be signing authorities on bank accounts, have access to company funds through a credit card, or will know sensitive financial details. 

Without an agreement saying the employer can temporarily layoff its workers when business is slow and recall them later when it picks up again, the employer would have to give notice of termination or pay the employee a severance amount if it wants to temporarily stop using the employees' services. If you choose "yes", the Employment Contract will include language that allows temporary layoffs. 

Relocating an employee to another location (for example, to a different city, province, or even country) is a significant change to the employment relationship. If it isn't in your Employment Agreement, that sort of change could be the same as dismissing the employee from their job. That would mean the employer would have to provide notice or even an amount of severance pay. If you choose "yes", your Employment Contract will allow relocation.

A common employer benefit is a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) matching program. The employee can contribute to their savings plan and the employer will match their contribution up to a certain amount. 

Stock options are the right given to an employee to buy shares in the company for a certain price. For example, the option could be given to buy shares in the company for $2 a share. If the value of the shares rise to say $10, the employee makes $8 a share. Stock options can be given whether the employer is a public company with shares listed on a stock exchange, or a private company without publicly traded shares. Stock options are normally given to just senior or executive employees.

Equity compensation plans include a variety of share based compensation that ties the company's performance to the amount of money the employee gets. For example, these plans can include restricted share units (RSUs), performance share units (PSUs), deferred share units (DSUs), or restricted stock. If you've looked into these equity compensation plans for your employees and they may be a part of this job's pay, select this option. Equity compensation plans are normally only given to senior or executive employees, but they are sometimes given to other types of employees as well. 

Profit participation plans are when the employee gets a certain amount of money based on the profit the company makes in the year. If the company makes enough in the year, the employee gets a percentage of the profit. Profit participation plans (sometimes also called profit sharing plans) are usually only given to senior or executive employees, but that's not always the case. WestJet, for example, is famously known for having a profit sharing plan for most of its employees.

Bonuses are a common part of employee compensation. Usually at the end of the year, if the employee has done well he or she will get an extra amount of pay known as a bonus. Bonuses are sometimes tied to company performance too. 

Employment standards codes and regulations set the minimum rights the employee has. The rights in the codes across the provinces (and federally) are often quite lower than what the marketplace expects. So, it's a good idea to add some details to your Employment Agreement if you plan to give more vacation than the minimum required amounts. 

Employment standards codes and regulations set the minimum rights an employee has. The rights in the codes across the provinces (and federally) are often quite lower than what the marketplace expects. So, it's a good idea to add some details to your Employment Agreement if you expect to get more vacation than the minimum required amounts. 

For example, the employee is entitled to 6 weeks' notice or severance pay.

Notice or severance pay generally go up with each year of the employee's service. However, this is an optional feature of your Employment Agreement.

You would include a modest increase to the severance pay amount with each year of service to make it more likely that your limit would be enforced by a court. For example, if the limit were low and the employee has worked for the company for a very long time or has been promoted to a more senior position, a court may say the low limit is no longer applicable. So, having an increase formula in your Employment Agreement helps to make sure the limits stay enforceable.

Employment law says that an employee must give the employer advanced notice when they decide to quit. The amount of time has to be reasonable, but it's generally not a lot of time - something like 2 to 4 weeks is usually normal. But it can be higher for executives, for example.

If you wish, you can include a minimum amount of time the employee has to give you when they quit. You may want to do this if the person is a key or very senior employee and it would leave you in a bind if they left suddenly. 

For example, the employee would not be allowed to offer a job to your other employees and contractors. The employee would also not be allowed to ask your customers for their business. This protects you from losing valuable team members and customers.

Non-solicitation promises are more likely to be upheld by a court than a non-competition promise.

For example, your employee would not be allowed to start a business that competes with you. Also, the employee would not be allowed to take a job with your competitor or provide the competitor with services.

Non-competition promises are more difficult to enforce and courts may overturn them if they restrict the employee too much. They are also often only applied to key or more senior employees that can actually have a meaningful impact on the employer if they unfairly compete. If you choose this option, we'll help you to decide on some points that will make the promise more likely to be enforced.

Courts will often limit or overturn a non-competition or non-solicitation promise that goes too far. Including a description of your business limits the restrictions on the employee to things related to your business, which makes it all more likely to be enforceable.

Courts will often limit or overturn a non-competition or non-solicitation promise that goes too far. Including a description of where your business operates limits the restrictions to areas where you are actually likely to be threatened by unfair competition from your former employee. This is the kind of reasonable limit that the courts look for when deciding to uphold or overturn these sorts of promises. 

For example, for 2 years after they quit, the employee is not allowed to offer a job to other employees or contractors. The employee is also not allowed to go after the business of your customers or potential customers for 2 years.

We include a pre-departure time in your non-solicitation promise to protect you. For example, if we didn't include a pre-departure time we could give the employee an argument to say that since their co-worker quit a little while before the employee did, they're free to go offer the co-worker a job. Having a pre-departure time period helps to protect you from pre-planned or group departures of your employees. 

The employee is also not allowed to go after the business of anyone who was your actual customer at the time the employee left, or a potential customer during the pre-departure period. This helps to protect your potential customers from being taken unfairly by a departing employee. For example, any lead that you've been trying to get on as a customer during the 6 months before the employee left would be off limits to your former employee. 

A non-competition promise that goes on for too long will likely be seen as too restrictive by a court, which means the promise will likely be unenforceable. That's because a person's employment is so important to them that as a matter of principle, the courts don't want to restrict the person for longer than is needed. Choose a time period here that is reasonably needed to protect you from unfair competition. 

Under employment law, all employees are expected to keep their employer's sensitive information confidential. So, that promise is already a part of your employment obligations. But sometimes employers want to add strict confidentiality promises into the Employment Agreement. If that's the case for you, to protect you we'll add in some employee friendly terms and put a limit on how long your confidentiality obligation goes on.

For example, you would not be allowed to offer a job to your other co-workers. You would also not be allowed to ask your employer's customers for their business. 

If you're asked to give a non-solicitation promise and agree to it, we'll add some employee friendly terms to protect you from the obligations going too far. 

Non-solicitation promises are more likely to be upheld by a court than a non-competition promise.

For example, you would not be allowed to start a business that competes with your employer. Also, you would not be allowed to take a job with a competitor of your employer or provide the competitor with services.

If you're asked to give a non-competition promise and agree to it, we'll add some employee friendly terms to protect you from the obligations going too far. 

Non-competition promises are more difficult to enforce and courts may overturn them if they restrict the employee too much. They are also often only applied to key or more senior employees that can actually have a meaningful impact on the employer if they unfairly compete. 

For example, for 2 years after you leave the company you must keep your employer's information strictly confidential. For most employment relationships, 2 to 5 years will be a standard confidentiality period.

We'll make sure your non-solicitation or non-competition promise is limited to the actual business your employer does at the time you leave the company. This will help to keep your obligations as narrow as possible. 

We'll make your non-solicitation and non-competition promises only apply in the areas where you actually worked for your employer. So for example, it will not be considered off limits to work for a competitor or seek customer business where your employer did not have an office or in a location where you did not actually work for your employer. 

For example, for 1 year after you leave the company you are not allowed to offer a job to other employees or contractors of your former employer. You are also not allowed to go after the business of customers of your former employer for 1 year.

For example, after you leave the company you are not allowed to go after the business of anyone who was a customer of your former employer during the 3 months before you left the company. 

We do it this way because we want to limit your promise to not go after your employer's customers to just those customers that still have an active relationship with your employer. For example, if the customer last had a relationship with your employer something like 12 months ago, that would be too long to be considered an active customer and you would be free to try to win their business. 

As the employee, you'll want as short a time period as you can get. 

A non-competition promise that goes on for too long will likely be seen as too restrictive by a court, which means the promise will likely be unenforceable. That's because a person's employment is so important to them that as a matter of principle, the courts don't want to restrict the person for longer than is needed.

If your employer is insisting on a non-competition promise, it should only last as long as is needed to reasonably protect the employer after you leave. So, go as short as you can. 

This should be the date that the employee accepts the offer. It's okay if this date is earlier than the start date. In fact, that's usually the way it is.