How to Make an Employee Exit Agreement

There is an endless amount of possibilities as to why an employee would want to leave a company that he/she works for. However, before that person’s employment is officially terminated, employers need to make sure that the person leaving their company won’t be doing anything that could potentially ruin the business in its entirety.

So, they have to come up with a set of rules and procedures that the resigning employee will have to follow upon exiting the company. This is the reason why employers have to create employee exit agreement forms and this article is going to focus on teaching you how to make one.

The Contents of an Employee Exit Agreement

This kind of document is used whenever an employee with sensitive knowledge about the company decides to leave (whether the decision is voluntary or not). The whole point of creating an exit agreement is so that employers are protected as well as providing them with legal evidence that can be used in court should the exiting employee decide to violate any of the agreements that have been made. Also, this kind of sample agreement points out the kind of information the exiting employee may share once he/she is no longer employed with the company.

So, if you want to learn how to create this type of agreement template in Apple Pages document, then here are the following pieces of information that it should contain:

Return of Company Property

When an employee who is all set to leave the company has possession of any property that the company owns, then naturally it should be stated in the exit agreement that all company property in the employee’s possession must be returned upon simple termination.

Tip: Before you start collecting whatever company property you need to have returned, you should have a checklist of all the things that he owns the existing employee. By having this sample checklist, you can make sure that you don’t miss out on anything important such as building keys, company laptops, cellphones, or even important documents that contain sensitive information about the company.

1. Non-Disclosure Agreement

Now, this is something that just about every company should have. With a non-disclosure agreement, you’re requesting that the employee keep any confidential information when it comes to the research and development of both old and new products or the procedures that take place within the company. You’re telling the employee not to talk about any important information to anyone who isn’t with the company. So, let’s say that your company has a formula whose contents have remained a secret for the last 20 years. If an employee who has signed the non-disclosure agreement decides to share these contents with a third party, then you can fire that employee as well as filing the appropriate charges against him/her.

2. Agreement to Non-Compete

Employees in certain companies think that they’ve entered and learned about the business long enough where they think they finally know to start their own similar business. A lot of employers fear that these people could potentially take away their customers and sees these people as future competition. And, this brings us to the non-compete agreement.

With this, the employee will read and understand that he/ she must agree not to compete with his/her former employer in the marketplace. These kinds of clauses are very common in just about exit agreements as this is what protects the company from competing against a possible threat. Because let’s say that you own one of the finest wine shops in town and your employee has gained enough money and knowledge to start his/her own. With the non-compete agreement, you’re telling this person that he/she can’t open up a similar business within the next 5 years. The duration of when he/she can’t open a similarly new business is all up to you, but be sure that it’s a reasonable amount of time.

3. Post Employment Obligations

Employee exit agreements are there to legally oblige an employee to the terms of how he/she will exit the company. Everything that’s stated in the agreement document is legally binding within the court of law. This means should the employee break any of them, the appropriate lawsuit will be filed by the company against the exiting employee. This will make the employee understand that he/she will have to follow everything that has been stated in the document that he/she has signed. Also, the main point of having the exiting employee oblige to the general agreements is so that the intellectual property of the company is fully protected.

4. Exit Checklist

Exit agreements are usually signed during a simple exit interview right before the employee leaves the company for good. It’s also common to incorporate the exit checklist as part of the agreement. The general checklist is simply a series of steps followed by the employer and the employee such as canceling passwords, the return of any company property that’s in the possession of the existing employee and any other particulars.

5. How to Conduct an Exit Interview

So, if you want to make sure that your company is protected, you have to make sure that you can understand and learn all that you need to know about exit agreements and exit interviews. You may also like the sample agreement templates.

If you would like to learn more about these two particular topics or anything related to them, then all you have to do is go through our site, find the articles that possess the information that you need, and utilize whatever information that you have been able to gather to help you and your corporate business with whatever you need.