WHAT IS A SENIOR EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT?

A Senior Employment Contract is a contract used primarily in the United Kingdom which who will be acting as a director of a senior employee. Also included in the contract are the terms and conditions of the employment.

WHEN DO YOU NEED A SENIOR EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT?

A Senior Employment Contract is needed when an employer is hiring a senior employee or director. It is needed because Senior employees have more diverse and complex duties than lower level and mid-level employees. Senior employees and executive level employees should have more restrictive clauses because they are exposed to more company confidential information, trade secrets. The senior employees may also privy to work projects that are classified as intellectual property hence their contracts must be different from lower level employees.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN ELEMENTS OF A SENIOR EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT

• Post-employment Restrictions:
  Although most employees are subject to NDA restrictions senior employees are also subject to non-compete restrictions which prohibits them from accepting employment from their previous employer  for a specified period of time:  for example  2 years and the clause may restrict the senior employee from working with a competitor within a specific radius of distance from the previous employer: for example: within 100 miles.

• Garden Leave Restrictions:
  This unique restriction requires the senior employee to stay at home or at least out of the office once he or she has given notice. Not commonly used in some countries this restriction is especially useful in that it prevents a disgruntled employee from having access to confidential information that he or she may remove or destroy.

• Share Options:
  Senior employees are often given the opportunity to buy shares in the company at a discount rate.

• Length of Notice Period:
  Senior employees have more responsibilities and in general require more education and specialized training, therefore, it is much harder to replace a proficient senior employee. In recognition of the difficulties involved in finding, hiring and training a replacement for a senior employee; the notice period for senior employees is usually longer than it is for a regular employee.The notice period is usually from one to three months but can even be as long as 12 months in some cases.

• Severance Packages:  Companies that draft Senior Employee Contracts for Senior employees may or not include lucrative severance packages. Companies that really need or want a particularly well qualified Senior employment candidate a very lucrative severance package as a means to entice the candidate to come to work for the company and not one of the competitors.