Here’s a tip if you’re thinking about giving employees non-compete agreements:
Don’t put it in your handbook.
That’s the advice of Michael Carr, an attorney with the law firm Stevens & Lee. Some companies use that strategy as a way to easily push the agreement to all employees.
But Carr says it’s already tough to enforce non-competes, and including them in a handbook will only make it harder for companies to take action if an employee breaks the agreement.
Why? First of all, most handbooks say something along the lines of “This does not constitute an employment contract.” A good handbook spells out the fact that it’s non-binding, so it would be hard to hold an employee to a binding agreement.
Too broad
Also, giving the same agreement to all employees will likely make it unenforceable, too. In court, a company will have to prove it’s protecting a legitimate business interest by keeping an employee away from a competitor. That would be tough if everyone’s signing the same agreement.
A better strategy: Look at each job individually and decide whether a non-compete agreement is necessary for that position. Then, have employees sign them as stand-alone documents.
