BY SHANE HOMAN
The transition from consultant to full time employment provides you with a number of benefits you didn’t get as a consultant, not the least of which is a regular paycheck. My previous blog talked about some of the basic points to take into account when leaving the contract world and joining a firm as a full-time employee. Here is another important point to consider…
Clarity around the Employment Offer
Spend a few dollars and seek out some legal advice from a lawyer that specializes in employment and corporate law. This is not necessarily about taking the Offer of Employment letter to the lawyer, although you could. It’s more about learning what your rights are, and what the employer’s rights are, so that the employment agreement that you both sign is clear and thoroughly understood by both sides. The goal – as always - is win/win, and clarity will be to the benefit of BOTH parties.
Getting legal advice is often an afterthought, and with the friendly atmosphere that often surrounds the offer and acceptance of full time employment it is a concept that is rejected as unnecessary. Here’s an example of how legal advice benefit’s both parties: A long-term contractor assumed fulltime employment with a local firm and remained on-staff for a number of years. As time went by the technical base of the company changed, and a business decision was made – without anger or prejudice on either side - to let the employee/former contractor go. Had that individual stated explicitly in her Letter of Employment that the years spent under contract with the firm (or a portion of those years) would be considered as part of any termination package, the compensation and exit process would have been fast and clean.
Attempting to play catch-up afterwards DOES involve lawyers, and time, and money. And, very importantly, the friendly relationships on both sides are strained. A clearly defined entitlement on termination of employment, visible and agreed upon right at the beginning, makes all of this go away.
The transition from consultant to full time employment provides you with a number of benefits you didn’t get as a consultant, not the least of which is a regular paycheck. My previous blog talked about some of the basic points to take into account when leaving the contract world and joining a firm as a full-time employee. Here is another important point to consider…
Clarity around the Employment Offer
Spend a few dollars and seek out some legal advice from a lawyer that specializes in employment and corporate law. This is not necessarily about taking the Offer of Employment letter to the lawyer, although you could. It’s more about learning what your rights are, and what the employer’s rights are, so that the employment agreement that you both sign is clear and thoroughly understood by both sides. The goal – as always - is win/win, and clarity will be to the benefit of BOTH parties.
Getting legal advice is often an afterthought, and with the friendly atmosphere that often surrounds the offer and acceptance of full time employment it is a concept that is rejected as unnecessary. Here’s an example of how legal advice benefit’s both parties: A long-term contractor assumed fulltime employment with a local firm and remained on-staff for a number of years. As time went by the technical base of the company changed, and a business decision was made – without anger or prejudice on either side - to let the employee/former contractor go. Had that individual stated explicitly in her Letter of Employment that the years spent under contract with the firm (or a portion of those years) would be considered as part of any termination package, the compensation and exit process would have been fast and clean.
Attempting to play catch-up afterwards DOES involve lawyers, and time, and money. And, very importantly, the friendly relationships on both sides are strained. A clearly defined entitlement on termination of employment, visible and agreed upon right at the beginning, makes all of this go away.
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