Employment agreement template, and how to get it signed

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An employment agreement sets the terms of the working relationship between a business and an employee, distinct from an offer letter (a shorter document extending the job, often with fewer legal terms) and from a contractor agreement (which governs an independent contractor relationship, not an employee one, with real legal consequences for misclassifying one as the other). This article covers the structure; the specific wording, especially anything touching non-competes, probationary terms, or termination, needs review against the actual law where your employee works, which varies enough by state and country that a generic template is a starting point, not a finished answer.

Clauses, and which ones need local law review

1. Position, duties and reporting

Job title, a short description of core duties, and who the employee reports to. Keep duties described clearly enough to set expectations but not so rigidly itemized that minor day-to-day flexibility becomes a contract issue.

2. Compensation and benefits

Base pay (hourly or salary), pay frequency, and a summary of benefits (health coverage, retirement contributions, paid time off) or a reference to a separate benefits summary document if yours is detailed enough to warrant one. State clearly whether the role is classified as exempt or non-exempt from overtime rules where that classification applies, since misclassifying this is a real, common source of wage disputes, not a minor paperwork detail.

3. At-will or fixed term

In the US, most states default to at-will employment, meaning either party can end the relationship at any time for any lawful reason, unless the agreement states otherwise. A small number of jurisdictions handle this differently, and some agreements intentionally specify a fixed term instead. State this explicitly rather than leaving it to default assumptions, since the agreement's own wording can unintentionally create a fixed-term expectation if it isn't careful about this.

4. Confidentiality and IP assignment

Standard language covering confidential business information and assigning work product created during employment to the business. This is usually lower-risk, standard language across most jurisdictions, though if the role involves significant pre-existing intellectual property the employee brings with them, worth carving that out explicitly so ownership isn't ambiguous later. Where the confidentiality terms need more detail, a separate NDA for employees and new hires is an option.

5. Non-compete and non-solicit (the clause needing the most care)

If you're considering including a non-compete, know that this is genuinely a patchwork area of law. A handful of states ban non-competes for employees outright regardless of role or compensation. Several others restrict them to employees above a certain salary threshold, require advance notice, or limit their duration and geographic scope. There's also been active federal attention to this area in recent years, with legal challenges affecting whether broader restrictions apply nationally. This changes often enough through legislation and court rulings that stating a specific current national rule here would likely be out of date by the time you read it, confirm the current status in your specific state (or country) with a lawyer before including a non-compete, and read my separate plain guide to non-competes and non-solicits for more on when they tend to hold up at all. A non-solicit (restricting poaching clients or staff, rather than restricting where someone can work) is generally viewed more favorably across more jurisdictions, but still varies and still deserves the same local review.

6. Termination terms

Notice period expectations (if any beyond at-will defaults), final pay timing (which some states regulate specifically), and what happens to benefits, equipment, and confidentiality obligations after employment ends.

A filled-in example

Role: Operations coordinator, reporting to the operations manager. Compensation: $52,000 annual salary, paid biweekly, classified as exempt (confirmed against the relevant salary threshold and duties test where this business operates). Employment type: At-will, confirmed as the default in the employer's state, stated explicitly in the agreement. Confidentiality: Standard clause covering business information and work product assignment. Non-compete: None included, this business chose a non-solicit only, restricting the employee from soliciting the company's clients or staff for 12 months after leaving, reviewed by the company's employment lawyer for enforceability in their state before use. Termination: At-will termination by either party; final pay issued per the state's required timeline for involuntary termination.

Common mistakes worth avoiding

Copying an employment agreement template from a different state or country without checking what actually needs to change is the most common mistake, at-will defaults, final pay timing, overtime classification rules and non-compete enforceability can all differ enough that a template written for one state can quietly misstate the law in another. A second mistake is treating the non-compete clause as a standard, low-risk addition because "everyone includes one," when in a meaningful number of states it's unenforceable or outright prohibited for most employees, making the clause worse than useless, since including an unenforceable term can also undermine confidence in the rest of the agreement if it's ever challenged. A third is handing over the agreement for signature on the first day alongside a stack of other onboarding paperwork, which both rushes the employee's read of genuinely important terms and makes it harder to prove they had a fair chance to review it if a dispute ever comes up.

E-sign steps

Once the agreement reflects your actual terms, reviewed for anything touching classification or non-compete language, get it signed before the employee's first day, not casually on day one while they're also filling out a dozen other onboarding forms. QuickSigner, a web-based electronic signature tool that lets you send a document for signature from any device without the signer needing to create an account, works well for this, especially for a new hire who hasn't started yet and may be signing from home before their first day. Build the agreement, add signature and date fields, and send it through QuickSigner, which keeps a timestamped audit trail confirming exactly when it was sent, opened and signed, useful if the start date or terms are ever questioned later. My new hire paperwork checklist covers bundling this with the rest of the onboarding packet into one signing session instead of several separate ones.

How I'd approach this

For most small businesses hiring a handful of people a year, the template structure above, reviewed by an employment lawyer for anything jurisdiction-specific and signed electronically, is the right approach, and I wouldn't suggest anything more elaborate than that. Where it becomes worth building something custom is once you're hiring frequently enough across different roles and states that managing which clauses apply where, and tracking which signed agreements include what terms, is eating real administrative time that a connected system would handle more reliably than a folder of individually-reviewed documents.