Employment Agreement

If or when you choose to counsel as an employee for a church, non-profit ministry or public organization, make sure you sign an agreement or contract for a mutual understanding.  Be sure to read the fine print. If you want to work with somebody who doesn't have an employment agreement, be sure to work one out before starting your job, get it signed, and make sure it's legal and binding for both partners. Without that you may be surprised by the differences in understanding of the employment relationship. If you don't define the structure, and you get into a disagreement, then you have no way to resolve it. 

Second, be mindful to assess the agreement and the spirit of the partner/employer in your agreement. Be aware that you will find the need to amend the agreement as you work together and things arise that you did not plan for such as: who takes out the trash when the janitor is ill and not at work? Who cleans the restroom when they are not done at the end of the day? What type of clients and how will you get clients assigned to you?

To keep this simple for now, a sample of an Employment Agreementthat I used in my practice for my office administrator, is provided in Course Six Required Written Materials. This agreement is very general, has some practical applications for an office administrator, though can be modified for a counselor.  My purpose in using the sample agreement is to help you to be aware of what a general agreement looks like and your need to pay attention to the details you are agreeing to follow.

Let’s start with Number One, that is Employment.  Get in writing your role, who is supervising you and work duties (may be spelled out in a formal job description or addendum).  Number Two, the Best Efforts of the Employee, the employee agrees to perform faithfully, industriously and to the best of employees, ability, experience and talents, all of the duties that may be required by the express and implicit terms of this agreement to the reasonable satisfaction of the employer. The employer has to be reasonable. And then it says where they shall be provided for, or that there may be other places the employer may require you to work, which might be seminars, workshops or another branch office. Number Three:  Compensation of Employee.  Compensation for the services provided by the employee will be very important to you and the employee. Under this agreement, the employer will pay an employee $7.50 per hour (Remember this agreement example is for the office administrator, not for the counselor.  A salary or hourly rate can be written here for a counselor.). This shall be paid monthly on the 15th day of the following month. Upon termination of the agreement, payments under this paragraph shall cease, provided, however, that the employee shall be entitled to payments for periods or partial periods that occurred prior to the date of termination and for which the employee has not yet been paid. In other words, if you're owed back pay, then that will be paid to you. 

As you will find in the sample employment agreement, I put commission in here because in some situations, people do receive commission. You can find computer programs or online apps to help you to draw up these agreements.  If you are the employer, I'd encourage you to get familiar with an online legal document program, or something like this, to draw up these kinds of agreements. You can use this one as a sample. 

An option that can be included in an employee agreement is the employer will make commission payments to the employee based on 10% of the gross income per month of the clinic. If you are in a situation where commission is part of your income, it needs to be stated at what rate you'll receive it in your employment agreement.  You (the employer) want to make sure you're treating them fairly or give you the right to make sure you're receiving what you're supposed, even a beneficiary needs to be included. A disability clause is important which allows you to continue to receive a commission for a given period of time, even if you are unable to work up to a period of 90 days. 

Number four, now says a reimbursement for expenses in accordance with employer policy, (such as travel expenses, meals, postage, negotiating if you perceive your job means you're going to have to travel somewhat). I found that as an employer, the better you treat your employees, the better off you are in the long run because you develop loyalty and a sense of fairness and commitment.  Number five says termination due to discontinuous business. This is important to include so that if the business fails, and you're out of a job, you have to be given prior notice. And then number six says recommendations for improving operations. It's basically saying if the employee thinks something's not right, tell me, and so that we can improve the business. Number seven is confidentiality, and it says the employee recognizes that the employer has and will have the following information. In this situation, you are protecting yourself as the employer from anything that would not be beneficial to your business, such as stealing from you. If you take an invention, you take equipment, you disclose costs, discounts, future plans, business affairs, copyrights, or any information that's considered vital to the business or valuable or special or unique to the employer. I could say, wait, in your agreement you stated you wouldn't do that, and I'd have the right to a lawsuit. The agreement is that the employee won't divulge, disclose, communicate this information to someone else, but will protect it, so that this doesn't happen. 

Number eight says the unauthorized disclosure of information, which says I can get an injunction to restrain you from doing these things, prohibits you from doing that. And also, if the employee leaves the position for any reason, there is a provision for confidentiality. The employee doesn't have the right to use this information that may have been gleaned through the contact with you as the employer, or to make any statements that disclose information learned from the business. If the employer desires, a non-compete agreement can be included that prohibits an employee or former employee to use what they may have learned to create a business that directly opposes yours. 

Number 10, vacations are discussed and you can negotiate for what you want. This says one-week paid vacation for each year of employment. Usually there's a limit and you have to use it each year. Next in number 11 is sick days, personal business time off policies need to be in writing as you agree on. You can also negotiate about holidays (Number 12) and other benefits. Other benefit options (Number 13) can be for disability insurance, a retirement plan, health insurance and life insurance. So that's a place where, especially if you're going into a clinic, where there's some financial stability, you want to negotiate for those things right up front and tell them that that's what you'd like, and get it in writing. 

Number 14, it talks about term or termination. It says, in essence, with this, the person is hired for an indefinite term. Number 15 says termination for disability, and it says the employer can terminate the employee. If the person becomes permanently disabled and is no longer able to perform their job, they have to exercise this option by giving a 90-day written notice to the employee. Also, the next issue (Number 16) says compliance with the employer's rules, basically says that the employee agrees to submit to the rules and regulations. Number 17 says return of property, such as keys, records, notes, data, memorandum, models, equipment that belongs to the employer. And then number 18says notices. And it says that all the notices that have been asked for (generally a 90-day notice) and such will be deemed delivered to the employer (address), by the employee. 

Number 19 says that everything contained within this agreement is it, there isn't anything else, there is not any extra stuff. There are no other papers. This is the employment agreement.  Number 20 says any amendments must be made in writing and signed by both parties. Then severability in 21 which means if any provision in this agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provision shall continue to be prevalent valid. In other words, if one part doesn't work, doesn't mean the rest don't. Number 22 says the waiver of contractual right says that if either party doesn't enforce the provisions or stick to the provisions, then it says that shall not be construed as a waiver or limitation of that party's right to subsequently enforce and compel strict compliance with every provision. In other words, if one part doesn't work, the rest still do. They're still enforced. Either the employee can say, wait a minute, this is my right, or the employer can say, this is what you need to do. And then in number 23 says - the state shall govern or enforce this agreement. 

At the end of the agreement, it lists who the employer and employee is. And then on the last page, Exhibit A, basically, it provides a description of what the employee will do, or the employer is asking you to do. The employer could put under this section:

1. Job description for an office administrator could say,, the administrator’s office tasks for digital filing, answering the phone, welcoming clients, receiving counseling payments, etc.. 

2. For counselors as employees, the exhibit could say, The employee shall provide one hour counseling sessions for at least 25 sessions per week, whereas the clients are available for scheduling.  The Counselor shall be licensed as a professional counselor or be in training and under the supervision of a licensed professional counselor. In this state, the counselor shall maintain all professional liability insurance for at least $1 million per case, both upon him or herself and the Counseling Center.  The counselor shall provide, at his or her own expense, all the necessary personal items that are necessary for the maintenance of a professional appearance and a professional practice, such as calculators, books and so on. The Counselor shall be responsible for his or our own tax payments of all kinds, including FICA, federal and state income withholding and other tax concerns. 

So, in essence, you have to look through this description and decide if you can meet these requirements, because if you say that you will do this, then this is what you're bound by. So that's going to mean you're either licensed or you're in the process of being supervised, and you finished a master's. It's going to mean that you know that you are buying your own office supplies, at least to some degree, for your desk. It's going to mean that you carry your own malpractice insurance. There are a number of things that you're agreeing to. 

Now, what I have found just in this kind of situation is it's really easy to talk with somebody and say, ‘Well, yeah, we can work this out, and then we'll be okay.” And shake hands and say, well, that's done. But if, if you assume that, and then there's a question or a grumbling or a hurt feeling or an attitude, well you got money, why don't you buy it? Or your supplies start to sort of disappear, or something that should be done, like maybe meeting every week for an office staff meeting, and person doesn't show up, or carrying the malpractice insurance, you have no way to go back to the point in time when you when you shook hands to say, “Well, this is what I wanted you to do ...,” because you didn't say it, or you didn't write it down, or the person didn't read it, or they didn't sign the document. You make this formal agreement to make sure the relationship is harmonious, honors God and works. And the way you do this is you come up with an employment agreement. I would urge you, if the person that you're going to work with in a partnership or join an existing practice. If they don't know about employment agreements, then you educate them, and don't go with them until you get one worked out and make sure it's fair. If it's not, challenge it, pray about it. Negotiate, work out something that you can live with and you feel good about. 

Additional note:  The sample employee agreement is just that, an example and not a form to be formally used by an employer.  This sample agreement is only for educational purposes only, not for legal advice and is to be understood “as is”, based upon the date it was written.  Therefore, the agreement example disclaims any warranty of accuracy or completeness and limits the writer’s liability for any damages or issues arising from the use of this sample agreement.