Protect your Confidential Company Information

In today’s current economic climate, many employees are forced to leave employment as a result of redundancies. Unfortunately, this can lead to retaliation, with ex-employees walking away with valuable information and potentially handing it to a competitor to gain a competitive advantage in potential new employment.

Whether it’s client databases, pricing strategies, or operational processes, your business relies on the protection of sensitive data so it’s imperative to have the right protection in place from the start.

In this article, we will take you through the importance of confidentiality, including confidentiality clauses and restrictive covenants in your employment contracts, and how the experts at Backhouse can help.

Confidential information, especially in professional services, is more than just client information. Client lists, internal documents, supplier terms, or industry secrets are what can help you stand out from your competitors, but it can also be a business’s downfall. Without the right protections in place, confidential information can cause significant and sometimes irreparable damage to a business, particularly if that information is passed on to a competitor or third party.

While there are some protections for businesses through employment law, these protections are limited. Contracts of employment must contain adequately worded clauses and restrictions to ensure that once an employee exits the business, confidential information remains just that. Without these protections, the business can be left vulnerable, as there is usually little that can be done once the information has been shared.

As an employer, it is vital to guard your company against employees taking sensitive information. One of the best ways to do this is by ensuring specific restrictive covenants and confidentiality clauses are written into the employment contracts of staff members who have direct access to confidential company information or hold a high-profile role within the company.

Confidentiality clauses will impose obligations on employees not to disclose the company’s confidential information to any third party, either for their own benefit or the benefit of someone else, for example, a new employer.

Restrictive covenants in contracts of employment can impose restrictions on who a former employee can work for and whether or not they can deal with certain clients in order to protect the company’s interests. In order for the restrictive covenants to be fully enforceable, an employer must be able to prove that they have given due consideration as to which employees the covenants should apply to and have not simply included them in all contracts of employment and they must be considered reasonable.

At Backhouse Solicitors, we are experts in preparing employment contracts for our clients. We work with companies in many industries and will tailor the contracts to your requirements.

We also offer our HR and Employment Law Protection Package, tailored to your business, offering peace of mind and readily available legal advice as and when you need it.

Don’t leave your employment contracts to another day – contact us and speak to one of our expert employment law solicitors.

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Email: info@backhouse-solicitors.co.uk
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