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Employment contracts in the U.S.
Hiring employees, particularly in another country, such as the U.S., is completely different than hiring employees under employment laws and employee protection than in Germany. Therefore, hiring employees to work for your company in the U.S. can lead to further difficulties if you do not make the necessary arrangements prior to hiring.
As it is also important in Germany, it is important to hire the proper workers in the U.S. It is important to train your new employees properly, and it is also beneficial to include them in the opening of the business. This gives employees a sense of belonging, so that they are more like to want to stay with your company for a long period of time. This allows your employees to gain needed experienced and it saves you from training new employees on a constant basis.
Before you hire employees, it is important to decide if you want your employees to sign individual employment contracts, or if you would like to hire them as “AT WILL EMPLOYEES”.
The more complex the job of an employee, the more important it is for you to establish an employment contract between the company and the employee, whether it be a Non-compete Agreement, or a Non-disclosure Agreement, and it is important to consider what if any, employee benefits you will offer.
If the process for establishing liability and wages is less complex, then it is common to hire an employee as an “At Will Employee”. This means that each individual employee is not required to sign nor are they restricted by an employee contract. In order to not be legally responsible if an issue should arise, it is important that an EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK is given to every employee, and to ensure that they have read and fully understand the handbook, it is important to make sure that you have collected their signature in agreement with the policies and practices of the company.
The Employee Handbook defines general rules that apply to all employees, for example, permission to go on vacation, rules of absence, work hours, rules in the event of an illness or disease, etc. Some lawyers prepare Employee Handbooks for clients that are up to 250 pages long. This means that hiring At Will Employees is not necessarily less complex.
In any case, your company can receive an Employee Handbook that is only 80, 130, or fewer pages long. Due to the complexity of establishing a new company and creating an Employee Handbook, you can contact us and we can provide you with a short consultation to give you an idea of what should be included in your employee handbook.
Hiring employees is not the last step. To be more specific, you must have files on every employee; amongst other paperwork, you must file I-9 forms for everyone employed under you.
It is also possible to use an employee agency so that you do not have to be responsible for the bookkeeping and the proper and lawful documentation of your employees. Although, you should be aware that you are unlikely to find a loyal employee and you may still be responsible for their training costs.
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