The strength of your agency’s human capital — your team members and their talents — it’s your biggest advantage in this competitive market.

And, consistently, agency leaders report that addressing legal issues related to employees is also one of their biggest challenges.

Maybe a current or former employee has used agency work in their own personal portfolio. Perhaps you’ve been engaged in a dispute with a departing team member over a client relationship. Or possibly your agency’s reputation is on the line due to inappropriate behavior of a team member on social media.

Whether harmful employee actions are taken in the spirit of creativity, simple ignorance, or outright negligence or malice, getting in front of potential personnel issues with solid employment agreements and policies will bring transparency to your expectations from the start, and protect you and the agency long-term.

While all types of companies need effective employment documents, there are some areas where agencies are more vulnerable.

The following are six of those areas to address in every agency agreement or policy:

1. Portfolio Rights – Address the employee’s right to display work on his or her personal portfolio, both during and after employment. Make sure the portfolio rights don’t conflict with your promises to clients or your need to get client permissions. Additionally, require your clients to attribute agency and client in their portfolio use.
2. Moonlighting and Side Projects – Due the range of work and specializations, freelance work is a natural part of the creative services ecosystem. Require your employees to give the agency notice and get permission if their plan is to moonlight (prohibiting moonlighting with competing agencies and clients). Also, require that moonlighting and freelance work not interfere with employee work responsibilities.
3. Non-Solicitation – From day one, ensure that employees are under contract that prevents the direct solicitation of agency clients, contractors, or employees, both during employment and for a determined period after termination.
4. Bring Your Own Device – Employees should not store agency-owned assets or content on personal devices. If they use personal devices for work, those devices should be accessing agency systems and assets via the cloud or a secure dedicated server with all password protected and in compliance with IT policies.
5. Remote Work – Remote or virtual work arrangements are a fact of life, and agencies have been ahead of the curve in creating more opportunities for employee flexibility. Include rules in your agreements and policies about confidentiality, professionalism dealing with client matters from remote locales, and the need to keep accurate time records (especially client billing records) for work done remotely.
6. Social Media Usage Policy and Personal Branding – “Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your Grandma to see” is not an effective social media policy, and places the emphasis on an employee’s personal reputation, rather than on the bigger risks for the agency overall (false advertising, copyright infringement, client response, and FTC compliance). It also neglects the reality that your agency professionals need the skills and knowledge surrounding social and influencer platforms to thrive in their practice. Get specific on what you expect of your team members online while encouraging the positive engagement as they are representatives of your brand, whether they disclose it on their profiles or not.

What employment issues has your agency faced and how did you address them in your agreements and policies?