6 documents that will save or bankrupt your business

No matter how much we want to get rid of bureaucracy, even the most creative company is forced to delve into pieces of paper. And very often there are "holes" in the documentation that can lead to loss of wealth or leakage of critical information, reduce the quality of customer service and introduce problems in relationships between colleagues.

1. Employment contract

In practice, documents are so watery that they can easily replace wet wipes. Vague responsibilities, positions, and hence responsibilities are detrimental to a company's credibility.

The bosses can commission anything, but the criteria for the quality of execution are unclear. Who is responsible for what and who is whose leader is also not clear, because all positions in the contract are equal. As a result, it is not necessary to carry out the instructions of the "informal" chief. Dismissing parasites is also not easy: the Labor Code prohibits the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated March 17, 2004 No. 2 (as amended on November 24, 2015) "On the application by the courts of the Russian Federation of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation" to say goodbye to negligent employees without disciplinary sanction and even to fine Whether employer to fine the employee? their.

To avoid misunderstandings in the team, write down the position of the hired employee in the employment contract. We have already seen armies of "programmers" and "managers" - don't do that. Specify a specific position: "public relations specialist", "high-load systems developer" and so on. The company needs a staffing table, administrative and organizational structure.

It is also worth mentioning in the employment contract: “The employee is directly subordinate to this and that”. For example, a technical director. If this is a line manager or, say, a project manager, then “provides general management of such and such a project” (or “a group of employees”).

2. Job description

You are learning from mistakes and have already drawn up a solid work contract. However, the job title alone is not enough to define the area of responsibility. To help companies - job descriptions, which describe in detail what each employee does. A programmer does not just “develop programs”, but performs tasks at a specific part of the process: for example, front-end, back-end, or full stack. The same is true for an accountant, office manager, consultant, lawyer and others.

If there is no job description, and the contract mentions only "programming" or "sales", then it turns out the following: to write the code is a work duty, but to maintain it, for example, after a year, is not. Selling is a duty, but making entries in CRM is not.

3. Internal labor regulations

If you are not happy with what time employees come to work, how they dress and where they eat, do not rush to make demands and make comments. Penalties for being late or too frequent smoke breaks during working hours are illegal if the company does not have clear rules.

All requirements for employees must be spelled out in the internal labor regulations (IHR). They provide for all actions related to the duties of an employee during working hours and do not violate the fundamental rights and freedoms of a citizen. Only based on this document, you can note tardiness, smoking in the wrong place or the use of profanity.

4. Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

Fashionable paper from the practice of large foreign companies instills a sense of reliability with just one name. It seems that after the employee signs two sheets of text, all the secrets of the organization are protected.

But the fines mentioned in the NDA do not work and there will be no compensation for "proven losses" if the company is located in Russia.

Russian entrepreneurs very often do not understand that without the regime, the introduction of a commercial secret regime - a step-by-step instruction on a commercial secret, this document is nothing more than a simple piece of paper. The introduction of such a regime should take place in accordance with the relevant law, Federal Law No. 98-FZ of July 29, 2004 "On Commercial Secrets", and any lawyer can do this.

5. Service assignment

Failed deadlines, customer dissatisfaction, sudden bugs - important tasks are often solved in a hurry and without an official mandate. Of course, the reward will find a hero, and retribution will find the guilty one and without unnecessary formalities. However, if the task was not officially entrusted, and the work was carried out “on their own initiative,” then who owns what was done?

For example, a student is interning at a company. At night, the hard worker lingers in the office to finish writing the term paper on his work laptop. Is the result of his efforts now the property of the company? Of course, the organization is unlikely to defend the rights to such a text, even if it is very good. However, what if the trainee did not the term paper, but the layout, which later won the main prize at the exhibition and became the company's top product? The Civil Code of the Russian Federation (part four), dated 18.12.2006 No. 230-FZ (as amended on 18.07.2019) to its author, belongs to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (part four) without an official service assignment and the acceptance of the right to the layout executed under the act. Perhaps he wants to keep the project for himself, create a startup and earn his first million.

To avoid such situations, never neglect these documents.

6. Agreement on liability

In the ideal company for a tricky employee, every purchase from an online store is not documented. It is unclear what will happen if you pour tea over a given laptop or take it for yourself. There are no documents on the computer, it is not on the balance sheet. The fact that the employee was given the device to a brand new and serviceable one is not mentioned in any signed paper. There is also nothing in the employment contract about responsibility for the transferred material values.

The Labor Code approves the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, dated December 30, 2001 No. 197-FZ (as amended on November 12, 2019), that by default the employee is financially liable for the damage caused within the limits of his average monthly earnings. They gave a MacBook Pro 15 for 200,000 rubles to a designer with an official salary of 50,000 rubles - don't expect full compensation for broken equipment.

The situation can be much more deplorable if it is not about negligence, but about fraud. In my practice, there was an example when a startup purchased several Apple smartphones and tablets with grant money to test and present an application. Then it seemed strange to no one that the developers decided to spend money on devices with the maximum configuration.

At the end of the year, during the next visit of the auditors from the fund, everything fell into place. The gadgets were in place, but some smartphones did not match the amount of memory indicated in the invoices. Serial numbers were also different. After the investigation, all the devices indicated in the documents were miraculously found. In other words, startups acquired better models, but then "confused" them with their own, simpler ones. Then everything was blamed on absent-mindedness, but I doubt that smartphones would have returned without investigation and invoices with serial numbers.

To protect yourself from employees with crazy hands, sign a liability agreement. Please note that the employee is obliged to compensate for the damage in full only in the cases specified in the Law of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, dated 30.12.2001 No. 197-FZ (as amended on 12.11.2019). For example, if the harm was caused intentionally or in a state of alcoholic or drug intoxication.