When looking at employment contracts you must pay keen attention to the following clauses

1.      Termination terms.

It is important to know what circumstances or behavior can lead to your termination. It is important to understand how much notice your employer should give you before he or she can terminate your contract and if there is an option to pay compensation in lieu of notice.

It is also important for the employee to know about retirement age and what benefits he gets after retirement. The employee should also read into resignation and determine if there are any benefits available to one who retires.

2.      Obligations clause.

This is very important because most employers carry out performance reviews and these reviews should be based on your employment obligations. So knowing your scope of work or obligations helps you know if you have been wrongly reviewed.

3.      Confidentiality clause,

This clause is to ensure that all or certain the information of the employer are kept confidential and are not disclosed to any third party, breach of this clause can lead to automatic dismissal of the employee and can lead to him being sued.

4.      Leave policy

This will help the employee determine how he or she can plan his or her year basing on the employer’s leave policy. This is also good to inform the employee whether his leave will be paid or not.

5.      Non-compete  clause

This clause prevents the employee from starting up a rival or competing business to that of the employer and also prevents an employee from working for a competing company or organization

6.      Benefits

It is also important for the employee to know which kind of benefits he will be getting during and after his employment like health insurance. Allowances, pension if any, NSSF etc

To fully understand the terms and conditions of the employee’s employment he or she should also look at the Human resource manual since most employers refer to the Human Resource manual in the employment contract