Tutorial: a smart way to quickly prepare and sign employment contracts
A large part of the HR department's daily work is concluding employment contracts. This happens every day in larger companies, and in most cases the basis of the contract is the same, only the data related to the employee needs to be changed. A lot of time is spent sending the employment contract back and forth and collecting signatures.
Recently, we have also written about the changes to the Employment Contract Act that entered into force on August 1 and what it entails. It is not necessary to re-sign already concluded employment contracts, but employees who work for the employer at the time the law enters into force have the right to ask the employer to submit new data, and in such a case the employer is obliged to submit this data to the employee in writing within two weeks.
The employer must also obtain confirmation from the employee regarding the submission of data, which proves that the latter has received the notification. It is convenient to do this in the Agrello environment.
Reduce the time for contract preparation
We've already talked about how Agrello makes it easier to work with contracts and how to better organise signing processes to save time. For example, we've presented how to prepare contracts for signing in Microsoft Word.
In today's article, we take a closer look at how Agrello's contract management and signing platform can help with employment contracts. As a practical example, we'll use a common, simple employment contract form that you can download here. Agrello works with Microsoft Word, the most common document creation tool and the one most people are familiar with. It takes a lot of time to prepare, copy and organise contracts in folders, and collecting signatures and sending contracts back and forth is time-consuming.
With Agrello, the whole process can be speeded up considerably. To do this, we use Agrello contract template with dynamic fields. Instead of emailing contracts back and forth, printing them out and scanning them, the Agrello platform does all the work of collecting signatures. Archiving to the right folders is easily automated by connecting Agrello to your favourite tools (Google services, Dropbox, Slack, Pipedrive, etc.).
How to prepare an employment contract with Agrello?
Since Microsoft Word is the most widely used word processor, Agrello offers a solution for creating contracts in Word. Using special markers, you can create dynamic fields in the text where there are gaps that need to be changed, which become fillable when uploaded to the Agrello platform. Such a contract template can be used repeatedly to create documents and the dynamic fields can be filled with the correct data for each new employee without leaving the Agrello platform.
Step 1. Select the dynamic fields in the employment contract
First open your basic employment contract in Microsoft Word or download the basic employment contract here. It's important that this file is saved in .DOCX format and not in .DOC format. If your employment contract is saved in .DOC format, simply make the necessary changes and save it in .DOCX format.
Preparing the contract template with dynamic fields is a one-time effort for you. In the future you can use the same template for all employees. In the employment contract, mark all the places that need to be changed with {{curly_brackets}}. These brackets don't remain visible in the employment contract, but mark the field where the information for the employee and the employer will be displayed later. Also make sure that there are no punctuation marks, spaces, different fonts or special characters in {{curly_brackets}}, otherwise Agrello may not understand the fields.
We recommend writing the name in natural brackets to make it clearer what information is displayed in this field, e.g. {{employer_name}}, {{register_code}}, {{employee_name}}, {{identity_code}}, {{address}}, etc.
Step 2: Upload the employment contract to the Agrello environment
Make sure you've prepared the employment contract correctly with all the dynamic fields. It's good practise not to leave any such field in the employment contract that would later have to be filled in for each worker individually. However, the purpose of this practise is to get rid of unnecessary manual work and speed up the process of creating and signing the contract.
Also, make sure that the Word document is saved in DOCX format. Now that the template of the employment contract is ready, you can use the same template for each worker in the company without copying the template of the contract or filling in the fields for each worker separately.
Upload the main employment contract to the Agrello environment. If you don't have an Agrello account yet, you can create one here for free and without obligation. Don't be alarmed if you see the platform in English. We've initially created the Agrello platform in English to make it internationally accessible. Click on "Create new" and select "Template". This will create a reusable contract template that will be available to you in the Agrello environment. After uploading the contract to the Agrello environment, you'll notice that all fields marked in {{curlyt_brackets}} appear as fillable fields on the Agrello platform.
Step 3: Define signatory fields
In order for the employment contract to be digitally signed and for that signature to appear in the correct place, the signature fields must be assigned to all parties. In the case of an employment contract, if the employer and the employee are the signatories, we add two signatories to the employment contract by clicking on the "SIGNATURE FIELD" button. A field will then appear at the bottom of the employment contract which can be dragged to the appropriate place with the mouse.
Step 4 Use the template of the employment contract and create employment contracts.
The template of the contract has now been created. Contracts for all employees can be created on this template without you having to manually copy the contract template, save it separately, fill it in and email it for signature. In the future, you can easily create contracts for all employees on the Agrello platform and conveniently collect signatures for them.
You can choose whether to create a document in PDF format for signing by pressing "Create document" or whether to create an "ASIC container" type contract in which you can add other documents and files in addition to the employment contract.
Determine who the signatories are. If there are two signatories, enter the email addresses of the signatories and all parties will receive an invitation to sign the employment contract.
Step 5: Fill in the dynamic fields yourself or have the parties fill them in.
You can choose to fill in all the fields yourself or have the parties fill them in. If you want the fields to be filled in by a specific party, you can use the 'Select filler' icon to add the appropriate person to fill in the specific fields.
When all the fields are filled in and the signatories are indicated, the contract is ready to be signed. It's easy to check whether all the fields in the contract are correctly filled in or not, because only then will the green button "SEND FOR SIGNING" appear in the right-hand corner. Only when the employment contract has been correctly prepared for signing does the corresponding button appear.
Now the employment contract "In progress" can also be seen on the Agrello desktop. Here you can monitor the status of all contracts - whether they've already been signed or are still waiting for signatures.
Step 6: Signing the employment contract.
All signatories will receive an invitation to sign by email. After receiving the invitation, they only need to accept the document, review the contract and digitally sign the employment contract in the Agrello environment.
Agrello's electronic signature or well-known solutions such as Smart-ID and Mobile-ID can be used for signing.
Signing an employment contract with Agrello is easier and faster
Agrello was developed to make the preparation and signing of contracts as convenient and intuitive as possible.
In summary:
Use Microsoft Word with dynamic fields at the bottom of the employment contract.
You can use the same bottom page repeatedly for all employees' contracts of employment.
Keep track of the status of the contract signing workflow.
Agrello sends invitations to sign via email. You don't have to do this manually.
All signed employment contracts are in one place and always available.
If you want, you can also automate the preparation and signing of contracts.
How can I automate the signing of employment contracts?
Now that you have an overview of how to create the template of an employment contract with dynamic fields and send the employment contract for signing, you'll surely be interested in the possibility to create hundreds of employment contracts for signing with Agrello. You don't have to do it all individually, but there's a very good and convenient solution for this. We've written a separate article in which we describe in detail how you can create hundreds of documents to be signed with Agrello and Excel.
