• Four separate restrictions

  Not approaching customers, not persuading customers to leave or cut back, not approaching suppliers, and not recruiting colleagues, each with its own period.

• Who counts

  Blanks to define the customers, suppliers and people covered, for example those the employee personally dealt with before leaving.

• What the employee remains free to do

  Dealing with someone who approaches them unprompted where agreed, working for a competitor, responding to public advertisements and giving a reference.

• Asking whether something is allowed

  The employee may ask in writing, and the employer answers within a time you write in and may confirm in writing whether a particular person is caught.

• Scope, other obligations and breach

  The intention that it go no further than needed, how it sits with the confidentiality and competition documents, a warning letter before action and a review if the role changes.

A non-solicitation agreement records what an employee agrees not to do about the employer's customers, suppliers and colleagues after they leave. It has separate sections for approaching customers, taking business away, approaching suppliers and recruiting colleagues, each with a blank period and a description of who is covered.

This blank form is completed by hand and signed by both sides. It lists what the employee remains free to do, such as responding to a public advertisement, and a way to ask whether something is allowed. Whether such restrictions are enforceable, and to what extent, varies by state and by the facts, and some places restrict them. The form says a court decides scope, so take legal advice.

Not sure? Talk to an attorney about your situation first.

These are separate documents, for different jobs.

• Non-compete agreementsLimit competing work after someone leaves.View document
• Employee non-disclosure agreementsKeep what employees learn at work confidential.View document
• Employment agreementsSet out pay, role and terms for an employee.View document
• Employment contract reviewHave a lawyer check an employment contract.View document

• An agency restricts a departing account manager from approaching clients
• A firm protects its team from being recruited away
• An employee asks whether a particular contact is covered

• Employment agreementsSet out pay, role and terms for an employee.View document
• Offer lettersMake a job offer in writing, with its key terms.View document
• Employee handbooksThe policies and expectations for your staff, in one place.View document
• Workplace policiesSet out how your workplace runs on a specific issue.View document