Hi Everyone,
I've had a request from our CEO and not entirely sure how to go about it...
Basically, when someone new joins us they have to be set up with a licence on the software that we use. The software provider charge £500 for this (£250 to remove the old employee, £250 to add the new one). Just lately we've had a couple of instances of new employees not staying for very long (for various reasons) and so the CEO is, quite rightly, getting a bit fed up with having to keep paying out to remove/add licences. He's therefore asked if we can put something in the contract to say that if someone leaves within a certain amount of time (i.e. before end of probation) then they have to pay £250 to cover the cost of cancelling of their licence on the software.
I'm unsure how I feel about this so wondered if anyone has come across anything like this before?
We already have a standard clause in the contract to say we can deduct from salary anything which is owed, but we don't explicitly state about the licence charge. I wondered about getting new people to sign something to say they'll pay it back if they leave, but my opinion is leaning towards not doing anything - in the sense that employees would not expect to have to pay for this (and it may well even put people off working with us!) and any charges from the software provider are for us as the employer to bare in order to provide the employee with the tools to do their job.
Any thoughts/opinions/suggestions welcome!
Many thanks
Becky
Replies
Thanks for all the replies.
The reasons for leaving are definitely a cause for concern and are something I am looking at (although they have been quite specific reasons and nothing to do with the company, not that it makes it any better).
I feel more confident now in advising the CEO that this isn't really something we can enforce so will discuss with him about approaching the software company to re-negotiate.
Many thanks
Becky
My first thought when I read this was...why are they leaving? It would be wise to check the root of the that issue first. What software is it? There will always be room for negotiation. Can there be a site license? Even with software where we find there are hefty charges for increasing numbers of licenses we always find a way around it.
Hi Becky
It seems quite harsh to me that the CEO wants new members of staff to pay for software licences because they choose to leave the employment. I agree with you that it may deter people from accepting offers of employment and this could prove more costly, in the long run, to your company if you have to re-advertise a post because someone refuses an offer when they are told they have to pay for a licence to do the job that your company want them to do.
The fees you are being charged by the software provider do seem really high. I previously worked for a computer research company who had numerous licences and were not charged such a high rate. I agree with Sarah that you should maybe look at changing your providers and/or trying to renegotiate your contract.
Do you have the reasons for why people leave so often- we know that people can and do leave jobs quickly but if it is happening a lot, it may be worth trying to identify if there are any trends appearing and then address these.
Regards
Jane
Well that's an interesting one if I was advising the CEO I think initially I would make the following points.
Firstly what is the reason for the high staff turnover ars the cost of recruiting and replacing staff will be far higher than the £250 license fee given on average its estimated a new recruit costs 25% of salary.
The next point is that commercially that seems to be some really tough terms agreed with the software provider in terms of the license usage fee so I would definitely be trying to negotiate my way out of that or find a new provider!
In terms of your specific query my gut feel is I don't think this will be enforceable even if it was an express term within the contract sounds like an unfair contract term to me why should the employee have to foot what is in essence a cost to the company? I will put it to the CEO would you ask them to cover any other costs that are incurred should they choose to leave during the probationary period For example agency recruitment fees?
Would love to hear what others think on this one though?
All the best
Sarah