<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Governing Terms</span>

Amendment of these terms is much more involved legally, so instead we opt to make them as clear and legible as possible and to offer to explain them for anyone who would like to unpack these terms.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Suspension with Pay</span>

This has been maintained in the contract to prioritise safety of the team, and enabling the Company to take measures that may be needed in extreme circumstances to do this. However, this would be a last resort and other methods would be explored before a suspension.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Clean Feedback Portal</span>

This is a portal of information dedicated to resources, training options, guidance, processes and support for providing feedback between colleagues in healthy, clean ways. This can be particularly important when the responsibility for feedback is distributed rather than centralised. Active training in relationships, feedback and power can be an important compliment to working in less centralised structures.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Resolution Infrastructure and Process</span>

This replaces the term 'Conflict Resolution' because it seeks to emphasise that actions should start much before a tension escalates into conflict. Rather than waiting for Conflict, the aim is to address tensions early and support resolutions with strong infrastructure of training, support and clear processes that are agreed upon by the whole.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Training Policy</span>

The specific training budget is not included in the contract here, in order to enable iteration over time.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Sick Leave</span>

In this example, the provision for Sick Leave is extensive and partially dependent on an Employment Income Protection insurance scheme. There is risk that the insurance might not longer be possible, thus likely changing the nature of what can be provided. As such, the extended leave policy here is included in the policy page rather than embedded into the contract itself to enable more flexibility for change.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Considering Privacy</span>

We include flexibility in the process of who to notify and how, understanding that some may be comfortable and happy to openly explain illness, others may very much not. Whilst open working is encouraged, confidentiality is an option whenever it is needed, without pressure.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Benefits Policy</span>

We have intentionally left the Benefits policies out of the core contract in order to mitigate (high) financial risk in offering generous provision as a contractual obligation.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Pension Plan</span>

Actively encouraging team members to opt into ethical, green funds and providing proactive support for team members to select these options may form part of the onboarding process.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Iteration of Holiday Policy</span>

This is included to ensure that there are means by which this process can evolve and iterate over time with appropriate consent from the team.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Unlimited Holiday Policy</span>

The incorporation of a minimum holiday period, rather than a maximum, is to ensure that all team members are actively encouraged to take sufficient rest, particularly those who tend to prioritise the collective over their wellbeing (and thus are more likely to take too little holiday within an unlimited holiday structure). This clause can reinforced throughout other policy materials to help ensure that everyone rests to at least a minimum statutory standard.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Reimagining Pay</span>

For more approaches and options relating to pay structures, please see this Reimagining Pay Portal.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Working Hours</span>

In this example Working Hours are not set, with some restrictions. This isn't always possible with public-facing work, but we include this here as an example of how employee autonomy can be centered, enabling employees wherever possible to do their work in the spaces and times that work for them, as long as collective needs are also met.

Other examples we see are in structuring a 4 day working week as part of the wider 4 day work week movement. Alternatively, for example, Huddlecraft uses a 9-day work fortnight:

“We are trialling a 9 day fortnight. This means that our hours are reduced from 40 to 36, and specifically that the whole team will take every other Friday off. So, in effect, alternating between a 40 hour week and a 32 hour week, to average a 36 hour week overall.

These hours are flexible, and you should arrange them in a way that works for you, and for the team. The team will generally work for eight hours each working day Monday to Friday, within the hours of 9.00 am and 6.00 pm. You will be required to be available for significant periods during these hours in order to attend meetings and work together.”

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Remote-first Workplace</span>

This is an example from an organisation operating a remote-first set-up, where there are no core hours that are public-facing and no critical in-person team hours.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Declaring Opportunities</span>

This wording has been included to ensure there is fairness in relation to opportunities such as paid speaking events - see the purple box below for more information. It is not intended to stop individuals from working for other employers etc, which is why we have included reference to our Pathways Circle.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Support Contact vs Line Manager</span>

In this example, the company has tried to remove the fixed hierarchy that comes with a Line Management system and enable a more dynamic and fluid method of hierarchy via role cards.

There are also functions that Line Managers play outside of the content of the work, including holding review processes, supporting personal development, helping to resolve conflict, communicating company policies etc. These functions, in this example, have been distributed in different ways across roles in the systems in ways that aren't linked to promotion or concentrated in one person.

Providing Support during the initial stages is one of these functions and is structured here through a nominated Support Contact (normally someone in the direct team) who is a primary point of contact for that person to navigate the system as they settle in.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Role Cards</span>

For more information about the Role Cards system see the annotation on page 7.

As an alternative example, Civic Square structures their role relationships as follows:

We think about relationships within the ecology of our team as first, second and third order connections. We are moving towards becoming teams of teams, so your everyday may involve a smaller focused team; week-to-week some others, and further month-to-month connections with the wider team. In this particular role we foresee you working with these key people initially:

(a) Primary Connections [Primary connections]<br/> (b) Secondary Connections [Secondary connections]

The job description is co-developed over an initial period, which looks to define responsibilities individually and collectively, with the understanding that it is not a static process, and they hope to revisit this together regularly.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Mutual Trial Period</span>

This is included in the example in order to still recognise the importance of the first months of employment for both sides in terms of mutually seeing whether there is a strong relational fit. Rather than a Trial Period for the individual, it is structured here as a mutual period of exploration, and the employee is encouraged during this time to review whether the company is a good it for them, as much as vice versa. In this example, there is a proactive decision made before the end of this period to continue in relationship longer-term, and to celebrate that milestone. This example suggests 6 months for this period, as any less than this has often been found to be insufficient.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Elements of a Roles Card system</span>

This requires the Roles Board to include details of how roles can be picked up and passed on (consents required, processes), any time restrictions that apply. In this system, legally it is advised to have a system in place to track the various cards employees use throughout their time with the organisation.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Role Cards</span>

In this example Roles are set in a way that is designed to enable a higher degree of fluidity in the system, based on an example from Dark Matter Labs. Instead of a static job role with a static/fixed ‘line manager’, Dark Matter Labs lays out roles within a system called ‘role cards’, where each person has a set of cards in their hand at any time, but there are processes through which people can pick and pass on role cards in the system. Each role card lays out the resonposnibilities, accountabilities, key activites, skills, connections/dependencies, and evaluation of the role.

Note: this system particularly makes sense in relation to their accompanying approach for pay.

In this example, this is needed due to the type of work involved (heavily structured around projects), the emergent nature of the work (regularly moving in content and nature) and funding (shorter-term and less consistent funding). Using a role card system, they enable agency of people to self-navigate following a clear set of processes and protocols, and therefore to not be governed top-down by role 'allocators'. The role card system aims to incorporate the rigour and clarity of detail of a traditional system of roles and responsibilities, alongside more autonomous navigation of roles in moving circumstances. In incorporating this method in the contract example, our aim is not to recommend it as an approach to roles, but to exemplify how alternative methods like this can be incorporated into an employment contract.

How to use these annotations

Employment contracts, including this example, are ideally not be not one-size-fits-all, but designed to respond to a specific organisational, legal, and design context. We have created an annotated version of this example contract to explain our thought processes and reasons for why we have made the contract’s strategic decisions in this way.

We strongly recommend you read this version of the contract with annotations first, before using the contract as a starting point for your own, to understand the context of how that contract was shaped, and reflect on how these constraints or considerations may or may not apply to your own circumstances.

We have tagged these annotations under the key categories below:

• <span style="color: blue;">Policy Considerations: how we have considered the organisation’s policy, i.e. how its members decide to work together and run their organisation. </span>
• <span style="color: green;">Legal Considerations: how we have considered the legal frameworks in creating the contract, including how employment law, contract law, etc., has shaped how the contract works.</span>
• <span style="color: red;">Design Considerations: how we have considered communications design questions, including information hierarchy, user experience, and how to ensure the nature of the agreement is communicated clearly.</span>

We also invite you to look at our Reimagining Contract Terms table for our reflections on the typical terms that form an employment contract, and how they can be reimagined beyond their conventional approaches.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Linked Policies - Shared Culture Principles</span>

In this example, it links to a set of basic principles that every person, and the organisational as a whole, commits to. It lays out the principle (e.g. work out loud' and then expected individual, collective and organisational behaviours that are essential to uphold that principle. It does not express 'all possible behaviours' but rather a minimum set of necessary behaviours considered essential to mutual thriving. The principles and behaviours were drawn up, in this example, through a participatory process and approved through by consensus (note: in this case study it is one of the only areas of organisational development that was agreed by consensus).

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Employer or Community?</span>

In this introductory section we have tried to make it clear that we are speaking about 'Livable Planet' as a community rather than the legal entity / employing entity. Note we have done this by using the 'trading name' Livable Planet as short hand for the community and the legal name 'Livable Planet Ltd' as short hand for the employer.

<span style="color: blue;">Policy Consideration: Introduction</span>

In this example, we have taken inspiration from the employment contract draft of Civic Square and included an introductory section.

It aims to acknowledge that there is a contradiction between the aim of common abundance with the format and history of employment law that an employment contract is part of. It also aims to acknowledge the rights fought and won through the history of employment law and the intent to value them. It seeks to lay out hopes and expectations with an aim to begin the employment relationship with a deep mutual understanding and appreciation of the relationship being formed. It seeks to invite the other party's input into this understanding so that we hold our new relationship with respect and intent.

How to use these annotations

Employment contracts, including this example, are ideally not be not one-size-fits-all, but designed to respond to a specific organisational, legal, and design context. We have created an annotated version of this example contract to explain our thought processes and reasons for why we have made the contract’s strategic decisions in this way.

We strongly recommend you read this version of the contract with annotations first, before using the contract as a starting point for your own, to understand the context of how that contract was shaped, and reflect on how these constraints or considerations may or may not apply to your own circumstances.

We have tagged these annotations under the key categories below:

• <span style="color: blue;">Policy Considerations: how we have considered the organisation’s policy, i.e. how its members decide to work together and run their organisation. </span>
• <span style="color: green;">Legal Considerations: how we have considered the legal frameworks in creating the contract, including how employment law, contract law, etc., has shaped how the contract works.</span>
• <span style="color: red;">Design Considerations: how we have considered communications design questions, including information hierarchy, user experience, and how to ensure the nature of the agreement is communicated clearly.</span>

We also invite you to look at our Reimagining Contract Terms table for our reflections on the typical terms that form an employment contract, and how they can be reimagined beyond their conventional approaches.