Buzzing About HR
Buzzing About HR by https://www.kateunderwoodhr.co.uk is the go-to podcast for anyone looking to make their workplace better. Hosted by HR expert Kate Underwood, each episode dives into the latest HR trends, essential tools, and practical strategies to help businesses of all sizes navigate the ever-evolving world of work. From improving employee engagement to tackling real-world HR challenges, Kate shares actionable advice you can implement right away. Whether you're an HR professional, a business owner, or someone passionate about people, this podcast will keep you ahead of the curve and buzzing with ideas to drive success in your workplace.
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Buzzing About HR
HR's Secret Weapon: IP Protection Without the Legal Headache
Every small business has valuable intellectual property—far beyond what you might imagine. Your sales strategies, client lists, training materials, and even the clever copy on your website represent significant assets, but are you protecting them properly?
Buzzing About HR tackles the often-overlooked world of intellectual property protection for businesses of all sizes. We break down the five essential contract clauses that serve as your first line of defence: IP assignment provisions that ensure what your team creates belongs to your business, moral rights waivers that prevent creative control disputes, confidentiality clauses with teeth, clear requirements for returning and deleting company data, and strategic garden leave provisions that buy critical time during transitions.
Beyond paperwork, we explore practical operational measures that don't require a massive IT budget—from managing the LinkedIn contacts dilemma to preventing data loss through personal Apple IDs. Learn why restrictive covenants often fail in court and discover alternatives that better protect your business interests. We'll walk through supplementary tools like IP deeds and BYOD agreements that close common loopholes, plus provide a straightforward 30-day action plan to strengthen your intellectual property safeguards immediately.
The stakes are high—when a key team member walks away with your hard-earned intellectual assets, recovering them can be costly and stressful. Prevention truly is the more efficient path. Whether you're a startup founder handling HR yourself or a seasoned HR professional looking to upgrade your protection strategies, this episode delivers actionable advice without the legal jargon. Ready to keep your intellectual property where it belongs? Subscribe, leave a review, and join us next time when we tackle the surprising legal implications of verbal job offers!
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Until next time, keep buzzing and take care of your people!
Hello, lovely people, and welcome back to Buzzing About HR, the podcast that makes HR feel less like a legal textbook and more like a really helpful chat over coffee. I'm your host, kate Underwood, and today we're diving into something that sounds super technical but could save your business a lot of grief how to protect your intellectual property, or IP, without breaking the bank, whether you've got a team of two or 22,. There are some really easy wins here that too many small businesses miss, and, trust me, sorting this stuff before someone leaves with your client list or code base tucked in their rucksack is so much easier than trying to claw it back afterwards. So stick the kettle on, get comfy and let's get into it. Part one what counts as IP and why should you care? Right, first things first, let's break down what we mean by intellectual property. It's not just fancy patents and inventions made in labs. In the real world of small businesses, it could be your logo, your customer list, your website copy, your database, your product roadmap, your training manual, even the code your web developer wrote at 10pm on a Tuesday. If someone in your business has created it and it gives you an edge, it's probably IP. And here's the kicker, unless your contracts say otherwise, it might not legally belong to you, even if you paid their salary. Yep, really.
Speaker 1:Part two employment contracts, your first line of defence. Let's talk contracts. They're not sexy, but they're your secret weapon. There are five absolute must-haves in any employment contract if you want to make sure your IP stays yours. First up, you need something called an IP assignment clause. That just means anything your employee creates as part of their job or even just using your equipment or your data belongs to your business. It sounds obvious, but trust me, if it's not in writing, it's a grey area, and grey areas lead to headaches. Then there's something called a moral rights waiver. Now, this isn't about ethics. It's about someone saying, hey, I wrote that blog post and you can't change it or put my name on it without asking. Wave it and no drama. Next, confidentiality you want a solid clause that clearly says what counts as confidential whether that's pricing, client info, internal strategy or even the name of your next product and makes clear they need to protect it during and after employment.
Speaker 1:Another thing people forget the return of property and deletion of data. You don't want your team member walking off with a laptop full of sensitive info and keeping a backup on their personal Google Drive, spell it out, return it, delete it, confirm it and finally, garden leave. This one's a bit of an HR favourite. It means you can keep someone on payroll during their notice period but cut off their access to everything. So if they resign, you can isolate them from sensitive info while still paying them. It buys you time, love a good garden leave.
Speaker 1:Clause Part three restrictive covenants. But make them fair. Now let's chat about restrictive covenants. You know those. You can't poach our clients or join a competitor bits. They're often the first thing small businesses ask for when someone leaves. But here's the thing if you overreach, they'll get thrown out by a judge. So you've got to be smart If you want to stop someone poaching your clients or suppliers or even your staff. Keep it short and sweet. Something like six to twelve months is about the max for those kinds of clauses, and for non-competes you're looking at six to nine months tops. Even then you'll want to make sure it's tied to what the person actually did, not a blanket ban on working anywhere in your industry. And watch this space. The government's been flirting with a three-month cap on non-competes, so best not to put all your eggs in that basket Garden leave and longer notice periods might be better options for managing that risk.
Speaker 1:Part four supplementary tools, policies and deeds. Sometimes a contract clause isn't enough. There are a few bonus bits that can really shore things up. For example, for your techies and product folks, an IP deed is great. It picks up anything they create that might technically fall outside their usual job duties. Then there's the onboarding NDA, a nice little doc that says welcome to the team. Here's what you need to keep quiet, keeps things crystal clear from day one. You'll also want an information security policy. Doesn't have to be a monster, just something that says no, you can't forward your work email to Hotmail, that sort of thing. And if you let people use their own laptops or phones for work, a BYOD bring your own device Agreement is a must. It gives you the right to wipe business data remotely if needed, because, honestly, you do not want confidential info living on someone's personal iPad forever.
Speaker 1:Part five cheap but cheerful operational controls. Right, let's make this super real. Picture this You've got a brilliant sales rep or recruiter who's smashing it on LinkedIn, connecting with prospects left, right and centre. Amazing, right. But here's the awkward bit All those shiny contacts they're being built on a personal LinkedIn account. So when they leave, guess what? They take that contact goldmine with them. So what can you do without sounding like the LinkedIn police? Well, some businesses try to get staff to create a separate work profile, but that's a bit of a tough sell and can feel clunky. A more down-to-earth idea is this when someone joins, ask them to download a copy of their LinkedIn contacts so you know what they came in with, and then, before they leave, get an updated version. That way, you've got a clear view of who they built relationships with while working for you. It's not bulletproof, but it's fair and gives you something to work with.
Speaker 1:Oh, and speaking of tech traps, let's talk Apple products. If someone's working on a Mac or iPhone and they're using their own Apple ID, you could be in for a nasty surprise, Because when they leave and hand that device back, they might reset it, and if you didn't give them a company Apple ID, poof, everything's gone. Worse, you won't even know what was on it. So make sure you've got a plan for that. It's not just about handing over the hardware. It's about making sure the data's not walking out the door too.
Speaker 1:You don't need a huge IT budget to make a difference here. Start with access controls. Only give people what they need, not the whole company. Google Drive, put your documents in version control systems like SharePoint or something similar so you know who changed what and when. Turn on data loss prevention settings. Office 365 and Google both have this baked in. It can alert you to people downloading loads of files or sharing outside the business. And when someone leaves, don't just wish them well and hand over a card. Lock their accounts, collect their devices and ask them to sign a certificate saying they've deleted all company data. Also and I can't say this enough train your people. Once a year, do a refresher and when you roll out new tools, do a quick micro learning session. It doesn't have to be boring, you just want people to know what's okay and what's not.
Speaker 1:Part six what to do if it goes wrong. All right, worst case scenario time Someone walks off with your client database or a developer starts a rival business with code they wrote on your time. What can you do? You might be able to get an injunction to stop them launching with your info. That's for when it's urgent and you need the court to act fast. There's also something called springboard relief. That basically says if someone got an unfair head start using your stuff, the court can stop them for the amount of time they gained. You can claim under the trade secrets regulations too if the info had real economic value and you took steps to protect it. And, of course, if you've lost money, you can go after damages or ask for a share of their profits. In rare cases, if someone did something properly dodgy, like hacking into your system after they left, you might even be able to involve the police under the Computer Misuse Act. But honestly, prevention is so much cheaper and less stressful than chasing someone through the courts.
Speaker 1:Part 7, your 30-day IP action plan. Let's round this out with a little to-do list. No panic, just five things to tick off in the next month. First, run a quick IP audit what are the really valuable things in your business and who has access to them? Then go find your employment contracts. Do they have the five key clauses we talked about?
Speaker 1:Next, take a look at your onboarding and offboarding checklists. Are you collecting devices Asking for data deletion? Then have a quick chat with your managers. If they're telling people to just email it home to finish tonight, that completely undermines your controls. And finally, flag the high-risk roles in your business. Maybe it's your developer, your sales lead or your product manager. Start with them. If you need a bit of help, just give me a shout. I've got sample clauses, ndas and even training slides. I'm happy to share Outro music.
Speaker 1:Before I let you go, a quick teaser for next time. We're going to be digging into something that catches loads of people out verbal offers of employment. Yep, those off the cuff. Yeah, you're hired moments. How binding are they really? Spoiler alert more than you might think. So if you've ever made an offer over coffee or on the phone, you'll definitely want to tune in. That's it for today's episode of Buzzing About HR. If you found this helpful, why not leave a review or share it with someone who's still using contracts from 2008. Until next time, keep buzzing, stay savvy and don't let your IP fly out the door.
