15 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2023
  2. drive.google.com drive.google.com
    1. Your Employment Terms

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Information Hierarchy of Contract Terms</span>

      The order of the clauses in the contract are based on the new joiner's onboarding journey and the fact that research has highlighted that most people do not have the time to read every contract they are given. For example, the first section 'Getting Started' includes the information / clauses that are likely to be the most relevant in the new joiner's first few months. The last section of the contract includes in the information that are least likely to be 'used' from an operational perspective in a standard onboarding journey.

    2. Your Details of Employment

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Text-only Details of Employment</span>

      We recognise that sometimes for operational or other reasons that such an illustrated page might not be the best solution - they may be more time consuming to edit, or less straightforward to screen read, or highlight, copy and paste. We have created a simpler, unillustrated version of this page with all the Details of Employment in one table, which can be used where appropriate.

      In the version of the contract the employee receives, it would only have one Details of Employment page, not both versions; please delete as appropriate.

      You can find the templates for these Details of Employment pages here [link]

    3. Your Details of Employment

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Illustrated Details of Employment</span>

      As part of our considerations about usability and the information hierarchy of the contract, we have consolidated the most essential pieces of information for a prospective employee in one place, so that the key parameters of the contract are made clear at a glance. As this key page sets the tone of this employer-employee relationship, and probably will be referred to most frequently, we have worked with illustrator Terri Po to create a visually engaging template to convey a creative, friendly, exciting tone that reflects the spirit of being a part of Livable Planet. The text is separate from the illustrations to allow for HR to customise the details for each employee. We've been inspired by examples such as Tony Chocolonely's one-page illustrated contract.

    4. Your Details

      <span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Details of Employment</span>

      We have included a cover page with key employment details. This is for three reasons: 1. Usability for the company - keeping most of the factual information on the front cover means that it is quicker for the company to be able to tailor contracts for new joiners, and prevents legacy wording from previous contracts accidentially being included in other people's contracts. This page also creates a clean 'definitions' page, which means that instead of having to tailor wording throughout the contract, the contract can cross refer to 'the start date' etc, saving time and also reduces the risk of legacy text. 2. Usability for the new joiner - instead of having to scan-read a whole contract, the key information relating to their job can be found easily near the front of the document. 3. There are certain information that legally must be provided to the employee within certain time periods. Having the information in this format makes it less likely that such information won't be included. See our Reimaging Contract Terms table for further details.

    5. explains the intentions and context behind contract clauses.

      <span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Non-contractual Explanations</span>

      It is important to distinguish what wording in the document is intended to be legally binding vs conversational / contextual. One way we have done this is to make it visually clear that all language in the purple boxes 'do not form part of the contract'.

    6. 〈 This explanatory wording is provided for your information onlyand does not form part of the contract. 〉

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Non-contractual Explanations</span>

      To ensure that the contextual text was not interpreted as legally binding, it was important for the contextual text to be clearly distinguishable from the legal wording. This is done visually, through the bordered box and distinct typographical style. This text is also enclosed in angle brackets for accessibility reasons, such that users of the contract who may use screen readers or similar tools can identify the contextual text without relying on visual means.

    7. ndicates a ‘channel’ on Slack, the messaging appused by Livable Planet for internal communications.

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Useful References</span>

      As the employment contract can be used as a 'how to' manual, it can be useful to have references to communication channels / links included within the contract.

    8. indicates links to external resources.

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Linked Documents</span>

      This contract references external resources, such as policy documents. These are visually distinguished in underlined blue text, and would be hyperlinked to external resources when the contract is read as a digital document.

    9. 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.

    10. indicates terms that are legally defined in the contract.

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Contractually-defined Terms</span>

      This helps with the interpretation of the contract, by distinguishing terms which are to be interpreted under their specific contractual definitions.

    11. details that are personal to you as the employee.

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Personalised Details</span>

      Liveable Planet is a mission-driven collective, and it is useful to emphasise the shared basis of rights, obligations and protocols of its members - by highlighting details that are unique to the employee, it not only makes it faster for HR to customise the template, but also highlights that the terms are shared across the community.

    12. we invite you to discuss these questions with us.

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Invitations to Discuss</span>

      We recognise that 'contract-ing' is part of a process of building a mutual relationship, and not just an unilateral imposition of legal terms. We highlight prompts for discussion to create the space for discussion over critical parts of this relationship.

    13. Manjit Singh’s Employment Contract with Livable Planet 2 of 31

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Footer and Page Numbers</span>

      While we expect the contract to be used primarily as a digital document, we have included this footer here to convenience should the contract be printed to ensure it is complete.

    14. Manjit Singh

      <span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Personalisation</span>

      The contract embodies the start of a working relationship between the employer and employee. It was important from a design perspective to personalise the contract from the very cover, to reflect the importance of this individualised process of relationship-building. We've been inspired by Lou Byng's work on Civic Square's employment contracts, which are visually personalised to each individual employee.

    15. 1 of 31Employment 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.