Businesses along with accounting practices have been requested to follow certain strategies to protect themselves as the ‘Great Resignation’ seems to continue this New Year. Australian businesses will be vulnerable to compromising their IP due to the increased turnover of employees. Hence, it is necessary to take initiative to protect their innovation and creation before resignations’ next wave strike.
It takes several years to convert innovation into commercialisation, and yet, your IP can be compromised. No matter whether it is a small or large business, every business is at risk of somebody leaving and taking not only the idea, but the whole system of investors, suppliers, and customer data.
It might be possible that a small business may have no safeguard. On the other hand, large businesses might get lost in several policies and frequently changed contracts, where primary safeguards are poorly represented.
Five Measures to Ensure Firms are Protecting Themselves
- The first measure is performing an IP audit to know what assets can be secured by patents, copyright, and other methods of IP protection and recognise which workers have implemented those rights.
- The second is to ensure the organisations keep their employment contracts updated and review them daily, highlighting ownership of IP rights.
- The third measure is to define what represents confidential information and only reveal information to important employees. Before you reveal any details, make sure to check a signed acknowledgement to ensure that the person will keep the information confidential.
- The fourth measure is to ensure contractors possess a written agreement that provides the company ownership of all IP rights on anything they implement when engaging with the business.
- In the fifth measure, it is suggested to firms to perform an HR audit.
You must know your workplace culture and identify issues that cause employees to resign. Protecting business is as important as retaining employees.