Moving As A Team
One major employment law peril occurs when the employment contract of one or more of the team members contains a clause preventing the employee who is leaving from encouraging, taking or persuading other employees to go with them. Many contracts now contain such clauses and it is apparent from recent employment law cases that more and more employers are willing to enforce them. This will especially be the case where the movement of a particular team will have a devastating effect on the employer concerned. Another practical factor here will be the size of the team moving and whether this affects the market dynamic - on the recent merger of a large investment bank, the departing employees were allowed to leave in small teams of 2 or 3 but not a large team of 10.
There are a number of ways to deal with this issue. Obviously the first step is to check the team leader's contract but it may also be worthwhile checking all the other contracts in the team. It may be possible that some of the team members may not have this type of clause in their contracts; in which case they could be set up as the nominal team leader.
It may also be the case that rather than the team leader approaching his team directly, he can talk to his new employer as to who he may like in an ideal team, such a list covering both members of his current team and people from the rest of the market. If the employer then decides to approach any of these people directly it is much harder to show the leader is in breach of his post termination obligations to his ex-employer.
The team leader may have problems considering who to pick. In addition the new employer may not want all the personnel the leader has chosen. If one team member is concerned they may be dumped then it is possible they may give the tip off to the employer making the team move immediately or, worst case scenario, destroying it altogether.
Ensuring that the entire team resign on the same day can be another method of overcoming the post-termination restrictions although many contracts now ensure that the same restrictions bite during employment.