Download signNow app
4.7 / 5 rating on

Employment Contract Employment Agreement Form

Use a Employment Contract Employment Agreement Template template to make your document workflow more streamlined.

What this employment agreement form does

An Employment Contract Employment Agreement Form records the agreed terms between an employer and an employee in one signed document. It typically identifies the parties, position, duties, compensation, work conditions, effective date, confidentiality obligations, termination terms, and governing law. With signNow, upload the agreement, review automatically detected fillable fields, assign signature and date fields to each signer, send it by email or signing link, and preserve the completed PDF with its audit trail. ESIGN and applicable state electronic-transactions law can support electronic execution when intent, consent, attribution, and record retention are established.

Business types that use agreements

Employment Contract Employment Agreement Form supports documented hiring and amendment workflows for businesses that need consistent terms, identifiable signers, and retrievable records.

  • A small business owner can document a new hire’s position, compensation, duties, confidentiality terms, and start date without coordinating paper signatures across separate locations.
  • A growing HR department can reuse an approved agreement template, assign employee and employer roles, and retain signed versions with audit trails for onboarding and amendments.
  • An enterprise legal or operations team can connect agreements to NetSuite, Microsoft 365, or cloud storage while applying permissions and review controls across multiple business units.

These tasks are executed by both individual contributors and centralized administrators depending on organizational policy and required controls.

Who uses this employment agreement form

Small businesses

Small businesses use the form to document a new employee’s title, duties, pay, schedule, confidentiality obligations, termination terms, and effective date. Owners or HR coordinators can complete employee-specific fields, send the agreement through signNow, and keep the executed PDF with its audit trail in restricted business storage.

Growing employers

Growing employers and legal teams use controlled templates for offers, employment agreements, amendments, and contractor-related documents. HR assigns roles for employee, employer representative, and witnesses when required, while legal reviews governing-law language and state-specific requirements before the agreement is released for signature.

How the agreement workflow works

Complete the Employment Contract Employment Agreement Form through four controlled stages that connect document preparation, signing, and record preservation.

  • Upload the agreement: Upload agreement
  • Review detected fields: Review detected fields
  • Assign signer roles: Assign signer roles
  • Send and archive: Send and archive

Features that support employment agreements

signNow connects document preparation, role-based signing, audit evidence, and controlled storage for the Employment Contract Employment Agreement Form.

Field detection

Upload the employer’s agreement and review signNow’s detected fields before assigning employee, employer, initials, date, compensation, and acknowledgment fields to the correct participants.

Signer routing

Assign distinct roles to the employee and employer representative so each signature, date, initials, and acknowledgment field is completed by the intended person before execution.

Reusable templates

Send the same approved agreement template to authorized recipients while preserving employee-specific terms such as position, compensation, effective date, schedule, and reporting relationship.

Audit trail

Capture the signing sequence, timestamps, signer actions, and completion history alongside the executed employment agreement for later review by HR, legal, or management.

Mobile signing

Allow employees and managers to review and sign from supported mobile workflows when onboarding occurs away from a desktop, while retaining the same completed document record.

Record control

Store the signed agreement and completion evidence together so HR can distinguish the final executed version from drafts, amendments, and unsigned copies.

be ready to get more
Get legally-binding signatures now!
  • Best ROI. Our customers achieve an average 7x ROI within the first six months.
  • Scales with your use cases. From SMBs to mid-market, airSlate SignNow delivers results for businesses of all sizes.
  • Intuitive UI and API. Sign and send documents from your apps in minutes.

What the audit trail records

The signNow audit trail separates signing evidence from the agreement’s substantive employment terms and supports controlled recordkeeping after completion.

01

Authenticate signers:

Authentication records the method used to associate the employee and employer representative with their signing activity.
02

Capture timestamps:

Timestamp capture records when each Employment Contract Employment Agreement Form action occurred during preparation and signing.
03

Hash the document:

Document hashing helps identify whether the completed agreement changed after the signing event was recorded.
04

Seal completion evidence:

Tamper-evident sealing connects the completed agreement with its completion evidence for later review.
05

Preserve document history:

The audit trail preserves signer actions, field completion, and document-history events associated with the agreement.
06

Export the audit trail:

Authorized administrators retrieve or export the completed agreement and audit trail for secure retention or review.

Choose a signing method for onboarding

  1. Use the signNow web app when HR or an employer representative uploads the Employment Contract Employment Agreement Form, checks detected fields, assigns signer roles, and sends the agreement from a desktop workflow.
  2. Use the signNow mobile app when a manager or employee must review and sign the employment agreement away from a desk, including during onboarding at a worksite or office.
  3. Use kiosk mode for supervised, in-person onboarding where multiple employees sign agreements on an organization-controlled device without exchanging the document through personal email.
  4. Generate a shareable signing link when the employer needs to place the employment agreement in an approved onboarding portal or distribute one controlled template to designated recipients.

Connect employment agreements to business systems

Named signNow integrations can move completed Employment Contract Employment Agreement Form records into the systems HR, finance, legal, and operations teams already use.

Salesforce
Procore
Zapier
Microsoft Teams
Hub spot
Box
Microsoft

Retention periods for related records

Retention depends on the record category connected to the agreement; apply the governing rule and preserve longer when a hold or state law requires it.

01

Three years for payroll records

The federal FLSA recordkeeping rule requires covered payroll records for three years; confirm whether the agreement supports those records.
02

Three years for tax records

IRS retention generally follows IRC §6501(a): three years from filing, with six years for a 25% income understatement.
03

Six years for HIPAA records

HIPAA documentation requires six years from creation or last effective date under 45 CFR §164.530(j), when an agreement contains covered PHI.
04

Five years for injury records

OSHA injury records require five years following the relevant year under 29 CFR §1904.33, if the agreement accompanies that record set.
05

Thirty years for exposure records

OSHA exposure records require 30 years under 29 CFR §1910.1020, when employment documentation belongs to that exposure record category.

Preserve signed employment records accurately

A controlled retention process keeps each employment agreement, amendment, and audit record available when business or legal review requires it.

Export agreements with their audit trails

Create a retention policy for signed employment agreements that identifies the employee, business unit, effective date, amendments, and authorized access. Export the completed document and audit trail together, then store both in encrypted business storage with restricted permissions and documented deletion controls.

Map retention periods to applicable law

Retain employment agreements according to the record category and applicable law, rather than applying one universal period. For payroll-related records, evaluate the three-year federal FLSA period under 29 CFR §516.5; state wage laws or litigation holds may require longer preservation.

Review employee-specific terms before sending

Review every agreement before sending to confirm compensation, duties, classification, termination terms, confidentiality language, and governing-law provisions are complete. Use a controlled signNow template so approved wording remains consistent while authorized users complete employee-specific fields.

Archive signed versions securely and separately

Limit access to HR, legal, and designated managers, and preserve the final PDF with its completion certificate. Record amendments as separate signed versions instead of overwriting the original agreement, supporting an understandable chronology during audits or disputes.

Protect employment agreement information

  • Personal information such as addresses, compensation, tax details, or identification data may be exposed when completed agreements are shared through uncontrolled email or public links.
  • Employee consent to electronic records may be undocumented, weakening evidence that the signer understood and accepted the online signing process.
  • Unrestricted HR permissions can allow unauthorized users to view, modify, send, or download employment agreements containing confidential compensation and personnel information.
  • Sending an outdated agreement template can omit current classification, confidentiality, termination, or state-law provisions and create avoidable disputes over the employment relationship.

Risks from incomplete agreements

Contract dispute

Missing terms

Weaker evidence

Unclear consent

Attribution challenge

Wrong signer

Record gap

Lost final copy

State-law conflict

Unlawful clause

Security controls for employment agreements

AES-256 and TLS:

Encryption

ESIGN and UETA:

Compliance

SOC 2 Type II:

Certifications

ISO 27001:

Information security

HIPAA with BAA:

Health data

Two-factor authentication:

Access control

Employment agreement troubleshooting

Resolve signing, field-assignment, retention, and compliance questions before an employment agreement is finalized and distributed.

signNow’s Business plan provides templates, audit trails, mobile apps, and legally binding eSignatures at $8/user/month with annual billing. Business Premium adds bulk send at $15/user/month, while Enterprise adds advanced signer authentication at $30/user/month.

Upload the agreement as a PDF, review signNow’s detected fields, and add or correct signature, initials, date, text, and checkbox fields. Confirm each field is assigned to the correct employee or employer before sending the document for signature.

An electronic agreement generally requires intent, consent, attribution, and a record that can be retained and reproduced. ESIGN, 15 U.S.C. ch. 96, and applicable state law such as UETA support electronic records, subject to statutory exclusions and employment-law requirements.

Use signNow’s audit trail to preserve signer actions, timestamps, and completion history with the executed agreement. Export the final document and audit trail together, restrict access, and retain them according to applicable employment, tax, wage, and state requirements.

Business Premium includes bulk send, which can distribute the same employment agreement template to multiple employees while collecting employee-specific fields. Review every recipient and role before sending because bulk delivery does not replace legal review of individualized terms.

For consumer-facing electronic records, ESIGN requires disclosure of the right to paper records, access capability, and withdrawal procedures under 15 U.S.C. §7001(c). Have counsel assess whether those requirements apply to the employee workflow and configure disclosures before sending.

ROI at a Glance

Key performance indicators that demonstrate SignNow's proven track record.

28M+Documents signed
13+Years in business
4.6/5Average G2 rating

BE READY TO GET MORE

Get this form now!

If you believe that this page should be taken down, please follow our DMCA take-down process.