at will vs guaranteed employment

I'm a hiring manager (still a dev too ;-) for a midsize company and we put out a good offer to a senior developer. The candidate requires a serious relocation to our area, and we did give him a good relo package. However, he is now looking to have his position "guaranteed" for at least a year, and is insistent that this is a standard hiring practice and that we're actually insulting him by not offering it.

Of course, all of our positions are "at will" meaning both the employer and employee have the option to terminate at any time. And HR is not willing to change the terms for this candidate.

I'm just wondering- is a guaranteed position common in relos? From what I'm familiar with (have not been on the market for a while) virtually all positions are "at will" with no implied guarantee of employment. At best you would be getting a few weeks of severance but that would be based on tenure with the company.

I'm just trying to make sure we aren't way out of whack with our hiring practices and missing out on other good candidates.

@Ash: It has been my understanding that any such contracts are unenforceable. An employer always has the option to terminate an employee at any time, for any reason, with or without notice, regardless of what has been "negotiated". The employee may later have some recourse to the courts, but in the meantime is SOL.

John Saunders 2010-09-21 21:33:47

@John: Look up "pay or play contract". You can get out of the agreement, but not without paying.

Steven Sudit 2010-09-21 21:42:13

@Steven: you mean like http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/pay-or-play-contract/? Sounds like it exists only in the Entertainment industry.

John Saunders 2010-09-21 21:52:36

I've seen it elsewhere. It is sometimes known as "gardening leave".

Joshua 2010-09-21 22:21:47

@John: I offered an entertainment term, Joshua offered a British one, but the commonality is that, if you have guaranteed employment, the contract limits the reasons for termination and typically has some form of payout. The details of the golden parachute differ; it can be as liquidated damages for breach of contract (in a consulting situation) or a severance package (typical for executives). Again, it all comes down to the applicable law and the actionable parts of the contract. IANAL.

Steven Sudit 2010-09-22 06:45:55

@Steven: IANAL - my only point is that I have never seen such a contract during 35 years of working as an individual contributor in the IT/Software industry in the US. That's not to say that they don't exist for managers, or in other parts of the world, or in other industries.

John Saunders 2010-09-22 19:10:43

@John: I will grant you that point without argument. In 20-something years of varied experience, including consulting, start-ups and large corps, I have likewise never seen any such contract for a developer. If they exist, it would most likely be for relocations, which are something I haven't been involved in. I'm genuinely curious, so I'm going to ask my HR about it.

Steven Sudit 2010-09-22 20:24:44

@Steven: you'll also want to ask if they have restrictions on which positions they're willing to fill through relocation.

John Saunders 2010-09-22 20:28:11

@John: I know they're willing to do it for software engineering positions, so that's the example I asked about. From what I understand, while salaries are still depressed in this field, that hasn't made it any easier to find good people. This would explain their willingness to deal with out-of-towners. I know that this is not an option for easier-to-fill spots.

Steven Sudit 2010-09-22 20:33:02

@Steven: can you say what the city and state are? I imagine companies in smaller cities might be more willing to do something like this.

John Saunders 2010-09-22 20:36:38

@John: I'm in a suburb of NYC. I had a very interesting chat with our HR guy, which branched off into other topics, but the answer about relo/guaranteed boils down to: a) Not at all uncommon for executives. b) In this job market, relo is still possible but no guarantees. c) It all comes down to how much they want to fill a slot; if they're desperate then they'll bend over backwards and throw benefits and commitments at it. In short, the OP probably got a typical deal.

Steven Sudit 2010-09-22 21:56:58

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