The contracts were developed in partnership with Law Professor Camilla Andersen from the University of Western Australia. "Aurecon is the first company in Australia to do anything like this, and globally this is the first time a visual employment contract has been focused at all levels of an organisation in a commercial context," said Professor Camilla Andersen.

Dean Naidoo, Aurecon People Leader, Africa, says the reasoning behind the launch of visual contracts instead of written ones is in line with the Aurecon principle of Making the Complex Simple.

“We realise that starting a job at a new company can be stressful and there is usually some degree of anxiety involved in signing a letter of appointment. Some employees may feel overwhelmed with the detail that a contract of employment presents and Aurecon believes that simplifying the contract will create a foundation for a better candidate and employee experience,” says Naidoo.

With words like “severability”, and “fidelity”; and phrases such as “pecuniary interest” –  it is easy to see that traditional employment contracts are unnecessarily complex and don’t create an environment in which employment relationships can thrive. 

New employees joining Aurecon no longer receive a Letter of Appointment accompanied by a lengthy Conditions of Employment document written in legal terms and small font.  By transitioning the employment contract into a visual contract format Aurecon has been able to not only dramatically reduce the number of words, more importantly, improve understanding with the removal of legalese and use of illustrations to explain concepts.

“The message that we want to convey through our new visual contracts is that we are playful but with serious intent. Our intention is to tell new employees a story through our employment contract. It’s an unconventional approach, but one that will set the tone of what an employee can expect when they join Aurecon. The new visual contracts are much more user-friendly and easier to relate to while simultaneously giving us the peace of mind that comes with knowing that all the salient points are in line with local legislation,” says Naidoo.

With workplace polls often indicating a lack of meaningful employee engagement and trust, the issue of engaging Aurecon’s talent and building trust is becoming one of the biggest competitive differentiators across many industries and companies.

Besides boosting engagement, it also ensures that the intent behind the letter of appointment is understood by all parties.

“Aurecon is a multi-national firm with offices throughout Africa and it has a culturally diverse workforce. Meaning can often be lost between offices, countries, cultures, and languages. We realised we had to create contracts in an accessible language so that people can truly understand and feel comfortable signing an employment contract. We expect the new visual contracts to help us set up relationships that succeed and predict that it will lead to easier on-boarding as well as a more open and transparent employee relationship,” says Naidoo.

Aurecon decided to use the employment contract as an exemplar of thinking innovatively as part of its focus on shaping the future of work. Nicola van Tonder, Aurecon People Operations Manager, Africa, believes that the visual contracts will be one of the pillars that contributes towards strengthening employee engagement.

“As important as the written contract is to establish the employer and employee relationship, we believe the psychological contract is more important to engage new employees and align them to our strategic goals.  As a result, we hope the visual contract will create a “wow” experience that will pave the way for a mutually beneficial employment relationship.” says van Tonder.

But are they enforceable?

Reviewing the new contracts, Clive van Coller of Aucamp van Coller & Associates says he found the contracts refreshing and well executed.

“Aurecon’s Visual Contracts are very innovative. From a legal perspective, there is no requirement in terms of labour legislation that an employer and employee must enter into a written contract of employment in order for an employment relationship to exist.” said van Coller.

“Part of Aurecon’s Future Ready strategy, the visual contract and attachments will be welcomed and supported by South African labour legislation and practices, as is also the case with some other organisations that have followed a similar route, albeit still in infancy stages,” adds van Coller.

Visual contracts are an emerging discipline and part of a broader movement to simplify the law. Aurecon will undertake a detailed assessment of the impact of the new contact later this year. 

“How we facilitate agreement, alignment and engagement was due for a complete change and an upgrade. We have reimagined the letter of appointment to make sure that everyone is on the same page from the get-go. The business world today can be overwhelmingly complex but our solutions, in the face of this complexity, need to stay simple,” says van Tonder.

Notes to editors

A South African visual contracts pioneer

A few years ago, Robert de Rooy, a lawyer in Cape Town, pioneered a new form of visual contract. He worked with a citrus farming operation and a visual communications business, to produce visual contracts for fruit pickers.  The visual contract, using a comic strip format, was used to capture the agreement between the company and their fruit pickers, who are seasonal workers, with low incomes and low levels of literacy.

Initially, de Rooy was concerned that the workers would perceive the contract as patronising, so he took a cautious approach and sought feedback, but no one felt that they preferred a text agreement over a visual agreement.  The content was much more accessible for the workers, resulting in easier on-boarding, better dispute prevention and a much friendlier employee relationship. His work in this area has been reported in many news articles and at conferences world wide – part of a growing discussion about simplifying contracts and the law.