Non-compete agreements are an important way for many businesses to help protect trade secrets and insider knowledge from falling into the hands of competitors.
But non-compete clauses must be soundly drafted to ensure that you can actually enforce your agreements.
The key to good non-compete agreements is to have clearly defined limits that protect your business interests but are not so restrictive that they unfairly limit former employees from gaining future employment in their field.
In order to make sure that you're achieving this clarity and balance in your agreements, you should hire an attorney who specializes in contractual law.
An attorney will also be familiar with the particular statutes and case law that govern non-compete agreements in your state.
In general, you should work to make sure that both the rights of your employee and of your business are protected by the non-compete agreement.
Protecting the Rights of the Employee The agreement cannot overly infringe on a former employee's ability to gain employment in their field.
Make sure that you carefully consider and define:

1. The geographic region in which the non-compete is in effect: the region you specify should be limited to the area in which you conduct business.
   If you extend the area beyond where you currently conduct business, your non-compete may be invalid.
   
2. The amount of time the non-compete agreement is in effect: A non-compete needs to have a specified time limit after which the former employment can seek employment with a competitor.
   
3. The types of job duties that your former employee cannot engage in.
   If you do not clearly define types of jobs and roles, the agreement may be invalid.
   At the same time, you can't limit a former employee from engaging in work that they didn't engage in at your place of business.
   
4. What the employee receives in return: this can be as simple as defining that an employee is gaining employment in exchange for the non-compete, though some employers include garden leave clauses in which they continue to pay a former employee's salary and benefits during the time of non-compete if the former employee cannot find gainful employment in their field because of the agreement.
   

Protecting the Rights of the Employer A good non-compete agreement will protect you as an employer by ensuring that:

• A former employee does not work for a competitor
• The employee does not share confidential business information such as your contacts, trade secrets, or strategies.
  
• The former employee will be held liable for monetary damages, including legal fees, in the case the non-compete agreement is broken.
  

Non-compete agreements are not a simple contractual document to construct, nor is a generic form really reasonable.
In order to ensure an enforceable non-compete agreement, you should work with a contractual law attorney who specializes in such documents and who practices in the state in which you conduct business.
The agreement should be tailored to specific employees in specific positions within your company.
Ensuring that your agreement is sound can save you the pain of losing business and information to a competitor and being unable to do anything about it.