There’s a golf club that’s keen to use us for their HR support, but there’s just one snag:
They’re with Citation.
Having been with them for three years, they’ve decided they’re not getting the bespoke, personalised support they need, and see the value in working with someone that specialises in golf clubs.
Anyway, they’d fulfilled their original three-year contract, and while they didn’t imagine they could leave straight away, they assumed it’d be a case of giving six months’ notice and they’d be free to go.
No dice.
Turns out that when you look at the original contract, it contains a stipulation that if notice isn’t given six months before the end of the original term, the whole contract auto renews for another three years.
As you might expect, Citation made no attempt to point this out to the club, nor do they communicate via email or post advising them of when they have the right to cancel.
Thankfully these sorts of shameless tactics are completely illegal in the consumer world, but for some reason, they’re still permitted in business-to-business contracts.
Call me old fashioned, but I’d rather my clients wanted to keep paying me for the value I was providing them, rather than because a contract says they have to, but maybe that’s just me!
If you have a contract with one of the national HR providers – Peninsula, Citation, Croner, Xact, The HR Department – make sure you check the small print for the ability to terminate the contract when YOU want to, not when they allow you to.
