Southland’s Best Business Practices

Protect Company Assets and Client Confidential Information

Our commitment to honesty, professionalism, and integrity requires that employees protect proprietary information, data, and intellectual property of Southland, its customers, and third-party partners. Southland expressly prohibits any employee from obtaining any confidential information from other businesses in any unethical or illegal manner. Confidential information of others is to be protected as if it were Southland’s. Likewise, we all have a duty to protect the company’s proprietary and confidential information, which is an asset of the company just like physical property.

Confidential and proprietary information includes trade secrets and things such as design plans, specifications, drawings, project data, cost data, customer lists, employee lists, company financial information, marketing campaigns and customer targets, project cost estimates, digital files, presentations, and other similar information.

All employees are obligated to protect our confidential and proprietary information and must understand that it is of great value to the company. Southland’s intellectual property and all confidential information is not to be disclosed to any unauthorized party during your employment or after you leave Southland. In addition, while employed at Southland, employees may have access to, and learn of, confidential, sensitive, or proprietary information of other parties, including governmental agencies. In such situations, employees may not disclose this information either during or after their employment.

This duty to protect Southland’s intellectual property assets and confidential information is in addition to specific confidentiality policies maintained by the company in the Employee Handbook or as set forth in specific sources such as Non-Disclosure Agreements (see below for more on this topic) and other specific sources.