How to Stop Competitors from Poaching Your Talent
Well, one recent innovative approach that has allegedly been adopted in Silicon Valley is a reciprocal anti-poaching agreement between competitor companies, meaning that they all agree to not poach each other’s staff. However, you may want to think very carefully before deploying a copycat strategy because it proved controversial, leading to a 64,000 worker class action, which was eventually settled for an undisclosed sum one month before going to trial.
So, moving on, are there any other less controversial strategies that firms can use to fend off poachers? In truth, you are going to find it increasingly hard if not impossible to prevent head-hunters from contacting your staff. Recruiters and employers have at least four different ways, (phone, email, social media, face to face), of contacting your staff both in and out of work and there’s nothing you can do to prevent this. Trying to restrict staff from taking personal calls/emails during work is crude, stifling and basically ineffective.
This is why employers should be focused more on creating an environment that is resistant rather than susceptible to poaching – as this is within your control. For example, these stats from LinkedIn suggest that just 20 percent of staff are happily employed, whereas around 60 percent are willing to talk to a recruiter. But, just because they are ready to talk to head-hunters it doesn’t mean that they will actually leave – and there are steps you can take to swing things in your favor.
For starters, the hiring industry works on speed and candidates that can be moved quickly are especially susceptible to being poached. So, consider putting your new hires on longer than standard notice periods, which can mean the candidate may be a slow mover and be a turn off for a time pressurized recruiter.
What you can also do is have a bonus scheme where employees accrue their bonus monthly, but are paid at the end of the year, if they remain an employee. Many candidates may be reluctant to leave their employer once they are half way through the bonus period as they don’t want to forfeit the accrued bonus, meaning there can be a six-month window where they may be less susceptible to advances from the competition. It’s a retention bonus of sorts.
Also, show the industry that you won’t let your star talent leave easily, by engaging in robust and effective counter offer negotiations in order to keep hold of critical staff. This can demoralize the competition (who’ve put so much effort in by this point) and send out a strong message that you are not a soft touch when it comes to staff poaching. This will deter some of the head-hunters.
Your business is probably most susceptible to poaching during times of change, e.g. layoffs, office moves, strategy changes, restructures, influential departures, etc., as employees can feel out of control as the environment is so uncertain. So, coach, mentor and work with employees closely during this time to answer questions and reduce anxiety, squash damaging rumors and to communicate a vision for the future. This can all boost their sense of security and engagement and make them less susceptible to poaching.
But, disengagement doesn’t just happen during times of change; it can occur if employees no longer like or value their work, don’t see a future for themselves or are at serious odds with the culture. Not all of these things can be changed, but many can be and perhaps the most effective resistance to poaching is to address your employee engagement levels so they are committed to the cause. Employees who are fully engaged with your business will be extremely resistant to external poaching attempts.
And finally, in truth, employees are not poached; it’s not like fishing. They leave off their own accord, after having been shown the light. They are more likely to leave if they are disengaged. So, take stock of how your employees are feeling about the business regularly and put in measures to increase engagement across the company and within particular hotspots.