Figure out who the targets are

If you don’t know which of your employees are most likely to be wooed by your competitors, engage an expert opinion.

I recommend: Engage a search firm, such as American Staffing, to identify the poaching targets on your staff and take a look at the profile of those employees. Or choose from a directory of search firms that might address your needs.

Watch your back

Sometimes the very recruiters you hire could be facilitating the placement of your employees with other companies.

I recommend: Make it clear in your agreement with the recruiter that they are not allowed to poach your employees at conferences or through cold calls after hours. Download a sample recruiter agreement at AllBusiness.com and modify it to suit your needs.

Block online poaching

Take steps to keep your employees from checking out recruiter Web sites or surfing for a new job on your time.

I recommend: Block access to recruiter Web sites and track Web sites to see who’s looking for a job. Add Internet blocking and filtering software to your company’s system.  

Block phone poaching

Recruiters also make cold calls after hours in an attempt to reel in employees after the reception desk is no longer staffed.

I recommend: Find recruiters who might poach your employees in the RecruitersDirectory.com. Download free call blocking software from FreeDownloadsCenter.com and put in the numbers of the poaching recruiters.

Post blind ads

Find out which of your employees are vulnerable to poaching by placing blind ads.

I recommend: Place ads tailored to the employees you want to keep on employment boards, such as Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com. If you get bites from your own staff, you’ll know where you are vulnerable.  

Consider the hammer

Non-competition agreements are standard in some fields, but if they are applied to low-level employees or drafted in an overly broad way they can be chopped down or nullified by the courts.

I recommend: If you require employees to sign away their right to work for competitors after they leave your company, check sample agreements available from Business Owner’s Toolkit against yours to make sure the restrictions will hold up to legal challenges.

Protect trade secrets

Even if your employees don’t take a job with a competitor, you can still get stung by the poaching process. If an employee simply agrees to be interviewed by a competitor, your company trade secrets could be vulnerable.

I recommend: Carefully draft non-disclosure agreements for your business, making sure that you consider how clearly you convey to your employees what matters are intended to be kept confidential.  

Reward retention

You can convey your interest in keeping valuable employees and their confidentiality in your shop without binding legal agreements.

I recommend: Communicate with your employees that you want to keep them on your team through nice notes on special stationary. Take a course in employee retention. Get additional tools at Employee Retention Headquarters.

Keep tabs on at-risk employees

Gather the background information you need to keep particularly valuable employees and act on it.

I recommend: Determine the track records of key employees. If you find one has a pattern of changing jobs every two years, offer incentives like free travel for good work after eighteen months or financial rewards before they jump ship.