How do you stop your best people being poached? Here are ten strategies to stop it happening.
If your staff aren't being actively approached, maybe you should be worried. It may be that they aren’t good enough. To pretend it doesn't happen is stupid. To act as if it's disloyalty is daft. Nevertheless, here are ten ploys - the good, the bad and the downright cynical.
The best strategy is transparency. Let staff talk openly when the headhunters call, discuss the merits of an offer and be honest.
Have a fast track for your high-fliers. Make staff feel excited by what they are doing. Include sabbaticals and temporary secondments to other companies. That way they don't feel they have to leave in order to get a change.
Make sure the pay is right. Obvious, of course, but not foolproof. If your staff aren't being motivated and well-managed, then money is bound to talk.
Make sure you've got some carrots. Pricing people out of the market isn't just about money. That star salesman may just want a flashier car. If you can offer them, what about some deferred share options or a rolling bonus scheme?
Give them more status. Linking status and salaries can be tricky. An excellent salesman may prove a rotten sales manager.
Stress the opportunities. Any smaller company losing people to bigger organisations should emphasise the responsibility and autonomy it can offer to key personnel.
Do they really want to get enmeshed in the bureaucracy and hierarchy that comes with larger companies?
Is it possible to join the board or take an equity stake in the company? It can be quite an incentive for talented people. Remember also the partners of those valued staff; they are important influences. If they like you, they are going to be less keen on supporting a move.
Tie them to the job. Go on, wield that stick. A restrictive covenant of up to a year is generally enforceable.
Take a tough line. The fear factor has its advocates. But watch out; you eventually get a reputation which makes it harder to recruit good people in the first place.
Cosy up to the headhunters. Give all of the headhunters who are in your industry some business; in return, ensure that they know your firm is off-limits for a while. It's a dubious ploy but it has been known.
Be really vicious. The ultimate nasty: giving somebody a duff reference or using your contacts in the industry to put the knife in verbally.
If you're faced with someone who wants to leave, you do have to ask yourself: why bother? Hanging on to somebody who wants to go elsewhere could cost you a lot more than you bargained.
Originally published in the very first edition of Real Business magazine, way back in March 1997. We got into trouble for publishing this article because we had poached a whole lot of people ourselves. Anyway, it still makes good sense.