A company can have many assets but one of its most important ones is its employees. Today, attracting top performers and recruiting candidates is a difficult hurdle. Hiring managers put in their time and effort to hire employees who can bring something to the table. 

With so many engineering companies looking for the best people, retaining employees becomes even harder than hiring them. Many companies will try to poach your employees especially if they think they can be successful. 

Analyze Your Company 

How to stop employee poaching, you ask? You’ll have to start with the basics and perform a company-wide analysis focused on three general topics. 

This way, you will be able to obtain important data and results that are unique to your company and your employees. 

1. Who are your top performers? 

The best way to stop poaching is to know who has the potential to be poached. You need to know who among your employees carries the most value to your company. 

To answer this question without bias, refer to objective data. Analyze their performance and review their output. Identify measurable goals and objectives to check which employees meet them consistently. 

Remember that your goal in identifying your top performers is to simply keep an eye on them. Never use your data as a tool for varying treatment between employees. Favoritism and comparing one worker to another is a big no-no. 

2. Who are your competitors? 

To stay on top in the job market, you need to have knowledge of your competitors and what they offer their employees. This is the only way you can know if your own offers are competitive or not. 

By analyzing other companies, you can identify certain areas you can improve on. For example, find out if a direct competitor offers better perks or has access to more advanced technology. 

This information can help you improve your company, which can lead to easier talent acquisition. 

3. What are your strengths and weaknesses? 

You can use your company’s strengths to attract and retain employees. On the other hand, you can create solutions to solve issues or lessen the intensity of the weaknesses you have. 

The best way to know what’s good and bad in your company is to listen to former and current employees. 

For existing employees, you can conduct surveys or interviews to fully grasp what they think are the weaknesses and strengths of the company. 

The point of view of former employees is also, if not more, important in your analysis. You can obtain this information by conducting exit interviews for people leaving the company. What did they like in your company? What aspects need improvement? Be open to their opinions. 

Ways to Prevent Employees from Being Poached 

Collecting data will lead to nothing if you don’t use it. Once you have all the knowledge you need, you can now take steps to ensure your employees are poach-proof. Some things you can consider doing are: 

Provide A Competitive Salary 

One of the most common tools used in poaching employees is offering better compensation. To avoid your people being poached, make sure you are offering competitive salaries. 

This doesn’t mean you should offer the highest amount in the labor market – this is not logical, or financially ideal. 

Instead, pay attention to the current rates for candidates in the engineering industry. Do your best to provide fair compensation worthy of your employees’ skills. 

Give Perks and Benefits 

Get to know your employees and figure out their needs and priorities. Based on these, create a proposal that contains the perks and benefits they need. 

For example, if your employee is a new mother, the perks of a flexible working schedule can help her manage her time with her baby. If your employees are breadwinners, they may lean towards a company that can offer medical benefits for them and their loved ones. 

To retain employees, you need to understand them and give them the support that they need. 

Establish Workplace Culture 

Jeff Fromm, a Forbes contributor, highlights the transformative power of integrating recognition into the everyday employee experience. By recognizing not only the work but also the unique contributions of employees, the research reveals a remarkable 366% increase in the sense of fulfillment and a significant 208% increase in the sense of community.¹

To ensure productive and happy employees, you need to build a company culture that prioritizes engagement between employees and employers. 

For example, advertise constant communication between departments. You can also organize get-togethers that can help build relationships within the office. 

You may also consider participating in your company’s culture inclusivity and collaboration efforts to create a healthier work environment. 

Create Career Paths 

To stop employees from even considering changing companies, you need to provide clear career paths for them. This can be done with the help of managers and the employees themselves. 

Managers should be aware of their team members’ goals while employees should be open to discussions. 

During the creation of career plans, be sure to remain realistic. Promising a promotion within six months can make an employee stay but it can backfire if it is not turned into a reality. 

Take your employees’ goals into consideration and discuss what they need to do and their timeline before they reach the roles they want. 

If there is a clear goal set, your people will be more reluctant to leave since they know they’re on the right path. It will also be more difficult for other companies to poach employees from your organization. 

Conduct Training and Mentoring 

Providing training does not only improve your worker’s skillset but also builds their relationship and loyalty to the company. 

Read More: Topgrading Your Staff 

As stated in an article published in Harvard Business Review, a common strategy used in poaching is reducing the attachment of employees to their companies.² 

This can be done by pointing out any lack of support, training, or camaraderie within the office. Doing this would make the employee feel isolated and be more inclined to consider other places. 

To create a long-term partnership, giving training can build collaboration between participants. Conducting a mentor-mentee program also gives the employees professional relationships they can benefit from. 

Form Non-Compete Agreements 

If you prefer to use legal steps to put a stop to employee poaching, you can choose to use non-compete clauses in the contracts signed by your people. 

This type of clause is between an employee and an employer. It says that the former is forbidden to work for a competitor for a specific amount of time after they leave the company. 

For example, an employee resigns from a computer engineering company. He is then not allowed to work at companies that deal with the said role for a certain length of time that has been agreed upon by both parties. 

Put a stop to employee poaching with the help of Raso360

The competitive market is pushing employers to find the best candidates in the industry, regardless if they’re hired or not. To retain employees, Raso360 can help you build a culture that can make your employees feel proud of their careers. We can help you create long-lasting connections that can’t be easily broken by other companies.  

We can help you find the right people who can empower your business. There is no need to poach people yourself. Contact us now to begin your company’s path to a better future. 

References: 

1. Fromm, Jeff. “Employee Recognition Is Key To Driving Business Growth.” Forbes, 17 May 2023, www.forbes.com/sites/jefffromm/2023/05/17/employee-recognition-is-key-to-driving-business-growth/. Accessed 10 Jun. 2023. 
2. Markman, Art. “What to Do If Your Employees Keep Getting Poached.” Harvard Business Review, 24 Mar. 2022, hbr.org/2022/03/what-to-do-if-your-employees-keep-getting-poached. Accessed 10 Jun. 2023.