3 Ways You Can Prevent Poaching and Make Your Top Employees Want to Stay

Are your competitors stealing your best employees? In such a tight labor market, having to replace a top-performing employee is costly and difficult to do. Having someone unexpectedly stripped from one of your teams will produce a different dynamic than before. Trying to return to a familiar rhythm while managing an unfamiliar workload can be difficult. Thankfully, employers can spot early signs of poaching and take steps to minimize the loss. Here are three ways companies can prevent poaching and make their top employees want to stay.?

What experts are saying

Experts in human resources are saying the fight to keep good employees is only going to intensify. In other words, employee poaching is not going anywhere. Senior Advisor at the search firm, Egon Zehnder, Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, says “managers are likely to be dealing with situations like these more and more, due to the globalization of business, demographic trends, and poor leadership development practices within firms”. Because this trend will rise with other workplace trends, employers cannot afford to play passive roles in these situations but must be proactive in their retention efforts.

Two ways companies can prevent poaching and make their top employees want to stay?

• Catch Early Signs. As soon as you learn one of your top employees is considering leaving, a check-in with the individual could help. Treat the issue at its earliest stage. Invite them to an honest one-on-one chat on what they need in their role and from leadership to feel more fulfilled. Start a dialogue on what’s frustrating them and what the leadership team can do to improve their workplace experience. Find our early, so you can help early.
• Be attentive to your best people. The reality is, there are people on your team that are more valuable to the company at large. Those are the individuals that would be difficult and costly to replace. Investigate why they are still here. Have a check-in with one of your most valuable employees and ask them how they’re experiencing their role, their team, and the company as a whole. Even before they mention they want to leave. Find out if they feel challenged enough and if they have the flexibility they need for their lifestyle. HR expert and professor of management at San Francisco State University, John Sullivan, says, “employees stay with you not because they have to but because they would not possibly consider going anywhere else.” Aim to treat employees so well that they won’t consider going anywhere else because they are well taken care of.
• Conduct Exit Interviews. Gain insight into their reasons for leaving by designing an exit interview. This is a time for the employer to ask about their satisfaction level and further questions on areas the company could improve. Depending on how honest of responses they receive, human resources can use the feedback to upgrade their employee recognition program or re-work elements of work culture that are not working.

When word gets out that someone is looking for an opportunity outside the company, employers cannot afford to be the last to know. Employers must actively check in with their employees to consistently measure their satisfaction. As well as keeping a special watch on top performers with wandering eyes. If you want to guard your top employees from being recruited, watch for early signs, be attentive to your best people, and consider conducting exit interviews. At the heart of retention, is understanding that employees are at the center of an organization’s success.?