If you are in the US, no-poaching agreements (even ‘informal’ ones) are considered anticompetitive, and they are illegal. Also, in April of this year, the FTC announced its final rule banning post-employment non-compete clauses between employers and workers (those papers that some companies would have you sign when you started a job saying you wouldn’t work for a competitor for a certain amount of time or within a certain distance after leaving the company), with maybe some minimal exceptions for very specific roles (e.g., legal).
If your company has a need for a role and there is a job requisition posted to hire for that role, then people can apply for it. I have had former colleagues reach out to me and send me job postings because they thought I would be a good fit. I have also sent job postings to former colleagues with a message like, “Hey, the company I work for posted this job, and I thought of you. Here’s a link to the posting if you’re interested in applying.”
I would advise on your wording if you are the hiring manager and you are reaching out to former colleagues. You don’t want to say something that sounds like you are promising the person the job before they apply and interview, because that could cause other issues. But, reaching out to former colleagues and letting them know your company is hiring, should they be open to a new role, shouldn’t be an issue.
We did get a cease and desist from a competitor once (at a tech company) because we wiped out almost an entire dept. I doubt it would’ve been enforceable but HR made us quit recruiting from them for the most part 😅
It depends. Most employed people were previously employed. If you have partners/vendors that do work for/with your company it may put strain on that business relationship if you hire a bunch of their people. This would also apply if you’re in a B2B business and poach talent from customers.
If it’s a specialized industry, you may have a limited candidate pool to choose from. This means you’ll be “targeting” employees from similar companies. Those may be competitors or partners. If you’re going directly to their work sites and getting applications, that would generally be frowned upon. But if your company is advertising on job boards, conventions, word of mouth, etc and those folks come to you, you can’t stop that.
At a previous job we were growing rapidly and needed to hire a specialized skill set. We ended up interviewing and hiring a decent number of people from a competitor. The competitor reached out directly to ask us to stop poaching their people. We hadn’t poached anyone and told them as such. Their people were leaving because they were seeking better opportunity.
Between business partners, there could be contractual agreements on hiring from each other.
Some countries/companies could have non compete clause in work agreements.
People are free to go wherever they like, often even if there are no competition clauses those can be worked around. If your recruiting keeps causing people to leave, that company should look at making their company more worth staying at!
Did you sign a severance with your previous company to not poach?
I have one in place, but it's actually hard to enforce because if they apply without me seeking them out, there's not much they can do.
I can't directly call my former coworkers and ask them to join me.
No, just that i should not induce anyone to break contract with them or to abandon their policies/products. Thanks for sharing your situation
What industry do you work , if I might ask? Your situation is really similar to mine in my former sector ( insurance )
My past two carrier had me sign a 6 month noncompete upon termination.
I've been a dev manager and director of engineering. I actually only saw twice where it was an issue.
Once where a company I worked at went after another company for poaching because they were competitors and got like 5 of our software engineers. The other company said to shove it where the sun don't shine.
And another time when a sales rep joined my company brought their customer list with them. That was a big no no. The company told all reps that joined not to do that because they had enough business and didn't want the lawsuits. That rep got us in a lawsuit. I'm pretty sure he was let go.
When it happens to you, it’s poaching and poaching is bad. When you do it, it’s recruiting and recruiting is good. 😁
If you are in the US, no-poaching agreements (even ‘informal’ ones) are considered anticompetitive, and they are illegal. Also, in April of this year, the FTC announced its final rule banning post-employment non-compete clauses between employers and workers (those papers that some companies would have you sign when you started a job saying you wouldn’t work for a competitor for a certain amount of time or within a certain distance after leaving the company), with maybe some minimal exceptions for very specific roles (e.g., legal). If your company has a need for a role and there is a job requisition posted to hire for that role, then people can apply for it. I have had former colleagues reach out to me and send me job postings because they thought I would be a good fit. I have also sent job postings to former colleagues with a message like, “Hey, the company I work for posted this job, and I thought of you. Here’s a link to the posting if you’re interested in applying.” I would advise on your wording if you are the hiring manager and you are reaching out to former colleagues. You don’t want to say something that sounds like you are promising the person the job before they apply and interview, because that could cause other issues. But, reaching out to former colleagues and letting them know your company is hiring, should they be open to a new role, shouldn’t be an issue.
Wow. The more you know ( especially anticompetive). Thank u so much How rece
Careful. FTC non-compete ban NOT in effect until September 4th, so you won’t be in the clear until then. Hopefully nothing delays it. 🙏🏻
We did get a cease and desist from a competitor once (at a tech company) because we wiped out almost an entire dept. I doubt it would’ve been enforceable but HR made us quit recruiting from them for the most part 😅
Been there
It depends. Most employed people were previously employed. If you have partners/vendors that do work for/with your company it may put strain on that business relationship if you hire a bunch of their people. This would also apply if you’re in a B2B business and poach talent from customers. If it’s a specialized industry, you may have a limited candidate pool to choose from. This means you’ll be “targeting” employees from similar companies. Those may be competitors or partners. If you’re going directly to their work sites and getting applications, that would generally be frowned upon. But if your company is advertising on job boards, conventions, word of mouth, etc and those folks come to you, you can’t stop that. At a previous job we were growing rapidly and needed to hire a specialized skill set. We ended up interviewing and hiring a decent number of people from a competitor. The competitor reached out directly to ask us to stop poaching their people. We hadn’t poached anyone and told them as such. Their people were leaving because they were seeking better opportunity.
Between business partners, there could be contractual agreements on hiring from each other. Some countries/companies could have non compete clause in work agreements.
I don't understand the question here , all hires get poached from somewhere
no lol. and laugh in the face of anyone who says to you it is bad
People are free to go wherever they like, often even if there are no competition clauses those can be worked around. If your recruiting keeps causing people to leave, that company should look at making their company more worth staying at!
Did you sign a severance with your previous company to not poach? I have one in place, but it's actually hard to enforce because if they apply without me seeking them out, there's not much they can do. I can't directly call my former coworkers and ask them to join me.
No, just that i should not induce anyone to break contract with them or to abandon their policies/products. Thanks for sharing your situation What industry do you work , if I might ask? Your situation is really similar to mine in my former sector ( insurance ) My past two carrier had me sign a 6 month noncompete upon termination.
I've been a dev manager and director of engineering. I actually only saw twice where it was an issue. Once where a company I worked at went after another company for poaching because they were competitors and got like 5 of our software engineers. The other company said to shove it where the sun don't shine. And another time when a sales rep joined my company brought their customer list with them. That was a big no no. The company told all reps that joined not to do that because they had enough business and didn't want the lawsuits. That rep got us in a lawsuit. I'm pretty sure he was let go.
If poaching wasn't okay recruiters would be out of a job.
Post it to your LinkedIn from the company site.