Making good hires is critical to the progress and survival of your company. Finding and keeping good hires can be difficult. More difficulties arise when potential hires are coming from your company’s competition. When an employee comes from competition, there is a chance they could break agreements with previous employers by giving your company information illegally. Here are ways to ensure you stay in compliance while hiring from your competition:
Understand Previous Agreements
Before hiring an employee from your competition, you want to understand the requirements of the agreements they’ve signed. This includes specifics on what would break agreements and what the consequences are for breaking contract. Understanding this will help you and the new hire avoid falling out of compliance.
Look at Behavior
If potential hires are doing or saying things in interviews that could violate an agreement, then it’s likely that they will continue the behavior as your employee. Also, take a good look at why this employee is looking to leave their previous company, and if they’ve left a company before. It can also be helpful to look at the employee’s previous employers’ behavior to see if they have violated the agreements. Having this information will help you to make better educated decisions.
Make it Official
Do you have a policy in place about information from previous employers? If not, then it might be a good idea to create one. If your entire workforce knows that it is against company policy to share or accept information about previous employment, it can help you avoid difficult situations. Additionally, you need to make this policy obvious in interviews with employees from the competition. That way, they know what they are getting into and how they should behave and speak at your company.
Use these tips to make sure you avoid any legal problems when hiring from your competition.