Hidden risks of being poached by rival firm

The biggest challenge employees face when navigating job offers from competitors is not evaluating the offer, says Jay Walemba, CEO of Jay CVS, an HR consulting firm.

“You will find that the company wants you to implement certain strategies, and once you do they may fire you,” he says.

In his experience, Mr. Walemba says that a few months after starting his company, he received an offer from a competitor and gladly accepted it.

“When I went there, I was very deliberate, so I gave all the tools of my trade but in the second week I was kicked out.”

Didn’t you sign any contract? “Yes. The employer gave me the contract, I filled out all the details, and it was supposed to be stamped and returned, but it did not.”

In retrospect, Walemba says he did not consider the company’s long-term career goals and whether they aligned with his own, and did not have comprehensive communication with his employer.

“I didn’t look at job security because that offer didn’t have a term, and even if it did, I didn’t have an actual contract, so there was nothing I could do.”

Mr Walemba also says one has to look at reparations.

“What does the competitor offer you and is it just a fixed salary or does it come with benefits?”

Often, the “shargest knife” in an organization is the one that is poached.

Competitors will look for that employee behind thriving strategies in the hopes that they will either copy and paste them or move on with their clients, Walemba says.

Is it a guarantee? “Not really but the competitor knows you (the illegal employee) will maneuver in this area.”

Poaching aims to weaken a competitor, and Walemba says the goal is to pick out that person who, if they leave, the company will falter.

“When such an employee moves on, the company knows it is bringing them on to enhance or improve its culture,” says Mr. Walemba.

One potential risk that an employee may not immediately realize when exposed to theft is receiving required job responsibilities, says Beverly Khasyala, director of talent at environmental research organization Cerebus.

“Sometimes the goal is simply to get you hired, and the company may fail to meet your personal professional growth needs,” she says.

For example, they may not offer promised flexible working hours. At first, the offer may seem lucrative but once you join, you may find that the culture is very different from what you are used to.

Plus, if your employer is poaching you, they’re probably poaching other people, too. Ms. Khasyala says that in such circumstances, everyone will try to prove their worth and do their best to ensure that their department performs well.

“Such intense competition can make the workplace toxic.”

According to Ms. Khasyala, non-compete agreements are not enforceable under the law most of the time, arguing that companies must review contracts.

“For example, if you as a nurse sign a non-compete agreement that you will not work for a competitor for a certain number of years after leaving the company, that means you will have to change their career because the nurse works at the hospital.”

So, instead of such an agreement, companies should develop a work product that restricts the use of products developed at that company and the sharing of trade secrets. “But your intellectual property can be used elsewhere,” Ms. Khasyala says.

While the decision to share the news with your current employer is not a contractual obligation, Ms Khasyala says you can decide to tell your employer if you have a good relationship with them.

“You can tell them that Company