Jump to content

Recruiting from your previous company


tbone_

Recommended Posts

So, something better than zero % chance I may be taking a new gig at a new company. Would basically be a national role where I am regional now. Essentially my boss’s boss’s job at a competitor.

In my current role I have coached up some really good people on our team.

Is it a dick move to steal people form your old company? Should I do it anyway?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

So, something better than zero % chance I may be taking a new gig at a new company. Would basically be a national role where I am regional now. Essentially my boss’s boss’s job at a competitor.

In my current role I have coached up some really good people on our team.

Is it a dick move to steal people form your old company? Should I do it anyway?

Does your current employment contract have a non-solicitation clause?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Appreciate the feedback.

 

Interesting situation for sure. My current group is made up of nearly 100% great people. Not the least bit unhappy and could ride into the sunset here. Only reason I’m talking to the new group is the opportunity is to build an organization. And a multiple on comp.

 

I know the current environment has changed. My old school ways change slower though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What's your relationship like with your current employer?   Are they a mega-corp with zero fucks to give or are you leaving a mid-market family shop who will hold a serious grudge?

What's the likelihood you will ever need to do business with them again?

 

I've seen this kind of thing play out and blow up in the face of the employee poacher when new employer doesn't live up to promises they used to lure a key employee who can poach former employer's staff.

  • Hook 'Em 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You might want to wait to start poaching until you know it’s a good spot. A bunch of people followed my boss’s boss two years ago, and he didn’t make it a year there after a few people followed.

If the people you want to bring over are all also regional people, not sure how that translates to national accounts. Something to think about in case it sucks and you still want to be welcome back.

Edited by StassneyHorn
  • Hook 'Em 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Legally it would be difficult for your former employer to go after you unless you signed an NDA that had a solicitation clause. 

However, with that said a former employer can make things very uncomfortable for you personally. Just because they won’t win in court doesn’t mean they won’t file a lawsuit anyway and force you to burn up a lot of legal expenses defending it. 

if you only take a few and stop, or space them out over time, you won’t get them worried about decimating their org and they likely won’t react.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Surprised a company big enough to have a boss's boss, doesn't have at least a boiler plate employee contract upon job acceptance.

There might be language in an employee handbook that was acknowledged when hired.  No idea about current legality or enforceability of something like that.

 

Edited by Incredulity
Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Legally it would be difficult for your former employer to go after you unless you signed an NDA that had a solicitation clause. 

However, with that said a former employer can make things very uncomfortable for you personally. Just because they won’t win in court doesn’t mean they won’t file a lawsuit anyway and force you to burn up a lot of legal expenses defending it. 

if you only take a few and stop, or space them out over time, you won’t get them worried about decimating their org and they likely won’t react.  

Some good advice on the thread and this part is very possibly true.  

Are you in Texas?  For a long time, it was hard to make even a bullshit lawsuit go away in Texas in the short term.  That has changed some, but I'll have to let the state court practitioners opine on that.  And, would your new employer be aware of and supportive of any such poaching or raiding scheme?  

One thing you have to watch for is potential trade secrets claims about some information, including customers, of the old employer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok I’ll be the codger and say it’s a dick move if you’ve been treated well all along.  It depends on the company’s size and impact of your leaving but since you don’t have an employment agreement it does sound like it’s completely up to you how you handle it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hefeweizen said:

Ok I’ll be the codger and say it’s a dick move if you’ve been treated well all along.  It depends on the company’s size and impact of your leaving but since you don’t have an employment agreement it does sound like it’s completely up to you how you handle it.

My feeling as well. You will also be burning any type of future recommendation/return role from the company should you unexpectantly need it. No one would blame you for taking a better job with more pay, but they will care if you start poaching people.  If they have treated you well, return the favor.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I mean you can do it, but you are going to burn any remaining bridges at the old company. 

Up to you if that matters in this field, depending on how tight knit the field is word will get around.

Or if you are a few years from retiring anyway you might not give a fuck. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, tbone_ said:

In my current role I have coached up some really good people on our team.

Is it a dick move to steal people form your old company? Should I do it anyway?

You could coach up good people at the new place too, and not find out the hard way how small the world is.

Also, maybe some of your old team make it over on their own, in a way where you don't burn bridges.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/18/2025 at 12:07 AM, StassneyHorn said:

You might want to wait to start poaching until you know it’s a good spot.

THIS

If you take the entire team you are a dick and you’ll likely get some sort of litigation.

I’d think about your team. Is there someone you think they might promote to your old role on your team you’d be fucking over? Them staying in that role with a solid team could really help their career and grow them into a leader that could gain quality skills and experience which you could leverage down the road if you keep them in your network.

That being said, I don’t see anything wrong with taking a key player or two but I wouldn’t completely screw over my old company. If it falls to shit after you leave and you really do have a great relationship with your team they’ll reach out to you once that new reality sets in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Surprisingly good thoughts in this surly thread.

I agree with those saying it’s a dick move. Current group has been really really good to work with. Like best in my career without really a close second. I feel like the new group, should I take the new position, would be similar. If I didn’t think that it I wouldn’t even be considering. But you never know until you know.

No contract at current job. Not sure yet at potential new job.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is the advice I was given, in an exit interview (about 100 years ago)....you hear didn't burn your bridges, but that isn't the whole truth. The truth is the thinks behind you don't really matter, it's the bridges ahead that you don't want to burn. The problem is you don't know where you will go later in life. 

But I never saw that guy again, so if you think that you have clear sailing, then I say burn away bitch, burn away

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/18/2025 at 9:12 AM, MonkeyDoughnut said:

My feeling as well. You will also be burning any type of future recommendation/return role from the company should you unexpectantly need it. No one would blame you for taking a better job with more pay, but they will care if you start poaching people.  If they have treated you well, return the favor.

OP could lay low for a few months and get a feel for how the atmosphere at the new gig compares to the old job.  If it's much better, he could let his former co-workers know how awesome the new place is.  Talk it up on a semi regular basis, show how much happier he is, that kind of thing.

If new company needs some new dudes they could put a job listing on their website.  OP tells his preferred former colleagues "Hey we got a job posted on our website that could be a good fit for you if you're interested."  If they are looking to make a move, they apply.  If not, they don't. Spread it out over time for multiple positions until you get your squad put together.

A job was never blatantly offered and anyone in the business that saw the job posting could have applied.  Old company can get fucked if they think it's "poaching".

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Drool 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/17/2025 at 2:05 PM, tbone_ said:

Is it a dick move to steal people form your old company? Should I do it anyway?

The odds are very high that your current employer started their business by directly competing against a former employer.  Would your current employer hesitate to fire you to preserve their own position?   All that matters is what will ultimately help you succeed in your new position.

Good advice above in that while I am immediately thinking about poaching, I am likely a lot more come into the new company and get a lay of the land first.  While you have recruited and trained some great people, you also might hurt your development of relationships among your new team if your started off by bringing in your own folks.  It usually creates more animosity and uncertainty among your new employees.  In other words, poaching too soon is almost always a net negative from both sides of the ledger.  Early poaches could raise the ire of you old employer.  And the oldest trick in the book is just to fils suit against you and let you bleed out in a case that years from now you will likely most certainly win.  

So why take the risk early?

Now if you are talking about salespeople that can bring their accounts with them?  Then my only concern would be at what level might my new employer help me fend off lawsuits aimed at your for poaching?  Your job is to make you new employer more money. The best way would be to make the current team more productive, while looking ahead for potential good fits for the former co-workers you might covet now.

I would think it will take you a quarter in your new position to really determine the strengths and weaknesses within your new oversight role.   Do the eval, see where you might improve with some poaching, and go to work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said:

My sister is a badass tech recruiter. I’ve learned from her “It’s never a bad idea to tell someone what their free agent value is”.
 

If they feel valued or undervalued when they learn what they are worth; either way you did them a favor. 

THIS!

My daughter loves her job with her current company, she's an Pharmacist and has risen rapidly in the last couple years.  She has twice been hired for positions they manipulated to get her into.  It's a big hospital network in Houston, and she was also chosen to become a trainer for Epic software.  Epic is I think the biggest provider of medical software in the nation.  She was helping them "fix" the glitches in their system once she learned it.  I told her to apply for another job that I saw listed.  That she was (as always) not fully qualified on paper.  But a big part of the job was "becoming certified" in Epic within 6 month of hire.  She was short on the years experience aspect (as she has been for every job).

IF you are ever thinking of changing to a new position within your current company, I think it's fucking stupid now to see what you might be worth elsewhere at that point.  IMHO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/17/2025 at 2:14 PM, jimmyjazz said:

There are no dick moves any longer.  Employees can't trust employers to act in the employees' best interest, so barring some kind of legal clause to the contrary, I say go for it.

I'm trying to come to an understanding of this through helping my nephew.

I'm of the older generations and while I work for myself have always been a loyalty guy to the brand and to employees.  All of my crew has 15+ years and many have 30+.  We just became family and no one has left (for better and worse).

My nephew just started a position in December and a new potential employer (different industry / no competition) has called to interview him (unsolicited referral by an employee of the new shop). 

He's asking my thoughts and my first inclination is that it's a dick move to jump ship within the first couple months, but i realize I'm a dinosaur and that the world has changed.

Is it really just Thunderdome now or are there any unwritten rules left?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Reagan1k said:

I'm trying to come to an understanding of this through helping my nephew.

I'm of the older generations and while I work for myself have always been a loyalty guy to the brand and to employees.  All of my crew has 15+ years and many have 30+.  We just became family and no one has left (for better and worse).

My nephew just started a position in December and a new potential employer (different industry / no competition) has called to interview him (unsolicited referral by an employee of the new shop). 

He's asking my thoughts and my first inclination is that it's a dick move to jump ship within the first couple months, but i realize I'm a dinosaur and that the world has changed.

Is it really just Thunderdome now or are there any unwritten rules left?

 

He should absolutely interview to see if it’s a position and organization that he would be interested in. If there’s mutual interest and receives an offer, it’s a good gauge on what another organization perceives as his market value. Why would he pass on the opportunity to at least evaluate another option? I’m assuming he’s earlier career and that’s the time to make moves that can bump up your income in big percentage increments.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...