Timeline for How do I prevent employees from either switching to competitors or opening their own business?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
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| Jun 5, 2019 at 20:27 | comment | added | user30748 | I would add, if they aren't actual part owners, treat them like partners, but don't actually call them that. | |
| Jun 5, 2019 at 17:44 | comment | added | UKMonkey | @BloodGain Unless they're actually a partner, then they have no reason to leave at any point if they're offered higher salary - part of this "mutual trust" is demonstrated by showing that you're not going to give yourself large dividends or make decisions that impact everyone; without allowing people to have a say. You might not like it; but it's a model that's already shown to be very effective. See John Lewis for further details. Profit sharing would be the next option; but without shares it's almost unenforceable. | |
| Jun 4, 2019 at 21:36 | comment | added | Bloodgain | @UKMonkey Treat them like partners, not make them partners. Basically it means create that same mutual respect and trust. Personally, I don't find startup shares to have much real value. I don't want my investments tied that tightly to my employer's decisions, since my income already is, combined with it being relatively high-risk. Even good ideas executed by good teams frequently fail. I've made a choice to work for income; if I was willing to accept the trade-off of reduced income for high-risk/high-reward, I could do better finding a business partner for an idea of my own. | |
| Jun 4, 2019 at 17:10 | comment | added | UKMonkey | The only way I know of treating people as partners in a company is to give them shares - and we're not talking about 2% to try and pretend that it's worth something - but a decent chunk because as you say "they need you as much as you need them". Obviously, you may want to put conditions on it - such as the shares will only be released after some period of time with the company. If you're not going to commit to this person - why would you think they'd commit to you? | |
| Jun 4, 2019 at 6:18 | comment | added | Battle | This is a great answer. Focusing on positive attitudes, logic and healthy relationships over distrust and legal bindings. | |
| Jun 4, 2019 at 2:27 | comment | added | Dan Mills | One of the better comments I heard about retention was "People join companies but leave bosses", and there is a lot of truth to that (I know I have left for that reason before now), try not to be that guy. Do not load up with a ton of heavyweight overhead, and KPIs that are badly thought out (and most are) will be seen as a challenge by any decent dev, just don't go there. | |
| Jun 3, 2019 at 20:52 | comment | added | asgallant | I'd add that if you are treating your employees well, when they do leave (which they will do eventually regardless of how well you treat them), it is unlikely to be because they want to start a competitive business. It is typically disgruntled employees who leave to start competitors, because their ideas were ignored, or their contributions were unappreciated, or they were undercompensated, etc. Source: personal experience working with people who left an employer to start their own business. | |
| Jun 3, 2019 at 15:08 | history | edited | Conor Mancone | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
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| Jun 3, 2019 at 12:50 | history | answered | Conor Mancone | CC BY-SA 4.0 |