The Employee Poaching Factor: A New Engagement Issue
I recently sat with a group of human resources professionals talking about training. They were sharing their frustrations. Not that training wasn’t effective or it cost too much. But that managers weren’t open to training because they were afraid of developing employees…because those employees might leave.
They called it the “poaching factor”.
Honestly, this defies all logic. There are managers out there who are saying, “We don’t want to train our employees. Because if we train them, they’ll become smart and talented. Then some other company will steal them away from us. So better not to do training.”
Let’s bust this myth once and for all.
If you don’t train your employees, they will leave. Why? Because you’re not training them. Employees want to know that the company values them and will make an investment in their professional development.
If you don’t train your employees, you’re making the strategic decision to develop a crappy workforce. One that will not be able to help your business succeed with increased profits and market share.
Employee training is good for both the employee and the company. And dare I say, if you train an employee and they leave…it’s okay. My guess is they didn’t go to training with the sole purpose of quitting afterward. There could be other issues that contributed to the employee leaving.
Another possibility to consider is that sometimes employees need to leave to expand their knowledge and experience. Then they can return being a stronger contributor.
Companies that are concerned about the “poaching factor” and not training their employees are creating their own self-fulfilling prophecy. When you don’t train your employees, you’re helping the competition succeed.
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