The Gamekeeper & the Poacher

I hadn’t posted for a while of what a delicate balance it is recruiting, hiring & retaining quality people, until I was reminded of it yesterday. One of our staff members was approached by another operator & offered shifts in their business. Of course people are free to make their own mind up & chances are if they aren’t happy in your establishment they’ll be on the lookout for a new opportunity.
Where it gets potentially tricky is that many industry people think it’s not good form to sidle up to one of your staff to try to tempt them away. Said staff person must choose to leave on their own, without any encouragement from a rival operator.
The industry regularly wrestles with the murky ethics behind ‘poaching staff’ but it seems as the pool of skilled workers shrinks further, we might be facing more of these instances.
The seemingly obvious way to tackle this is to make your workplace the most attractive to your staff, so they’ll be disinclined to seek another job. However, some businesses can afford to pay more so no matter how nice your working environment is, sometimes those that can afford to, snag the better qualified people, though offering more money doesn’t always mean you’ll get the best person for the job in my opinion.
Over the years I have heard & witnessed some quite audacious & equally dreadful poaching incidents. The one that wins by whisker is the tale of a chef who padded his brigade with chefs whom he had previously worked & whom shared loyalty to him. This is always a recipe for potential disaster. Sure enough, after a honeymoon period, said chefs’ relationship with the owner began to sour, resulting in him walking out during a busy service-an inexcusable event in my books. The remaining team promptly downed tools & followed him out the door leaving the poor owner, slack jawed & wide eyed with disbelief. Whilst you might think this sort of incident rare & that he might sooner get his comeuppance but he was gainfully employed shortly after with, you guessed it, his old pirate crew right behind him.
If someone wants to move on, let’s face it though, they would probably have sounded out a few options before hand. These options could mean going to rival businesses to dip their toe in the water. Most operators looking for staff aren’t going to dilly dally about things & concern themselves with the impact of this person leaving will have on their former employer, if they appear to be a good find, they’ll jump on them straight away & hire them. I am well acquainted with the desperation that has enveloped me when I am chronically understaffed & staring down the barrel of a stretch without days off, it’s scary & makes rational decision making very difficult.
What usually happens after someone defects is a period of bloodletting & character assassination which then morphs into something more benign as soon as a replacement is conjured. In time the defector might even find themselves reminisced affectionately, the sand through the hourglass healing old wounds & dulling the passionate indignation that once ran so hot.
They say, what goes around comes around.