Employers should carefully consider what they’re offering in an employment contract
A hot job market shifts employers’ traditional power advantage, giving potential employees leverage as organizations struggle to compete for top candidates. When poaching talent from other companies or making pie-in-the-sky promises to candidates, employers should carefully consider what they’re offering in an employment contract. As the front-line workers in the talent war, HR professionals must ensure employment offers can deliver what’s being promised.
Promises, promises
globeandmail.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/fasttrack/20050511/CAPROMISES11?section=HomePage
The Globe and Mail Workopolis site offers the article “Promises, promises: When job offers are too good to be true,” which describes “the risks employers take when they induce someone to quit a secure job with enticements that they don’t deliver. The clear message to employers: Be careful what you promise.” The article ends with a series of tips for employees and employers to protect themselves against false promises or misunderstandings. Tips include giving applicants five to 10 business days to review a job offer and making sure more than one person from the company is present during interviews. As well, employers should be upfront about the job and the company: “It’s fine to paint a bright picture but be brutally honest as well, making sure that all representations are accurate.”
Advice from Alberta
www.alis.gov.ab.ca/pdf/cshop/Finderskeepers.pdf
As employers in Alberta continue to struggle to attract and retain talent, the province has released Finders and Keepers, a 61-page booklet in PDF format. It details recruitment and retention strategies for employers in a tight labour market. From information on knowing the organization and its hiring needs and the real cost of employee turnover to creating a recruitment plan for the organization, the booklet gives a comprehensive overview of the issues employers are facing. The second section, “Attraction: How to make them want you,” outlines what employers of choice are offering, including training and development opportunities, a safe working environment, responsive scheduling, positive employee-supervisor relationships and thoughtful job design.
Fine line between aggressive recruiting, unlawful solicitation
www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/employees/article.jsp?content=20060106_164408_5448
This Canadian Business magazine article, “The perils of poaching: How to avoid getting wounded in the increasingly nasty war for top talent,” explains “the line between aggressive recruiting and the unlawful solicitation of former colleagues and clients is becoming increasingly fuzzy, with consequences ranging from a slap on the wrist to court-imposed injunctions to million-dollar lawsuits.” Potential poachers and targeted employees should try their best to avoid legal problems. As one lawyer interviewed puts it, “you’ll be subject to legal proceedings that will be launched very quickly and very expensively, which you will have to respond to at a very crucial time in your business.” However, as another lawyer points out, it can be difficult for corporations to successfully sue a former employee for unfair competition unless there’s “clear evidence that confidential information has been abused or that somebody’s been doing something inappropriate before they left.” And, the author adds, “Courts usually proceed from the premise that competition is a good thing and view overreaching non-competition clauses in contracts with a great degree of scrutiny.”
Importance of the interview
intelligence.monster.com/12338_en-US_p1.asp
“Slugging Through the War for Talent” on Monster.com is an executive summary of a survey Monster co-sponsored with Development Dimensions International last year. Staffing directors reported that competition for talent had increased 73 per cent from 2005 and 79 per cent expected it to heat up even more in 2007. According to the results, interviewers should think very carefully about how potential jobseekers perceive the organization and consider the interview as a critical tool for candidates considering a job: “Two-thirds of the jobseekers reported that the interviewer influences their decision to accept a position.” It goes on to suggest that interviewers risk the loss of potentially valuable employees as well as the reputation of the organization itself. As one jobseeker is quoted as saying, “If I had a very poor interviewing experience, I would want no association with that company at all as a customer. I might even become an advocate against them.” There’s even a list of interviewer habits that most irritate jobseekers. The most annoying habit? “Acting like no one has time to talk to me.”
Ann Macaulay is a freelance editor and regular contributor to Canadian HR Reporter. Her Web Sight column appears regularly in the CloseUp section.
Promises, promises
globeandmail.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/fasttrack/20050511/CAPROMISES11?section=HomePage
The Globe and Mail Workopolis site offers the article “Promises, promises: When job offers are too good to be true,” which describes “the risks employers take when they induce someone to quit a secure job with enticements that they don’t deliver. The clear message to employers: Be careful what you promise.” The article ends with a series of tips for employees and employers to protect themselves against false promises or misunderstandings. Tips include giving applicants five to 10 business days to review a job offer and making sure more than one person from the company is present during interviews. As well, employers should be upfront about the job and the company: “It’s fine to paint a bright picture but be brutally honest as well, making sure that all representations are accurate.”
Advice from Alberta
www.alis.gov.ab.ca/pdf/cshop/Finderskeepers.pdf
As employers in Alberta continue to struggle to attract and retain talent, the province has released Finders and Keepers, a 61-page booklet in PDF format. It details recruitment and retention strategies for employers in a tight labour market. From information on knowing the organization and its hiring needs and the real cost of employee turnover to creating a recruitment plan for the organization, the booklet gives a comprehensive overview of the issues employers are facing. The second section, “Attraction: How to make them want you,” outlines what employers of choice are offering, including training and development opportunities, a safe working environment, responsive scheduling, positive employee-supervisor relationships and thoughtful job design.
Fine line between aggressive recruiting, unlawful solicitation
www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/employees/article.jsp?content=20060106_164408_5448
This Canadian Business magazine article, “The perils of poaching: How to avoid getting wounded in the increasingly nasty war for top talent,” explains “the line between aggressive recruiting and the unlawful solicitation of former colleagues and clients is becoming increasingly fuzzy, with consequences ranging from a slap on the wrist to court-imposed injunctions to million-dollar lawsuits.” Potential poachers and targeted employees should try their best to avoid legal problems. As one lawyer interviewed puts it, “you’ll be subject to legal proceedings that will be launched very quickly and very expensively, which you will have to respond to at a very crucial time in your business.” However, as another lawyer points out, it can be difficult for corporations to successfully sue a former employee for unfair competition unless there’s “clear evidence that confidential information has been abused or that somebody’s been doing something inappropriate before they left.” And, the author adds, “Courts usually proceed from the premise that competition is a good thing and view overreaching non-competition clauses in contracts with a great degree of scrutiny.”
Importance of the interview
intelligence.monster.com/12338_en-US_p1.asp
“Slugging Through the War for Talent” on Monster.com is an executive summary of a survey Monster co-sponsored with Development Dimensions International last year. Staffing directors reported that competition for talent had increased 73 per cent from 2005 and 79 per cent expected it to heat up even more in 2007. According to the results, interviewers should think very carefully about how potential jobseekers perceive the organization and consider the interview as a critical tool for candidates considering a job: “Two-thirds of the jobseekers reported that the interviewer influences their decision to accept a position.” It goes on to suggest that interviewers risk the loss of potentially valuable employees as well as the reputation of the organization itself. As one jobseeker is quoted as saying, “If I had a very poor interviewing experience, I would want no association with that company at all as a customer. I might even become an advocate against them.” There’s even a list of interviewer habits that most irritate jobseekers. The most annoying habit? “Acting like no one has time to talk to me.”
Ann Macaulay is a freelance editor and regular contributor to Canadian HR Reporter. Her Web Sight column appears regularly in the CloseUp section.
