Why Poaching is a poor strategy for those who can see the big picture

A few years ago I had a problem, we were growing quickly and we had more work to do then people to do it. We tried recruiters and other methods but we struggled to hire the people with the right stuff so I considered an aggressive strategy to target known high performers in the area that I would now be willing to say would best be described as "Poaching".

I'm lucky to be a part of a group of people who challenge me on my ideas on a daily basis. They challenged me on that one and they were right to do so. They won the argument quickly with this very simple idea: If you are successful at achieving your goal to hire a team by way of levering poaching methods then you will end up with a team that is more easily poachable. Wow, that blew me away and I never thought twice about that kind of a strategy again. The results over the past number of years have proved the argument to be valid as the key members of our team are now constantly approached because they are very well known to be excellent at what they do. They don't appreciate those offers because they don't like that type of culture and don't want to be a part of it.

There is another reason to consider the problematic nature of engaging a poaching strategy that is best illustrated by a great scene in the move A beautiful Mind that describes in very simple terms, the principle of governing dynamics. I believe in the region and that if we don't work together we are not going to realize our full potential. When individuals or small groups act only in their best interest and ignore the greater group everyone loses out in the long run. When individuals understand that concept and look out for the benefit of the group in addition to their own interests, both are rewarded.

Bar Scene from A Beautiful Mind

So how do we hire and retain the best? Culture. that's it. We work hard and we have all kinds of challenges just like everyone else has but at the end of the day the core group has been working together for many years. They create a critical mass of culture that is honest, engaging, challenging, open, supportive, social, and forward thinking. The 3 key attributes of the team are integrity, intelligence, and energy and the most important of those is most certainly integrity. It means a lot to me and everyone I work with and I'm sure it's the reason that core group has a trust bond that is stronger then most. 

More educated people then ever are leaving this region and it's a trend that continues to worsen. Divisive strategies like poaching will not help foster a community of collaboration. I hear a lot of talk about how we need to hire and train people who come out of the great post secondary educational facilities that we are so very fortunate to have here in the region. Why not put our combined efforts and resources into that as a strategy for us in the greater tech community to benefit from as a whole?