Employees = A Company's Achilles Heel?
Well, today we read an article, from the National Post, which put a new spin on a company’s most important asset. The opening line of the article was “every employer has one overriding Achilles heel – its people. Wait did we read that correctly? Surely, they meant to say that a company’s greatest asset is its employees?
We read on.
“A company’s key asset is its relationships and usually these are “owned” by a few people either at the top or in sales. These assets have legs and if they walk, the business quickly follows. To protect themselves, many companies require key employees to sign non-competition, non solicitation and confidentiality provisions. But few non competition clauses are enforced by the courts.”The author, Horward Levitt, then asks: but without such clauses what protection do companies have? He then goes on to discuss what employers can do to protect themselves. For example:
1. If non-competition clauses are necessary, ensure they are narrowly circumscribed in time and geographic area.
2. Ensure employees execute confidentiality agreements and are reminded of their obligation.
3. Quickly contact customers serviced by departing employees.
His list goes on…
We wonder why Mr. Levitt failed to provide companies with strategies on how to keep their employees versus how to protect their relationships when their Achilles heels “walked out the door”. We think that referring to employees as the “Achilles heel” is not the best method of attracting and retaining key talent.
What do you think?