Companies go to great lengths to keep some employees from leaving to work for rivals. Aside from offering benefits, they often rely on non-competes, trade secret protection and other legal means to avoid losing important talent and letting knowledge get into the hands of competitors. But our research suggests that companies might actually benefit from certain employees going to work for others in the same space.
The Upside of Losing Innovative Employees to Competitors
A study of pharmaceutical firms finds that it leads to valuable collaborations.
July 02, 2019
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Summary.
Companies go to great lengths to keep some employees from leaving to work for rivals. Aside from offering benefits, they often rely on non-competes, trade secret protection and other legal means to avoid losing important talent and letting knowledge get into the hands of competitors. But new research suggests that companies might actually benefit from certain employees going to work for others in the same space.
In a recent study looking at R&D collaborations in pharmaceuticals, researchers found that employees can act as “bridges” and facilitate more collaborations between their past and present employers. They also found that these collaborations tend to be more productive (in terms of producing more patents), making the gains of collaborating outweigh the costs of losing talent. It seems that having people familiar with both sides can help identify valuable new opportunities and improve the negotiating process.