# Employee poaching

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Employee recruiting practice

**Employee poaching** is an informal term for the practice of offering employment to a worker who is currently employed under another employer in a similar field.

The practice of hiring an employee in this way is a protected legal right in the United States, but can prompt accusations from the original employer for unrelated breaches of trust, such as violating non-compete agreements, or stealing trade secrets.[1] Employee poaching for the purposes of stealing trade secrets is illegal.[2]

Ethical and legal dilemmas over employee poaching arise from the conflict of interests between an employee's right to free access to the labour market, and an employer's right to protect knowledge and skills which it regards as company property.[3]

Employers may attempt to prevent "employee poaching" by inserting [non-compete clauses](/source/Non-compete_clause) into employment contracts.[4] However, beginning in 2024 within the United States, the [FTC](/source/Federal_Trade_Commission) has enacted a broad federal ban on non-compete clauses, rendering them unenforceable outside of narrow circumstances.[5]

## See also

- [Antipoaching](/source/Antipoaching)

- [Trade secrets](/source/Trade_secrets)

- [Unfair competition](/source/Unfair_competition)

- [Union raid](/source/Union_raid)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Houston Employee Poaching Lawyers"](https://www.hchlawyers.com/business-litigation/employee-poaching/). *Hendershot Cowart P.C*. Retrieved 27 January 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Musco, Wendy (10 December 2001). ["WHEN IS RAIDING A COMPETITOR'S EMPLOYEES ILLEGAL?"](https://mccandlishlawyers.com/when-is-raiding-a-competitors-employees-illegal/). *McCandlish Lillard Law Firm*. Retrieved 27 January 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Employee Raiding: What are a Company's Rights?"](http://www.kkrlaw.com/changes/employeeraiding.htm). *www.kkrlaw.com*. Retrieved 27 January 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Anti-Raiding Agreements | Chicago Restrictive Covenant Lawyers"](https://www.thebusinesslitigators.com/anti-raiding-agreements.html). *www.thebusinesslitigators.com*. Retrieved 27 January 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FTC_rule_5-0)** ["FTC announces rule banning non-compete clauses"](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes). *ftc.gov*. Federal Trade Commission. Retrieved 24 March 2025.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Employee poaching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_poaching) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_poaching?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.