How to Poach Candidates from Competitors (Ethically and Legally)

Let's be honest: the best candidates for your open roles are already working for your competitors.

They understand your industry, your customers, your technical challenges. They have exactly the skills and experience you need. And according to LinkedIn's 2025 Talent Trends Report, 73% of employed professionals are open to hearing about new opportunities even when they're not actively job searching.

So yeah, you should be recruiting from competitors. But there's a right way to do it—and a wrong way that can get you sued, damage your reputation, and burn bridges you might need later.

Here's the playbook.

What's Legal (And What's Not)

First, let's clear up the legal stuff because this matters.

According to employment attorneys interviewed by SHRM and research from Littler Mendelson, here's what you need to know:

✅ Legal and Ethical:

• Reaching out to competitor employees on LinkedIn or other public platforms
• Posting jobs that competitor employees might see and apply to
• Recruiting people you know from previous jobs at competitor companies
• Offering better compensation, benefits, or opportunities to attract talent
• Hiring employees who voluntarily resign from competitors

❌ Illegal or Unethical:

• Encouraging employees to violate non-compete agreements (varies by state—California bans most non-competes, other states enforce them)
• Asking candidates to bring confidential information from their current employer
• Systematic "raid hiring" of entire teams designed to cripple a competitor
• Collusion with other companies to limit recruiting (wage-fixing or no-poach agreements)
• Making false promises about roles, compensation, or company stability to lure candidates

Bottom line: You can recruit individuals based on merit and opportunity. You can't orchestrate mass defections or encourage theft of trade secrets.

The "Don't Be a Jerk" Rules

Beyond legal compliance, there are ethical guidelines that separate professional recruiters from shady operators.

Harvard Business Review's research on recruiting ethics emphasizes several principles:

1. Be Transparent

Don't pretend you're not a recruiter. Don't pretend you're reaching out for "networking" when you're actually recruiting. Be upfront about why you're contacting them.

Bad approach: "Hey, I'd love to pick your brain about the industry over coffee!"

Good approach: "Hey, I'm recruiting for [Role] at [Company] and your background at [Competitor] caught my attention. Would you be open to a conversation?"

2. Don't Trash Their Current Employer

Even if you know their company is a dumpster fire, don't badmouth it. Focus on what's great about YOUR opportunity, not what sucks about theirs.

Bad approach: "I heard [Competitor] is doing layoffs and treating employees terribly. You should jump ship!"

Good approach: "We're growing our team and think your experience could translate really well to what we're building."

3. Respect Non-Competes (Where They Exist)

If a candidate mentions they have a non-compete, don't encourage them to ignore it. Non-competes are enforceable in many states and violating them can create legal liability for both the candidate and your company.

What to do: Consult your legal team if a strong candidate has a non-compete. Sometimes they're narrower than they appear, or there are workarounds (different role, different territory, waiting period).

How to Find Competitor Employees

The most effective sourcing strategies for competitive recruiting:

Strategy #1: LinkedIn Boolean Search

Use targeted LinkedIn searches to find people with your competitor's name in their current experience:

Search string example:

"Software Engineer" AND "currentcompany:[Competitor Name]" AND "Python" AND "5 years"

LinkedIn Recruiter makes this easier with filters for current company, years of experience, and skills.

Pro tip: Look for people who recently joined the competitor (less than 12 months). According to Jobvite's research, employees in their first year at a company are 3x more likely to consider new opportunities than those who've been there 2+ years.

Strategy #2: Conference and Event Attendees

Your competitors' employees attend the same industry conferences you do. Research from Bizzabo shows that 67% of professionals are open to job conversations at conferences.

How to use this:

• Check conference speaker lists and attendee directories
• Attend talks given by competitor employees
• Network at receptions and after-parties
• Follow up with LinkedIn connections post-conference

Strategy #3: GitHub and Open Source Contributions

For technical roles, GitHub is a goldmine. Search for repositories owned by your competitor or contributions from developers who list your competitor as their employer.

Why this works: You can see their actual code quality, communication style, and technical expertise before you even reach out.

Strategy #4: Employee Referrals from Former Competitor Employees

Your best source? People who used to work at the competitor and now work for you.

According to iCIMS research, referrals from former competitor employees have:

• 5x higher conversion rates than cold outreach
• 40% faster time-to-hire because they already know the culture fit
• Higher retention because the referrer vouches for both sides

How to activate this: Ask new hires from competitors to recommend top performers from their previous teams after they've been with you for 3-6 months.

The Outreach Approach That Works

So you've identified someone at a competitor. Now what?

Based on Gem's recruiting best practices guide and analysis from Lever, here's what works:

The Subject Line

Be direct and reference the competitor connection:

Examples:

• "Fellow [Competitor] alum here - [Company] [Role]"
• "[Role] at [Company] - relevant to your [Competitor] experience"
• "[Mutual connection] suggested I reach out about [Role]"

The Message Structure

Paragraph 1: Who you are, why you're reaching out

• "I'm recruiting for [Role] at [Company]. I saw your background at [Competitor] and thought this might be relevant."

Paragraph 2: Why their specific experience matters

• "Your work on [specific project/technology] aligns perfectly with what we're building. We're focused on [specific challenge] and need someone with deep experience in [their specialty]."

Paragraph 3: The value proposition

• "We're offering [specific benefits]: [remote work/equity/leadership opportunity/whatever is most compelling]. Would you be open to a 15-minute conversation to learn more?"

Keep it under 150 words. Research from Yesware shows emails under 125 words get 50% higher response rates than longer ones.

The Conversation Strategy

You got a response. They're willing to chat. Now you need to move them from "passively interested" to "actively interviewing."

According to Greenhouse's candidate engagement research, the key is addressing the real reasons people leave competitors:

What Competitor Employees Actually Want:

Based on LinkedIn's Why People Change Jobs report:

1. Career growth (48%) - They feel stuck or see no path to promotion
2. Compensation (42%) - They're underpaid relative to market
3. Better manager/team (35%) - Their current manager is the reason they're looking
4. More interesting work (32%) - They're bored or unchallenged
5. Mission/values alignment (28%) - They don't believe in what the company is doing

Your job: Figure out which of these motivates your candidate and position your opportunity accordingly.

The Questions That Uncover Motivation:

• "What's going well in your current role?"
• "If you could change one thing about your current situation, what would it be?"
• "What would make you excited enough to consider leaving [Competitor]?"
• "What does your ideal next career move look like?"

Don't pitch until you understand what they care about. Then tailor your pitch to those specific motivations.

The Offer Strategy

You've made it through interviews. Now you need to get them to actually accept your offer over their current role.

The Counteroffer Problem

Research from Robert Half shows that 57% of candidates who resign receive counteroffers from their current employer. And 38% of those accept the counteroffer and stay.

You need to get ahead of this.

During the interview process:

Ask: "If you were to resign from [Competitor], do you think they'd make a counteroffer? How would you think about that?"

This plants the seed that counteroffers are expected and forces them to think through their decision before it happens.

When extending your offer:

Be generous and move fast. Don't lowball. Don't drag out negotiations.

According to Lever's offer acceptance research, offers extended within 48 hours of final interviews have 23% higher acceptance rates than those that take a week.

After they accept:

Stay in touch during the notice period. Send them articles about the company, introduce them to future teammates, get them excited about starting.

Greenhouse research shows that 18% of accepted offers fall through during the notice period, often because of counteroffers or cold feet. Don't let them get lonely.

The Ethical Line You Can't Cross

Here's where recruiters sometimes get sleazy: encouraging candidates to bring proprietary information from their competitor.

Never do this. Ever.

Don't ask them to:

• Share customer lists
• Bring product roadmaps or strategy documents
• Forward internal emails or Slack conversations
• Provide competitive intelligence beyond what's public knowledge

According to the Economic Espionage Act and various state laws, soliciting trade secrets can result in criminal charges. And even if it's not criminal, it's unethical and will destroy your reputation.

What you CAN do: Hire people for the skills and knowledge in their heads. What you CAN'T do: Ask them to steal documents or data.

The Bottom Line

Recruiting from competitors is fair game. It's how talent markets work. The best people move between companies, bringing skills and fresh perspectives.

But do it right:

• Be transparent about your intentions
• Respect legal boundaries (non-competes, trade secrets)
• Focus on what you're offering, not what their current employer lacks
• Move fast and be generous when you find the right person

And remember: today's competitor employee is tomorrow's colleague. Treat them with the respect and professionalism you'd want if the situation were reversed.

Happy (ethical) poaching.

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Sources:

• LinkedIn Talent Trends Report
• SHRM Employment Law Resources
• Littler Mendelson Legal Research
• Harvard Business Review Recruiting Ethics
• U.S. Department of Labor
• LinkedIn Recruiter
• Jobvite Research
• Bizzabo Event Research
• GitHub
• iCIMS Recruiting Research
• Gem Best Practices Guide
• Lever Recruiting Research
• Yesware Email Research
• Greenhouse Candidate Engagement Research
• Robert Half Research
• Economic Espionage Act - U.S. Department of Justice