When a Competitor Poaches Our Talent

A direct competitor has been aggressively recruiting our mid-senior engineers. Three offers landed in the past two weeks, all with 25-30% base salary increases.

HR and the CTO convened an emergency retention review. We confirmed that our leveling framework lagged market by 8-12% in the affected bands.

The leadership team approved an out-of-cycle adjustment for 47 critical employees, effective next pay period. Individual conversations will accompany each raise.

Longer term, we are rebuilding our engineering ladder, adding quarterly market benchmarks, and reinforcing culture investments. Compensation is necessary but never sufficient on its own.