How can a business prevent an employee from stealing trade secrets when the employee leaves the company?
It is impossible to prevent all trade secret theft by employees, but an employer has some tools at its disposal, including: • requiring employees, when they are hired the company, to sign non-competition agreements which prohibits the employees from using confidential business information or product innovations to compete with the employer in a new job; • conducting exit interviews with departing employees to remind them of their duty to keep trade secrets confidential; • educating employees about the importance of confidentiality of trade secrets; • limiting access to confidential information to those who need to know the information; and • using computer passwords to access confidential files.
