Over six years ago, I received a call from a distraught firm. In the course of a week, every single employee in their company had resigned. They were a technology consulting firm at the threshold of the tech boom. They spent time, energy, and quite a bit of training dollars on these people, to then have them recruited out so quickly, befuddled them. I agreed to meet with the business owners the next week to discuss strategies and options.

Before the meeting, I decided to do some research and visited the company's web site. That is where I hit the mother load! I clicked the "about us" link, and what did I find? Information - lots of it, too much. The company listed the names of every employee, their bios, direct dial and cell phone numbers, e-mail, and had a lovely picture so that everyone could see the faces of all their staff members. Aha!

So what had they done? In their attempt to provide their clients easy access to their employees, they gave too much information to headhunters, who then swept the employees away to their competitors.

What does this mean? Should you eliminate all employee information from your web site? No, not necessarily. I list information about my staff on my web site. If I didn't, potential clients might believe that my company is a one-person shop. However, I am saying that all companies need to understand that individuals looking to exploit your company and its resources, (i.e. employees) will most likely read your web site.

For example, years ago finding technology people was a tricky game. Today, not so. However, other fields, like accounting, have become very hard when looking to find quality people. As I did a random search on the Internet, I found a number of accounting firms listing very detailed information about their staff on their web sites. Dangerous? Maybe.

Of course, the practical person in me will tell you that if someone is unhappy, he or she will leave eventually. But, what if that person wasn't truly unhappy? Just simply lured by the promise of greater riches. Not to mention, why make it easy to steal your people?

Thoughts for the New Year.

Eileen Levitt, SPHR is our Vault recruiting expert and president of The HR Team, Inc. in Columbia, MD. She can be reached at (410) 995-5257 or elevitt@thehrteam.com. Keep up with human resources trends and issues, subscribe to "The Team Player," The HR Team's free monthly newsletter. Just click the link to send a subscription email: team-player@aweber.com.