John C.C. Sanders, founding partner with Winston & Strawn.
The global pandemic caused seismic shifts in the way that people work, with more employees than ever working from home. The pandemic also caused employees to hunker down at their current jobs and not hunt for opportunities at other employers. With the rollout of vaccines and the coming end to the pandemic, there will certainly be increased movement of employees, perhaps unprecedented movement. While the loss of a key employee to a competitor poses serious risks to businesses that rely upon proprietary information to give them a competitive edge, that risk is exponentially amplified when businesses have relaxed their security protocols to allow employees to more easily work from home. Now, employers must double down on the enforcement of security protocols if they hope to protect their trade secrets when—not if—the lateral market improves and employees begin to pursue other options.
