How does Mercedes protect their development plans/ideas when haemorrhaging staff?

[SuperCNJ]

Not sure if this has been discussed before, but with more and more key PU staff leaving Merc for Red Bull, I'm just wondering how does Mercedes stop the staff from handing their secrets and planned innovation/technology over to RB? And will it severely hamper their 2022 car development?

[Greg Locock]

Handing over IP to your new employer is a bit of a career-ender when it becomes public. Admittedly, using stuff you've learned is not quite the same.

[Skippon]

Possibly - but engineers cannot unlearn what they know. Further it is not only what they know but the process they bring with them that bakes in reliability and performance/innovation culture.

[214270]

By iterating and bringing new innovations. Easier said than done, I know; but you can’t in any meaningful way prevent transfer in this arena.

Hence Wolffs tactics; attempt to keep said staff or ensure the competition overpays for the talent. That’s the game right now.

[Big Tea]

Knowing how to do something, why you are doing it, and where it fits in with what everyone else is doing now and for the future is probably only in the hands of very few people.
There has always been a revolving door with this sort of thing, and would always be in the mind of an incoming person that at some point the shoe will be on the other foot, and they may even want to go back to the place they just left, so not only would they keep this in mind, but probably so would the employer for the same reasons.

You would not ask an auditor about a previous company and expect a reply, integrity has to be respected by both sides. Knowledge and skills however is the property of the person to use as they see fit, which is why they get the job.

[SuperCNJ]

Seems like it's not really possible to prevent some secrets from leaking out with the staff. I would have thought there would be an extended period of gardening leave or clause in their contracts that stop them from working for a competitor or something.

[Hoffman900]

Most industries are like this, especially something as niche as Formula 1. The joke in my field is "same faces, different acronyms". The moral of the story is you can't stop them from taking secrets, they can take ideas, but they usually can't just rip off the design exactly. That's property of your employer. Often times here (in the States), to get a decent pay raise and / or a promotion , you have to jump ship. In the engineering consulting world, most only have a 3-5yr tenure before moving.

I also wouldn't call 6 people leaving from a 1000 person org "hemorrhaging" staff. I be their turn over is pretty high across all departments, except a few key positions, and it's that way for all the manufacturers. I'd be the average tenure is 3-ish years for most employees, before they want more of a 9-5 as they get older, get married, have children, etc.

[adrianjordan]

Not sure if this has been discussed before, but with more and more key PU staff leaving Merc for Red Bull, I'm just wondering how does Mercedes stop the staff from handing their secrets and planned innovation/technology over to RB? And will it severely hamper their 2022 car development?

Who are the "key PU staff" that have left??

[dans79]

By iterating and bringing new innovations. Easier said than done, I know; but you can’t in any meaningful way prevent transfer in this arena.

Yep, a company i worked for over a decade ago was that way. Even though we had patentable technology, it was company policy to not waste time with patens, and just keep developing new stuff.

[SuperCNJ]

I also wouldn't call 6 people leaving from a 1000 person org "hemorrhaging" staff. I be their turn over is pretty high across all departments, except a few key positions, and it's that way for all the manufacturers. I'd be the average tenure is 3-ish years for most employees, before they want more of a 9-5 as they get older, get married, have children, etc.

I think Toto said RB approached 100 staff members and managed to get 15 so far? I agree that people will come and go all the time and it happens to any team, but when you have people leaving at the same time from the same part of the organisation then I guess there will be some impact.

[PlatinumZealot]

The same way Honda has an agreement with RedBull to protect their IP form VW or whoever it will be partnering RedBull for the 2025 engines.

[NL_Fer]

Eventually the competitor will find out a similar solution or technology. It is about keeping the advantage over the others and prevent the leaving staff from taking any developments which are still under development for future use.

[Jolle]

I think the best example of this in recent history was the double diffuser that went from Honda to Williams and Toyota trough employees switching teams. They take with them the general ideas and “big stuff”. Bit like Adrian Newey’s cars even between different teams mark some resemblance.
It’s not done to take any kind of drawings, code or materials with you.
Switching employees could have been a problem in the early stages of the split turbo development, it’s not something that you need a tech drawing of to copy it, just a new engineer in a meeting presenting with jazz hands “wait for it boys and girls.. what about… spit… turbo..”. As development now is many years further, it’s nice to know that a certain casing thickness is 2.05 mm, but not important in their own design.

[djones]

To be honest I don't even understand why they don't have people under non-compete clauses.

In the UK you can now legally enforce a non-compete agreement. Why do the contracts of these staff not say you can't go to a competitor for 12 months after your leave date etc.

[Big Tea]

To be honest I don't even understand why they don't have people under non-compete clauses.

In the UK you can now legally enforce a non-compete agreement. Why do the contracts of these staff not say you can't go to a competitor for 12 months after your leave date etc.

Probably because the same people would probably be applying for jobs there at some later date and wish to remain on good terms