A clothing retail company with three locations in a popular beach resort area has been in business for over three years. There are two similar retailers in the same beach town competing for the same customers and labor pool.
Recently the company has had extensive growth due to a new clothing design. Despite the growth in sales, their turnover is high. Employees do not stay longer than 90 days, as the competition is enticing sales staff away. Turnover is now affecting their customer satisfaction and increasing the workload on the remaining staff.
Most of the management staff started as sales floor employees and received little to no management training. One of the key criteria used in promoting staff is their success on the sales floor, leading to complaints of internal selection unfairness.
Recent exit interviews suggest low morale, poor leadership, and lack of work/life balance as the top three reasons for leaving the company. Knowing that there are plans to launch two new product lines in the near future, the CEO has asked the HR director to search and find a new supplier to provide new employee orientation for all new sales staff. Twenty companies have submitted requests for proposals, and the CEO wants a short list to be presented in the next two days.
An applicant from a local competitor has offered to give the HR director information on the previous employer's salary and benefits upon hire. What action should the HR director take in response to this offer?