Counter Offers

You have an offer on the table.  This is all simple enough until your current employer presents you with a counter offer – and a very attractive one at that.  What do you do then?

Although each situation is unique, it is generally acknowledged that accepting a counter offer is NOT a good idea.

Why?

Replacing an employee is costly.  The recruitment and training of new employees are expensive – both from a time and financial perspective and consequently, many counter offers are made in the heat of the moment, when companies are suddenly faced with the potential loss of a valuable employee and no one to fill your shoes right away.  The immediate and short term solution is to do whatever it takes to retain you and with that, the counter offer is produced.  However, the long term strategy might well suddenly no longer include you, you have become a risky long term option, someone they are unlikely to invest in.  You will always be ‘the one who wanted to leave’ and the accepted figure within the recruitment industry is that between 70 – 80% of employees who accept counter offers leave within 12 months.

You chose to look for a position outside the company for a reason, maybe more than one reason.  Does the counter offer address these concerns?  Or at the end of the day, are you going to find yourself facing the same frustrations and limitations that made you look elsewhere in the first place?  A counter offer is not going to change either your work environment or the company’s ethos – those underlying issues will remain and will be there waiting for you every single day when you arrive at work.

And what about your anticipated increases?  Will they continue to materialise if you accept the counter offer or will your counter offer increase hang over your head in perpetuity?  You jumped the queue increase-wise by what might be seen as blackmail and now you want another raise??

Another question you might want to ask yourself is this – why did it take the threat of resignation to get the perks and increase in your counter offer?  If they feel that you are worth this now, why was it not given to you before you resigned?

And finally – what about the company you had planned to move to?  Where have you left them?  What happens when you really do leave your current company – do you think that they’ll consider your application?  And presumably, this is a company that you had decided you would like to work for.

Some counter offers do work out in the long term – however, these are the exceptions.  Before you enter the job market, be very clear in your own mind about why you are doing so.  If you feel that you need to move, chances are, you need to move.