Counter Offers
Should you accept a Counter Offer?
It is a sobering statistic that 80% of people who accept a counter offer will not be with their current employer in six months and 93% will not be with them in eighteen months’ time. This is because they will have subsequently realised why they were leaving in the first place and resigned again, chosen to move on, or worse still, been moved on by their current employer.
Changing jobs is always stressful, but don't lose sight of why you initially decided to move on. Being persuaded to stay by your existing employer is flattering and a well-structured counter offer should address all of the reasons why you wanted to leave. Counter offers seldom address the reasons why you decided to leave in the first place, but let's assume that it does, is that enough? Instead of considering the counter offer from your own perspective, consider what the employer is doing. When you tendered your notice you presented them with several problems. Replacing you will be expensive, you may take business away and your departure may have a knock on effect on the rest of the team. The employer's first reaction will be how do we stop this person leaving now, closely followed by let's get a replacement as soon as possible. This could be irrespective of whether you leave or not as the employer will not want to risk having their business jeopardised in the future by a disloyal member of staff.
Will your original reasons for leaving really be addressed by the counter offer?
|
Reason for Leaving |
Counter Offer |
Consequence |
|
Higher Salary |
Increased Salary |
Salary often isn’t the primary reason for leaving so should it be the primary reason to stay? |
|
Overlooked for Promotion |
Promotion Available |
If the employer thought you should have been promoted why haven’t they suggested this until now? |
|
Quality of Work |
Offered Better Quality of Work |
Can your employer really guarantee this? If they reassign work from another member of the team will this be permanent or a short term fix to their staffing issue? |
|
Relationships with Superiors and Co-workers |
These Issues will be Resolved |
Why have these issues never been addressed before? Can they really be resolved? |
|
New Challenge |
Promise of New Challenges |
Are these really new challenges or are they just being repackaged to look more attractive? |
|
Reduced hours / more flexibility/ better work life balance |
Promise of Better Conditions |
Will this be a long term change or will the original issues resurface once you have rejected the offer, how sustainable will it be for you to be given preferential treatment in favour of other co-workers? |
In addition to looking at the detail of the counter offer it is important to consider how your career may be affected if you choose to stay. Will you be regarded as someone who could resign again in the near future? You have demonstrated that you may no longer be loyal to your employer, so will other loyal employees be promoted or offered more interesting challenges? How will your colleagues view you?
Hopefully you will be reading this before you hand in your notice. Please consider any counter offer very carefully as statistics have proven it may not be as good as it seems!