Counter offers

FACT – Good employers will never offer them and smart employees never accept them.

First of all, take time to note down the reasons why you wanted to leave your current company, these may be based on recent events, frustrated career or may have been driven by influences over the past 12 months. Then write down all the ways in which the new role will meet those problems and indeed how it will improve your life.

Prepare yourself for the counter offer and be aware of the too little too late approach. Ask yourself why they can offer improvements now you are leaving, but could not a week ago or at your last appraisal. Often counter offers are driven by desperation, lack sincerity, often promises of future promotion and rewards that do not materialise. Refer back to your planning notes and remind yourself why you are leaving and what benefits the new position offers.


Reasons why your employer may counter offer

1. You might be one of the top performers – how are they going to reach their goals without you?
2. They may consider keeping you for the short term until they find your replacement before making your role untenable forcing you to eventually leave anyhow
3. They may be wondering how your resignation will affect them – how will it look to the board, yet another resignation!
4. They may want you to finish a project or tender process that you’ve started. Upon completion your services may no longer be required!
5. Recruiting is time consuming and expensive – do they have the time and the budget at this point to recruit and train a new employee?

Making the decision

There is rarely a good reason to accept a counter-offer and stay where you are. You wanted to move, you’ve been through the recruitment process, you’ve been successful and you have won a job that meets your criteria. Think about these factors:

• From the day of your resignation, your loyalty may be questioned
• This lack of loyalty is likely to be an obstacle to future promotions
• Your colleagues will look at you differently – after all, you don’t really want to be there do you?
• Your boss will probably start casting around for your replacement immediately – whether you stay or not
• Has the real reason you resigned been adequately addressed?
• Would the company think twice about getting shot of you if the company had problems?

Staying Put

This is probably the harder decision of the two, if the internal opportunity looks genuine.

You will hear most recruiters tend to advise candidates not to accept a counter offer, just to get the placement in and hit their targets! However - over my 18yrs in recruitment, there has been the rare occasion where a company has counter-offered an employee with an opportunity that is just too good to turn down. This could be an immediate promotion to the next level, a completely new role within the team or a move to another part of the business in a new division. If this is presented to you, ask for evidence that this was in their plans prior to your resignation and is not just a "knee-jerk" reaction. If they can show this and salary/remuneration reflects your progression AND the new opportunity betters the external opportunity you've just interviewed for - then it may just be the case that it's the right option for you. If they are unable to prove this was in their plans prior to you resigning and they can't put a date on when the new role will start - be very careful!