Don’t Be Fooled By a Counteroffer
So you’ve taken the time to search for a new job (or maybe you were wooed away) and you have gotten all dressed up and gone through one, if not multiple, interviews. The potential new company has found that you are a fit and makes you an offer. You feel it is a good fit and decide to accept. Now all that is left is notifying your current company. At this point, 90% of the work has been completed and the decision has been made…..But just as you are ready to say sayonara, you get a counteroffer. The decision should be a no-brainer, and yet for so many it is still very difficult.
Why Do People Accept Counteroffers?
1. Momentarily blinded by more money
2. Want to believe the promises that are made to them will come true
3. A known environment is less scary than an unknown environment
All of these reasons are understandable at face value, but a closer look at the facts provides a different view.
According to the National Employment Association,
• 80% of people who accept a counteroffer resign or are terminated within 6 months.
• Within 90 days of accepting a counteroffer, 50% re-start their job search.
These statistics do not paint a promising picture. Yes, you may get an increase in salary, but only short term. Most of the promises that are made to you are the reasons you decided to begin looking in the first place, and will likely not come to fruition. And the known environment, friends and colleagues you chose to stay for—once they all get wind that you resigned but ended up staying, they will immediately know that you were given some kind of “deal.” The relationships with your supervisor, other management and peers may never be the same.
Strong, well-managed companies do not make counteroffers. If their environment, culture or the job itself is not the right fit for an employee then they realize it is best for that person to move on. They will not be held hostage, so to speak, by someone threatening to leave. Companies who immediately go to a counteroffer mindset have not completed proper succession planning, and/or do not want to put forth the time to find a replacement. There is never a good time to lose an employee, but companies who look to band-aid a situation instead of face it head-on is not a company you want to accept a counteroffer from.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Sounds very correct.
Company management without succession planning & lazy enough to avoid replacement candidature search normally opt for such short-cuts to retain their employees & maintain their attrition ratio.
March 4th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
You use big words that not everybody understands. Try and speak in lay man terms for the benifit of others, who would also like to hear feedback understandable to them.
Also, for the record, we wanted a comment not a statement to simplifiy what was said into one sentence.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:07 am
I agree with Yogesh the counter offers are superficial and time gaining techniques,if an employee wants to quit for greener pastures let him try his luck.
Good companies always mantain HR reserves,which could fill in such situation.
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March 21st, 2010 at 2:06 pm
I’m just amazed of the statistics! The article seems to me like a very good tip to consider when a situation like the one descripted eventually occurs to me. Thanks from Argentina for the advice.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:29 am
I fully agree with your statement. If any one accepts the counter offer by the current employer is a loser, however lucrative it is. Generally, employers use this technique to gain time to develop an alternate person from within or recruit a replacement. But not with real intention to retain the existing employee.
If the employee accepts the counter offer, he will lose the out side offer and further growth in the existing organisation. Hence, one has to think well before contemplating to move.
Regards
RRRao
May 4th, 2010 at 9:29 am
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