Counter offers

Should you stay, or should you go?

Congratulations! You have just secured a new job offer but your looming resignation means you may have concerns that your current employer won’t let you go without a fight. Deciding to stay or go will certainly have an impact on your career – the team at West Recruitment have put together some points to consider when navigating a counter offer.

Counter offers

Should you stay, or should you go?

Congratulations! You have just secured a new job offer but your looming resignation means you may have concerns that your current employer won’t let you go without a fight. Deciding to stay or go will certainly have an impact on your career – the team at West Recruitment have put together some points to consider when navigating a counter offer.

Why do we get counter offers?

It’s easy for employers to assume that all their employees are happy. It’s easy for them to become complacent and not have the conversation with you about a pay rise/career structure/benefits/anything else that might be bothering you unless you bring it up. However, business is business and retaining staff should be something that employers actively focus on. The statistics are clear: it costs a lot more to hire someone new than it does to retain existing staff on a slightly higher salary. Not to mention, the time lost in a new recruitment process, onboarding, and getting someone new trained up is a huge loss of productivity for the business,

especially when the employee has a wide impact on the business. In addition to that, the market is increasingly becoming candidate-led due to a limited talent pool, which makes it harder still to hire the right someone with the relevant experience and skill set. At least 50% of candidates receive counter offers and if you have had a positive tenure with a business then you should no doubt expect one. With the threat of The Great Resignation looming this will undoubtedly become very commonplace as the fight for talent is stronger than ever. Given the likelihood, it’s worth thinking about how you would feel about a counter offer, so any 11th hour appeal doesn’t come as a surprise. 

Why do people accept counter offers? 

The long and short of it is that it’s just easier. You don’t have to go through the effort of moving and settling in at a new company. You don’t have to socialise with your new work colleagues to make new friends, build credibility and above all by staying you would be doing the same job you have always done at your company but getting paid more for it.

Humans are creatures of habit and change can look daunting when it’s staring you in the face. If we can stick to something we know, without having to go through the possible, some might say inevitable, stress of moving to a new company, then why wouldn’t we? 

Ask yourself the following:

→ Why were you looking for a new job in the first place? 


→ What were the reasons you picked up the phone to your recruitment consultant or applied to that great looking role online?


→ Why did you even entertain moving if you are happy at your current employer? Are you really challenged?


→ Have you hit your ceiling in terms of progression?


→ Do you get on with your manager and/or team? 

As the saying goes, "change is as good as a holiday"

Let's weigh up your options:

Sure, there are some benefits...

→ You don’t have to go through the newbie phase and spend time building & establishing new relationships.


→ Better the devil you know. You don’t have to go through the stress of moving companies.


→ Your pay goes up, so if you handed your notice in just to get a pay rise or new, then, yes, you are winning.


→ You may get presented with a new opportunity or project internally instead of a pay rise which may or may not, be the extra workload you are looking for?


Summary

There is no-one who knows your current work situation better than you, so of course ultimately the decision is yours. But before jumping in to accept a counter offer, you should think long and hard about exactly what you want. Think back to the reasons why you started looking in the first place. Are those reasons miraculously going to go away or get better if you are paid more? Would you have even started job searching if you thought it could get better? Think of your career and where you want to be in the next few years and how you are more likely to achieve that - by staying put, or by moving to a new company with different growth/career opportunities? Consider all the above – perhaps

make your own list of your own pros and cons before taking or declining any counter offer.

It could mean the difference between sinking or swimming in your career or even passing up a terrific opportunity that won’t be around 6-12 months down the track when you inevitably decide to make a move and as the saying goes – ‘there is no reward without risk’. If you need more information to aid your decision making, don’t be afraid to ask.

Your recruitment consultant can certainly act on your behalf to seek further clarification and teeing up a final informal coffee or chat is recommended if you have any remaining queries.

Summary

There is no-one who knows your current work situation better than you, so of course ultimately the decision is yours. But before jumping in to accept a counter offer, you should think long and hard about exactly what you want. Think back to the reasons why you started looking in the first place. Are those reasons miraculously going to go away or get better if you are paid more? Would you have even started job searching if you thought it could get better? Think of your career and where you want to be in the next few years and how you are more likely to achieve that - by staying put, or by moving to a new company with different growth/career opportunities? Consider all the above – perhaps

make your own list of your own pros and cons before taking or declining any counter offer.

It could mean the difference between sinking or swimming in your career or even passing up a terrific opportunity that won’t be around 6-12 months down the track when you inevitably decide to make a move and as the saying goes – ‘there is no reward without risk’. If you need more information to aid your decision making, don’t be afraid to ask.

Your recruitment consultant can certainly act on your behalf to seek further clarification and teeing up a final informal coffee or chat is recommended if you have any remaining queries.

The importance of work / life balance in the right role