Why A Counter Offer Can Be Counter Productive

It has happened to all of us at one time or another. We think everything is going swimmingly and then bam! In comes a counter offer from our candidate’s current employer.

Experienced recruiters know that it is a defensive strategy and longer term our candidates will come back to us. Unfortunately our candidates don’t have our wider experience of recruitment and rarely look further than the new offer from their current employer.

Struggling with how to approach this with candidates? Here you go we got our heads together at GSR2R and came up with a few suggestions for you.

Tell them to be wary

If their current employer tries to persuade them from moving by making an offer they can’t refuse (such as a pay rise or a promotion), tell them to be careful: it may not always be as fantastic as it sounds. Give them the facts that counter offers can go awry and often don’t work out quite how the candidate thought they would. So here is some sound advice to pass on to candidates who are dithering about a counter offer.

Counter Offers Are a Defensive Strategy

The first thing that you need to make your candidates think about when it comes to accepting a counter offer is the timing. A counter offer might make them feel important again; but if they were so highly valued then why did their employer wait till now to make them an offer?

The truth you need to convey is that a counter is a defensive strategy to prevent them from leaving at the wrong moment.

Remind them that the counter offer is made with the company’s best interests in mind rather than your candidates. Help them think through this logically. If their employer was so keen for them to stay they would have taken steps to make sure you they were happy in their job before they made the decision to leave.

Their Employer’s Opinion of Them Will Change

Once your candidate has declared their intention to leave; relationships will change. It is a fact of business life. Even if they stay as a result of the offer their employer is unlikely to change things so much that their job satisfaction goes up significantly. What often happens is that their employer now doubts their commitment to the organisation in general; not great for career development at all.

Their Reputation Is Their Best asset

Business is business and it is useful to remind candidates that though current employers might be disappointed to see a good employee go they also know that sometimes people have to move to get the position and career path they want.

Think It Through

Here is something that at GSR2R we often share with candidates who are unsure about moving. When it comes to counter offers follow your gut instinct. It is usually correct.

Tell your candidates that this is the time it’s a good idea to write a few notes down. Grab a piece of paper and write out three columns.  At the top of each write the following, positive, negative, why did I want to move? Then take themselves to a quiet place where they won’t be disturbed by anyone and think. Take some time and let the answers flow.

This will help them think through what is going on. With the flattery of a couple of offers on the table it can be a challenge to remember why they wanted to move in the first place.

As a rule human beings are slow to change unless they have a good reason. To have taken action and got all the way to an offer stage there must have been a compelling reason why they.

Till next time,

Cheryl