As a recruiter, I speak daily to many candidates to discuss their motivations for leaving businesses and seeking new job opportunities. There are some common reasons why people seek new roles either actively or passively in the marketplace.

These can include:

• Feeling underpaid or underappreciated
• Bad management
• Not enjoying the work culture
• No progression opportunities
• Changes to the job role promised

As a candidate, many of these things are out of your control to change, so would accepting a counteroffer from your current employer make these issues disappear?

As an employer, have you made the changes that are going to make a difference to your employees to fix the reason why they are unhappy and are seeking a new role? The likely answer to this question is no.

Counteroffers are seen by many within the industry as a short-term solution to long-term underlying problems within a business, and statistics show that, generally, a large number of people who accept counteroffers are likely to leave the business within 12 months anyway.

There are several reasons why, as a candidate, a counteroffer may not bring you what you’re seeking for your career:

• Nothing changes except your salary – you still have all the stress and issues that were there before. You’re just paid a little extra to deal with them. Things make change in time but it won’t happen overnight.
• Have you been paid what you are worth? – If an employer is only willing to raise your salary when you inform them you’re leaving, then in all likelihood, they haven’t appreciated you and your efforts in the role until it looks like they’ll lose you.
• Handing in of your notice could mean that you’ve broken the trust of your current employer which may mean they will question if you’re the right person to progress within their business.
• Your current employer perhaps doesn’t see you through the same eyes as your potential future employer. Your future employer sees the potential for growing your skills which will likely lead the way for further progression.

As an employer, we see panic when an employee hands in their notice. This is when we would generally see a counteroffer take place. Much like the reasons a counteroffer is not always successful for a candidate, there are multiple reasons why they don’t work for employers also:

• An employee’s reason for leaving is not always related to their salary – while the offer of extra money may keep them happy in the short term, this is likely not going to be a long-term solution.
• Making a counteroffer can set a precedent – it may create a culture where employees feel that they have to threaten to resign to get a pay increase. This creates a negative impact on both the business and, essentially, the revenue it brings in
• Counteroffers accepted to stay in role can make employees feel that they’re there for “the money” not because they genuinely want to be there. Lack of motivation will impact performance and, essentially, their success.

Whilst there are occasions where I have seen counteroffers work successfully, they tend to be few and far between. Which ponders the question – Do counteroffers work?

By Kay Ritchie, Animal Health & Pet Business Unit Team Leader