Companies: Don't make counteroffers! (Do this instead.)
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Companies: Don't make counteroffers! (Do this instead.)

Companies willing to make counter offers to employees who have resigned need to stop and rethink their approach.

I had lunch with a friend recently who left his employer for a better opportunity. He told me that when he resigned, the company was genuinely surprised... and tried to get him to stay by making him some promises. 

"We'll give you a 10% raise!" That sounds great, right? But if the company knew he was worth more than what they were paying him, why wouldn't they just pay him what he's actually worth instead of waiting for him to resign before making an offer? A last minute pay-raise offered in desperation usually can't make up for years of stingy annual merit increases. Too little, too late.

"We'll change the reporting structure so you report to someone more senior!" Reporting structures are irrelevant; top employees want responsibility and accountability, and if your structure prevents people from feeling like owners, that's a significant challenge.

"There are a few great jobs coming up, and we promise you'll be a top candidate!" This is perhaps the most lofty promise of all, especially since they couldn't (or wouldn't) commit to anything specific. And why would any top employee turn down a great offer they have in writing for a "maybe, soon, to-be-determined" role?

Great companies don't make desperate promises.

Great companies ensure their employees are satisfied every day. They don't underpay them just because they can, they make them feel valued by offering them what they are worth in the market. (And great employees usually know what they're worth in the market.)

Great companies give employees the autonomy they need to do a great job, and recognize them appropriately when they accomplish their goals. Great managers don't micro-manage and take credit for the best ideas; they allow their teams to shine and receive the accolades they deserve for a job well-done. (Hint: if your employee is doing all of the work for a given initiative, they should be the ones presenting the fantastic results to your senior leadership team, not you.)

Great companies have ongoing dialogues with their employees about their career aspirations, and the personal development that may be needed to get there. They don't make empty promises about "future roles" (for which no specific details are available) and ask employees to have blind faith that the organization will provide for them.

Companies can continue doing what most do now: ignore the signs of discontent, act surprised when top talent resigns, then make desperate counteroffers to try and keep them.

But things can be different. And they should be.


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Maria (Mafe) Cabrera

Experienced Media & Tech Professional | Strategy Planning & Operations | Business Strategy Expertise | Driving Business Growth & Operational Excellence

7 年

Well put, great companies reward employees by these little efforts everyday

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Very true. Well put

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Too often the manager or HR personnel losing the talent *want* to do right by the employee, and keep them in good faith. But they will often be "toothless tigers". Policy may dictate that the company shall never counter, even if the manager really values that employee and tries to truly understand their needs. I've lost good talent this way myself. What our firm encourages is to have constant dialogue with management and HR so that these don't come as surprises. But I can't recall ever having seen this actually done.

Sean Moore

Realtor with eXp Realty

7 年

Very insightful article that makes a lot of sense

回复
Inez Diepenbach

Partner - Executive Search

7 年

As a recruiter, I see candidates that have been offered by our clients, sometimes indeed receive a counter offer by their current employer. If the counter offer is purely focused on a salary raise, then I would like to add the following: Money shouldn't be your sole driver. You want to move on for other reasons as well. Fact is, if your employer only counter offers you when you're threatening to leave (incl indicating you're leaving, handing in your notice etc.), you should be mindful of the fact that they could have done that sooner, hence not only during this resignation stage. Also, as someone in this reply section mentioned, many candidates who accept counter offers will leave within a year as they were just overall unhappy and not only for monetary reasons. We see this happening regularly. They were already planning to leave for several reasons. Maybe they're being overseen by their employer, or maybe they receive an offer they can't refuse because it's a magic circle firm, a blue chip company or another reason why they consider their offered position to be their dream job. Should be a lesson to the company that's counter offering: don't do it!

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