Can a counter-offer ever be a genuinely good thing, for everybody?

Endless articles have been written to support the notion of how terrible accepting a counter-offer generally is. Funnily enough these have frequently been penned by recruiters…I wonder why??? In fairness, the data does confirm that they rarely work out best for both parties. So that begs the question - which stars need to align for them to be a good thing? Let’s explore.

On this beautiful sunny Sydney afternoon, Jessica, one of your stronger team members, has just resigned and you are debating whether or not to make a counter-offer to get her to stay…can this ever be a good idea? The simple answer is, perhaps surprisingly, yes…under some extremely limited circumstances. My three golden rules for this are:

1.??????You know why Jessica was even prepared to be looking elsewhere; AND

2.??????It is in your power to do something with integrity and authenticity; AND

3.??????There is a genuine reason why you had not done this prior to her resignation

If you do not know why Jessica resigned, you are massively on the back-foot. In all honesty, and I hate to say it, you are not doing a good job because you have not formed a sufficient bond of trust and integrity for her to have shared her concerns or reservations about continuing on in her role. So if you don’t know, you need to find out pronto…and dig deep. It is unlikely she will unburden her soul at this stage as she has mentally already checked out.

Common reasons for a resignation are: money; conditions; flexibility (lack of); lack of recognition; boredom; work-place culture; career advancement; uninspiring leadership; a change in personal circumstances; unfulfilled promises; issues with a co-worker; lack of security; failure to deal with poor performers; an offer out of the blue for something better; and so on.

Whatever the reason (and it is rarely one in isolation), once you know what it is/they are, you need to address HONESTLY if you can actually do something material about it and are you prepared to. Making promises you cannot deliver on or that you go lukewarm over as the immediate pain-point disappears will only make things worse in the longer term. Jess will become even more disillusioned; will be furious she let a good external opportunity pass her by; and could potentially spread discontent across the team as a whole, resulting in further resignations.

Some things will be beyond your control and it would be unwise to skirt over those issues or play them down. If they are important to Jess they should be important to you. If the company is performing badly or there are issues with the culture company-wide it is unlikely there is anything you can do to change that. And it would be disingenuous to suggest that you will.

On the other hand, what may appear to be beyond your control may actually be something you can solve with some creative thinking. Suppose Jess has had a change of personal circumstances; perhaps she needs to work less hours to accommodate children, caring or study; maybe she is relocating, making the daily commute impossible. Could you reconstruct her role to facilitate shorter hours/increased flexibility etc. Not only would that be a win for both sides but other employees will see that the company looks after its valued employees.

Obviously there will be several things you may be able to control or at least influence: pay, flexibility, removing poor performers, job enrichment etc.

Offering more money, promotions, better benefits etc can work but that brings us to my third golden rule. Why did it take Jessica’s resignation to precipitate the offering of these things? The natural reaction by Jess will surely be “if you knew I was worth XYZ all along why did you not offer it sooner?” It’s the killer question…but even that doesn’t have to be the end of the road. There may be policies in play above your pay-grade and (unbeknownst to Jess) that have prevented them being offered beforehand. Can you articulate these to her? Can you make a winning case for an exception to the policy? Can you deal with the consequences of whatever you offer becoming public knowledge…because trust me it will.

It is a rare set of circumstances, indeed, that make a counter-offer appropriate and successful for the longer term. But they do exist. If you can answer, honestly, the questions embedded in my three golden rules, you might just have what it takes.

In other news...

Here are some pretty cool articles, unrelated to the above, that I have sifted from the landfill of April’s publications, that may give you some tips and tricks for personal development and career advancement:

6 times you should say no at work (and exactly how to do it)

You Don’t Need to Be “the Boss” to Be a Leader

The 12 tricks to getting things done, from 'deliverologist' Sir Michael Barber

You need to establish a personal brand to succeed in the workplace of tomorrow—here’s how

As always my resources page , where I have gathered together some of the best books, podcasts and courses covers your functional development needs.

If there is a specific topic you would like me to cover or share links to in this monthly newsletter, please let me know in the comments below or DM me. If it is relevant to advancing a career in marketing, I’ll hop on it.

And as ever – if you want to chat about your own career management or a piece of recruitment you might need some support on:

Until next time...keep climbing,

Andy