Countering Counter-offers Part 2: Breaking Pacts

"A pact is?a treaty or other agreement between parties, and it's usually written. Countries can have pacts or you can make a pact with your friends, promising each other that you'll all show up for the spelling bee. A pact is a formal agreement."

So, why are pacts often at the root of candidates who've exhausted you the recruiter and your clients time when they decline an offer for a new job and accept a counter-offer from their current employer?

Breaking their Pacts and Building Yours

We all make pacts of some kind every single day. We make pacts with ourselves, such as deciding that you're only having one drink after work and then heading straight home. But we also make pacts with our colleagues, our partners and even our bosses at work about what we would or wouldn't do if we decided to look for another job or were approached about one.

Who genuinely hasn't had the conversation with their best friend at work where you've both discussed looking for another job? Who hasn't been pulled aside by a manager who genuinely values you and they've said something along the lines of:

"If you were ever thinking of leaving, you would tell me in advance, wouldn't you?".

Then there is the emotional pact, "I don't know how we would cope if you left..."

"If you left I don't think I would be far behind you, so promise me you'll let me know if you start looking for another job, won't you?"

And of course, because we really like our colleagues, we admire and trust our manager or boss and we feel a sense of loyalty to them all (hopefully in most cases, but of course not all), we agree to these things.

As a Recruiter, this is the stuff you have to uncover. You have to get your candidates honest, that isn't to suggest for one moment that they're dishonest but many if not most really don't think through the leaving process right to the bitter end. They kind of run with the excitement of potentially landing a new job and bury their head in the sand for the nasty stuff. The betrayal of their team and colleagues, the disloyalty to their boss and their company and the disappointing aspects of actually handing in their notice.

Despite what the popular theme would have you believe, in my 25+ years as a recruiter I think I can count on one hand the occasions when someone I've headhunted or recruited has genuinely been angry or seriously frustrated in their current roles and with their current employer. On the vast majority of occasions, they've had a great experience, been well rewarded and are well respected in their current environment and resigning has rarely been easy. It's why role-playing the scenario, asking the hard questions upfront is so important.

You have to dig deep into their psyche and get them to address the challenge and the issues well in advance and then reinforce them throughout the hiring process. Conducting an interview, briefing them on the vacancy and then submitting their CV, simply isn't enough.

As a recruiter, you need to lock them in, lock them down and make your own hard as nails pact with the candidate. At the same time, you're hammering away at any existing pacts they have that could come back to haunt you.

The Hard Questions

Begin by emphasising how time-sensitive this vacancy is, make it absolutely clear that you've promised your client to have this hiring need resolved successfully by X Date and any slippage could have disastrous consequences to the organisation, and also your reputation.

Empathise with your candidate that you understand that their time is immensely valuable, you've also got hard and fast timelines and equally your clients time and availability is extremely limited.

Be hard here, use take-aways, for example, say to your candidate things like "If you have even the slightest doubt about your commitment to this process, tell me now so we all avoid wasting each others time..."

If they say they have no reservations, are totally committed fine, move on to testing and closing them. A test close I always use is:

"Hypothetically, if everything I've shared with you about this organisation, the vacancy, package and all-around opportunity is 100% accurate and I offered you the job right now, what would your response be?"

You want, in fact, you really need to get some pushback here. The more pushbacks you get the closer you are getting to the truth about how much commitment the candidate has towards this vacancy. If you don't get push back, alarm bells should start ringing, because you're probably being stroked.

Once you've uncovered all the hidden objections, such as meeting the team, understanding more about the role and the culture and all that stuff, do a magic wand close.

"Let's wave a magic wand and for a moment imagine you've gone through the entire interview process and loved everything you've seen and heard and you're biting at the bit to get this job, then they offer it to you. Who is the first person you're going to tell once you've accepted?"

For most people, it's probably going to be their partner or perhaps best friend down the pub as they crack open a bottle of bubbly to celebrate.

Ask them what their confidante will think about them leaving their current job. Will they be over the moon for you, will they be hesitant and advise caution. This is critical to unearthing external influences.

People are heavily influenced by their partners and peers. A nervous partner who is worried about security for example can quickly deflate that helium balloon of joy. This is where the pacts that have been made come into play. Anxiety about leaving a secure job, the possible risk involved, the new house they were planning on buying, lots of elements come into play here.

Then focus on the current employer side of the equation. Ask questions such as what the impact would be in the business, the team, their boss and how would they feel about these things, would they feel as if they were letting their team down?

Explore these things, if they would feel negative about these things then you need to understand why. Would any of these outcomes cause them to pause and consider for a moment? Would any of these things cause them to consider a counter-offer in a positive way?

The Hammer

You've got to be hard. You're a consultant and your job ultimately is to fill your client's job vacancy. Nothing else.

Set up the questioning process around the unexpected. Such as, if we were halfway through the interview process and you got a pay rise or a promotion would you withdraw, if so, why?

Ask them under what circumstances they would consider a counter-offer, what would it have to look like to get them to say yes? How likely is that to happen? Has anyone in your team or department accepted a counter-offer in the past 12 months, how did that work out for them?

If you accepted a counter-offer, how would your partner or your close confidente feel about that scenario?

Up The Tempo

Right at the beginning start to get your candidate to consider the positive impact of moving jobs, the financial gain, the career progression, the new challenges and so forth. Ask them to imagine what the new job will look like in 6-12 months time if it works out as planned? How would that compare to how it would look and feel if they accepted a counter-offer and they were still trailing into the same job, the same office with the same people every day.

Emotions play a significant part in any decision-making process, and so does a sense of status. Conclude with a question around status, something like:

"Imagine you've told all your mates, your family, everyone at the Golf Club about this fabulous offer you've had for a new job. They've all bought you a celebratory drink, wished you good luck in your new role and generally being extremely happy and congratulatory about the whole thing. What would they think if 2 weeks later you'd decided to stay in your current job, how would you feel about telling them?"

The Truth About Counter-offers

If you're genuinely a good recruiter you should be doing variations of this anyway, nobody can totally eliminate the risk. There are so many nuances and imponderables to the whole decision-making process and people that have far more sway over your candidate will always ultimately have far more influence.

Circa 7 years ago, after a lengthy international search that took about 8 weeks, I lost a candidate to a counter-offer. I was devastated. Despite the fact that I'd probably spent about 2 hours on the phone with the candidate's wife explaining what life is like in Bahrain for British Expats and their children, despite having connected her with a school and set up conversations with the Head Mistress and also introducing her to 2 mothers in Bahrain at the very last moment she faltered when it came to getting on the flight. My candidate's employer leapt at the hesitancy and made their counter at the same time. It worked. Understandably so.

Sometimes as recruiters we have to be honest and be bold and understand that the reality is that the counter-offer is a good thing, too good to turn down. In these instances we have to be magnanimous, support the candidate and then make a pact with them that you will be the very first person they speak to if they either need to recruit for their own team in the future or do ultimately decide to look for a new opportunity further down the line.

Take a win whatever shape it comes in. Leave the candidate with a good impression, make a friend and offer support. You just never know, they may very well become a star client in the not too distant future because of your professionalism and understanding.

All we can do is our very best. But you can't avoid asking the questions, hanging onto some slim hope that everything will be okay. Prayers don't get offers accepted, solid process and strong due diligence right from the start get them over the line.

There are no shortcuts to exquisite recruitment. It's a tough job we do, it's why most of us love doing it, we're the ultimate circus performers and jugglers, spinning lots of plates and managing dozens of expectations.

If you missed Countering Counter-offers Part 1: The things you can't see then follow this link

PS: All of the above is significantly easier to do if you are working on a retained basis with your clients. You're not in a race past the post to submit CVs and can spend more time with your candidates, focus on doing all the right things. If you'd like to know more about getting off the contingent recruiter hamster wheel, then click the image below and schedule a meeting with me.