Counteroffers: 5 Essential Tips to Mastering the Counteroffer

The bane of a recruiter’s life, clients hate them, employers hate them, and everyone knows most people who accept a counteroffer go on to leave anyway, don’t they?

?

Is this really true though?

?

Queue stat dump; With average tenure in a tech role at 18 months and the CIPD suggesting the average cost of filling a vacancy at just over ￡6k, ballooning to ￡19k for anything managerial, it’s no surprise employers are doing the quick maths and saving themselves the time to hire (averaging 65 days, not including time lost to reviewing, scheduling, cancelling, rescheduling and interviewing) and skipping straight to counteroffering.

?

Navigating counteroffers can be like flipping a coin, on one side it’s flattering to receive an offer from another company and an opportunity for career growth, but on the flip side, it can stir up uncertainty and negotiations in your current role. How do you handle this situation effectively?

?

We’ve been on both the winning and the losing side of the counteroffer here, so I’ve put together our five essential tips to guide you through managing the counteroffer.

?

1)??????? Understand your reasons for leaving

?

Before entertaining any counteroffer, take a moment to reflect on what brought you to this point. Your career goals, aspirations, work experience, the direction you have been going in, the work life balance, etc. Ask yourself why you considered the offer in the first place.

?

On top of this you also need to consider if your current environment was a driver in your choice to entertain new roles. Were you being micromanaged? Is the tech old or boring? Are the projects getting shelved, or is none of this true and has your head just been turned?

?

Understanding your motivations will help you make a well-informed decision.

?

2)??????? Communicate transparently

?

Obviously in this day and age of immediate messaging and a billion communication channels, it’s still so surprising that we have communication hiccups at this stage, and everyone is annoyed about it. Communication is so important when dealing with counteroffers. Be open, transparent and responsive with anyone involved in the decision-making process with both your current employer and the prospective one. Don’t leave anyone hanging as this will breed resentment. Remember it’s not just your ego you’re massaging in this part of the process, some businesses will be offended you don’t immediately accept their offer (probably avoid these anyway) but there is a lot to consider so common courtesy will go a long way.

?

Be thankful but be honest with where your lines in the sand are. If you’ve communicated clearly until this point it shouldn’t come at a surprise to anyone what your motivations or decision-making criteria are, so express gratitude for the offers while also negotiating any requirements you may have.

?

3)??????? Take your time

?

Time is unfortunately against you at this point as multiple parties will be expecting your decision. They need to order kit, extend licenses and kick off their onboarding process to make the transition as smooth as possible and they can’t do that without you sealing the deal, so the pressure will build from all angles.

?

The key question is, which offer will get you to where you want to be?

?

It’s not all about the money, so it won’t be as simple as which offer is bigger, you’ll really need to understand what you are getting into (or returning to) if the package is bigger it is likely to make the ride easier but are you going to be spending more time away from your family? Are you losing key benefits you value like high pension contributions or flexible working? If you stay, will you be happy? Will they really make the changes they suggested they would?

?

These are difficult judgements to make, but see point two, communicate effectively, ask the right questions and follow up if you need to.

?

4)??????? Don’t burn any bridges

?

With the pressure as high as it is and the likelihood that one of your prospective employers is going to be disappointed, it’s easy to rub people the wrong way. It is important to try not to burn any bridges. Unfortunately this may happen anyway but to minimise this risk you’ll need to maintain your professionalism and integrity. Avoid making hasty decisions, miscommunicating, or leaving decision makers hanging. Remember that how you handle this situation reflects on you with your current and future employer.

?

Don’t forget that the world isn’t as big as you think it is, with tech skills following a range of niches you are likely to cross paths or swim in the same circles as the decision makers or hiring managers and they do talk.

?

5)??????? Trust your gut

?

Ultimately you know yourself better than anyone, listen to your instincts as they’ve got you this far. If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t, but dig deeper. Staying is easy, change is hard. Getting out of your comfort zone will be a growth opportunity but may feel alien, so it’s important to get to the root of why you might be feeling unsure.

?

Long story short, in preparing for this blog post I discovered that most business use counteroffers as part of their retention strategy and that just over half of candidates will accept them; however, I couldn’t actually find any meaningful figures about what candidates that do accept a counteroffer do afterwards, so I can’t be sure if indeed any % of candidates do in fact leave. What we can be certain about, however, is it is an opportunity for you the candidate.

?

Trust your gut.

?

P.S if anyone does have any of the figures for what candidates do after a counter offer, please do drop me a note

?

For more tips or advice on how to navigate your challenges in tech recruitment reach out to me directly or give me a call on 01527 407140 or you can find out a bit more about us here: https://www.sourceco.co.uk/it-recruitment/

?

If you are looking for a new role, or just want some advice, get in touch, or send us a message and we’ll be happy to help.

?

About the author

?

Sam is a technical recruiter and head of the IT division at SourceCo Recruitment with extensive experience in managing end to end recruitment solutions for contract and permanent positions, who can help you get tech roles or find tech staff.

?