Navigating a Counter-offer: A pragmatic perspective

It’s always a hot topic in the world of recruitment and rightly so – but why does it happen so often?

The scene is a consistent one, particularly in Investment Technology, which is a tight-knitted market booming with some of the best technologists - and most exciting employers - in the world. You start looking for a new position for one of many reasons (feeling undervalued, underpaid, overworked or there’s no more scope to progress), and after going through the increasingly competitive process of finance interviews, you land a role that gives you what you’re missing in your current seat. Offer accepted, you hand your notice in only to be hit with a counter-offer. You’re now promised a promotion, a compensation increase, the flexibility to work where you want and now the opportunity to move seems like an unnecessary risk.

But what’s the reality of the situation?

Unfortunately, a lot of the time counter-offers are a knee-jerk reaction in response to someone saying they’re unhappy and want to move on. The reality of this situation to the hiring manager / business is that the cost of hiring a replacement massively outweighs the marginal value of raising a salary and giving a new title. While it may make employees feel valued, if you find yourself in this position, the question that needs addressing is why this didn't happen before you handed in your notice. It's essential to consider whether accepting the counter-offer will genuinely address the issues that prompted your job search initially, or if it will merely serve as a temporary solution to a longstanding problem.

So what should you do?

People are inherently risk-averse, and as such it’s completely understandable to take one look at an employer doing their best to keep you onboard and see it as your best option moving forwards. A more pragmatic approach would be to take yourself a step at a time and ascertain how things started vs the final outcome;

• What are your push / pull factors for wanting to leave or be attracted elsewhere?
• Have you addressed these with the business / your manager?
• What was their response? / Have any changes been made?
• After receiving an offer elsewhere, does the opportunity provide you with the solution to all the issues you have in your current role including any promised changes?

If the answer to the final step here is yes then it’s sensible to be seriously considering moving on.

The flip-side of this is of course, a counter-offer isn’t always be a bad thing. If the current issues haven’t been properly addressed and your first port-of-call when things aren’t going right is to look elsewhere, it’s probably wise to take a step back and raise them first.

My take on this is straightforward; being unsatisfied in the workplace doesn’t always need to result in a move. Take the time to assess what the issues are, address them with your manager and try and resolve things. If at that point things can’t / don’t change, it’s time to look elsewhere.

If you’ve found yourself in this position and are thinking about what’s out there, please feel free to reach out to myself at [email protected] to run through opportunities in the Investment Technology space. ?