SHOULD YOU ACCEPT A COUNTEROFFER?
By Jack Opolion, Practice Manager, Hinchen Recruitment Group
In Australia, the average person changes jobs approximately 13 times in their lifetime. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the average person, at some stage, will be faced with a counteroffer from their employer upon their resignation.
This is both an exciting and daunting experience and I believe a lot of workers out there don’t know about the potential risks involved with accepting a counteroffer.
To help educate the average worker, I have listed below some of the main reasons that you should not accept a counteroffer from your employer if you have been successful in obtaining alternative employment elsewhere.
Firstly, consider why you decided to seek other employment in the first place:
- Current lack of job satisfaction
- You are bored in your current job
- Lack of career progression
- You want a better work life balance
- Opportunity to show-case your skills elsewhere
- To work in a larger and / or more successful company
- To work with industry experts
- And many more!!
A counteroffer may be flattering, but there’s a reason why you were looking to change roles in the first place. You need to re-evaluate those original reasons and determine what other changes can be made. Is it issues with the work culture? Leadership struggles? Lack of motivation? If you cannot talk with your current managers about those issues they will never be resolved. Without your managers providing confirmation to you about the types of changes they will make, those issues won’t change, only your salary will change.
If you’re unsure about the changes that are needed in your current position, then accepting a counteroffer only provides a short-term solution. Without those larger changes it can even create a lack of trust between employee and employer.
For most people, an increase in salary is a good thing but it could also point to your employer knowing that you aren’t being paid what you’re worth – this could create larger issues within the team where people are being paid different salaries or even leave you feeling undervalued.
Your future employer sees your value and potential so why not accept that opportunity?
In my experience, I’ve even seen employers offer a counteroffer as a stalling tactic to keep the employee ‘happy’ whilst looking for a replacement at a lower salary.
Depending on the financial situation of your current employer, it may be a long time before you get another pay rise. This could limit future career growth opportunities as you’re already being paid above what your co-workers are.
The other danger in accepting a counteroffer could be the distrust it creates between employee and employer. You could be looked at as being disloyal by management. It’s one of the reasons we strongly discourage candidates from asking their current employers for reference checks, nothing is final until the contract is signed so you don’t want to jeopardize your current career.
Statistics show that over 70% of those who accept a counteroffer leave the company within 12 months anyway.
If the only reason that you decided to look elsewhere is because your current employer isn’t paying you what you’re worth, then a counteroffer may solve your problem. However, there can always be larger issues that are pushing you out the door. I believe you should firstly consider the points above before accepting that counteroffer.
