As recruiters, we are seeing an increase in the number of counter offers made by employers to encourage a staff member to reconsider their resignation. The following may assist you in working your way through the process.

A counter offer is an offer from your employer in competition with the one you have received from your future employer.

Counter offers can be presented in a number of ways, such as a salary increase, promotion, career progression, opportunity to earn a bonus or other incentives/benefits.

Counter offers add a layer of complication that leaves you wondering that maybe you do owe something to your current employer, and that maybe things will improve if you stay.

Counter offers are quite common and require serious consideration. Research reveals that most people who accept a counter offer are likely to seek new employment or leave their job within 12 months, and many are actually gone within 6 months.

What next?

Consider why the offer has been made. Consider that relationships may be strained moving forward. Consider that the counter offer may well be because:

• replacing you will be an expensive and time consuming exercise;
• your employer will lose all your knowledge, experience and expertise;
• your employer requires you to complete the project on which you are currently working;
• your employer does not have the time and resources to re-train a replacement;
• losing staff may reflect badly on your manager/employer.

Do I stay, or do I go?

Consider why you felt motivated to move in the first place. Following your resignation, your loyalty will be in question, you may be treated differently. Your employer may begin seeking a replacement, regardless of whether you stay or not. Think long and hard, also consider why you are being offered what you deserve now, rather than prior to your resignation being addressed? There’s a reason you started your job searching in the first place!