The talent market is tight all around. It’s tough recruiting and retaining talent.

A star employee unexpectedly resigns. Your first instinct? Make a counteroffer.

Yes, the counteroffer is one tool you have at your disposal when it comes to retention. But the power wielded by the counteroffer can be short-lived.

Offering the employee more money, bigger bonuses, or more responsibility does not always solve the initial problem that drove them to look outside their role. If they feel stunted or unhappy in their job, they’ll eventually leave anyway. And you might not get the best of them in the meantime.

(As Harvard Business Review reports, “Research shows that 50% of candidates who accept a counteroffer are back in the marketplace looking again in two months.”)

If a counteroffer is your immediate reaction to a resigning employee, think twice before you go through with it. This goes both ways. If you are an employee who has accepted another job that’s more in line with your career aspirations – accepting that counter can be dangerous. You’ve potentially displayed disloyalty and how will that be received?

Give me a shout to discuss further. Counteroffers work out from time to time, but it’s a coin toss.

#counteroffers #warfortalent #career