The return of the counter offer

Posted in Candidates, Clients, Communications, Corporate Communications, Financial PR, General News, Jobseeker Advice, PR, Technology PR

In the ‘tug-of-war’ for talent, it’s a truism that good people are hard to find. But it’s equally true that good people are harder to keep hold of.  As the PR world emerges from recession faster than many other sectors and competition for ‘good people’ hots up, it’s not surprising that we’ve seen the return of the ‘counter offer’.

And return it has! Four months ago, counter offers were most likely to occur between legal communications teams but with more private sector agencies winning business, the phenomenon has now spread across the board to include corporate PR, particularly in the financial services sector.

We’re not just talking counter offers between a current employer (understandably wanting to retain talented staff they’ve trained and invested in) and another potential employer, but bidding wars between three or four employers all keen to secure the best hire.

Without doubt, the main driving force behind this round of counter offers is money. Talented individuals, frustrated by the recession-enforced career inertia of the past two years are now chancing their arm at interview(s) primarily to boost their salary.

Arguably, some of the candidates we’ve seen who have ‘won big’ at counter offer are those who were genuinely underpaid. One agency candidate even doubled their salary whilst eventually staying with the original employer. Doubling salaries may be exceptional, but it’s been our candidates’ recent experience that significant pay hikes are a factor again.

However, as flattering as a counter offer is employers and candidates should proceed with caution.

National surveys of employees consistently show that of those who accept counter offers, 50 to 80% voluntarily leave their employer within six months of accepting the deal largely because of un-kept promises and the reasons other than salary why they were looking to leave haven’t gone away.

To ensure you don’t become one of those statistics, it’s worth asking yourself the following questions: “Will your loyalty be in question by remaining in the job, especially if future redundancies are likely?” “Is the counter offer just a stalling tactic to avoid short-term inconvenience or a genuine desire to progress you career?” “Will this preclude next year’s bonus?” and “Do the proposed improvements eliminate the reason you went for a new job in the first place?”

But perhaps the most important factor when considering counter offers is the longer term professional consequences. PR careers and professional reputations aren’t made in a moment, whilst a counter offer may be. Just remember that making the wrong choice could leave a potential employer with a lasting negative impression of you long after the bidding war boxing gloves have been removed.