You have gone through a long interviewing process, and you have taken your time to weigh the pros and the cons. You finally accept an offer for a new opportunity, with a new company. You go into your boss’ office to give notice, and before you leave for the day, your boss calls you back into the office… they want you to stay.
If this hasn’t happened to you yet, know that situations like this occur often, and you should be prepared if it does! Here are some reasons you should never accept a counteroffer from your employer.
- Whatever the reasons were for wanting to change jobs, you would have analyzed them and made every attempt to fix the issues that were possible to fix. So what does that leave you? Issues that weren’t fixable – deal-breakers. This is why you went out searching in the first place! So why would you want to stay in your job just because your boss offered you more money or a promise of something in the future?
- The trust you once had will be lost. In an article written by Monster, it states that “once you take the counteroffer, your relationship is now almost entirely predicated on cash, and that is not a healthy criteria.” Therefore, “the sense of affiliation between the employer and the employee will be severed, and the employee may never be trusted again…”
- Research shows that, more than 50% of all employees who accept counteroffers change companies within the following 6 to 9 months. If this new opportunity is exciting and something you want to pursue, take it, as you MAY NOT have that same opportunity in 6 to 9 months (today’s world can change overnight… Brexit comes to mind).
- Most companies use counteroffers as a retention tool or insurance, so they do not need to go out and find someone else. In this market, positions that are not easy to fill, and onboarding candidates cost a lot of money.
Counteroffers may put you in a difficult situation. Remember why you originally started looking for a new opportunity in the first place. Don’t accept the counteroffer, START FRESH!
On this episode of iMPact’s Job Talk podcast, we talk about how to navigate leaving a company, including how to handle counteroffers.
iMPact Business Group is a staffing agency specializing in Information Technology, Engineering, Finance/Accounting, and Business Administration/Process positions. To connect with one of our professional recruiters, view our job board for all available positions, or submit your resume for consideration here. Click here to learn more about our available work from home opportunities and to submit your resume for consideration.
