It’s the worst case scenario for many businesses, especially small businesses: one of your best staff members submits a resignation. At the time, you probably would consider doing anything at all to keep them and retain them as part of the team – but should you really consider making a counter offer?
Here are the top 5 things to consider before making any sort of counter offer:
- What is the reason for their resignation? If you don’t understand why they are leaving, you have no idea what to counter offer with. It’s important that you are confident they are being honest with you in regards to their reasons for the resignation, and from there you can make your decision. There is no point offering more money if they are leaving to pursue a completely different line of work. Conversely, there is no point offering a promotion if they are leaving to go to a less stressful or less senior role.
- Will the news of your counter offer get out to the rest of the team? It’s important to be aware of this, because if you decide to counter offer and the information around this gets back to everyone else in the workplace, you have a whole other problem on your hands. You may have others putting their hands out for big fat pay rises, some demanding promotions or others just quietly being unhappy and deciding to move on themselves as they feel it’s unfair.
- Can you afford it? No matter how much you may want to pay this person to renounce their resignation, if you can’t afford it, then a counter offer is destined for failure. Take some time to really crunch the numbers and make sure it’s viable.
- How will it impact the rest of the team? By offering this person the world, how will the rest of the team feel and react? Will their roles change as a result, will the entire office now need to run differently? Think about the flow on effect of any role and structure changes which form part of your counter offer and make sure you have accounted for any ‘fall out’ from the rest of the team
- How long will the counter offer keep them for? This is a tough one, because there is not definitive answer. Go back to their reasons for leaving originally, and see how well these are being addressed. If the counter offer addresses some but not all of this, you may retain them for some time, but not forever. The stats tell us that more often than not, people who are counter offered and decide to stay, ultimately end up leaving within months or possibly years – but it’s typically the former. So tread with caution and weigh up the chances of them still leaving within 12-24 months.
