Should you accept a Counter Offer?

You’ve decided it’s the right time for the next step forward in your career and finally you land a new position that means more money, a better situation and new opportunities. But when you give notice to your current employer, your boss says, “Tell me what they offered. I’ll match it or beat it.” Now what do you do?

Before jumping at a counter offer, think long and hard. Ask yourself this – If you were worth X pounds yesterday, why is your company suddenly willing to now pay you Y pounds today? As a rule of thumb 70% to 80% of people who accept counter offers either leave or are let go within a year.

We have consolidated the top 12 reasons for not accepting a counter offer but don’t take our word for it. Run your own search online and see for yourself.

1. You have now made your employer aware that you are unhappy. From this day on your commitment will always be in question.

2. When promotion time comes around, your employer will remember who is loyal and who isn’t.

3. When times get tough, your employer will begin the cutbacks with you.

4. When your employer replaces you after six months and ‘lets you go’, it’ll be harder to turn them around than it was for them to turn you around.

5. Accepting a counter offer is an insult to your intelligence. You didn’t know what was best for you.

6. Accepting a counter offer is a blow to your personal pride, knowing you were ‘bought’.

7. Accepting a counter offer rarely changes the factors that drove you to look for a new job in the first place.

8. Where is the money for the counter offer coming from? Is it your next pay rise early?

9. Statistics show that if you accept a counter offer, there is a significant risk that you will be out of the job within a year (remember the 70% to 80% figure!).

10. What type of company do you work for if you have to threaten to resign before they give you what you’re worth?

11. Why didn’t they pay you that before? It was because they didn’t think you were worth it.

12. Why are they paying it to you now? It’s because it’s easier and cheaper for them to keep you for the time being, while they sort the problem out.

Remember, it’s often the easy option to stay where you are and accept the counter-offer but ‘easy’ isn’t always ‘best’ and it’s important to think about the wider impact and risks associated with accepting a counter offer.