Addressing the inevitable counter offer.

A culture that is full of exceptional talent shackled to their desk with golden handcuffs is regrettably doomed for mediocracy, at best. As Paul Hawkinson so eloquently put it, ‘if the urge to accept a counteroffer hits you, continue to clean out your desk as you count your blessings.’

‘The Great Resignation’ means the industry average sees 50% of candidates accept a counteroffer. We are going to delve deeper into why this is industry average and why it’s not the case at Oliver Parks:

  • 85% of all candidates we work with receive counteroffers when they look to leave

  • 71% of our candidates accept the offers presented to them from OUR clients 

  • Only 12% of these candidates rejected the offer due to counter offers

  • The other 17% rest were rejected due to better offers from competitors or staying where they are after no counteroffer on the table.

Only 12% of individuals actually resign in their current role because of money, but this seems to be forgotten once the counteroffer rolls onto the table. When offered more money, not having to master the working methods of another company seem a lot more appealing and staying seems like the easier option.

However, the statistics are here to remind us that money isn't always enough to overcome the problems that made the individual want to look for a new job in the first place. 80% of employees that accept the counteroffer eventually leave within six months, and 90% within a year. 

Things to note:

Loyalty is the backbone of any business, and unfortunately, this is now broken. After all, the employer has just been dumped and reminded that the only thing keeping that person with them is money. Most employees that accept a counteroffer are more often than not 'pushed out of their current organisation quite quickly as it's likely a contingency plan to fill their position is immediately put in place. 

What do we do at Oliver Parks?

It can cost the current employer as much as 213% of annual salary to replace a senior executive with little notice; it's inevitable that the counteroffer will happen, particularly as we only work with exceptional candidates.

The reason we have a remarkable 88%% counteroffer rejection rate is quite simple. We ensure that we prep the candidate at every stage of the process, always addressing a possible boomerang of feelings with consistent reminders that these feelings are entirely normal. The reason this works is that we harbour our candidate relationships with trust; we don't just fill roles, we create partnerships.  

We prep you, the client, to be prepared for a possible counteroffer, and we prep our candidate’s way of resignation in a way that simultaneously compliments each other.  

Changing jobs is one of the most significant life decisions any individual can make, it's up there with buying a new home. We really get to know our candidates; we spend countless hours talking to them, making ourselves familiar with their true motivators, so you don't have to. They trust we have their best interests at heart, so when we think a counteroffer isn't the right move for them, they believe us.