Advice to Candidates: Should You Accept a Counter-Offer?

Here’s a scenario for you. A candidate decides that it’s time for them to move up the career ladder, they put in applications, they get offered an interview and then they get offered a job. Great, right? They then go to their current employer to share the news and hand in their notice... and their current employer panics. The current employer then puts together a counter-offer to try and persuade them to stay.

If you were in this situation, what would you do? Perhaps your current employer has offered to match the pay rise you’d be gaining with your new employer, and thrown in a promotion too. Would you consider accepting it?

The right answer here is no. Accepting a counter-offer from your current employer tends to be a bad move. Below we’ve shared some thoughts on why this is the case.

You wanted to leave.

Think carefully about why you decided to look for a new job in the first place. Was it because you wanted to work in a different environment? Was it because you wanted more responsibility? Was it because you wanted to learn from new people? The reason you wanted to leave your current employer hasn’t changed just because you’ve been offered a counter-offer.

The counter-offer may not be about you.

You may think that your current employer is offering you a counter-offer because they’re desperate to keep you, but this isn’t always the case. It may be more about the cost and stress of recruitment they’re faced with if you do leave.

It could make your job difficult.

Often when a counter-offer is accepted communication within the working environment becomes difficult. Your colleagues will all know that you were offered a position elsewhere – and this could be damaging for morale. Your employers will also be well aware that you might be on the lookout for other positions, and this might mean that they doubt how loyal you are.

It’s not good for networking.

To interview for a job, be offered the job, and then choose to stay with your existing employer is a chain of events that will be talked about. It would be difficult to get another chance with the new employer – and word may get around to other companies in your field.

Have you ever been offered a counter-offer? What would your advice be to other candidates in this position? Share your thoughts in our forum.