It’s always tempting to accept a counter offer from your employer when you have been offered another role. But remember, there is a reason you are wanting to leave that role in the first place. Below are some of the impacts that counter offer may have on your career.
Employers may make a counter offers in a moment of panic
But after the initial relief you are staying passes, what happens next? You may find your relationship with your employer and your standing with the company has changed. You’re now the one who was looking to leave. You’re no longer part of the inner circle, and you might be at the top of the list if your company needs to make cutbacks in the future.
70% to 80% of people who accept counteroffers either leave or are let go within a year
Your company may have made the counter offer to give them time to search for a replacement. Figuring that it’s only a matter of time until you start looking around again. You might turn down your other offer and accept your employer’s counter offer only to find yourself pushed out soon afterward.
Remember the reason you wanted to leave your organisation in the first place
There’s a reason you started job-searching. While more money is always a motivator, more often there are other factors that drove you to look. Personality fit, dislike of your boss, boredom, lack of recognition, insane deadlines and so on. Those factors aren’t going change. And it will likely start bothering you again as soon as the glow from your raise wears off.
Think about what it took for you to get a pay rise
Even if you get more money out of your company now, think about what it took to get it. You needed to have one foot out the door to get paid the wage you wanted. And there’s no reason to think that future salary increases will be any easier. The next time you want a raise, you might even be refused altogether on the grounds that “we just gave you that big increase when you were thinking about leaving.”
Think about your reputation with the potential new employer
If you go all the way through their hiring process only to accept a counter offer from your current employer, the new employer is going to be very wary of considering you again in the future. If it’s a company you’d like to work with in the future, you might be shutting a door you’d rather keep open.
Of course, there are times when accepting a counter offer makes sense and works out but be sure that it is 100% the right decision for you. Also, before you apply for a new role, think about why your doing this in the first place.
If it isn’t because you genuinely want to move on, look at other avenues first. Have a discussion with your manager and explain how you feel undervalued. Sometimes its just a discussion that needs to be had, but if that doesn’t work, you know your only option is to find a new job and Utility People are always at hand to help you find the role you deserve.
