Using a job offer as leverage to get a raise or promotion from your current employer sometimes works, but you probably shouldn’t take the counter offer, according to staffing firm Beacon Hill.
LinkedIn said 85% of full-time employees are considering switching jobs in 2024, but 20% would be open to staying if given a counter offer.
A counter offer means your current employer values you. Accepting it may label you as a flight risk.
“They now realize that you are willing to leave them, and that makes them uncomfortable. To regain that trust takes a lot of time, and sometimes you can never fully repair it,” said Rebecca Wright, senior regional vice president at Beacon Hill Staffing Group.
If the new job offer is the result of your active job search, it means you were unhappy with some aspects of your current job, and a counter offer from your current employer, be it a pay raise or a new title, won’t entirely fix what motivated you to seek a new role.
“When you’re resigning from a company, it is likely based on more than one issue. Typically, they’re really only going to be able to address one, or at best, two of your issues. When you stay there, all of those other variables are still going to exist,” Wright said.
Accepting a counter offer to stay may also burn bridges with the company that offered to hire you, whether it was an unsolicited offer or the result of your active job search. And staying also potentially closes the door to the career advancement you were seeking.
Staying instead of leaving could also change your relationship with current co-workers.
“That’s going to mean that they recognize that you gained something in that conversation, and so that can lead to resentment,” Wright said.
For employers, counter offers are not necessarily a good retention tool. Beacon Hill said 20% of surveyed workers who received a counter offer left the employer within six months anyway.
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