What’s your view on counteroffers?

It can be a horrible shock when a star performer in your team decides to move on.
 
And it can be very tempting to offer more cash in an effort to get them to change their minds.
 
This raises some questions though.
 
·        Is your remuneration policy aligned with current market conditions?
·        What’s their real reason for leaving? It’s almost never only about the dollars.
·        How well do you know their personal situation and if they’re in real financial difficulty?
·        What benefits could you offer other than cash to retain them?
·        If you can afford to counteroffer, why weren’t they being paid at that level before?
 
The unfortunate reality that the research shows is that counteroffers seldom work very well. Most employees who accept a counteroffer will leave anyway in about 6 months.
 
You might be willing to live with that to buy yourself time to recruit, but the chances are you’ll just be back where you started.