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WHETHER YOU GET on with your employer or not – very few of us actually relish the moment when you have to knock on the door and tell the boss that you’re moving on.
Will the encounter end with an awkward but business-like handshake and a pat on the back? Will they bang on the table and shout ‘at last’? Or even worse, break down in a sobbing, trembling heap?
Results of a new survey out today may be worth taking a note of when you’re trying to decide whether you want to try and move on to a new job (or move up in the one you already have).
According to recruitment specialists Brightwater, 54 per cent of Irish professionals have received a counter-offer when they’re in the process of considering a new job.
Pay rises of up to 50 per cent, new job titles and greater promotional prospects have all been dangled in front of in-demand staff, according to a survey of 1,000 employers and jobseekers.
The survey found that more than two thirds of Irish companies are willing to use counter-offers as a matter of policy in retaining key staff.
Interestingly, while the majority of counter-offered employees said they felt flattered by their employer’s overtures, less than half (49 per cent) actually accepted the offer.
Of the ones who rejected the counter-move – half said there was absolutely nothing the employer could have done to get them to stay on (too little, too late – in other words).
Whether or not you’re considering a new gig this year – the findings are another indicator that the jobs market is improving.
According to Brightwater’s Managing Director, David Bloch:
The fact that companies are now willing to put their money where their mouth is and make substantial counter-offers suggests a returning confidence in economic conditions. It also once again highlights the vital importance and major challenge of attracting and retaining talented staff.
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Me : Boss I’m leaving …. Boss: ok
Me: boss I’m leaving
Boss: and, you are??
It would have been a whole different game if you’d say:
Me: Hello xxx, I wanted to let you know that I have been thinking of progressing in my career and I like it here, but I have a job offer which pays xxx.
Boss: What else are they offering you?
…etc….
That’s not the way journal comments work… You’ll learn
Me: Boss, I’m leaving.
Boss: Show this intern to your desk on the way out.
(yesss!!)
LOL!!!
Just tried that and now I’m outside the HR managers office waiting to pick up my p45. Thanks!
The new job you have lined up better be a good one because your current boss might just say “wow, we’ll be sorry to see you go” and that’s that.
…so much for the ‘counter offer’.
You will have everyone handing in their notice now with no job to go to thinking they’re getting a pay rise
The “counter offer” being €188 a week because some eejit saw “this article on the journal” and thought it’d be a deadly idea… I can just see the news headlines now “The first quarter of 2015 saw a rise in unemployment”!
Counter-offers are from bygone days. There is always someone younger, cheaper and more hungry for success waiting in the wings to take your job. Nobody is irreplaceable.
Id generally agree with you but I got offered a 25% increase back in 2011 when I decided to quit my job but even that wasn’t enough to make me want to stay. Depends on the industry. Happily self employed now!
Plenty of people get counter offers. It depends on your skillset, your position within the company, the timing of your departure and a lot of other things.
Real life ,
Would you like me to work out my notice , no , close the door on the way out.
Real life: Some of us are actually good enough at our jobs to make the boss want to try to stop us leaving.
Real, Real Life: Employers like a certain level of labour turnover to have more people on the base salary, before increments etc.
Real life – Not all employers are low lifes. The successful ones value staff and the efforts they put in. Too many cowboys opening businesses that you know will be gone in a year or 2. These are the ones that treat staff like slaves who think all workers should get at most 5 Euro an hour.
I bet you can lick your own balls .
Ye right I told the boss I was leaving and he told me I was going to regret it for the rest of my life. He said you won’t get better money any where else. I didn’t regret it. I did get better money else where. Now he’s the one regretting it. He can’t get the right man for the job. And his business is down 60per cent. So the moral of the story is don’t be bullied by a greedy boss
David was it a 2 man company ?
And your point is
I don’t think I’d accept a counter-offer because, realistically, if I’m leaving somewhere, it’s unlikely that money is the only reason I’m doing so. It’s hard to start a new job, go back to not knowing what’s going on, to being the new guy, etc. so there’s a lot to consider when deciding to jump ship. If I’ve made that decision, it’s almost certainly got more to do with things like career prospects, managers, work atmosphere, the actual work itself, or a number of things like that. Sure, a salary bump is nice, but it’s not the only thing on my list. And if a counter offer is just a salary bump, it’ll only be a band-aid on the other issues that made me want to leave in the first place.
Sometimes, the counter-offer will include more things (e.g. a chance to work on a different project, or some career progression opportunity), but in many cases, I think that’s probably too little too late. If they had the option to offer these things, why didn’t they offer before? If they really could deliver on the change promised, then why have things not changed? Etc, etc.
I think that, if you’ve decided to leave, you’re already mentally out the door, and if you’re just testing the waters with the threat of leaving, then you’re playing a risky game.
about 80% of people who accept a counter offer end up leaving within a year anyway.
@jen you are dead right. I have made the decision to leave a number of jobs over the years, for various reasons. Usually , by the time I am ready to leave, twice the salary and half the work hours wouldn’t keep me there
There is always a lot more to a job than salary and hours
I was planning on handing in my notice today, if my boss offers me a pay rise or whatever I’m gonna relay his best quotes to me to him(I don’t want you, I need you & if you had ambition you be a millionaire like me) and then I’m gonna laugh and go back to work to enjoy my next week picking my nose with a smile on my face.
Half the public service just emptied
It’s well known and often advised by recruiters that you should never accept a counter-offer… Even if it will pay more than the offer you have from the other company you shouldn’t take it as now your boss knows you want to leave and it’s only a short term solution for them while they start thinking about your replacement…
And the recruiters won’t get their commission.
…as “advised by recruiters”. Well, that’s what they would say…
If you accept a counter-offer, your “helpful” recruiter doesn’t get a cut.
Yes that’s part of it for sure… But here is a more comprehensive answer which is not written by a recruiter….
You’re right Niamh. It’s written by someone interviewing the owner of a recruitment consultancy and quoting them.
If only…
We live in a world of mass unemployment. The late 90s this ain’t…
Unemployment is about 11% in Ireland. It’s hardly mass unemployment.
Compared to the late 90s/early 00s it is. I envy your optimism!
Next….
I’m handing in my notice……. Security please
Would they like to clarify the 54% figure?
Good bye Stephen Hello Ambroży.
If you’re talented and coming from a top company or firm… You can do even better, you’ll likely be asked if any of your ex colleagues would be considering moving and collect a nice 5 figure referral bonus.
Quite rare, I would imagine.
When was the last time you picked up ‘a cool €10,000 referral’ yourself?
Never did? That was ‘a friend of a friend of yours’, of course.
I’ve personally seen 6 figure ones. They however are incredibly rare…
The only rare thing here is the truth
Was that in London Financial district?
I find it hard enough to believe the €10,000 to be honest – especially these days when most people would be quite happy to have a well paid job (or any decent job) in the first place.
I’ll be straight with you here, Drew – I don’t believe you ever saw a €10,000 referral fee, never mind €100,000.
Really enjoyed this article and the very witty responses! for once I am glad to be retired and no mention of bloody water.!
Actually yes you would be right… London and Hong Kong mostly finance and legal but also these days increasingly in the tech industry.
Working in international finance myself…..never have I seen a referral bonus for more than 2k. Ever. Referral bonuses are part of company policies and laid down in the employee handbook, sure everyone would be referring their mothers brothers and dogs for six figures if that was the policy.
If your dog was a partner of 10 years or more in Goldman Sachs…
Then they would be approached and poached directly, they wouldn’t be giving their CV to a mate to get referred. Its called headhunting.
Approached and poached directly by… say a contact that worked with or above them previously and with the influence to persuade them to jump ship.
Do you honestly think I’m suggesting rounding up CVs from your mates?
No, Drew – we just think you’re talking out of your ar$e.
If anyone has a company referral scheme & active jobs they are recruiting for in marketing/ development or non IT Projrct management PM me
My boss can’t wait for ALL of us to go !!
No Drew, I honestly think your suggesting that a company would pay an employee in excess of €100,000 just to put a word in for someone else. That company would be going swiftly out of business my friend. If you don’t know the difference between headhunting and referring, I give up.
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