Beloved friends. Can we all pause for a moment of silence to recognize a loss? It was the most tragic event, and I'm in mourning: I lost a candidate last week. She slipped away from me, and yes folks, this is a tragedy. Or maybe this is my bruised ego talking, but hear me out.
Fast forward through the sourcing (Twitter!), fast forward past the courting ritual (rolled out a red carpet, scattered with rose petals), and let’s stop at when I made the offer. We talked about salary and title/level twice at length before the actual offer. I came at her with a reasonable, solid offer and she verbally accepted on the spot. There wasn't a need for negotiation. We talked about potential start dates. Things were looking really good, and she proceeded to give her notice.
We both knew her current employer would put up a fight. And as expected, they countered. She refused though and declined their counter-offer. She was ready to move on, towards me. But then they countered again. She refused a second time. But then they countered again – a THIRD time! And at that point, my gal had to pause and rethink the situation. More money was offered. An enhanced role was offered. I think the stars and the moon were thrown in as well, just for good measure. And so, she needed some time to think about it all. Fair enough. The resignation process and three counter offers put her into a bit of a tailspin, and things were blurry, so we tried to give her space and room to breathe.
A few days, I lost her. She decided to stay put with her current employer. Three counter-offers later.
But this isn't a rant about the candidate. This is a rant towards people managers out there and my fellow recruiting and HR pros. Three counter offers?! Really? At what point are you just being excessive, if not desperate? At a certain point, isn't it too little too late? So you offer more money. You hand out a promotion. You restructure a job. You offer the stars and the moon. You make all sorts of overtures to keep someone from leaving you. But you're only doing this after the fact – as a last ditch effort to try to make it work. Why did you wait until the situation was dire – when there was an actual threat for loss – to "do the right thing"? Where were you before? And would you have ever ponied up in the same way if there weren't the threat for loss, aka a resignation?
For stepping up and doing an employee right, congrats. I'm glad organizations are willing to go the extra mile in the name of retention for high performers. But the goal? It should be to get ahead of having to do counter offers (x3) and making grand gestures then and there. Pay your people fairly and be competitive within your industry. Give people growth and stretch opportunities so they never get bored. Show your people you value them and that the grass isn't greener on the other side before they wander to other pastures. Do the right thing before someone actually resigns to show you are capable of and, more importantly, willing to do the right thing because you value your people. Because when you don't, it's like admitting to doing wrong only if caught in the act. And that, I think, is kinda shady.
Maybe, wait, probably, my ego is feeling a little frail and battered on this one. And you know how mourning works – I am in that stage of the grief cycle where you are angry about the loss. I'm certain that's a big piece of this rant. I’m a little upset with myself and this situation. But to you who are out there, you three counter offer types… fine. You win. Temporarily. You got the girl, for now at least. But to keep the girl and make this a real, sustained win? Do her good. Follow up with your promises of growth opportunities. Make sure you actually give her the stars and the moon and that all you promised actually happens for her. Don't let her down. Because it would be a grand pity to offer all that you did to keep her and then do nothing to sustain…
Eventually she’s going to call you back.
Will you take her call? If you do I’m curious what you’ll say to her when she tells you that she made a mistake and that she wants to see if the opportunity is still available.
Another interesting recruiting challenge is the risk of the unknown, no matter how enticing the offer, will often outweigh the cost of staying put.
We’ve seen people in bad “relationships”, but just too nervous about what a new job, a new boss, a new team, a new culture, and a new set of expectations will bring.
Accepting an offer brings, then mulling over the change brings a lot of doubts. And that’s just from the candidates side…
But to your point, it is too bad employers take their greatest resource for granted.
Great post.
I’m not positive, but I think the statistic is that something around 50% of the people who stay as a result of a counter offer from an employer leave within a year after anyway. Psychologically, you are already gone and it takes a lot to push that away. Plus, the same behaviors that caused the person to want to leave don’t change (So keep in contact!).
The larger issue, though, is whether or not corporations really value talent. All corporate loyalty to employees is gone; anyone will lay you off in a cold blooded minute to cut costs. If you are different, that is a huge competitive advantage.
Employees, especially in this recession, are really a commodity. Throw in rampant outsourcing to the cheapest labor source to do the work and people start getting treated like inventory that has a shelf life, turns, and the need to be counted once a year to see how much cost is in the product.
Essentially, today companies hire you to help achieve the company’s financial goals. And that’s OK as long as you flip that and say that I will only work for companies as long as they help me achieve my work goals. Then it is a win-win. Right now, most people don’t have that attitude so it is a win-lose. That needs to change.
So keep in contact. Make sure you understand her working goals and how your company can help her reach those goals.
After all, the other company has already proven they don’t get what she brings to the table. You think this will now change? Naw. I have complete faith they will totally screw it up again. I’d say two months.
Let me know if my prediction is accurate…
I love how dismissive recruiters are of the current employer. From someone who has both successfully counter-offered a leaving employee (and both of those A players outstayed me) and successfully broken a counter-offer in two like Chuck Norris, it is that sort of arrogance that makes counter-offers ridiculously successful in spite of their risk.
Let’s take one of my examples: You have an A player who seems content in their role. You’re the good HR person who has built a relationship with them and you’ve talked candidly about different working situations there and everything seems fine. Then out of left field, they are telling you how they got a great job offer. Here’s how the three counter-offer process goes:
1. The money offer – Most people will mention money first. Cool. So the first offer revolves around a better base comp or bonus plan. If there is ANY hesitation to take the money and stay, you know it is something else. I can make this offer without asking anyone.
2. The “figuring out why you’re really leaving” offer – You want more responsibility or more flexibility and more money. The moon, the stars, etc… You’re a top player and we want to keep you. How about we do those things plus push that project forward we’ve been talking about doing? Or it isn’t public knowledge yet but this guy is retiring in three months… You get to the “Yes, but…”
3. The “I made a commitment to them though” offer – There are two ways of handling this: make the nuclear offer or make the relationship appeal. The nuclear offer is pretty great but I personally like the relationship appeal better. If you’re the HR person in this scenario, you know the person better than the recruiter. You find a way for them to break that commitment and honor their original one.
Wow – having just been in that candidate’s shoes, I find it interesting to hear the other side of the story. I elected to accept and stick with my new employer for most of the reasons you listed…why wait until I’m out the door before you recognize my value.
Hope the bruised ego heals soon.
I am so very sorry for your loss. I’ve seen this happen too many times. It really sends the wrong message to the original firms employees. Basically saying, the only way we’ll pay you what you’re worth is if you spend all of your time looking for a different job.
If I’m really worth that much to you, why aren’t you offering the stars and the moon to me now to insure I have no desire to look elsewhere?
If she’s that great of a candidate, keep in touch with her. She’ll be back.
Why didn’t you counter offer?
Ooh poor Jessica… The truth is that the counteroffer is going to buy the company 6 months with her. No more, no less… their efforts on retention will fade into history, and the next HR person won’t bend over backwards this way. And their efforts will go for naught in the long run.
@john – most definitely i’ll take her call. she has a get out of jail free card…
@thelance – it’s not about the counter offer process though… this is really about the reactive nature of the counter offer and getting to the root reasons for someone leaving, before even having to counter offer, i think.
@HRPUFFNSTUFF – it wasn’t the issue. more money on my end wouldn’t have made a difference. and, it’s not my style to get into bidding wars
Jessica, not much consolation but you’re not alone!
In fact our own experiences of counter-offers lately prompted the HTS blogger to post this a few months back (see “The perils of accepting a counter-offer”, posted 09 March 2010):
http://hts.typepad.com/mr-resourceful/2010/03/index.html
Chin up, kiddo – it’s swings and roundabouts. And if companies like the one you mentioned above didn’t exist our pool of available candidates would significantly diminish – so we have a lot to thank them for too!
Her employer is pardon the reference to your most reference – a SANDBAGGER! I would never counter 3 times to one of my employees. Why..not showing me loyalty. Love me once, love me twice..but three times? That employer has promised her a whole bunch of nothing. There are other great people just like that candidate who have decided that the grass is greener and need to make a move.
I lost three candidates to a “no 401(k) match” which was pulled about a year ago to help avoid more headcount loss. Even after telling them we would be reinitiating the match within a12 to 18 months, they still said NO. I was aggravated, pissed, etc-not in mourning- that they were offered more in salary but wouldn’t join because of about 3K to their bottom line which may or may not come in due to a crazy stock market.
Your posts are great and move on past the flake. She showed poor judgement.
Michael
@superrecruiter
As I stated, at times, there is *no* opportunity to be proactive. If a key player gets recruited just for some shaggy promises of more money or autonomy, I have no problem with a counter offer and full bore retention. If you have a great relationship with a key person in your organization and you’ve talked multiple times about what they are doing, how else should you get to the root problem? Many times, the root problem is manufactured by a recruiter and the employee does a smart thing and stays.
At times when the counter offer is just a reactive, pissant response to a person leaving, I bet that gets sniffed out some time in the next year (if not immediately). But recruiters think EVERY counter offer is like that and I think that is pretty damn dangerous.
Jessica,
I enjoyed this anecdote, and I’m as disappointed as you as to what this experience implies about the candidate’s original employer. I actually included your story in a recent blog post I wrote about employee engagement and how employers’ interactions with their employees over the past year will likely dictate employee retention rates as the economy rebounds. I welcome your comments.
http://blog.yoh.com/2010/05/recession-to-succession-importance-of.html
Mindy
Being one of the walking dead due to layoffs, I keep in touch with some of those that were given the opportunity to seek employment elsewhere. Some have found work, but at a reduced rate, maybe 30% less. I wonder how employers think they will keep someone after a year or so and they are up to speed and on track. Will they counter with 50% pay increases? It’s more than the money, it’s also how you are treated.