Promotion or Counter-offer?
By: Melissa Williams, Recruiting Manager
August 31, 2011
A few years ago, I recruited an executive to run a medium sized company. The night before he was supposed to start his new job, the executive called to say he was going to stay at his current position. The board of directors at his current company had promised him that he would hold the CEO position in one year's time.
I saw the writing on the wall, but my former candidate could hardly envision a better scenario. He had leveraged an offer to run a mid-sized company and used it to land the coveted top spot at a retailing giant.
He won, right?
Wrong.
After three rough years as CEO, my former candidate was fired. My candidate was not yet ready to run such a large organization. Had he accepted the job at the smaller company, he could have gained the necessary experience to successfully run a major retail chain in due time.
Instead, he lured his company into a bidding war and forced the board to make a rash decision about retention in the name of corporate competition. As a result, his career ultimately suffered a mortal blow, not to mention the damage he caused shareholders, who watched their stock drop as a result of his inexperience.
I share this story for 2 reasons:
- 1. Accepting a counter offer is 9 times out of 10 a big no-no. Your company knows you were looking, knows you have been interviewing and understands that your head has not been in the game. They could even blame you for any "mess ups" that have happened in the last couple months. BUT they want to hand YOU more money or a bigger title to stay. Red flag, anyone?
- 2. In the story above this gentleman wasn't ready to get a promotion. You may be handed the farm but it doesn't mean you were their first pick. If you were wouldn't this be called a promotion and NOT a counter-offer.
The good news:
"We are here to save the day!" Said to the tone of the theme song from Superman.
When you have engaged in a recruiting company it is the recruiters job to know when a counter offer may happen, why it will happen and what it will cost YOU to save the day. Now I am not saying we will ALWAYS save the day but the recruiter knows the candidates hot buttons. We are the hair dressers of the staffing industry - candidates tell US EVERYTHING. We may not share everything with you until we need to. Talk to us....make sure we are involved in every step of the offer. We are trained professionals and frankly you are paying us to do the hard part.