The Counter-Offer

Like many employers, you may have learned at your expense that although an ideal candidate accepted your offer, the search is not over.

Employers do whatever they can to retain their talent. This often means they’ll reach deeper into their pockets to convince a top performer to stay.

Let us give you this advice: always, always, always have a back-up candidate.

Despite all his efforts, your headhunter can’t guarantee that a candidate won’t get cold feet… or get an offer that is too good to pass up, and therefore stay with their current employer.

After all, it is more comfortable to stay in a known environment than to make a scary change to a new job.

In addition to having a back-up, tell the candidate who has accepted your offer and is about to put their notice in, that it is likely the reasons they have for making a change are not just financial ones, and would continue to frustrate them — even with a pay raise. Especially since their current employer, upon receiving their 2-week notice, now knows their employee is not loyal. Enough to poison the relationship forever.

Handling a counter-offer is an art. Call us if you identify a need for more advice in the matter.

DSC is a boutique executive search firm located in San Jose, CA and serving the recruitment needs of businesses in the Silicon Valley. Our executive search process shortens the time it takes to find top talent for your business.