Should I accept a counter-offer? What the firm is really calculating

You have resigned, or you are about to, and the counter-offer arrives. More money, maybe a lot more. Would you stay for a 50% uplift? Tempting, right?

What the firm is really asking

When a senior leader resigned, the call about what to do landed with reward. I was Head of Technology HR at Credit Suisse, then technology reward at UBS during the integration, so I sat in a lot of those calls.

Nobody in them ever asked whether the person was worth more.

They asked how long it takes to hire at that level. Whether there was an internal successor who was six months short. What sat in the handover that nobody else had touched. Which client relationships walked out of the door with them.

Then somebody would ask what it would cost to hold them until March.

That is the question being answered when the offer arrives. Not what you are worth: what it costs to keep you until they are ready.

Why I think counter-offers never work

In my opinion, counter-offers never work.

You have already been through the whole process of deciding to leave, interviewing and securing another role. If you accept, you lose that opportunity, and you often pay for the increase for years afterwards, through low or no yearly increases.

You are now also the person who nearly quit. The new project goes to someone else. So does the next role.

What to do when one arrives

1. Go back to why you started looking. Write down the reasons. Does the offer fix any of them, or only the money?
2. Ask what changes besides pay: role, scope, manager, the thing that made you look.
3. Ask yourself who would know about it, and how it would change how you are seen.
4. Decide on a date, not in the room. Thank them, take a day, and answer in writing.

If you do stay, make sure it is for something other than the number.

Your next step

A counter-offer is exactly the kind of decision a Decision Call is for: forty-five minutes on it before you give your answer.

And if you want to be in a stronger position for the next move, whichever way it goes, the Optionality Vault keeps your case ready, ten minutes a month.