Get ready to start countering – or not

As the economy picks up and more jobs come available, people are going to start resigning. With that, employers are going to counter offer. I say – Don’t do it!

Here are the facts;

over 80% of people who accept a counter offer cease to remain at that company after 6 months. WOW
54% of your current staff are looking for a new job – seriously they are. As soon as the market gains some strength they are shopping their resume.

So get ready to start countering – or not. As is the tone of many of my articles, I suggest getting pro-active. Talk to you employees and listen to their concerns, make changes and recognize their input. When it comes to wages – start handing our raises now. Don’t wait until someone resigns and give them the ol’ “we had just discussed you in our meeting and were planning on giving you a raise.” Most importantly, don’t punish top performers for the performance of the company.

You know what I mean. The company may not have made much or any money at all but now is the time to asses where the money you did make came from. Find out who did exceeded expectation or budget and reward them. Nothing is more demoralizing than not getting a raise, bonus or even recognition for being the diamond in the rough of a bad year. These are the 54% that are looking, not the under performers. Your best people if not recognized in some way will be your first to go.

Times have been and are tough, but it is time to change the mind set and manage a growing business rather than a business in survival mode. Money spent now will equal money saved in the very near future on advertising, interviewing, hiring and training.

Comment by Sean Gaudun on February 5, 2010 at 5:37pm: Great post Corey,

I loved these lines and I've seen it happen all too often over this down period. Frustratingly I've seen it happen with massively profitable companies that are just making a little less profit than they did before.

"Most importantly, don’t punish top performers for the performance of the company."
"Your best people if not recognized in some way will be your first to go"

The ability to not only recognize that talent but to display the necessary wisdom in order to avoid going down the often irreversible road of counter offers is key. Large companies are especially bad at this due to their sheer size. To properly manage and understand the important components of your business as well as the human success factors is typically too much for most. Sweeping cuts and drawbacks hit the masses at large firms where smaller operations may have the luxury of finessing a situation into something better if need be. That, and we humans are often times more focused on our own success so we lose sight of the fact that our own success is often weaved into many others.

Like Corey smartly eluded to; reward yourself later by rewarding those around you who deserve it now.

Thanks again Corey, always a good read.

Sean Gaudun