the big decision of " to stay or to go" and "to retain or to let go" are driven by the same set of variables but with different perspectives. Whereas an employee will be keen to see the long-term win, for employer this could be a short-term fix. No employee is irreplaceable and no organisation is angelic. Counter offer is an outcome. A more pro-active talent management team can understand the motivation and frustration factors of strong performers, and can continuously feed into the management to be prepared for such unexpected resignations and knee-jerk counter offers.

1. Irrespective of economic ups and downs most of the HR professionals will
agree that it is always hard to find an experienced and qualified employee
in short notice. Hence retaining good talent is a top priority for business
success. Lately employers have been emphasizing to include retention as a
measurable KPI in line managers' as well as HRBPs' performance plans.
There are plenty of retention tools, but one of the most controversial tools
is counter offer.
When a critical employee resigns, the employers make counteroffer to hold
on to him/her as it is difficult to find a replacement. These counteroffers
have become very common. Counterofferconsists of various commitments
like additional compensation, new designation or even international
opportunities.
Does counter offerreally work? A group of proponents think, there is
nothing wrong in counter offers and its way to correct past mistakes;
whereas others think it hardly works and the risks outnumberthe perceived
benefits. Actually there are no right or wrong answers.
Let's examine the intricacies of counter offer both for the employees and
the employers.
As per contract Law, counter offer implies that " the negotiation is on,
rather than breaking them off". Technically speaking counter offer makes
the position of the employee much stronger by giving him/her power to
bargain.
Historically counter offers have been mostly hush-hushandknee-jerk
attempts. Most of the times the counteroffers are not well thought through.

2. When a counter offer is made, the first question employees ask : why now!
Why was it not offered before! And the managers act ignorant saying " You
never spoke to me about your issues!". Resignation is an outcome of long-
term dissatisfaction.
HR experts have warned often that if the counteroffer hasn't addressed the
intrinsic de-motivation/frustration factors, howeverappealing it may
appear, the deal will fall thorough in few months. Many times the
employers presume that by offering extra money, the employee can be
retained. Howeverthe truth is counter offer is no mathematics. Hence an
attempt to match numbers doesn't work. The two important prerequisites
to make successful counteroffers are
1. The counter offer must be carefully crafted to address the basic factors of
frustration and
2. As much as possible the counter offer should be co-created in unambiguous,
written and least rhetoric manner. Giving ample clarity on future growth potential,
learning opportunities, money and international opportunities etc.
On an average people change close to 10-12 jobs in total career span of 30 -
40 years. Hence an employer has no reason to press the panic button of
loss. There is also no needto be pressurized by powerful senior leaders who
may act hands in glove with key resources to put undue pressure and build
personal loyalties. Instead the HR person shoulddo the homework to
outline pros & cons of accepting the resignation vis-a-vis the counter offer.
Who knows it may so happen that the replacement could reduce the
pressure on payroll and may bring in equal or more credible resource.
Let us examine certain extraneous factors. When a counteroffer is made,
the secrecy doesn't stay for long, colleagues discover about the offer and

3. feel being treated unfairly. As they feel un-important they may turn
uncooperative leading to dysfunctional teams. There is also large
probability that employers will face similar situations from other
competitive employees leading to frequent adjustment to compensation
whacking the payroll out of control. This is a vicious cycle. It is often
observed that whereas the employer does think about such possibilities of
dominoes effect, the employee seldom thinks about this new equation
which can be a drain on positive energy of the organisation.
Though the above situations paint a biased picture about counter offers, the
solution is not always "walking away". One shouldalso weigh the risks of
settling in a new job, and the time required to make reputation impact,
additionally in VUCA times anotherhazard could be the "Last in - First out"
approach adopted by many organisations.
When does the counter offer really work? In my experience the counter
offer works well when an employee has an extremely supporting
manager/boss/senior leader in the organisation who works as an anchor
and advocates for the cause. And typically if the demotivation issues are
related to money/relocation, they are relatively easy to solve vis-à-vis if the
underlying de-motivation issues are aspirations, cultural or
entrepreneurial.
To sum it up, the big decision of " to stay or to go" and "to retain or to let
go" are driven by the same set of variables but with different perspectives.
Whereas an employee will be keen to see the long-term win, for employer
this could be a short-term fix. No employee is irreplaceable and no
organisation is angelic. Counteroffer is an outcome. A more pro-active
talent management team can understand the motivation and frustration

4. factors of strong performers, and can continuously feedinto the
management to be prepared for such unexpectedresignations and knee-
jerk counter offers. The employee too needs to reflect on his/her stage of
life, long term desire, and if at all he/she wants to be part of the emotional
roller coaster journey of counter offers.
Either ways, the best possible scenario is healthy discussion between
employee and employer. Only if the basic motivation factors of the
employee can be addressed then it is worth making a counteroffer.