You’ve been offered a new job – but now your current employer has come in with a counter offer. So should you stay or should you go?

First things first – congratulations! You now have not one but two companies chomping at the bit to have you. Take a moment to give yourself a pat on the back, toast your success or do a celebratory dance. Enjoy those feelings of being flattered, appreciated and valued.

Now take a few more moments to think about what to do next.

We don’t want to burst your bubble, but that counter offer might have everything to do with your current employer and nothing to do with you. Once they’ve factored in the expense hiring a replacement, onboarding and training, your leaving is going to cost your employer dear, so it makes financial sense for them to hold onto you. When a counter offer comes with a nice pay rise, it would be wise to think about who gains most from you accepting it.

It’s usually a matter of salary, and of course if your main reason for seeking a new job was to earn more, then a counter offer that gives you the figure you were looking for seems a good bet. However, there are no guarantees that you’ll end up financially better off in the long run as you could find that your new package is more generous when it comes to bonuses or it could be that you’re subject to a salary freeze down the line. One lawyer who worked in a large American bank stayed and accepted a counter offer with a significantly increased salary only to find their workload significantly increased too. He left within six months.

Often counter offers are not all about the pay. You may have been promised that promotion you were after, or more flexibility to work from home, or that you will have the opportunity to grow a team. But these aren’t always elements that employers can just pull out of the bag, they often take a long time to materialise. If they are going to promote you for instance, they may need to create a job, restructure, or also interview others for the role. More work flexibility may require moving regular meetings and providing equipment and growing a team requires budget and a need. And with all these, employers also need to deal with the risk of upsetting people around you, and this is why so often we hear of these promises not being kept.

Chances are, if you’ve been looking to leave for a while, you have already had these conversations with your boss. And you have to ask yourself, how much do they really value you if you’ve had to go as far as resigning to get them to listen? What does it say about the organisation, its management and culture? And what happens when you need to have these conversations further down the line? Wouldn’t it be nice if they rewarded your contribution and commitment without having to resign?

It’s not always the wrong decision however. Sometimes employers are unaware of how important that request was to you until you resign. Sometimes employees assume that there is a glass ceiling or no chance of a pay rise so they don’t even ask. And sometimes the counter offer is so unexpectedly good that it is worth sticking it out for a year or so more regardless. I worked with one lawyer recently who accepted a counter offer with a significant salary raise and promotion. It was always coming but the frustration of how long it was taking made him think it was never going to happen. He is now very happy, managing a large team on a healthy package.

However, this is rare. And a high percentage of people who take a counter offer are back on the job market within a year. And I was one of them. I was lured into staying with my company with the offer of a promotion which never happened because I required flexible working and the company structure didn’t allow it. I don’t blame my boss. Looking back, I can see that my resignation caused a knee-jerk reaction where I was made a counter offer without it being properly thought through. And in my naivety I grabbed the offer without thinking it through either.

That’s why I always advise candidates in this position to hold fire before accepting a counter offer. Remind yourself of why you were looking to leave in the first place. Take some time to look at what you really want out of your job. Is it all about the salary, or is it career progression, a better relationship with your team, less commuting time, more travel, increased responsibility or just a change? Ask yourself why your current company is suddenly counter offering you now if it’s something you flagged with them months ago. Do you really want to work for a company that only acts when they’re forced into a corner? And now that you’ve got it, is that counter offer really, honestly, all it’s cracked up to be?

March 2020

Whilst 2019 was a great year for many reasons, the financial services recruitment market for lawyers was probably the worst since the 2016 referendum, which can be entirely put down to the uncertainty. The need to hire in-house lawyers was evident, but widespread cost cutting, headcount freezes and unprecedented delays was not kind to potential recruits, resulting in a poor experience for many applicants. And a poor candidate experience from one company is a good hire for their competitor.

What do we mean, bad experience?

• Lengthy application processes – put off up to 50% of candidates from the outset.
• Malfunctioning online portals – don’t work correctly, have the wrong information, have expiry dates that automatically reject candidates etc.
• Poor job spec – generic templates, copied and pasted, too prescriptive or demanding, lacking information about required duties, and with no sell.
• No job spec – cautious lawyers won’t apply, regardless how much information the recruiter has, and chances are you will only see those for whom the search is most urgent.
• Lack of feedback (or any response at all!) – candidates will try unconventional methods to get through and there is a huge long-term negative impact on the organisation.
• Delays during the hiring process – waiting for approvals from the top, changes from perm to contract or put on hold, changes in requirements.
• Not informing the recruiter – who can only cover for so long before all parties look unprofessional and candidates question the commitment to hiring and culture of the organisation.
• Cold formulaic interviews – mean lawyers walk away ambivalent at best, and in a competitive market you will lose them.

What can you do differently?

• Put yourself in the applicant’s shoes – hiring managers are often candidates too, and we can see the difference when they are!
• Get your budget, need analysis and approvals done first – or at least communicate to the recruiter that you are just wanting to explore the market.
• Write an accurate job spec from scratch which sells the role and the organisation. An accurate and informative job spec often creates the positive first impression and shows that you have thought carefully and are serious about hiring. And if something changes, change the job spec.
• Respond to all applications, and ideally within a week, but a maximum of 2.
• Communication – if there are delays or changes, be honest in explaining why and use the recruiter to manage the candidate’s expectations.
• If you say you are going to interview a candidate, arrange it within the next 48 hours.
• Put some thought into your interviews which will leave a good impression even if the candidate is rejected. Make interviews informative, honest and friendly and ideally different and fun.
• Provide feedback – one sentence is fine, but more than a no thanks. This also goes a long way towards helping recruiters get it right, saving you time. Make it constructive and honest.
• Take responsibility for passing on the feedback, don’t assume because you are one step removed it is done. Make sure that it goes to HR and they pass it to the recruiter. If it is on email it is more likely to be forwarded and remains accurate.

And why does it matter?

• Because the talent on the market, some of which hasn’t even applied, is walking into your competition.
• Because those candidates are often also your customers, or potential customers.
• Because a candidate is more likely to shout about a bad experience than a good one.
• Because a negative reputation, so easily shared with social media, will mean you struggle to attract talent.
• Because a bad experience at 1^st interview will affect how they perform at 2^nd meaning you are losing people down the line.
• Because a new recruit is likely to put in more effort when they start if every experience they have had during the process has been positive, and they are likely to stay in their jobs longer too. Employee engagement starts with the first impression.
• Because the candidate you turned down may well be suitable for something down the line and will only apply again if they have a good experience.

We constantly hear that the biggest setback to company growth and productivity is being able to attract talent. Company performance and long-term business is affected by how you hire. An impressive candidate experience is far less demanding and expensive than the longer-term alternative of consistently replacing employees and attracting new customers.

January 2020

So do we!

Recently a lawyer who was towards the end of an interview process at a large bank, wanted to enquire about the maternity policy at their potential new employer. As recruiters we are constantly discussing and negotiating benefits, and can are usually provide a full list. But we are not usually informed of the maternity policy upfront, which left Tracy and I questioning… how should this question be raised?

It is a perfectly reasonable question to ask but understandably job seekers are concerned about how it reflects on them. I.e. will the new employer think that they are going to accept the job, become pregnant, and take up to 12 months maternity leave very quickly? It would be nice to think that even if this were to happen, it shouldn’t be an issue. However, there are many practical reasons why it can make things very challenging for employers, particularly small businesses, who have recruitment, salary and maternity leave costs to consider. And for us, it is an easy question to ask at the beginning of the process but much harder at a later stage, as it generally points to one person being particularly keen to receive the information. 

The lawyer mentioned above was one of two at final interview stage.  She intended to spend at least 3-5 years with her next employer and was hoping to have children towards the end of that time period. She wanted to compare the whole package at two potential employers but didn’t want this question to negatively impact her chances.  After agonising over it, we agreed that we would lean on our network in order to get the information. With over 15 years in the industry each, we knew enough people to be able to make a few phone calls to people we know and within 30 minutes had the information she needed.

This is a matter close to my heart as it effectively happened to me.  I joined my last employer at 30 years old and had been married for a year. I questioned whether it was a sensible time to be moving but couldn’t stay in a job that wasn’t fulfilling. I made the leap, and was then pleasantly surprised to find out that I was expecting my first child just 6 weeks into my new job.  I was delighted, but also very nervous about telling my employer as I had been entrusted to develop a new business line, and I felt as though I was letting them down.  I wished that I had asked about the maternity policy beforehand. It turned out that I hadn’t been employed long enough to qualify for the maternity package and was only eligible for the statutory allowance.  However, they treated me brilliantly, making it clear that they had hired me for the long term and were expecting great things on my return. They also topped up my statutory pay to put me on a par with longer term employees.  They treated me better than I could have possibly expected and in return won considerable loyalty from me. I stayed there for 10 years!

I was very lucky, and also worked for a smaller employer meaning more flexibility was on offer. In most cases when we have asked, HR have not readily had the information to hand, which shows how seldom this gets raised. So our advice would be use your recruiters. If it is on your mind, don’t leave it to the last interview to ask your recruiter to find out, but tell them that this is something you want to know from the outset. And try to use recruiters who have strong networks and can get inside information to you. This doesn’t just apply to maternity policy, but to expected working hours, flexible working, team dynamics, culture and bonuses. Not everyone sees recruiters as helpful, and we understand why, but we will try to make the process easier for you if we can.