Mysteries, lies, and ruthlessness – that’s what negotiations regarding the workforce often entail. And that’s especially the case when it’s all about a job counter offer. This area of human resources, often underestimated, is one of the crucial but also complex ones. The result of such efforts may greatly influence the company’s financial position as well as turnover rates. Knowing all aspects of making job counter offers is very important especially in the case of the IT area. It’s because the more difficult it is to replace an employee, the harder recruiters or managers try to keep them.
And, as we all know, IT professionals belong to those most sought-after and hard-to-find specialists. But also the most cherished ones by many businesses who treat them as priceless treasures. For this reason, the news that the IT employee wants to quit may come as a surprise for many. Employers are simply sure that they have done everything to please them and to avoid that awkward situation. But can they prevent the employee from leaving at this stage? And can a good job counter offer be a means for that? What’s the best way of utilizing this powerful tool? Let’s see.
When making a job counter offer may be a good idea
Obviously, a job counter offer is not something very common – it is only made when it’s profitable for employers. However, there are many reasons for the employee’s departure, and many reasons why managers want to keep them. The first case is when the person in question is irreplaceable or hard to replace – has unique talents, abilities, qualifications. Or belongs to the very narrow group of specialists everyone in the market fight for.
We should also analyze what impact – immediate and long-term – the employee’s departure may have on the team as a whole. First and foremost, it may undermine its morale, and trigger other employees’ resignations. When one person decides to quit, others tend to rethink their current working situation or professional position. And the bottom line may even be more employees’ departures.
And even if they decide to stay, their bonds with the company may weaken. If one team member leaves, despite the feeling of loyalty towards the company or boss, why can’t others follow? Well, they can, and they often do. Of course, it may be that the leaving person was not a liked one, and even not that necessary. And it may be that the whole company will react to the employee’s leave with relief.
But there’s a huge cost looking for the replacement entails we should always keep in mind. It may take many months and a lot of money to train new employees right. Within this time, their performance may be much worse. And, eventually, it may turn out that the new person is not a good match, anyway. And remember that the leaving person has been trained by the company in question for years, too. And now, many pieces of information on this business may go to one of its competitors, easily.
How to succeed with a job counter offer
Building a job counter offer is not an easy thing. To succeed with it, we should consider many factors. First of all, it’s not smart to reduce the whole issue to financial matters. Even if money is one of the factors that contributed to the employee’s decision, there are probably more important ones. It may be too late to save the day with a raise when the employee has crossed the line, already. And now, what they feel are resentments, bitterness, and disappointment – often with being disregarded, not appreciated, and ignored for months.
Of course, do ask the employee why they want to leave and try to fix all those nagging problems. What may work is treating an employee as a complex human being, and showing respect to them and their worries. Many solutions may turn out to be useful here. Some of them include moving to another department or assigning a very interesting project. Setting a budget for professional development may come in handy, too. Anyway, it’s much better to present all of those steps as if they had been prepared beforehand. It’s also good if not only the current manager but also many colleagues are persuading the leaving person to stay.
Additionally, we can utilize the fact that the leaving employee is probably afraid of the new challenge to some extent. Despite making a decision, they may be frightened to go elsewhere, because it’s risky and may end up with failure. There are many things that might go wrong and result in the employee’s regret. They may not be the right fit for a given position, and their new colleagues may be less supportive. The new set of duties may also be too broad and the employee’s competencies – insufficient.
How to avoid employees’ leaves
Of course, prevention is better than cure. For this reason, it’s way better to keep track of what’s going on in the team and how employees feel. Both giving and receiving feedback are crucial here, and may keep employees very satisfied with a given company. By using this tool, managers may trace any bad feelings occurring within the team at an early stage. And an employee may only seem to be happy but, in fact, be already planning a career someplace else.
It’s good to remember that the way bosses treat employees daily, influences their attitude toward work greatly. As Officevibe suggests, it’s 30x more likely to make people actively engaged at work when managers focus on their strengths. And 4 in 10 workers are actively disengaged when they get little or no feedback. Moreover, 78% of employees say that being recognized motivates them in their job. And almost all (98%) claim that they will fail to be engaged when managers give little or no feedback. So, as we can see, the lack of feedback in time may be detrimental to the employee’s morale. And may be the first step towards reaching the point of no return regarding the decision to leave for good.
What we also should keep in mind is that money is not a top factor for many employees. And IT people are no exception here. What makes developers choose an employer worldwide, are, according to Statista, primarily not good finances. „Salary” and „benefits” have only been mentioned by 18% and 4% of respondents, respectively. And the majority of them (51% in total) pointed out values such as ”more communication”(29%) and „more transparency” (22%).
