"Counter Offers: The Other Side We Often Overlook"

A candidate accepts an offer and resigns — then receives a counter offer. It’s frustrating for recruiters and employers, but leaving a job is rarely as simple as it looks from the outside.

A candidate accepts an offer, prepares to resign, and then receives a counter offer. More money. Better conditions. Greater flexibility. Perhaps even promises of future progression. For the recruiter and the new employer, it is incredibly frustrating.

Why it’s so frustrating for everyone else

Both the recruiter and the new employer have invested real time in the process. Interviews have been completed, negotiations have taken place, and everyone has started preparing for the candidate’s arrival. A counter offer at the last minute unwinds all of that in a single conversation.

The conversation we naturally have

As recruiters, we naturally remind candidates why they started looking in the first place. We ask whether more money will actually fix the original problem. We question why recognition or progression only appeared after the resignation, not before it. We explain that the reasons for leaving may still be there in six months. Those are important conversations, and they need to happen.

The side we sometimes neglect

But there is another side that we sometimes overlook. Leaving a job is often much harder than accepting a new one. Once resignation becomes real, candidates start thinking about their finances, their family, and the risks of joining a new organisation. They speak to their spouse. They think about probation, job security, and the people they will leave behind.

Then the counter offer arrives

Their current employer gives them another option. They may receive more money or better conditions — and they can wake up the next morning and return to the same workplace, with the same colleagues and the same familiar routine. Against that pull, a new opportunity can suddenly feel like the riskier choice.

People are human

We can remind candidates of their original reasons for entering the process, but people are human. Circumstances change. Priorities change. Feelings change. That does not make the outcome any less disappointing. Candidates should still communicate honestly and make their decision as early as possible — but sometimes, after we have asked the right questions and explained the risks, we simply have to accept their decision.

How we handle it

Counter offers are part and parcel of recruitment. Sometimes there is a strong secondary candidate. Sometimes we have to start the search again. Either way, we bite the bullet, manage the situation professionally, and move on.

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