The Counter-Offer: When Talent Retention Falls Short – An Opinion Piece by Grégoire Beaurain for FocusRH
22.07.2026
The counter-offer has become recruiters’ worst nightmare. It can abruptly bring weeks of search, discussions and negotiations to an end, sometimes just days before a candidate is due to join their new employer. This situation disrupts the hiring company, undermines the work of executive search firms and clouds the candidate’s professional image after such a last-minute reversal. Even for the organisation that succeeds in retaining its employee, a counter-offer is not a victory: it is often a symptom of ineffective talent retention.
A Common… Yet Toxic Practice
Over recent years, counter-offers have become increasingly common. In talent-short markets, some estimates suggest that more than 40% of employees who resign are now presented with a retention offer. Executive search firms report that between one-third and one-half of candidates accept these offers, with even higher rates among the most sought-after profiles.
At first glance, everyone appears to benefit: the employee secures a pay rise, the employer avoids a resignation, and the hiring company will eventually fill the vacancy.
In reality, however, counter-offers often result in a lose-lose situation for everyone involved.
For the candidate, they can damage professional credibility, undermine the trust built with the organisation they were due to join, affect the relationship with the employer they ultimately remain with, and cast doubt on the consistency of their commitment. They also weaken the work of the executive search firm that supported the process.
For the hiring company, a counter-offer represents a significant setback. HR teams, hiring managers and recruitment consultants are forced to restart the search process from scratch.
Meanwhile, within the organisation that retains the employee, it can create the perception that announcing one’s resignation is the most effective way to secure a salary increase.
A Short-Term Response That Misses the Root Cause
Why are employers suddenly willing to make concessions they refused just a few months earlier? Because replacing an employee is expensive. Organisations must recruit a replacement, manage a temporary increase in workload, preserve critical expertise and minimise disruption to their teams. Under pressure, businesses react with short-term solutions rather than the strategic thinking the situation truly requires.
Yet a sometimes substantial salary increase, along with cosmetic measures such as a new title, broader responsibilities or vague promises of career progression, addresses the symptom rather than the underlying issue.
Because salary is not always the primary reason people leave. Employees often resign because they feel undervalued, experience poor management, face excessive workloads, receive insufficient feedback, lack career development opportunities or lose a sense of purpose.
A counter-offer is not a talent development strategy. It is a short-term retention measure driven by fear. At best, it is a temporary fix: the issues that prompted the employee to seek a new opportunity have merely been postponed and are likely to resurface — often more strongly than before. Indeed, many employees who accept a counter-offer end up leaving their organisation just a few months later.