MESSI TRANSFER “U-TURN”… Should you take counter-offer if you resign too?

Messi’s burofax requesting a transfer request nearly broke google, with the football (soccer to some of you) star surpassing the number of searches worldwide, even to searches for coronavirus.

So apologies… YES, I’m jumping on the band wagon

Messi handed his transfer request on Tuesday 27th August and as the saga continues, there’s been daily developments of potential locations that he could possibly play for, but the biggest revelation yet has been rumors now that following a meeting between the Messi camp and Barcelona, there may be a major U-turn on his decision and he may stay put.

As a talent advisor, whilst reading this, a thought came into mind…a thought that is dreaded by recruiters/ talent partners…” HE’S GOING TO TAKE A COUNTER OFFER!!!”

Having been in the recruitment industry for over 13 years, I can no longer count the number of times I’ve shared with prospects that “taking a counter offer is a bad idea”, and whilst the statistics back the comment to be correct (80% of candidates who accept counter offer ends up leaving within 6 months anyways), the true answer to “SHOULD YOU TAKE A COUNTER OFFER” seems a bit more complicated than an YES or NO…

So my answer is actually MAYBE!!!

Yes, recruiters may not like this as it’s sending out a wrong message that’ll hinder them “closing” a deal, and honestly speaking, I was one of those recruiters 10 years back as I was building my own knowledge and skills within the industry, evolving from a sales professional to a consultant cum talent advisor.

Why  MAYBE? Because the underlying factors to whether you should take a counteroffer depends on what the counter offer is and the circumstances beforehand.

In 13 years, whilst I’ve coached hundreds if not thousands of resignations, I’ve personally only resigned three and a half times (the half is when I told my manager in the UK that I was in midst of a discussion of relocation with the Hong Kong MD of the firm). Looking back on this, a key take away I now have is that maybe my first resignation was avoidable.  If I’d been more open in communicating about my aspirations, the business may have been clearer as to how to position me to be aligned to that as I subsequently realised a restructure was about to take place.

Which leads to my answer of MAYBE…because it ultimately comes down to THE REASON why you explored externally in the first place;

Money –

This one is a bit clearer cut, and whilst over 50% of job seekers would say salary will be a reason for job seeking, the top three underlying factors of what triggered you to explore  in the first place was never money (unless you’re in sales), so the advice to taking a counter offer due to money will mostly be a NO…

Culture/ Working environment –

If the reason behind exploring was because of an aspiration to explore a platform that can offer you a difference in working culture, majority of the times this will be a NO, unless it’s within an extremely large organization with an option for you to join a totally different team that has a different cultural ecosystem…

Career objectives / Job accountability –

…obviously if you’ve been communicative of what you wanted before exploring, and only upon resigning are they giving you what you want then DO NOT take the counter offer (no employee should feel like they need to THREAT for a progression of career),

BUT…if only upon resigning, your employer realised about your aspirations and expectations of job role, and actually since your resignation, worked hard to put together a road map together for your role to align to your aspiration, then I’d definitely say MAYBE…

So unfortunately, I’m going to take the easy way out and sit between the fence on this one and say that Counteroffers are actually circumstantial…HOWEVER, my key advice to one and all would actually be:

“Do not wait until the resignation/ counter offer stage before you begin communicating your goals and objectives, be vocal and transparent. If you’re goals align and is realistic to your skillsets, you’d be surprised at what opportunities comes your way from within your company!  Good employees are hard to come by, all good employers will do what they can to keep their (good) staff happy”

So will MESSI leave Barcelona? I don’t know…but should you take a the counteroffer? Get in touch and we’d be happy to be your voice of reasoning (or play the devils advocate) in helping you with your decision making!

Signing off!

Your talent advisory

Paul