The counteroffer dilemma: what to ask yourself before you accept

When an executive hands in their resignation, the company often responds with an offer to keep them: a raise, a new title, or the promise of a project that, until that moment, was nowhere on the table. For the person resigning, the situation is flattering, but also uncomfortable. Should they accept? What actually changes if they stay? What are they putting at risk?

A few years ago, a study by the consulting firm HAYS found that 48% of companies in Latin America were willing to make a counteroffer when someone resigned, and that 37% of professionals would consider one. Expectations were clear: 73% expected a raise and 51% a promotion. In other words, the conversation almost always settles on money.

Still, it is worth asking why the person started looking elsewhere in the first place. The same study found that the main reasons for leaving were limited career development and uncompetitive pay. A counteroffer fixes the second; it rarely fixes the first. A raise does not change the nature of the work, the style of the manager, or the real room there is to grow.

It also pays to be careful with the figures that circulate on this topic. It is common to read that 80% of people who accept a counteroffer leave within a year, but no study backs that number. What does exist are narrower measurements: Robert Walters, for example, reported in 2023 that 39% of professionals who accepted a counteroffer ended up leaving the role within the year. Not a majority, but not a small number either.

From a people-management perspective, there is something these figures do not show. Once a resignation is on the table, the relationship changes. The manager now knows that this person was willing to leave, and that tends to linger when projects are assigned, successions are planned, or the next in line for promotion is decided. These negotiations are also rarely kept private, which can create tension with peers who did not get the same treatment.

So before answering, it is worth stopping on three questions:

1. Why did I start looking? If the answer is pay and the counteroffer fixes it, staying can be a good decision. If the answer is growth, leadership or the meaning of the work, the money only postpones the conversation.
2. What concretely changes? A new role with defined responsibilities is not the same as a promise to "look at it later".
3. Where do I want to take my career? The counteroffer answers the company's urgency not to lose someone. The decision should answer a professional goal of your own. That last question is probably the hardest. Many professionals reach this moment without having defined clearly what they want for the next few years, and end up deciding based on the best offer available rather than on their own plan. Extrinsic motivations, such as salary, tend to be short-term; what sustains a decision over time is intrinsic motivation, tied to the work itself, or transcendent motivation, tied to purpose.

For companies, the lesson remains the same: if counteroffers become frequent, the problem is not the people who resign, but how talent is identified and developed before the resignation letter arrives.

In the end, a counteroffer is neither good nor bad in itself. It is a decision that deserves to be weighed calmly, understanding what is gained and what is postponed. And if the underlying reasons cannot be fixed, it is worth remembering that you cannot force a relationship to work.