OK. This has been happening more and more. While, I thought this was a thing of the past the younger generation of job-seekers don’t realize what a horrible mistake this is. I pulled a great, concise list from http://www.forcomposites.com/INFORMATION/twelvereasons.htm that I think covers a few reasons why NEVER to accept a counter offer from your current employer:

Twelve Reasons Not to Accept a Counter-Offer

(Not all of these apply in every situation, but some do apply.)

1. What type of company, or people, do you work for if you have to threaten to quit or resign before they give you what you are worth?

2. Where is the money for the counteroffer coming from? It’s usually your next raise early. All companies and people have strict salary guidelines and budgets to consider. They get paid more when they keep the budget low.

3. Your company may immediately start looking for a new person at a cheaper price or someone they will have to pay as much as they have offered you.

4. You have now made your employer aware that you are unhappy. From this day on your loyalty will always be in question.

5. When promotion time comes around, your employer will remember who was loyal and who wasn’t.

6. When times get tough, your employer may begin the cutback with you.

7. The same circumstances that now cause you to consider a change will repeat themselves in the future even if you accept a counter offer.

8. Statistics show that if you accept a counter offer, the probability of voluntarily leaving in six months or being let go within one year is extremely high. (We have heard 80% in six months to one year.)

9. Accepting a counter offer is an insult to your intelligence and a blow to your personal pride knowing that you have been underpaid for a number of years.

10. Once the word gets out the relationship that you now enjoy with your co-workers will never be the same. You will lose the personal satisfaction of peer-group acceptance.

11. Recruiting someone to take your place will possibly require a salary about what you have now been offered, time and money lost while finding your replacement and bringing them up to speed, possibly a fee to a recruiter or for ads, and taking valuable time to recruit someone whether through a recruiter or internal sources.

12. When you resign, you have created a “crisis” situation in your boss’s mind. The boss immediately feels

1. Rejection

2. Dejection

3. Sense of loss

4. Sense of failure (He did think he could keep you on board for less money than he now offers.)

5. Anger

Remember. With your boss feeling this way, he usually has only one thing in mind. That is - keep you on the payroll until he can find your replacement.

AGAIN, NOT ALL OF THESE REASONS APPLY IN EVERY SITUATION,

BUT SOME SURELY DO!

The debate has arisen ever more so in the social, network driven recruitment space than in the history of the staffing industry. Recruiters utilize tools for branding purposes to encourage job seekers to recognize the online presence of a company, and then get redirected through the different ad on Facebook to their job/ career portal. This seems to be a viable strategy for larger companies, or even start-ups that create a lot of buzz with a successful venture raise, so job seekers know they can afford top talent. The question remains, how do the little guys, or struggling non-tech/ flashy companies leverage these networks to their advantage as well?

This is a tricky proposition, because why spend the ad and marketing dollars on great placment on these social sites like facebook or even Linkedin. It is not a guarantee, and is definitely not a good ROI for a company that is already known for lower than market compensation packages. 

The answer, well that’s up to you, but I will say that going back to the old direct source model and selling just a little bit harder to the talent may be the differentiator that your recruiting efforts need to stand out to a job seeker. The marketing is really you, not your company; while you of course need to stand by your company’s brand, you need to stand by yours first and foremost. The way you actually verbally articulate the culture, and the honest approach you take with a candidate could wind up landing you that VP that every other company has been vying for. The difference being you, and having your proactive approach to reaching out to that candidate who went through the portal on the other company’s career sites, will build a rapport that creates a comfort level and security with you.

It just may be what they need to sign on the dotted line, as opposed to their esignature with the other company.

Having recently returned from the huge fashion tradeshow for retailers in Las Vegas, NV Magic/ Project/ Pool I was able to see a lot of the new trends and techniques for hiring staff in the industry. The show has evolved exponentially since early 2000s and is continually outdoing itself from a transaction and volume standpoint, and from a technology standpoint. The company that own magic Advanstar Communications has done an incredible job at harnessing new technologies such as; an interactive map of all the shows that lets you customize and plan your route to different booths. It has really streamlined the buying process, and increased transactions no doubt. My interest at the show was not just all the amazing stores, but how these stores ranging from boutiques to Levi’s and Nike handle their hiring all over the world. This is of course, a key ingredient of keeping any of these businesses running smoothly… a good maneger, and reps can make or break the store especially at the three days of frenzied buying @ Magic. 

There was a a brief keynote given on how to hire in the new generation… the focus was entirely on social media. This is to be expected, but how do you leverage these networks? Going through your like list from your company page hardly sounds effective. What if you don’t have a big social network, and lastly if all else fails, who wants to pay for posts on craigslist where 1000’s of unqualified applicants flood your inbox. I realized why social is importance to leverage, and use for talent sourcing, it is still light years beyond a top hiring resource for the retail industry.

I did see some other cool technology companies like OneStep Retail who had a very slick iPad app for retailers called Teamwork that worked pretty well. The rep I met was awesome, and demo’d it along with few other products for me. Outside of them there were not too many forward thinking technology companies there; specifically, not a single technology company providing a solution for hiring for their retail businesses.