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Tell the boss you're leaving - and there's a good chance you'll get a counter offer

Irish companies sometimes offer pay rises of up to 50 per cent to get people to stay – but often, it’s a case of ‘too little, too late’.

WHETHER YOU GET on with your employer or not – very few of us actually relish the moment when you have to knock on the door and tell the boss that you’re moving on.

Will the encounter end with an awkward but business-like handshake and a pat on the back? Will they bang on the table and shout ‘at last’? Or even worse, break down in a sobbing, trembling heap?

Results of a new survey out today may be worth taking a note of when you’re trying to decide whether you want to try and move on to a new job (or move up in the one you already have).

According to recruitment specialists Brightwater, 54 per cent of Irish professionals have received a counter-offer when they’re in the process of considering a new job.

Pay rises of up to 50 per cent, new job titles and greater promotional prospects have all been dangled in front of in-demand staff, according to a survey of 1,000 employers and jobseekers.

The survey found that more than two thirds of Irish companies are willing to use counter-offers as a matter of policy in retaining key staff.

Interestingly, while the majority of counter-offered employees said they felt flattered by their employer’s overtures, less than half (49 per cent) actually accepted the offer.

Of the ones who rejected the counter-move – half said there was absolutely nothing the employer could have done to get them to stay on (too little, too late – in other words).

Whether or not you’re considering a new gig this year – the findings are another indicator that the jobs market is improving.

According to Brightwater’s Managing Director, David Bloch:

The fact that companies are now willing to put their money where their mouth is and make substantial counter-offers suggests a returning confidence in economic conditions. It also once again highlights the vital importance and major challenge of attracting and retaining talented staff.

Read: Some Japanese hoteliers with an unusual staff policy have bought Charlie Haughey’s mansion

Read: It is about to get a whole lot more expensive to stay in Dublin hotels

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