Companies are increasingly making counteroffers to staff who have been offered new jobs — often because they can't be bothered to find replacements — UK survey finds

• Around 40% of UK employers have given counteroffers to staff looking to job hop in the past year, a survey found.
• Employers are hoping to retain staff for their knowledge, and skills, and to avoid replacing them.

Workers looking to job hop may be in luck because companies are keen to retain talent and are even offering higher salaries just to keep them there, a survey found.

A new report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development released Monday surveyed 2,003 HR professionals and decision-makers in the UK from June to July 2023, and found that employers are giving counteroffers at a higher rate than in previous years.

Around 40% of employers have given a counteroffer in the past 12 months and just over half said they've offered a higher number of counteroffers than in previous years. A quarter of employers expect to give even more counteroffers in the next year.

Almost half of employers say counteroffers are effective in retaining employees for at least 12 months. Some 40% say they do this by exceeding pay offers given by other employers, while 38% said they match the offers of other employers.

Half of employers are planning to use counteroffers in the next year to retain staff for their company knowledge and technical skills, the CIPD's survey found. 38% say they do it to avoid the hassle of finding a replacement.

A similar report from Gallagher in the US found that employers currently see retaining employees as their number one priority right now, and said that "employers are adjusting compensation and benefits to improve retention rates."

"When employees leave a business, they take their experience, expertise and contacts with them, and it takes a considerable amount of time and money to hire and train new employees," Yoko Spirig, the CEO of equity management platform, Ledgy, said in an email to Insider.

"The challenging macro environment has also heightened the importance of carefully managing cash flow and staff retention is a great way to ease spending."

In the US layoffs have swept hundreds of companies including Google, Meta, Ford, Spotify, JPMorgan, Lyft, and more.

Workers are realizing that often their loyalty to companies is going unrewarded and many are now applying to jobs in the hopes of bringing counteroffers to their current employer to win a pay rise or better benefits, Insider's Aki Ito reported in November 2022.

"Candidates are shopping more now than they ever have," Michelle Reisdorf, district director at staffing firm Robert Half told Ito.

"They're looking out for themselves, and because they have so many options, they really can explore and use what they know about other companies to get more in their current work situation."