Robert Walters Salary Survey 2024 – More than a third of employees who accepted a counteroffer to stay in their company, left within six months

On 25 January, specialist professional recruitment firm Robert Walters Japan announced results of ‘counteroffers’ from employees in its Salary Survey 2024*.

The survey asked employees if they had ever accepted a counteroffer and reasons why they would or would not. Findings on counteroffers are summarised below:

38% of employees who accepted a counteroffer to stay in their company, left within six months.

When professionals were asked “After accepting a counteroffer, how long did you stay in that company”, 38% said they only stayed a further 6 months after accepting the offer to stay, and a further 21% said they stayed for only another year. This shows that even if a company is not enough to keep all professionals in the same position when they are seeking to leave, as only around 15% decide to stay for another 5 years or more in the company after they accepted a counteroffer.

(*Survey period: September to October 2023, Target: Domestic and foreign-affiliated companies in Japan n=170; Company employees registered with Robert Walters Japan and living in Japan n=1,423)

‘Increased salary, promotion and increased flexibility’ key drivers to make employees consider accepting a counteroffer.

41% of employees said they would consider accepting a counteroffer propositioned by their company and the top drivers for saying so were ‘increased salary’ at 81%, followed by ‘promotion’ at 41% and ‘increased flexibility’ at 37%. This highlights that when it comes to counteroffers, the main motives to make employees to stay in the company, still comes down to pay for the most part but might not guarantee an employee stays long after accepting if this wasn’t the root cause for them wanting to leave in the first place.

‘Once I have committed to something, I stick to it’ (27%) and ‘current job not meeting long-term goals’ (21%)

These were the top two reasons for the 58% of professionals who would not consider a counteroffer upon leaving their company for other opportunities (under a separate question “Would you consider a counteroffer?”. This suggests that many professionals are already quite made up in their minds when deciding to leave and might not be necessarily only swayed by a pay rise.

To summarise, while it might be inevitable for some employees to move on to new opportunities, it isbeneficial for companies to make sure they are doing everything they can keep top talent and importantly if they do decide to stay, make sure the time they spend in the company is worthwhile and meaningful so they are able to stay on as long as possible with the company after they accept a counteroffer.

About Robert Walters Japan:

Established in London, United Kingdom, in 1985, Robert Walters is a specialist recruitment consultancy with operations in 31 countries around the world. Robert Walters Japan established its Tokyo office in 2000 and Osaka office in 2007. For over 20 years, we’ve been a driving force in the Japanese bilingual recruitment market, providing high quality candidates for our clients and access to the best jobs. Our consultants are experts in their respective industries and work in teams to provide recruitment consultation services across a wide range of industries and job categories.

Press contact: PR & Communications, Robert Walters Japan

E-mail: [email protected]