Counter-offers for engineers

It happens more often than people expect. You’ve been through the interviews, you’ve got the offer you wanted and you’ve resigned. Then your manager comes back with more money.

The CIPD surveyed around 2,000 UK employers in 2023. 40% had made a counter-offer in the previous year, and 40% of those had offered more than the rival job was paying.

It’s still common. The CIPD’s 2026 Resourcing and Talent Planning survey of just over 1,000 organisations found 20% make counter-offers to hold on to people who’ve had a job offer elsewhere, down from 28% in 2024.

So it’s worth deciding what you’d do before it happens, not in the room.

Why employers make them

A counter-offer is a commercial decision. Replacing an engineer means advertising, agency fees, interviews, cover while the role is empty and months before a new starter knows the sites and the customers. In most cases a few thousand pounds is cheaper than all of that.

That doesn’t make it cynical. It just means the offer is about the gap you’d leave, not necessarily about your career.

What’s usually on the table

More basic pay is the obvious one. In service roles it’s often something else as well: coming off the on-call rota, a better van, a new job title, or the course you asked for at your last review.

The questions to ask yourself

Why were you looking in the first place? Write the reasons down before you resign. If pay was the only one, a counter-offer might genuinely fix it. If it was the hours, the travel, the on-call, the lack of progression or the way you’re managed, more money doesn’t change any of that. The money only covers up the reasons.

Why did it take a resignation? If the money was there now, it was there at your last pay review.

Where is the money coming from? Often it’s your next few pay rises brought forward. It can end up being your next few years’ increases paid in one go.

Is it in writing? A promise made in the heat of a resignation conversation isn’t the same as a new contract. If you’re going to consider it, ask for it in writing, with dates.

When staying is the right call

Sometimes it is. If the counter-offer fixes the actual reason you were looking, it’s in writing and you’d genuinely rather stay, then stay. There’s no shame in that.

Employers themselves are split on whether counter-offers work. In the same CIPD survey, 45% thought they keep people for 12 months or more and 29% thought they don’t.

You’ll often see a claim that 80% of people who accept a counter-offer leave within six months. I’ve never been able to find where that figure comes from, so I don’t use it.

How we handle it

Before you resign, we’ll talk through what you’ll do if your employer comes back with an offer. It’s much easier to decide calmly than across a desk from your manager.

A few things that help:

• Don’t resign until you’ve got a written offer you’re happy with.
• Resign in person or by phone, then follow up in writing. Keep it short, positive and thank them.
• If they counter, don’t decide there and then. Ask for it in writing and say you’ll come back to them.
• Compare the whole package, not just the basic. Hours, on-call, travel and progression matter as much as the salary.
• Tell us. We’d rather know, and we won’t pressure you either way.

If you’re the employer

If you find yourself making counter-offers regularly, it’s usually a sign that pay reviews or working conditions are behind the market. Fixing that before people start looking is cheaper than matching offers after they’ve found something better. Our piece on why service engineers move jobs covers what tends to make the difference.

If you’re weighing up an offer, or a counter-offer, give us a call.

---

Sources: CIPD, Employers turning to counteroffers, Labour Market Outlook (Aug 2023); CIPD, Resourcing and Talent Planning (Sept 2026).