One time or another, a prized employee from your staff will approach you and let you know that he or she has received a better offer. Being put in that situation doesn’t necessarily equate to you losing one of your best people. In these cases, employees are coming to you to give notice; but, in one way or another, he or she will certainly be open to an offer from you that can match that new job.

Having employee retention in mind, it means that the next move is entirely up to you; and you may not have a lot of time on your hands. You can negotiate with the employee for a little more time so that you can craft a good-enough counter-offer; but usually, employees already just want to give their notice and jump ship as soon as possible. Given this situation, you might want to know what you need to do when it comes to handling situations like these. Here are a few tips that we can share.

Is coming up with a counter-offer always the best solution?  The immediate answer for most of us will be ‘yes.’ The reason behind this is that we are looking at the expense of training a new employee before taking on the role of the previous one. Moreover, you will still need to consider the learning curve of the new employee to acclimatize to the new role and the company. Another consideration is that you will be short-handed during the time while you’re searching for, hiring, and training the new hire.

Unless by some chance that the employee is really someone who has special skills that your business can’t live without, the actual cost of retaining him or her may actually be more expensive in the long run. Always put into consideration that hiring and training a replacement is a one-time expense. A raise, on the other hand, gets more and more costly as time goes by. Likewise, a staff member who has been granted a counter-offer might keep on doing a job-hunt as a way to guarantee salary increases that aren’t part of your company’s regular process.

If you’re put into this dilemma, always weigh the actual costs of acquiring a new hire as compared to maintaining an employee in the long run.

Another important thing to consider are the reasons why the employee went job-hunting. You’ll be surprised that it may not be ‘about the money;’ as there are instances when employees jump-ship to a less-paying company or job. These reasons can include your company’s work environment, incompatibility with colleagues or managers, or even a perception of instability in your company. When you have these reasons in the mind of the employee; almost all of the time, a raise or better benefits won’t be the solution to these issues. Use these underlying issues as a signal that he or she is most probably not the only person feeling these insecurities. You might also want to address these issues head-on to keep the rest of your staff happy.

There’s also another reason why you need to keep your counter-offers to a very minimum. Throwing counter-offers around too much gives the impression that your company is a ‘pushover.’ This in turn, might alert your employees that they just need to give a notice to resign to automatically get a raise. Rarely employing counter-offers as a means to retain employees, will give your staff the perception that you value employees who stand out due to performance.

These days it is easier to engage with subcontractors rather than hire employees for various practical reasons. One is that, in subcontracting there is less time spent with training since even before entering into such contract one already knows what he wants to accomplish and that it entails a lesser responsibility regarding the issues of employment. In subcontracting, you only pay for the specific manpower or labor that you need and that it is within a given time frame where delay may be prevented and that one only engages directly to one person or one company which is the contractor. Yet, there are as well issues that should be tackled before signing the contract so that future problems may be averted.

One thing is the issue of termination. It should be clear to both parties that they are entering into a subcontracting agreement because it is only for a given time, which is temporary, depending on the work situation. The work must be specific and the end product definite. The contractor and the subcontractor should make sure that they are on the same page, otherwise, this may bring about legal battles concerning welfare and security. Second is the term of payment. It should be remembered that in this kind of agreement, that is subcontracting, there is no employer – employee relationship. This may be the main reason why most contractors get subcontractors to work for them. The manner of payment is not determined by how they do their jobs nor exercise their profession but rather the end result of this execution. Hence, it need be noted that both parties, the contractor and subcontractor, must have the same picture regarding the positive consequences that the contractor himself wants to achieve. Third is the sense of business confidentiality. On this third issue, the qualifications of the subcontractor are necessary. There must be a sense of privacy with regard information that needs to be kept classified and away from the open in order to maintain a healthy competition in both trade and commerce. The fourth issue that needs to be clarified in the subcontracting agreement is the contractor’s policies and procedures. As a contractor, he should make sure that the people he is about to connect with as subcontractors have the ability to attain the very purpose for which they were engaged with. These people must have the ability to replicate the services or things that make the contractor’s trade exceptional so that customer satisfaction and profitability is feasible. Another is the issue of their limits. Again, it should be made clear in the agreement that they are being paid because of their contribution in the business. In subcontracting, the specified end result and the extent of their input is what is paid for, therefore, their responsibilities must be distinct, clear and specific. Finally, their attitude and personality needs to be checked. The possible subcontractors must not be too confident to act as if they are the bosses of the contractor’s trade and must not be carried away by the small successes they achieve nor too humble to admit them. The reason is that, there is a manner or mode of operation that needs to be maintained in order to gain advantage and not lose them, for such is the very core of a certain business, the customer satisfaction. In any kind of industry, it is seldom that there are positive expectations on both parties, thus, the issues pointed herein require to be tackled long before placing one’s signature on the agreement.

To end this, the relationship built by them is one that of a contractor-subcontractor relationship. They are binded by a contract wherein the first engages with the second for a specific job, business or purpose within a definite period of time. Thus, it is supposed to die a natural death and it makes the business operate faster and the job description more precise. The notes given are only to make sure that the principle for which they were acquired is attained without any other responsibilities on both parties. Remember, it pays to be candid and frank early on rather than face the dilemma later on.