You have an employee who has just received a new job opportunity from your largest and nearest competitor. Do you make them a counter offer to stay? Is the knowledge to be lost worth a counter offer?
Seventy-eight percent of CFOs do not like the idea of extending counteroffers to employees who have job offers elsewhere. They believe that retention strategies should be more proactive than reactive. It is a common belief that if you treat employees properly, starting with competitive pay and benefits and including a transparent culture. There will not be the need for a counteroffer.
Some of this is not always possible, depending on the company and its ability to do what it can for its employees. Also, some employees have agendas and timelines of their own that they are working on and a counter offer may only hold on to them temporarily.
I feel that an employee that is unhappy enough to look for a new position, the answer is probably not just money and should be allowed to leave immediately.