The packaging recruitment market is operating at near-record tightness. Senior executives are fielding multiple speculative approaches every week, and the counter-offer — once considered a last resort reserved for genuinely exceptional talent — has become a standard tactical tool in the HR director’s armoury across the sector.
The Counter-Offer Data
In our 2024 candidate survey of 847 senior packaging professionals (Director level and above), we found:
- 67% received at least one counter-offer when changing roles in the past 24 months
- 34% received two or more simultaneous counter-offers
- Of those who accepted a counter-offer, 78% had left the original employer within 18 months regardless
- The average salary uplift in accepted counter-offers was 14.2%
The conclusion is stark: counter-offers are almost entirely ineffective as a retention mechanism. They address the symptom (someone has handed in notice) without addressing the cause (why they decided to leave in the first place).
Why People Actually Leave
When we ask departing executives in exit interviews about their primary motivation for leaving, the responses cluster around four themes — and salary features lower than most HR teams expect:
- Lack of career trajectory clarity (41%) — “I couldn’t see where this role was going in 3–5 years”
- Absence of meaningful mandate (28%) — “I didn’t feel my work was making a real difference”
- Compensation misalignment (22%) — particularly the absence of equity or long-term incentive structures
- Cultural friction (9%) — misalignment between personal values and organisational culture or leadership style
What Actually Retains Senior Talent
The businesses in our network with the lowest senior executive voluntary turnover share four consistent characteristics:
- Genuine autonomy — executives have real decision-making authority, not just the appearance of it. They own budgets, headcount, and strategy — not just execution
- A clear growth runway — there is an articulated, credible path to the next role or broader remit within the organisation
- Meaningful ESG mandate — particularly for mid-career executives (38–48), the ability to lead work that has genuine positive impact is increasingly non-negotiable
- Equity or long-term incentive participation — alignment between personal wealth creation and business performance over a 3–5 year horizon
Practical Recommendations
1. Have the career conversation annually, not reactively. Don’t wait until someone is interviewing elsewhere to discuss where their career is going. Annual structured career conversations should be a non-negotiable for all Director-level and above talent.
2. Audit your LTIP coverage. If your competitors are offering long-term incentive plans and you are not, you are competing with one hand tied behind your back. Even modest LTIP participation (0.5–1% equity equivalent) creates powerful retention through the vesting period.
3. Give people something to lead, not just manage. The executives who stay longest are those with a genuine transformation mandate — a plant to turn around, a new market to open, a sustainability programme to build from scratch.
The retention conversation needs to happen years before someone hands in their notice. By the time they’re talking to us, the decision is usually already made — the counter-offer is just theatre.