Evaluate a request for a retention counteroffer or off-cycle raise
Helps you decide whether to match an outside offer or grant an off-cycle raise, considering flight risk, equity, and precedent.
The prompt
A manager wants to give an employee a counteroffer or off-cycle raise. Help me evaluate the request.
Employee: [role, level, tenure, performance history, criticality to the business]
Current pay and range: [BASE, range min/mid/max, last increase date]
Trigger: [outside offer (details if known) / market data / employee asked / flight risk]
Proposed increase: [AMOUNT or %]
Peers in the same role/level: [their pay, performance - anonymized]
Budget available: [OFF-CYCLE BUDGET]
Assess:
1. Business case - impact if they leave (knowledge, projects, replacement cost and time - mark estimates as [ESTIMATE]).
2. Market position - where the new pay would sit in range and vs. market data I provide.
3. Internal equity - would this create a gap with equally performing peers, especially across demographic groups?
4. Root cause - is pay the real reason they'd leave? Questions for the manager to explore (growth, manager, workload).
5. Precedent - what this signals to others and how to stay consistent.
6. Options - match, partial increase, non-pay levers (title, scope, development, retention bonus with clawback), or let them go - pros and cons of each.
Return a recommendation with reasoning, any peer adjustments to consider, and a short note I can send the manager. Use only the numbers I provide.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore HR & Hiring prompts
What to fill in
- BASE, range min/mid/max, last increase date
- AMOUNT or %
- their pay, performance - anonymized
- OFF-CYCLE BUDGET
- ESTIMATE
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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