If you are investing in hiring, you already know how frustrating counter offers can be. You have run a strong process, invested time and energy, and made the right offer. Then the candidate is tempted to stay with their current employer. It feels like starting all over again.

Counter offers are more than frustrating. They are expensive and for many, they are becoming more common as the competition for talent in niche talent pools increases.

At Zatori, we are helping businesses tackle this problem with a smarter approach to recruitment. We call it fractional recruiting. Whether you are building a team, replacing a key hire or scaling for growth, our fractional talent acquisition model helps reduce the risk of counter offers and wasted effort.

Let us take a look at the numbers.

• One person managing recruitment admin: £260
• Four interviewers, two hours each, at £400 per hour: £3,200

That is £3,460 in chargeable time per process. Lose just five candidates to counter offers in a year, and you are already down over £16,000. That is before you factor in delays, stress, loss of momentum and client impact.



This is exactly where fractional internal recruitment starts to pay off. By embedding a trusted fractional internal recruiter into your business, you run better processes, reduce fall-off risk and give candidates a reason to commit.

I'm proud we are able to say this but I don't mention it to boast. It's to make counter offers don't have to be successful and plague your recruitment processes slowing down business growth.

It's not luck. It's the result of well-run processes led by experienced fractional recruiters who know how to manage the full talent journey.

From structured interviews to thoughtful follow-ups, we help clients create the kind of candidate experience that keeps people engaged and excited about joining. We are not external agents sending CVs. We operate as a fractional internal recruiter within your team, shaping the strategy and owning the outcome.

This is fractional talent acquisition at its best.

Counter offers tend to happen when candidates feel uncertain or disconnected. That usually comes from rushed interviews, unclear communication or lack of follow-through. Often the hiring process is squeezed between other priorities or pushed to external agencies who are sending the same candidates to your competitors.

With fractional recruiting, you do things differently.

A fractional recruiter from Zatori gives you experienced hiring support without the full-time cost. You get structured process, personal candidate management and proper ownership of outcomes. It flexes with your business and delivers consistent results.

While more companies are starting to talk about fractional hiring, true fractional talent acquisition is still a new and underused strategy. That makes it an opportunity. The companies embracing this model are avoiding common hiring pitfalls and seeing the results in cost, time and retention.

We have created a free guide that shares practical, proven steps to reduce counter offers in your hiring process. If you want to understand how fractional internal recruitment could work in your organisation, we would be happy to talk.

Martin has been advising businesses in talent acquisition and retention for over a decade. Discuss how you he can help you elevate your strategy, book a call or contact him at martin.wigfield@zatori-consulting.co.uk