ExecutiveSomeone running a 50–500 person company

When I cannot pay the top of the market, I want to keep my best people, so the company does not become a training ground for competitors.

Khi tôi không phải là nơi trả lương cao nhất thị trường, tôi muốn giữ được những người giỏi nhất, để công ty không thành nơi đào tạo cho đối thủ.

Job context

Who: An executive at a growing company with a capped salary budget
When: After each time a strong performer gets an offer elsewhere
Trigger: The second person from one team leaving in a quarter
Situation: Larger competitors can outbid at any level
Constraints: Cannot break the salary band, and a counter-offer sets precedent for the team

Only learns someone is leaving once they have an offer
High
By then the decision is made and every response is a late one.
Root cause: There is no way to say "I am considering leaving" safely
A counter-offer sets a precedent
High
Those who stay learn that the way to a raise is to interview elsewhere.
Root cause: Pay is adjusted by event rather than by cycle
Cannot see who is at risk of leaving
High
The signals exist, scattered where nobody gathers them.
Root cause: Attrition signals are behavioural; HR systems record events
No promotion rung to offer
Medium
A small company has few upper seats and they do not open on demand.
Root cause: Ladders are tied to management seats rather than to capability
The best people are the easiest to recruit away
High
Precisely the people most worth keeping are the ones the market approaches first.
Root cause: Market value rises faster than internal salary bands

A solution is not the same thing as a product — a customer can hire a behaviour or a workaround too.

Annual market pay review
Product
The right mechanism, always a few months behind the market.
Equity compensation
Product
Retains through time, and only works for people who believe in the company.
Regular career conversations
Behaviour
The only channel catching early signals, and it works only when nothing is recorded.
Counter-offer to retain
Workaround
Works once for one person and teaches the whole organisation how to ask for a raise.
Let strong people choose their work
Behaviour
The strongest lever a small company holds, and it costs nothing.

The signals that someone is leaving sit scattered between their manager, their peers and themselves, and gathering them is nobody's job.
Why existing solutions fail: HR systems record events — hires, promotions, exits — while attrition risk is a gradual state with no event to record.
Potential opportunity: A conversation cadence routine enough that its occurrence signals nothing.
The fastest route to a raise is to interview elsewhere, and the organisation teaches this every time it counter-offers.
Why existing solutions fail: Salary budgets are approved once a year while offers arrive at any time, so the off-cycle response is always the only one available.
Potential opportunity: A mid-cycle adjustment fund spent on pre-set criteria rather than on external offers.