Counter-Offers

General

The University of New Mexico recognizes the vital role its staff employees play in carrying out its stated mission to serve as New Mexico’s flagship institution of higher learning through teaching, research, patient care, and community service. To this end, the University seeks to retain employees in key professional or managerial positions that are deemed critical to business needs and difficult to fill.

Therefore, UNM Human Resources offers departments the opportunity to increase the salary of high performing staff members with critical skills who receive a written offer of employment from an external or internal employer, as outlined in the following guidelines:

Eligibility Criteria

A counteroffer may be considered if a key professional or managerial employee in a position that has been deemed both critical to business needs and difficult to fill has received and can produce a written employment offer from a hiring agency that is external to UNM or from another UNM department.

All proposed requests for counteroffers must be submitted to HR Compensation for review and approval before making an offer to the employee. Departments are not permitted to engage in a bidding war to retain the employee and therefore, only one counter salary may be offered to the employee following a written offer of employment.

Employees who accept a counteroffer will be required to wait 24 months prior to receiving any additional offers from their current department, including retention offers. Employees on trial or probation are not eligible for counter offers.

Counteroffer Process

Departments must complete the following steps and receive all approvals before making an offer to an employee.

• Complete the Counteroffer Justification Form which must outline the following and have all internal approvals:
  • Why the position is difficult to fill and critical to business needs
  • The essential skills and qualifications obtained by the incumbent which directly relate to the position
  • Why they believe a counteroffer is vital to retaining the employee
• Once the form is complete, submit the Counteroffer Justification Form and the written employment offer to HR Compensation at comp@unm.edu. Departments under the School of Medicine should submit the Counteroffer Justification Form (School of Medicine) through School leadership for approval.

Salary Determination

Departments may use the Salary Placement and Equity Tool (SPET) to assist in determining an appropriate salary, however, this is not required.

HR Compensation will review the department’s requested salary and make a determination based on a variety of factors, which include but are not limited to the employee’s relevant education, experience, skills, equity between employees in the same or similar titles, and placement within the staff salary structure.. Please note, the salary recommendation will be based on the employee’s current classification, regardless of the level of the offered position.