A company’s relocation policy should be viewed as a statement about its culture. If the company culture is supportive of its people, and wants to create an environment where their people can be successful and have a positive attitude toward the company, then the relocation policy has to reflect that.
Too often, attempts to minimize relocation costs in the short term can have a severe negative impact on transferees’ morale, loyalty and performance.
However, if a company can begin to balance the costs of relocation against the revenue production and /or cost center accountability for which an employee is responsible, then a clearer picture of the benefits of providing substantial relocation support for a new or transferring employee emerges.
      Considering the high demand for talent across every sector
of the economy, the added benefit  of a relocation policy that provides a substantial degree of support is clear – it becomes an effective and necessary recruiting and retention tool.

Making The Connection

The company that connects recruiting and retention to relocation policy says, “We want to do everything we can for our people.  We don’t want a relocation to affect our workforce retention abilities negatively.”
A well-known company conducted a two-year study of their relocation program and discovered that 50% of the people they had moved during that period had left the company.  This represented a huge cost, not only in terms of the money they spent to move those departed employees, but even more in terms of the talent they lost and had to replace.
The problem was how they conceived and implemented their relocation policy. This company’s H.R. department and line directors believed that, outside of a nominal allowance, relocation costs should be the responsibility of the transferee. At the same time, they expected the people to be on the job and productive from the first day, even though they were dealing with the two of the three most stressful conditions in a person’s life, which are moving and changing jobs.
As a result, the relocation experience was difficult for their people. When the company asked us for our advice, all we could tell them was that they had to rethink their relocation policy. Before they could do that, they had to change their approach to reflect a genuine concern for what relocation represents to an employee and it’s effect on productivity. It was an adjustment they were not prepared to make; so they are continuing to struggle to attract and retain talented people.  They are saving money, but losing people.  This is a scenario that plays it self out in far too many otherwise successful companies, large and small, all across the country.

    Applying Feedback Mechanisms
There’s no official system in place to track how long transferees stay with an organization after they’ve been deployed to a new position.   However, best-practice relocation policies build in processes that solicit and act on transferee feedback throughout the relocation process. Integrating this process into the policy from the beginning allows companies to build, relocation-by-relocation, a database that will not only improve quality control short-term but also yield the accumulated data that will tell when and why transferees left the company one, two and eventually three or more years after a move.

To download a copy of "The Connection Between Recruiting, Retention and World-Class Relocation " Article, click here.

Here's a scenario:

Jack is a successful product manager for a package goods company in New Jersey. Management has a problem with a new product launch in their west coast unit located in the Los Angeles area. They have a problem and Jack is one of the smartest and most talented people they have. They need him there to fix things. The executive team makes the decision and offers him the assignment. Jack accepts. To the executive team, the issue has been taken care of: they have an excellent employee in place and on his way to fix the problem.


To download a copy of "The Hidden Costs of Relocation" Article, click here.