Companies relocate for a variety of reasons. Whether it’s for tax savings or accessing a market that has the potential for massive growth, there’s a likelihood that some or all of your employees will need to relocate to focus on the operations there. With this in mind, you need to make sure that the process is planned in advance to avoid potential mishaps that can cost your company thousands of dollars.
A relocation policy will act as the foundation for how you’ll go about relocating them. It should outline the compensation, benefits, as well as the parties involved in the logistics.
While not all circumstances demand a relocation policy (e.g., small moves, temporary relocations, etc.), it is a great asset to have for every company. In this article, we’ll take a look at 3 reasons why your organization will benefit from it.
Puts the pressure off your HR team
In most organizations, the department that will be dealing with relocation-related queries will be HR. Naturally, your employees will have a lot of questions regarding the logistics and compensation, and establishing a solid policy enables your HR personnel to answer questions confidently.
Without a solid policy in place, there will be a lot of ambiguity and open-ended answers throughout the process. This will obviously cause a lot of conflict between relocating candidates and your HR team, decrease office productivity, and just put all parties in a bad spot.
In fact, many organizations opt for a hands-off experience when it comes to relocating employees. Instead of pressuring their HR team with tasks that aren’t under their umbrella of experience, they outsource all employee relocation tasks to experts such as a corporate relocation company.
Ensures fairness in compensating employees
It’s standard practice to offer relocation compensation depending on the employee’s tier in the organization’s hierarchy. A senior-level employee will be offered a compensation package of value that’s higher than an entry-level staff. While this is true across the board, other factors such as homeownership and family obligations do need to be put into context to make sure each employee receives fair adjustments.
For example, an entry-level staff who’s single and rents will find it much easier to relocate compared to a staff of a similar level but have a mortgage to settle and family to take care of. An inclusive relocation policy will take this into account so that none of the employees will feel like they’re getting the short end of the stick due to the circumstances they face.
Retain talent and ensure the business runs as “usual”
Retaining talent is a huge concern for organizations. If your best employees don’t see themselves moving for work, you’ll risk losing them to your competitors. Having a well thought out, competitive relocation policy can be the leverage you need in order to convince your employees to stay with the company.
From a financial perspective, while it can cost up to $90,000 to relocate an employee that owns a house, it is much more expensive to hire new talent that requires training and time to familiarize themselves with company operations. This is also assuming that they are the right fit for the job.
Having an all-encompassing relocation policy improves the likelihood your established employees remain loyal and ensure the business runs as smoothly as it can throughout the transitioning process.