Despite the high rate of unemployment, finding the right talent remains an issue. A recent survey by Robert Half reported that just over half the executives reported that it is difficult to find skilled professional talent currently.
When finding the right talent locally doesn't pan out, relocation is often the only alternative. And while relocation adds to the human resources expense, the majority of firms recognize the importance of this component in attracting the talent they want. The 2010 Atlas Van Lines Corporate Relocation Survey reports that 67% of companies offered incentives to encourage relocations in 2010. Financial and other incentives can overcome the hurdles to relocation.
Hurdle 1: Costs of Relocating
Many companies offer some sort of assistance in moving. Despite the recession, it is quite common to provide relocation assistance.
Relocation bonuses. The Atlas survey reports that half of employers offer relocation bonuses. This includes money towards packing and shipping expenses, storage, and other incidentals involved in moving.Temporary housing. The most popular relocation assistance offered is temporary housing benefits; 67% of firms across company size offer this.Hurdle 2: The Housing Market
It gets more complicated when the talent you've identified owns real estate; especially when (as is often the case) the value of that real estate has been negatively impacted. The sales process is typically long and in many cases the owner has negative equity in their homes can't even consider moving for a new job without assistance. According to a 2009 Worldwide ERC Benchmarking Survey, 95% of organizations who experienced problems with employee relocation reluctance cited the weak housing market as the biggest Hurdle.
There are some solutions that an employer can consider offering as part of a relocation package:
Purchase or closing cost benefits. Employers may offer some amount of money towards the closing costs on the sale or purchase of a home.Loss on sale protection. In order to motivate an executive to lose money on a property in order to relocate, some companies offer a loss on sale benefit. This is basically a subsidy to mitigate or lessen the loss that is realized by selling in a bad real estate market. This can obviously be an expensive proposition for the employer; it is also potentially a real impediment to a well-functioning job market as talent often feels locked into one geography.Property management benefit. If there is a certain loss at sale, perhaps holding onto the property is an option. Employers may offer (payment of) property management services to facilitate the rental of the property, subsidies for any loss due to rental-mortgage differential, subsidies for the purchase or rental of a home in the new location.Short term assignments. If a permanent relocation is not cost effective, employers may consider short-term assignments. Transfers of a year or so may be more affordable.
