The Executive Relocation Package That Attracts Top Performers

April 18, 2019
business woman by wooden wall

Hiring talented professionals to executive positions is one of the biggest challenges companies face today. “Failure to attract and retain top talent” was the number-one issue in the Conference Board’s 2016 survey of global CEOs, even before economic growth.

The fact that high-level professionals aren’t keen on relocating contributes to the problem: over the past decade, a mere 11% of job seekers relocated for work. Moving for a job, especially when one is older, more experienced, and in high demand, can seem like too much of a hassle—unless an enticing relocation deal is on the table.

Read our blog, “Why Talent is Relocating at Record Lows, and How to Fix It.”

Read on to learn the three steps to creating an executive relocation package that will attract high-performing executives to your business.

First, Understand Common Concerns

Before you craft your list of benefits to include in your executive relocation package, take a step back so you can determine what to include.

Consider what you are asking of professionals when you ask them to move for a job. You aren’t just asking them to spend a week or more packing countless household items. You’re asking professionals to uproot their families, distance themselves from connections and friends, and make a new home.

So, when figuring out which benefits to offer, consider the common concerns relocating professionals may experience that your business can assist with. Just to name a few concerns, relocating employees will need to: find a new home, pack up their belongings and move their belongings, travel to the new location, find work for their spouses, find schools for their children, find new healthcare institutions, and more. 

Try to help with as many of these tasks as possible — especially in regards to finding a new home for homeowners. While 21.7% of renters moved in 2017, only 5.5% of homeowners moved, meaning that the home search and selling process is a key point you’ll need to provide assistance for if you’d like to convince homeowners to move.

Provide Traditional Benefits

Your executive relocation package should fully cover every basic need professionals will encounter when making their move. At the very least, the package should cover the following items if you want to pique top talent’s interest.

The entire physical moving service: Because they are often older and have families, executives will have a lot of household objects to move. Provide payment for the entire moving process, from packing to physical transportation of their goods. Paying the fees directly to the moving company may be another benefit to add, as it cuts down on reimbursement paperwork for the executive.

Temporary housing: If your executives have not found a home by the time they move, provide extended temporary housing assistance. While you might cover housing for a shorter amount of time, like three months, for a lower-level employee, consider paying expenses for half a year or longer for an executive.

Property selling costs: Executives often own property, meaning that they’ll need to sell it before relocating. Fees associated with selling a home, like lease cancellation reimbursement and real estate agent commissions, are often covered by employers.

Add Benefits Based On Executive-Level Concerns

When figuring out which benefits to provide to high-level versus lower-level employees, consider the differences in their needs—executives are going to have a lot more belongings and investments to deal with when moving than other employees.

If your executive relocation package offers the bare minimum of moving company fees, temporary housing rent, and property selling costs, you may be able to attract someone to your open executive position. However, to capture the attention of top talent, you’ll need to go above and beyond, addressing additional concerns that executive-level relocating employees might have.

Exploratory trips. To find a home in their new location, or even just to get a feel for the city in which they are going to live, many executives make trips to their new cities. Cover the fees for one or two of these exploratory trips, including a spouse’s expenses and any childcare fees as well.

Spousal employment assistance. Many executives, being older, have spouses. Make the prospect of a move more enticing for them, and therefore the executives, by offering spousal employment assistance. Benefits can include paying for local employment agency fees or taking matters into your own HR department’s hands.

Loss-on-sale home compensation. Often, executives buy their homes at the top of the housing market. By relocating, they risk losing thousands of dollars. Consider offering to repay any losses they suffer.

Overview

While you’ll want to create a unique executive relocation package that fits in with your company culture, the steps to crafting a package that will attract top talent are the same: understand common concerns, offer traditional benefits, and add bonus benefits based on high-level concerns. Then, step back and watch applications from top talent pour in.

download report cta

We Aim For 5 Star Service

Send this to a friend