Relocation service

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For transferring employees or businesses to a new area

title: "Relocation service" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["moving-companies", "moving-and-relocation"] description: "For transferring employees or businesses to a new area" topic_path: "general/moving-companies" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relocation_service" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary For transferring employees or businesses to a new area ::

Relocation services, employee relocation, military permanent change of station (PCS) or workforce mobility include a range of internal business processes to transfer employees, their families, and/or entire departments of a business to a new location. Like other types of employee benefits, these processes are usually administered by human resources specialists within a corporation. In the military, these processes are administered by the Transportation Management Office (TMO) and Personal Property Shipping Office (PPSO).

Such business processes can include domestic residential services where an employee moves within a country or state as well as international relocation services which include planning for diplomats, managers, etc. working abroad. An agency providing relocation services directs and manages the process of relocation including arranging necessary documents (visa, long-term stay permissions), finding a new house (accommodation), finding a school for children (education), finding a job for the partner or "trailing spouse", arranging a teacher for the family (language training) and introduce expatriates to the local culture. Some companies are similarly offering financial incentives for their workers to return to specific city offices.

International relocations

Dating back to the Dutch East India Company, sending an employee to work in another country (sometimes called a "global assignment" in current HR jargon) has carried considerable costs while theoretically opening the potential for financial returns for the employer.

With tax equalization, housing allowance, cost-of-living adjustment, and other benefits, the typical expatriate compensation package is two to three times the home-country base salary. For example, an expatriate with a €100,000 annual salary will cost the employer €200,000-300,000 per year incl. the relocation costs. Shorter term assignments have lower costs, especially when they avoid taxation thresholds.

Reasons why a company might give an employee a global assignment include filling functional needs, developing the employee for upper management, and developing the company itself. Anne-Wil Harzing of the University of Melbourne further categorizes these employees as "bears, bumblebees and spiders". Those playing the role of bears are the long arm of headquarters control. The bumblebees transfer (cross-pollinate) their corporate culture. Harzing's spiders weave the informal communication networks so important in connecting far-flung branches, subsidiaries and all strategic partners.

Responding to a 2005 survey of global assignment management practices commissioned by a US-based third-party relocation management company, 31 percent of surveyed employers indicated that they track exceptions on a per-assignment basis for budgetary purposes, 23 percent track exception on an overall basis in order to identify policy components that need review, and 39 percent do not track the cost or type of exceptions granted. (Seven percent were not able to answer the question.)

Depending on the size and organization of a company, different departments, such as finance or human resources, may administer the relocation program. Some may lack any formal programs while others have highly structured processes. Moreover, different operating units may administer different aspects of the program.

Some may manage and execute all of their relocation processes in-house while others outsource them. This is done to save time, focusing internal resources on company workforce strengths, or for providing better service to each transferee.

Of the companies participating in the 2005 Survey of Global Assignment Management Practices, 43 percent indicated that they either outsource or co-source some assignment management services (staffing 1:58 assignees, 7 percent declined to answer).

Government programs

References

References

  1. (2017-08-08). "Preparing Financially for PCS Season".
  2. Bachelor, Blane. (2024-03-05). "These US cities will pay you up to $15,000 to move there".
  3. (2025-02-14). "Cameo giving all Chicago employees $10,000 raises to return to the office".
  4. Rei, Claudia. (2014-01-01). "Careers and wages in the Dutch East India Company". Cliometrica.
  5. (2001-12-01). "Of bears, bumble-bees, and spiders: the role of expatriates in controlling foreign subsidiaries". Journal of World Business.
  6. "US managers' willingness to accept a global assignment: Do expatriate benefits and assignment length make a difference?".
  7. Goldberg, Emma. (2024-10-16). "Can Remote Workers Reverse Brain Drain?". The New York Times.
  8. Bachelor, Blane. (2024-03-05). "These US cities will pay you up to $15,000 to move there".
  9. Gaffney, Austyn. "Incentive programs have lured thousands of remote workers from major metro areas to small cities".
  10. "Vermont Worker Relocation Incentive Program Now Open for Applications for Relocating and Remote Workers – Vermont Technology Alliance".
  11. Musulin, Kristin. (2020-06-12). "Savannah, GA offers $2K to attract remote tech workers".
  12. (2022-11-30). "WVU Today {{!}} Ascend West Virginia expands into fourth community".
  13. (2023-06-20). "WVU Today {{!}} Ascend West Virginia opens applications for New River Gorge area".
  14. Goldberg, Emma. (2024-10-16). "Can Remote Workers Reverse Brain Drain?". The New York Times.
  15. Pandy, Jordan. "I got paid $10,000 to move to Tulsa. My mortgage for a whole house is about what I used to pay to rent one room.".
  16. Settembre, Jeanette. (2020-06-09). "Post-coronavirus, Georgia city paying tech workers to move there".

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