Fewer employers are changing their relocation policies, and more are looking to fine-tune their benefits programs to adapt to the changing real estate landscape, according to a new survey.
Weichert Relocation Resources Inc. on Tuesday released its 2011 “Mobility and the Current Real Estate Market” survey, with results based on responses from 200 U.S.-based relocation and human resources professionals.
“The biggest takeaway from our survey this year was a remarkable slowdown in the number of changes that companies are making to their policies,” said Jennifer Connell, manager of consulting services at Weichert Relocation.
The survey found 61 percent of companies made changes to their relocation policies in 2011, down from 90 percent in 2010 and 92 percent in 2009.
That’s good news, Connell said, because changes in relocation policies often mean companies are buckling down and reluctant to move employees. The slowdown in changes suggests that companies are now looking to reinforce their growth, she said.
Those companies making changes to their policies are adapting to the real estate market by being more flexible in some areas, while also enforcing restrictions and payback clauses at higher rates, the survey found.
For instance, 88 percent of survey respondents said they now enforce a minimum marketing period before employees can accept a guaranteed offer, up from 75 percent last year. Guaranteed offer programs mean that the new employer promises to buy the new hire’s old home for a set price if the new hire can’t sell the home within a set period of time.
In addition, the survey found 82 percent of companies now enforce payback agreements that require employees to reimburse moving costs if they leave the company within a specific time frame after being relocated.
“Companies are very cost-conscious these days,” Connell said.
She said the time new employees are required to stay with the company under the payback agreements is also increasing.
“It used to be common to see 12 months — if you leave the company within 12 months, you have to pay back the costs,” she said. “We’re seeing that extended to 24 months in many cases.”
Employers also are using more discretion in their relocation benefits. Thirty-nine percent of respondents say they now use a tiered benefit system, offering more generous packages to senior executives or high-potential hires. That’s down slightly from 2010, but up from the 25 percent that offered tiered benefits in 2009.
Twenty-seven percent of respondents said they made no substantive policy changes in the past year, except that they now consider making more exceptions, the most common of which was to extend temporary living expense coverage for employees having difficulty selling their homes.
