Relocation – Is This a Good Solution or Not?

Sometimes, when looking for staff to fill in certain positions, recruiters or employers are facing with the lack of talent problem. This situation drives many of them to expand their search to other cities or even to other countries, especially when it comes to candidates with exceptional skills or experience in a particular industry.

Thus, even if recruiters direct all their efforts to find the right candidate in the local market, these attempts prove to be often in vain, becoming time- and financial resources-consuming. In such a situation, a more profitable solution may be the relocation of a candidate from another city or geographic region in the location where the employing company operates.

When is Relocation a Convenient Option

Of course, relocation involves some risks and sacrifices for both parties. On the one hand, the employer will ask, inevitably, whether it’s worth or not to spend in the relocation of a candidate from another city or country or if it would be better to invest in preparing a local candidate with less experience. On the other hand, the candidate who will undergo relocation will ask himself whether it’s worth making this compromise and moving from the geographic region where he might have lived the rest of his life.

From the employer’s perspective, offering relocation to a candidate requires a complicated process of negotiation. This happens because there are plenty of other factors beyond the professional opportunity itself, such as the benefits package or the organizational culture, things that come bundled with the new job offer. Also, the employer will find himself in the situation in which he will have to promote not only the company brand but also the location, city or country where he operates, to make it attractive for the candidate.

Negotiating With the Future Employee

Therefore, when offering a candidate the relocation option, we must consider the real estate costs that this option would involve for him, the cost of living in the new region, the climate conditions or the distance to the places where he would leave his friends and relatives. In this case, we must negotiate with the candidate and adjust a relocation benefits package that includes, for example, entirely or partially covering the rent costs. Since relocation brings higher costs for the employer, this option involves a negotiation with the future employee.

When a candidate is married and has children, and you offer him relocation, things are even harder for the recruiting organization. First, you have to talk about the professional situation or the partner, and about how important his/her salary is for the financial well-being of the family. If there are children in the middle, then discussions will expand to things such as the local educational system, study opportunities that children would have, as well as a possible planning of the relocation for the beginning of the school year.

In conclusion, relocation involves a significant number of circumstances, and when we think about offering this option to a candidate, we must take into account several things. Thus, we must consider that the candidate counts the benefits as a whole and not just salary that offered to him – a developed and climate-friendly urban area, and if he has a partner and children, it would be great to have an environment that would offer excellent opportunities and an efficient educational system.

BIA HR TEAM