Survey History Intro & Results(50 pages, 3.8 MB) Summary & Charts(228 pages, 15MB) Press Release

Cost Coverage – Overall & Specialized Assistance for Homeowners/Renters

This year we dug deeper into how job/grade level and position/job title impact cost coverage. For the first time, we asked about the composition of relocations – the percentages of executive/top level, mid-level, and entry level positions. We found that around half of relocations in 2015 were mid-level jobs, a little more than a fourth were executive/top level positions, and roughly a fifth were entry level jobs, regardless of company size. While larger firms have more relocation volume than smaller firms, the composition of employee levels are similar, with relocations for mid-level positions happening roughly twice as often as for executive/top level or for entry level employees.

Question 23-3

In 2015, what percentage of your company's relocating employees were...

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Employee Level Impacts Offerings

As expected, cost coverage for specific items is more likely for mid-level and executive/top level relocations than for entry level positions. However, the likelihood of firms offering lump sums or not paying for relocation costs varied little across relocation level for firms of similar size. The biggest differences in cost coverage occur by company size. Small firms are the most likely across levels to use only lump sum or simply not pay especially when compared to mid-size or large firms. The largest differential concerns the executive/top level, with small firms the most likely to leverage this option (25%) compared to mid-size (15%) and large firms (4%).

Offers to cover individual costs for entry level relocations vary little across company size, with two exceptions: far more mid-size and large firms offer to pack all items (35% and 41%) compared to small firms (25%), and far more large firms offer moves via containerized shipment (32%) than do small (19%) or mid-size companies (21%).
Variances are more pronounced for mid-level relocations. Large firms are much more likely than mid-size or small firms to cover costs for more than half of the individual items listed. Across company size, mid-level employees enjoy similar coverages for moving exercise equipment, partial/custom unpacking, moving pets, permanent/extended storage, belongings picked up from a secondary residence, and moving a boat.
Differences by company size are most marked at the executive/top level; coverages for almost all items listed are far more likely at large firms than at mid-size or small. The only exceptions are for moving pets, moving a boat, and having belongings picked up from a secondary residence, which are similar regardless of firm size. Mid-size and large firms are similar in their offers for moving exercise equipment (45% vs. 50%), recreation/lawn equipment (40% vs. 49%), unlimited weight (42% and 50%), containerized shipment (41% vs. 47%) and partial/custom unpacking (39% vs. 44%).

Question 28-1

Does your company reimburse/pay to...

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Question 28-2

Does your company reimburse/pay to...

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Question 28-3

Does your company reimburse/pay to...

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Question 28-4

Does your company reimburse/pay to...

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Question 28-5

Does your company reimburse/pay to...

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Question 28-6

Does your company reimburse/pay to...

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Question 28-7

Does your company reimburse/pay to...

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Question 28-8

Does your company reimburse/pay to...

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Specialized Assistance for Homeowners/Renters

The majority of firms, regardless of size, continue to offer assistance specific to homeowners/renters overall. To gain a better understanding of how this assistance differed across employee levels, this year we asked about the types of assistance offered to homeowners or renters across levels, regardless of status as transferee or new hire.

Homeowners

Generally, assistance for specific items is more likely for mid-level and executive/top level relocations than for entry level positions. However, the overall likelihood of simply offering a lump sum or no assistance varied little across relocation level for firms of similar size. The biggest differences occur by company size. Small firms are most likely across levels to only use lump sum or not offer assistance; roughly a third opt for lump sums or non-assistance regardless of employee level.

Levels of assistance offered vary little across company size for most entry-level relocations. Among the differences:

Far more mid-size and large firms offer temporary housing allowances (28% and 32%) or storage (28% and 30%) compared to small firms (19% and 15%).
Far more large firms than small firms offer home marketing assistance (24% vs. 10%), reimburse/pay for home purchase costs (20% vs. 11%), or offer bonuses/incentives for employee-generated home sales (12% vs. 6%).
Twice as many mid-size firms offer a buyer value option for the origin home than do small firms (12% vs. 6%) even if the percentage overall remains low.

For mid-level relocations, larger firms in general are markedly more willing to provide homeowner assistance across categories overall. Large firms by far provide the highest levels of assistance, and mid-size firms are much more generous than small firms across most categories. However, the offering of mortgage subsidies or allowances for mid-level employees is similar across company size with only 18% of firms offering this assistance overall. Additionally, small and mid-size firms share a similar likelihood of offering temporary housing allowances (36% and 42%), homefinding trips (36% and 39%), storage (28% and 37%), duplicate housing assistance (19% and 19%), and reimbursing/paying for home sale costs (22% and 30%).

Differences by company size are also pronounced at the executive/top relocation level. Large firms are most likely to offer individual types of homeowner assistance across nearly every category compared. The exceptions are duplicate housing assistance (33% vs. 25% of small firms and 27% of mid-size firms) and mortgage subsidies or allowances (27% vs. 24% of small and mid-size firms). Mid-size firms share a similarity with large firms regarding their likelihood to reimburse/pay for loss-on-sale (32% vs. 40%) and cover federal tax liability (34% vs. 36%). But for the majority of other assistance items, mid-size firms are more similar to small firms. For the instances where mid-size firms are notably more generous than small firms, they remain much less likely than large firms to offer the assistance: reimburse/pay home sale costs (45% vs. 30% of small firms and 63% of large firms), home purchase costs (39% vs. 26% and 56%), offer home marketing assistance (32% vs. 20% and 51%), and bonuses/incentives for employee-generated home sale (23% vs. 14% and 34%).

Question 29-1