Does relocating employees lead to increased productivity?

Employers across the globe are searching high and low for ways to increase productivity. 

Integrating AI into monotonous, routine tasks has risen to the fore as one of the more obvious answers, but it appears a number of companies have struck gold with a less tech-driven solution. 

Businesses asking employees to relocate are seeing significant improvements in productivity, retention and engagement, according to research carried out by Crown World Mobility.

The global mobility provider’s survey of HR decision-makers based across the world, revealed a rise in relocation projects in 2022 as international travel largely returned to normal post-pandemic. As one might expect, 26 to 35-year-olds were most likely to relocate. 

However, it was also discovered that factors including inflated travel expenses and continued economic challenges have since led to a dip in these projects. 

“The return of international business travel and open borders post-COVID sparked a rise in employee relocation,” comments Nick Sutton, VP of Global Sales & Marketing at Crown World Mobility. “But, having since spoken to many of these businesses, we can see today’s challenging economic landscape has made this difficult to sustain.

“That said, for the businesses that have continued their relocation efforts, we’re seeing just how effective these global mobility programmes are as a robust employee engagement tool – with significant ROI when it comes to productivity and retention, as well as a USP for businesses looking to attract new recruits.”

Employees find increased motivation during assignments

Crown World Mobility’s survey of 250 HR decision-makers, based in the US, Singapore, the UK, Ireland, France and Germany, was aimed at identifying the key challenges and benefits associated with sending employees on assignment.

And researchers found that the benefits were plentiful, with 84% of respondents claiming employees are more productive and engaged when working on assignment due to factors such as increased motivation and adopting a fresh work ethic.

A significant majority (82%) of businesses claimed they had offered relocation programmes to employees in a bid to retain them, with more than half (53%) agreeing that relocation improved retention. 

What’s more, the majority of businesses claimed they were actively advertising the potential to relocate to prospective (54%) and current (51%) employees, while 90% said they were embedding international exposure into their career plans. 

Interestingly, a key hurdle for HR leaders overseeing global mobility programmes is maintaining the wellbeing of employees while they are on assignment. This was one of the biggest (43%) leadership challenges during assignment, while 53% said re-integrating employees back into their original teams becomes the biggest challenge once it has ended. 

Read the full report: Mobility Matters

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