Corporate Relocation Survey 2024

Though 40% of companies reported an increase in employees declining relocation in 2023 compared to 2022, companies are noting an increase overall in expectations of employees electing permanent voluntary relocations.
 

Voluntary Relocations

Employees are choosing to relocate for personal reasons, and with ongoing flexibility in workplace policies, this continues to increase. People are choosing to move voluntarily for a variety of reasons, but one key reason that data is supporting includes the desire for low-tax states. According to a study that analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data from July 2022 to July 2023, there are correlations that show Americans are leaving high-tax, high-cost-of-living states for states with lower tax and better tax structures (Tax Foundation).
 
44% of employers are expecting an increase in permanent voluntary relocations in 2024 compared to 2023. This is up from the year prior when 39% of employers anticipated an increase in 2023 compared to 2022. The increases in expected moves vary considerably by company size. Large and medium companies are predicting a 6-point increase in voluntary permanent moves compared to last year. Most small companies (53%) expect the same number of permanent voluntary moves. 
 

• In 2024, 44% of companies expect an increase in permanent voluntary relocations, 45% are expecting the same, and 7% are expecting to see a decrease. 
• For temporary voluntary relocations, 35% expect an increase, 46% are expecting the same, and 10% are expecting a decrease.

 

Compared to last year, there is an increase within large companies in the creation of a permanent voluntary move policy from 44% in 2022 to 52% in 2023. More significantly, there is an increase overall in providing access to a relocation provider network for employee voluntary moves from 36% of employers in 2022 to 43% in 2023. The shift comes from medium and large companies with medium companies increasing to 46% and large companies increasing to 47% in this offering. 
 

Changing Workplaces

Workplace models continue to adapt since the pandemic. When looking at workplace management policies for 2024, over half (55%) of companies are planning to use the hybrid model, the same amount as 2023. For others, 53% plan to be in the office full time, up from 48% in 2023. 39% will allow specific areas of the company to remain remote, while others must return to the office. 28% will allow employees the option to choose to work remotely or return to the office, and 10% plan to be fully remote.  For this report, respondents were instructed to select all models that applied to their plans for 2024.

• Medium and large companies were much more likely to embrace the hybrid-work model at 56% and 66% respectively, while small companies were most likely to embrace a full on-site return at 57%. 
• Small companies seem to have taken steps to get more people on premises for the coming year with an 8-point increase in companies noting a full on-site return to the office and a drop in all other accommodation options compared to last year.

When asked which considerations had the greatest impact on informing their workplace models, respondents noted a tie between productivity (38%) and management preferences (38%), followed closely by employee recruitment/retention (37%) and workplace culture (36%). According to the Deloitte 2023 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 87% of business leaders believe that developing the right workplace model is important or very important to their organization’s success, but only 24% feel their organization is very ready to address this trend.

 

Hybrid/Remote Workforce

According to a Pew Research Center 2023 survey, fully remote work has decreased compared to 2022 from 43% to 35%, while hybrid work has increased from 35% to 41% overall for U.S. adults who can do their job remotely. In our survey, the number of companies offering a hybrid model remained static year-over-year at 55%. 

Remote work constraints vary by company size with the top three overall remote work constraints:

• 37% - Location must be approved by management
• 36% - Technology requirements
• 35% - Availability at certain hours regardless of time zone

 

Office Space

Though hybrid work is still the most prevalent workplace model overall of the companies surveyed, very few (8%) respondents noted a decrease in 2023 of their total office space. Most respondents either increased their total office space in 2023 (52%) or made no changes to the amount of space (40%).

When it comes to actions taken within the office space, 30% of respondents note renovating, 28% note offering incentives to employees to return to the office such as free lunch, and 26% note increasing shared/communal space in the office. The predominant actions vary by company size with large companies noting renovations (34%) or exploring office downsizing (30%), medium companies noting renovations (32%) or incentivizing employees to return (30%), and small companies noting exploration of the office relocating to another city (23%) or purchase of additional office space (23%).

 

Recommendation:

Click here to read the full 2024 Atlas^® Corporate Relocation Survey

Click here to view full cross tables and charts