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Workforce Mobility Facts Page
General Worldwide ERC® Information
- Worldwide ERC® is the professional membership association for the global, mobile workforce and the gathering place for more than 13,000 companies and individuals that operate across state and country borders.
- ERC® members include employers, real estate brokers, appraisers, financial services, relocation management companies, household goods movers, mobility counselors and consultants, international assignment professionals, and a range of concerned practitioners who are involved in workforce mobility.
- ERC® addresses issues that include and are related to public policy/lobbying, research and trend identification, professional certification, networking, training and education, industry standardization and consensus-building, global workforce management processes and practices and e-business solutions.
- ERC®'s advocacy in public policy issues safeguards successful business models and saves ERC® members millions each year.
U.S. Domestic Workforce Mobility
- U.S. Domestic Costs: The average costs to relocate a home-owning current employee and a home-owning new hire are $64,235 and $52,318 respectively. The average cost to relocate a renting current employee is $18,376. The corresponding cost for a new hire renter is $15,922.
- The size of the industry: ERC® integrated its own statistics with government estimates that put the size of all employer-assisted moves (including international and military) at approximately 1.5 million. Our figure for domestic employer assisted job-related relocations is approximately 450,000 per year. We estimate international employer relocations at about 394,000. Most companies indicate that domestic relocation has remained somewhat static for several years - the real growth area is in the international arena. See our U.S. Transfer Volume Trend Chart.
- Reluctance to Relocate: The top two reasons that employees are reluctant to relocate in the United States are employee/family resistance to the move and high housing costs. See our Reluctance to Relocate Chart.
- Tiered Policies: More companies have been using tiered policies for current employees and new hires to control costs and add flexibility to their programs. See our Tiered Policy Charts.
- The Three most active metropolitan areas for inbound and outbound moves are Washington, DC; Phoenix/Mesa, and AZ Chicago, IL; and. See the top ten metro areas.
International Workforce Mobility
- ERC®'s growing menu of global opportunities includes the Global Mobility Specialist (GMS™) designation, the Global Workforce Symposium in October; the Global Workforce Summit:Focus on Asia-Pacific; the Global Workforce Summit: Focus on Europe, the Middle East & Africa; a new electronic magazine called “GLOBILITY™”; its Global Workforce Services Directory; and related web site resources; international eDiscussion groups; and global survey research.
- Countries' economies are more connected and intertwined, increasing the need for a global business plan for all businesses and businesspeople. Countries are so interlaced economically that a substantive plan to address global workforce mobility and global business opportunities, whether currently in use or in the planning stages, is a natural next step for all of us.
- Companies still make use of international assignments for training and development, getting their “ticket punched” (rounding out their education in the company), for cultural transfers, or to groom their executive leadership. We're working at educating the global workforce mobility community that globalization will have a place in their work, whether they see it now or not.
- Rapid expansion of global enterprise, technology that enables geographically disbursed teams, the need to enhance international business relationships, the implementation of permanent or expatriate assignments, and an increasingly multi-cultural workforce are all trends that are driving global mobility.
- Our increasingly multi-cultural workforce calls for the development of managers who can be effective in multiple, complex, and rapidly changing environments. In short, we are building global leaders. In fact, a recent ERC® survey indicated the value placed on international experience. Of those who responded to the survey, 24% indicated that senior managers have completed international assignments, and 50 percent expect a 50% increase over the next five years.
- A lessening of US domestic transfers reveals international mobility as the real growth area, though we've seen the number of expats moving out of the U.S. decline even as expats coming into the U.S. — as well as country-to-country movement — remain steady or increase.
- The face of the global workforce is changing to include more short-term and multi-country project teams, while there are continued challenges with repatriation, and problems with retention.
- Cost estimates are rising, and visas and shipments are taking longer. Learning to project costs more accurately and look for ways to minimize them is critical, as is supporting the employee and family and staying in compliance with tax and immigration laws.
- There are fewer fully-loaded expat packages, in fact, the need to contain or reduce costs is driving some policy changes and reductions in benefits.
- From the cost standpoint, there is no “magic formula” that works for global transfers. Some companies say they 3 or 5 or 7 times someone's salary to move an employee, but there are many variables, many different tax situations, and many different types of services from country to country.
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