What is a Relocation Assistance
Relocation assistance means that a company that hires a new employee or transfers one to another office/country/etc. offers help in moving. It is important to acquire information about relocation assistance beforehand in order to review the benefits and after that negotiate the terms to cover all your needs.
What is a relocation package and what does it usually include
A relocation package means an offer from a company to pay an additional sum of money to help to cover all or part of the relocation expenses.
There are 4 main packages which third parties provide:
- Lump Sum Packages
- Tiered Packages
- Managed Budget Package + Flexible Allowance Plans
- A Fully-Covered Relocation Package
A Lump Sum Package means monetary support from a company. The amount of money is based on previous experiences. However, due to the frequency of using money, not for its main purpose, employers tend to use other types of relocation packages.
Tiered Packages are considered the most effective due to the fact that the relocation package is matched to the employee: their level of seniority and circumstances and needs.
Besides, the packages could be tailored. It might look like this:
- 1st tier: relocation might be needed for an intern or entry-level employee that has no mortgage and is a private tenant.
- 2nd tier: mid-level managers and long-serving professionals who are about to relocate that have either a mortgage or private tenants.
- 3rd tier: relocation packages for senior managers and high-level executives.
Manages Budget Package or Capped Allowance Plan choose companies that prefer to set a limit to employee budget in order to cut unrequired expenses. Furthermore, the company may provide a service of executors to make less weight on employees' shoulders. However, there are risks of overspending when the process is not run by you and expenses may increase.
Moreover, there are Flexible Allowance Plans that are similar to the Capped Allowance and can be offered by a company. The difference is that in the Flexible Allowance Plan are categories (shipping items, home sale, travelling expenses etc.) on which a company will decide the maximum amount of money they want to spend on. If there is some money left, the employee can not spend it on something else, but it goes back to the employer.
A Fully-Covered Relocation Package is often provided for higher-level employees as there can incur high, unpredictable costs compared to the other packages.
Here are some insights about relocation help: in the job relocation survey from Allied Van Lines, only 64.14% received some kind of monetary compensation from an employer, while 35.86% of workers had to pick up the cost themselves. Of those, 64.14% of workers:
- 33.07% had moving expenses covered
- 18.08% received sponsored trips to look for housing
- 16.58% received a lump sum
- 16.48% received payment for temporary living costs
- 15.78% received a miscellaneous expense allowance
And according to the American provider of online real estate and moving services, Moving.com:
- The average cost of a local move is $1,250.
- The average cost of a long-distance move is $4,890 that have a distance of 1,000 miles.
- These estimates are based on a 2 - 3 bedroom move of approximately 7,500 pounds.
Besides, the cost can differ from one service provider to another one and, as stated before - due to differences in additional needs according to a particular territory.
Relocation package examples
Let's break down the options of a relocation package companies provide. The relocation package are usually provided help with such services as:
- Services of packing or/and unpacking
- Moving services with probable insurance coverage
- Help with selling home
- House-hunting trip
- Temporary housing and storing the household goods from previous home
- Auto travel reimbursement
- Miscellaneous expenses/Lump Sum
- Final Move
- Lease Break Assistance
- Spousal employment assistance
- School location assistance
- Integration and cultural assistance
- Auto Shipment
- Lease Break Assistance
Some of the stated services in a relocation package can differ due to the tier system. For instance, the entry-level employee may get help only with the Lump Sum Assistance and marketing part of the Home Sale Assistance while other services they have to get on their own; the 2nd and 3rd tiers for the directors and professionals can be of help except for the Loss on Sale of their property and the Home Purchase Assistance; for the tier for the professional employees' services to help employ their spouse are not provided. And, finally, for the top tier vice presidents and for positions above are usually every possible service from a relocation package available.
Where to find a job with relocation assistance
Finally, it is time to discuss the most relevant websites, platforms and marketplaces to find a job with a relocation package.
Relocate.me is a website, where except for looking for jobs in 17 countries, you can get personalized tips for relocations that are based on your answers to their questions such as:
- What is your citizenship?
- Are you relocating with children?
- Do you have a driving licence?
- Are you relocating with a partner?
- Do you have a degree?
- Do you have pets?
However, those tips are available only after registration or signing in a system.
Built In offers a search with filters where are available seeking perks in a company such as relocation, adoption assistance, child care benefits, commuter benefits, continuing education stipend and a lot more. After choosing the option in the filter “relocation”, the platform shows you companies with different job positions and information with the possibility to find more by clicking on the result of the search. Moreover, there are many other filters that are based on location, remote jobs, industry, DEI, perks (where is an option of relocation assistance) and size of the company in employees.
- LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed and so on
There are many resources for searching that can help to find jobs that offer relocation assistance with only typing keywords such as “relocation” and/or “visa sponsorship” etc, for instance, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed or another international job-searching site.
Alternatively - join Hirin.co, a job matching marketplace with a great variety of tech jobs worldwide!
