Fewer Workers Are Willing to Relocate Post-Pandemic

The pandemic altered many HR-related practices — possibly for good. One of these is job relocation. According to the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of job seekers who relocated for work fell to 5% in 2020 and 4.2% in the first three months of 2021. That’s down from 5.7% in 2019 and 9.6% in 2018. Fewer workers are willing to relocate post-pandemic.

“This has been sort of an awakening moment for people,” says Chris Porter, chief demographer at John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, Calif. “After what we went through last year, I think there might be a resetting of priorities.”

Many parents are loath to pluck their kids from schools to which they’re just now returning after a tumultuous stretch of virtual learning. Some companies are opening and expanding satellite locations that could preclude the need for a physical move. And workers who have grown used to the flexibility of logging on from the dining room table might scoff at the idea of putting their families through a huge transition just so they can commute or relocate to new headquarters each day.

“Part of it is, ‘I’m offered that level of freedom in my current position, so tell me why I should [be willing to] give that up,’ ” says John Touey, a Philadelphia-area executive recruiter with Salveson Stetson Group who’s noticed job candidates are much more resistant to relocating for new opportunities these days. “I think we want to make these decisions because they’re personally motivated and they’re right for us and our families, versus they’re right for our employers.”

Many Americans have indeed moved during the pandemic — to places their jobs didn’t ask them to go. Untethered from the office, they set out in search of more space and cheaper living costs. Some landed closer to relatives, or just somewhere they always wanted to be. Now that they’re there, it might be hard to get them to leave.

“I feel like I can lay down roots here,” Dan Slamowitz, a product manager for a consulting firm, says of his choice to move to Centennial, Colorado, last fall. He kept his Chicago-based role, a strategic move that enabled him to score the promotion he’d been working toward for years, even as a far-flung employee. He’s loving the area’s snowboarding, hiking and vegan offerings and hopes to buy a house.

“I wouldn’t move for a company anymore,” the 29-year-old says. “I just feel that I can prioritize where I want to be.”

Our own HR ninja, Lorein Brightwell advises companies to be agile. “You’ve asked it of your Employees in the past, so this one may be on you. For all of the real-life, day-to-day reasons noted above, the Employees may not budge. Using the word given great popularity a la pandemic—pivot! HR Professionals know how to do an environmental scan of the recruitment landscape, if your please-stay-with-us ploys do not work on your existing talent pool. We can see that, although the pandemic effects seem to be diminishing, we are also now experiencing fallout of the approaching post-pandemic period. Americans are Can Do -- remember Rosie the Riveter? They are the great inventors and innovators. They will survive this recent ‘war,’ and quite possibly thrive. With the assistance of HR professionals leading the way in next best steps, our companies will rebuild the appropriate and effective American workforce.”

Hey, there’s nothing easy about effective and strategic HR management. That’s why the smartest employers look to PLB Resources as their guide to make sure the company is fully in compliance while building an AMAZING workplace!

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/job-search-work-move-relocate-new-city-11622831065