Oct 29, 2020   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Motus Research Reveals Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Employee and Candidate Location and Costs of Living

Motus, the definitive leader in solutions for businesses with mobile-enabled workforces, today released “The Impact of Relocation and Delocation Trends on Talent Acquisition.” The report details how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped talent location and recruitment strategies. As workers become increasingly motivated to leave crowded cities and employers embrace long-term or permanent remote work, the report reveals how companies can take advantage of current relocation trends and the sudden surplus of talent when planning short-term and long-term recruiting strategies.

“Businesses are weathering a very atypical global economic disruption and, as a result, many organizations reduced their workforces. This has led to a sudden talent surplus – highly skilled workers who wouldn’t be job hunting under normal circumstances,” said Ken Robinson, Market Research Manager at Motus. “Employers who have decentralized their offices and adopted remote work policies are in the best position to benefit from this short-term surplus because they can expand recruiting efforts to a global demographic and onboard the most qualified candidates, regardless of location.”

By delocating and enacting formal remote work policies, employers can access a deeper, global talent pool, expand hiring opportunities beyond metropolitan areas and create significant savings. In addition to recouping real estate spend, which averages $5,000 per employee per year, Motus research identified salary requirements for remote employees may vary by as much as 30% due to living costs in different areas of the country. For example, the report found that the cost of remote work in San Jose, California is 146% higher than the national average. On the other end, Raleigh, North Carolina is 6% below the U.S. median. As such, a decentralized company can hire an equally talented employee living on the opposite side of the country at a much lower cost.

The report found that employees have welcomed the opportunity to work remotely. Many have chosen to shed the high costs associated with living in major metropolitan cities and relocate to more affordable suburban areas. Specifically, the report found that 43% of urban dwellers have considered moving since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. An additional 22% of U.S. adults have either relocated or know someone who has. While this rate of relocation is much higher than previous years, companies can anticipate a long-term trend. The report shows 40% of Generation Z and millennial professionals want to work in a geographically flexible way.

“More than 90 million people in the U.S. have jobs that can be performed remotely. Leveraging that flexibility broadens the talent pool and creates significant savings for employers in high-cost areas,” Robinson said. “But to make remote work successful, employers need to implement policies that reimburse employees for the use of their personal assets for business purposes. Remote work costs vary by location, so simply paying employees a flat stipend can lead to the under-reimbursement or over-reimbursement of workers. Businesses looking to capitalize on these talent trends should create a policy that is fair to employees and complies with state and federal labor regulations.”

To download the full Motus report, “The Impact of Relocation and Delocation Trends on Talent Acquisition,” visit: https://resources.motus.com/reports/relocation-and-delocation-trends-impact-talent-aquisition.

About Motus
Motus is the definitive leader in solutions for businesses with mobile-enabled workforces. Motus simplifies reimbursement and management of mileage, mobile devices and remote work with proprietary software that calculates personalized reimbursements for each employee, while improving employee productivity, reducing overall mobility costs and supporting customers’ tax and labor law compliance programs. The company’s unmatched living cost data, refined over more than 80 years and updated in real time, has made Motus the leading provider of mobile workforce management solutions for top Fortune 500 companies. Motus automotive data, captured and analyzed across the world’s largest retained pool of drivers, also underpins the annual Internal Revenue Service (IRS) business mileage standard, the amount an individual can deduct for business vehicle expenses. For more information please visit www.motus.com or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.