Relocating For A Job Post-Pandemic - Is It Worth It?

The excitement and wonder that accompanies a decision to relocate for a job is usually a given: moving to a new city, area or country being attractive to thousands of job seekers all over the world.

Career goals and opportunities

Relocation is almost always viewed positively from a professional perspective, as you will be regarded as an internationally minded candidate who is flexible and prepared to adapt and develop to a senior level. Moreover, it could lead to additional responsibilities, which would further accelerate career growth.

Large corporations usually prefer candidates who have good international experience for senior roles in a corporate HQ, particularly as companies become more global. But even if a senior role is not in your sights just yet, you can greatly enhance your capabilities for any career move by learning from different cultures, and how things are done around the world. More information is in our Relocation Guide here.

Global mobility

COVID-19 has brought significant resource challenges for employers with remote work (mostly) here to stay, thereby decentralising workforces.  It remains to be seen whether vaccine efficacy shifts this back in favour of “in-office working” but it does not seem likely, and this will impact urban workforce numbers, the commuter economy, the night-time economy in many cities, and more.

The pandemic has in addition created a more risk-averse generation of employees, and this aversion will cause changes as to how employers package a job offer that includes relocation. The wider considerations for professionals looking to relocate – families, relationships, friendship groups remain the same. However, employers looking to bring talent to their city or country will have to offer more than a simple relocation package. They will need to leverage wider cultural resources, engage with their community, and re-develop a “concierge” service worthy of the candidate, including a health and wellbeing element.

Considerations for employers

Many employers still have a need for candidates to relocate.

The challenge for companies going forward will be in their strategic approach to recruitment: how flexible or willing you are to adapt the relocation package, whilst still leveraging any cross-cultural elements you feel will make the role, and your company, more attractive to prospective talent and their families.

Considerations for candidates

The cross-cultural appeal of moving to a new area remains intuitively popular. The key is to manage expectations.

As we move into a post-pandemic environment, the unique nature of remote work could, contrary to thought, encourage people to move even further afield to work remotely – consider the Barbados Welcome Stamp offer for remote workers. Likewise there are plenty of advice column inches devoted to encouraging remote work across a wide array of different cities.

Conclusion

The relocation “package” and the attractive draw of cultural diversity is still very much apparent. The challenge facing employers is to relocate workers when they are still partially home-based despite the obvious benefits of in house training, mentoring, team development and face to face communication.

Similar posts:

Relocation And Country Information, How Do You Future-Proof Your Career After The Pandemic?Top 4 Employee Skills To Succeed During The Lockdown Era

Photo by Ruthie on Unsplash

06-05-2021

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