Often, when organizations share their reasons for investing in corporate relocation programs, they’re focused on the benefits they provide back to the employer, but the relocation experience can (and should) offer significant benefits to employees, too.
According to a recent survey, the top reason employees relocate is for career advancement (and, correspondingly, to increase their earnings). Not surprisingly, the survey also found that employees are most likely to relocate when they’re between the ages of 25-44. In other words: they’re young to mid-career professionals eager to climb the corporate ladder.
But how exactly do relocation assignments accelerate career growth, as well as personal development factor in? Let’s take a closer look.
Frequently, a relocation offer is tied to a promotion, and that in itself is a step up. However, beyond that immediate upgrade, employees’ careers will likely benefit down the road, too. After all, when employees relocate, they gain:
Relocating to a different location exposes employees to new projects, teams, and challenges. These will likely expand their skill sets, which in turn will open doors to career opportunities they might not otherwise be qualified to pursue.
For example, according to the Harvard Business Review, when midlevel managers accept international roles, they receive a “crash course in leadership,” honing their decision-making skills in real-time.
Moving to a new location allows employees to expand their professional network, as they build relationships with new colleagues, clients, and contacts. Down the road, those relationships may bear fruit, by providing future opportunities or allowing their future selves to bring otherwise unconnected contacts together to achieve new objectives.
Relocation often involves exposure to different cultures, people, and environments. Say, for example, that a physician from a large, East Coast city relocates to a rural hospital in the deep South. That experience will undoubtedly help her better understand and connect with patients from backgrounds very different from her own. By enhancing her cultural competency, she becomes a more effective physician—a skill she’ll take with her wherever she goes.
Companies often seek to promote and retain the talent they have invested in by offering them future leadership roles. In some large corporations, for example, C-level executives are required to have worked in multiple departments or aspects of management—including national/international experience. In other words, a geographically diverse resume is often a prerequisite for those bound for the very top.