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Corporate Relocation Costs: How to Budget and Plan Effectively

If you are getting ready to move your company to a new office or state, you need proper planning and budgeting. iMoving’s guide breaks it down for your HR manager.

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Cost Considerations for Corporate Relocation

In this article:

This article reviews budgeting tips, top tips for the smooth transition and failures you can learn from. We review the best way to build and adjust the budget, factors to consider, and the best way to help your employees feel seen.

Relocation Budgeting Tips

Planning a corporate relocation budget isn't easy. It is important to keep it very realistic. Here’s a structured approach to help in your planning process:

Figure Out The Details:

  • Scope of The Move: Determine the scale of the relocation - is it just the offices you are responsible for or also the employees and their families?
  • Destination: Identify the new location and its cost of living relative to the current one. These additional costs must be paid to your employees.
  • Offices: Make sure you know if you need to relocate to a rented space or buy offices. 
  • Employee Needs: Understand the specific needs of employees. They will need schools for their kids, jobs for their spouses, recreational activities, gyms, religious institutions, and more. Make their lives simpler by giving them the research in a small guide. The average package to compensate workers is usually more than $10,000 and goes up costing up to $100,000 depending on the role and workers.

Choose Item

Estimated Cost Range:$4,000 - $15,000+

Estimated Cost Range:$10,000 - $110,000+

Estimated Cost Range:$20,000 - $110,000+

Estimated Cost Range:10-15% of total budget

Estimated Cost Range:$50,000 - $300,000+

1. Estimate Your Costs

  • Moving Services: Get quotes from moving companies for packing, transportation, and unpacking full-service options. iMoving comes in here to help you compare and contrast commercial movers and get multiple binding quotes by only inputting your info once.
  • Travel Expenses: Estimate costs for travel to the new location for employees and their families. Do they need flights, road trip time, and accommodation to bring their vehicles or should the company pay to ship their cars?
  • Temporary Housing: Budget for temporary hotels until employees find housing if needed. Set a timeline for the maximum number of nights in a hotel that the company is willing to pay for.
  • Loss of Productivity: Estimate productivity losses during the relocation period. The time it takes to get used to a new location can really impact business.

Choose Item

Average Cost Range:$1,000 - $5,000

Average Cost Range:$2,000 - $10,000+

Average Cost Range:$500 - $3,000

Average Cost Range:$500 - $2,500 per month

Average Cost Range:$4,000 - $15,000+

2. Budget

  • Allocate Resources: Assign specific amounts to each category (moving services, travel, hotel housing, car shipment, etc.). Put all the numbers in an Excel sheet so that everyone can understand the total costs.
  • Contingency Budget: Set aside a contingency budget (usually 10-15% of total costs) for unexpected expenses for the office and employees themselves.
  • Bonus: Employees are uprooting their whole lives to move for the company. Reward them for their dedication.

3. Policies

  • Company Policies: Ensure compliance with company policies on relocation expenses. If the policies don’t exist then make sure to draft them up.
  • Legal Considerations: Review legal implications and tax issues associated with relocation to a new state if relevant.

4. Communication is Key

  • Communicate with Employees: Keep employees informed about the budget allocation and the relocation process as a whole. Keep them updated on all aspects so they feel a part.
  • Coordinate with Vendors: Work closely with the moving company and other vendors to manage costs as needed.

5. Tracking

  • Expense Tracking: Implement a simple system to track expenses throughout the relocation process. All employees should be able to access it simply from their phones and laptops to update.
  • Budget vs. Actual Comparison: Compare actual expenses against the budget to identify and adjust your projected expenses.

6. Feedback

  • Feedback: Gather feedback from employees post-relocation to improve future budget planning.
  • Changes: Make necessary changes to the approved budget based on lessons learned from the current relocation.
  • Negotiation: Negotiate with vendors to get the best possible rates for services.

Relocation Tips From iMoving’s Favorites

Here are some of our favorite tips from past moves. Check them out to learn to plan ahead for your company’s relocation:

  • Read up and learn as many local tips and spots at your new location as you can ahead of time so that you can recommend lunch spots to your employees.
  • Get rid of all those cartons as fast as you can to help yourself settle in and feel comfortable in your new office. Book professional unpacking service to ease the load on employees.
  • Update your business address with the post office, banks, insurance companies, utilities, and of course your clients.
  • Plan out your company's moving expenses budget, including transport, packing supplies, moving services, full unpacking services, and more. Budget for extras to destress your life.
  • Plan out a realistic timeline for your relocation.
  • Take a pre-relocation trip as a moving team to scout out things your office will need asap and set up the IT infrastructure.
  • Be patient, everything will work out. Relocation is a major task. 
  • Make a list for employees of local schools, gyms, recreation centers, and more to help them ease in.
  • Maintain thorough documentation of all expenses and approvals.
  • Begin planning as early as possible to allow for thorough research and negotiation with vendors.
  • Consider all aspects of the relocation, including moving expenses, lease or purchase costs for new space, IT infrastructure setup, employee relocation costs, and more. Try to use past moving charts from online to help project expenses.
  • Factor in unexpected costs such as lease penalties, fees, regulatory issues, and temporary storage fees for the office.
  • Set clear expectations regarding employee responsibilities and entitlements during the relocation process.
  • Get legal advice to ensure compliance with employment laws, lease agreements, and tax regulations in both the current and new locations. You will need to resign all your employees on new contracts with the new location.
  • Consider how relocation impacts employee morale and retention.
  • Factor in the potential costs of recruiting and training new staff as many may choose not to move with the company.
  • Develop a plan to minimize disruptions to business operations during the relocation period. Keep your clients updated.
  • Make sure IT systems and infrastructure are set up and tested in advance to minimize downtime. Allow employees to work from home as much as needed during these trying times.

Relocation Fails

  1. Relocating for the wrong reasons as a company. 
  2. Employees feeling lonely. Help them to not stay isolated, get out in the fresh air, and meet people. Get them professional special help if needed.
  3. Not planning well for your arrival is a surefire way to set up for failure. Start your office search well in advance of your move to make sure you find a place that meets your company's needs and budget.
  4. Not communicating the timeline to employees. 
  5. Not communicating the needs and reasoning to employees.
  6. Be transparent as things will always go off plan but what matters is if you are honest.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, tipping is actually part of the cost despite the questionable name but may not be in the quote so be sure to double-check. Movers are hard workers helping you get from A to B.

Tipping between 15-20% is expected by movers and drivers alike. Think of it as if you’ve gone to a restaurant and left without tipping- not cool. Plan ahead for these costs so you aren’t surprised. Trust us.

Keeping the move stress-free and in vibes will keep you motivated. Every time you finish packing up another box or room, take a moment to celebrate your accomplishments. 

Acknowledging the small milestones helps you reach the bigger ones. This will keep you motivated and boost family morale. Finishing up packing a room and cleaning it out is a bigger task than usual. Reward yourself.

Think of it as a sort of personal insurance policy. Your personal inventory home list will help you settle on a binding quote with an actual number and a tally as well as be your own personal insurance policy if anything were to happen to your goods.

This list which should include pictures of all the items is your proof if your TV shows up at the new home with a giant crack that it was the moving company’s fault if it even shows up at all.

Pets pick up on our energy and need a common schedule. If you are stressed, you are likely to stress out your furry friend. Try and make the experience fun for them with lots of walks and treats. Associate the move with positive things your pet loves to make the day less hard for them.

Ensure to set up their home base as soon as you get into the new home so that they can feel they have their own corner with food, water, and their bed. Try and send them to doggy daycare the day of the move to avoid stressing them out.

When moving internationally you will need to make sure they have all the documents and vaccinations required.

You can listen to music and put a great moving playlist on your JBL to blast while packing boxes. You can also make it a game and see who packs the most boxes the fastest and most efficiently.

There are many ways to keep calm while doing this simple activity. Get excited for your new adventure.

Take your daughter to the new home and show her all around her new area! Take her to the various playgrounds, and local ice cream shops, and find fun activities in the area.

Also, make her a part of decision-making so she won’t feel just like everything around her is suddenly changing, but rather that she is a part of deciding what changes happen in her life. This can be done by choosing after-school activities together or designing her bedroom with new colors.

The changes in all aspects of life are the usual answer. It’s not just that you are being uprooted from your bedroom, familiar neighborhood, and local spots, it's the fact that this happens while your entire life is in boxes, so you cannot find solitude in your new place until you properly unpack.

The first couple of weeks can feel overwhelming, but the more you put yourself to the task of unpacking and making the new home feel cozy, the faster you will feel at home!

For the truly special pieces, I would recommend actually packing up in many layers of bubble wrap and towels and actually putting in your personal car if the option exists.

You can of course wrap these items and put them in a plastic bin with many layers of pillows, towels, and more soft items and write “fragile” on top, but I think it’s better to play it safe than sorry.

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Rachel Kaplan

Rachel has spent the last few years writing for moving companies while actually moving across the globe. After many years of moving between many states in the US, she moved abroad to try the remote work life. She’s a pro at moving all her things with her dog and hundreds of plants. Thankfully she’s a minimalist so moves aren’t too much of an issue.

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