Companies commonly offer relocation packages for employees who must move for a job, but one firm is providing its workers a "delocation" package—in which they'll pay employees to move anywhere they want.
Zapier, a company producing workflow automation tools, says it's offering the package to new employees living in the San Francisco area in hopes of expanding into new markets in the near future. New employees can choose the city that best fits their needs, and the company will reimburse up to $10,000 in moving expenses incurred during the first three months of work.
"When we first started hiring, we simply hired the best people in our networks—which happened to be outside of Silicon Valley because we're originally from the Midwest—and the remote aspect continued," says Wade Foster, cofounder and CEO of Zapier. The company now has 80-plus employees who all work remotely across 13 countries and 22 states, Foster says. "We found a business model that works for us and incentivizes the best talent to live and work anywhere in the world."
Foster says the company received more than 150 applications in one weekend after announcing the delocation package, and more than 500 applications were submitted in two days for an HR admin position. He says the idea was to make sure employees didn't feel like they had to make a career sacrifice by moving to a place where they didn't want to be.
"The $10,000 'delocation' allowance is certainly a draw for candidates," Foster says. "Millennials often relocate to major cities and business centers to build careers for themselves, but the package gives talented people the opportunity to work with a leading tech company from wherever they want, even if that's outside of Silicon Valley. We want to encourage employees to do their best work under their ideal personal circumstances—being closer to family, in cities with a lower cost of living, or locations that align with their desired lifestyle."
Source: “This Company Will Pay You to Relocate Wherever You Want,” Forbes.com (April 2, 2017)
