Domestic Relocation

in India
Benchmark Report
2022
Domestic Relocation in India

Domestic relocation in India is not a new concept, but in recent years a few important
trends have attracted more interest and focus than ever before:

1 2 2
There are more multinational The competition on talent, Global Mobility teams are
companies in India to even during the pandemic, being asked to add the
compete for IT/Tech talent and the focus on employee management of domestic
and bring global processes experience is up to an all moves to their long list of
and standards to the local time high responsibilities
market

We focused our research on companies based in India who offer domestic relocation
support to employees in IT & technology, finance and other domains. The research
included one-on-one confidential interviews with the HR and Mobility leaders of 16
companies.

The findings are quite shocking

of HR leaders are not satisfied with the

50% solutions currently in place to support
domestic relocation in India

In this whitepaper, we will cover the main reasons for these results, provide a
benchmark on what packages are offered by companies, examine how the programs
are managed and the technology in use, as well as the choice between in-house and
outsourcing, and opportunities to improve.
Participating companies

Industry Companies participating

IT, Technology & Finance 16

Country of HQ

50%
USA

31%
India

12%
Canada

7%
Europe

About the mobility program

Number of India domestic moves per year (pre Covid-19)

Average 1300

Lowest 25

Highest 5000
Key destination cities

TIER 2
NCR
Mumbai

TIER 4
Coimbatore
Kolkata
Telangana
Mysuru
TIER 3 Thiruvananthapuram
Mangaluru
Pune Bhubaneshwar
Hyderabad
TIER 1 Chennai
Chandigarh
Jaipur
Bengaluru

Unsurprisingly, Bengaluru is the capital of India’s domestic IT & tech relocation. All
participating companies have an office in Bengaluru and for most companies, it is the
largest destination for domestic relocations.

One level below Bengaluru are NCR (National Capital Region) and Mumbai, with the
third level dominated by Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

Other important, though smaller, locations are Coimbatore, Kolkata, Telangana,

Mysuru, Thiruvananthapuram, Mangaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh and Jaipur.
Relocation policy management

Does the company have a Which employees does the

specific domestic policy in India? policy cover?

87% Yes
94% Existing employees + New Hires

13% No
6% New hires only

Who owns and manages the program?

Outside HR can be admin, facilities, and travel

44% Global Mobility

31% HR/Compensation & Benefits/Staffing

25% Outside HR

In recent years we’ve seen more Global Mobility teams owning and
managing domestic relocation programs.

of the companies we researched reported that Global

Mobility owns and manages the programs and, based
44% on interviews, we expect this trend to continue and for
more Global Mobility teams to own the India Domestic
programs.
Relocation package benchmarking
In this section we will review the range of relocation packages offered by the
companies that participated in our research. We will look at the difference between a
lump sum package (money) and a services package, the type of services offered, and
the lump sum amounts.

Money or services?

50% offer only money 31% offer only services 19% offer money & services

When services are offered, they usually cover

Airfare Shipping Temporary housing

Most temporary housing offers
are for 14 days.

Lump sum vs reimbursement

For the context of this research, Lump Sum is defined as a gross

amount of money paid to the employee. When a lump sum
Lump sum
is paid, the employee does not need to provide receipts.
As a lump sum is a taxed benefit, the tax is deducted from 50%
the payment. The main benefits are simplicity and reducing
the likelihood that the employees end up out of pocket.
Reimbursement

Reimbursement is a process in which employees pay for their cost 50%

of relocation, submit expenses to the company, and then receive
reimbursement. These expenses are normally tax free.

The amount offered ranges from ₹Rs 50,000 to ₹Rs 250,000 (excluding VIPs).
When a lump sum or reimbursement is offered alongside services, the amount drops
to an average of ₹Rs 20,000, with a range between ₹Rs 12,000 and ₹Rs 50,000.
 Relocation package benchmarking
Interns*
Here we are exploring the relocation benefits commonly offered to the intern
populations. Interns could be hired:
For a short duration (2 weeks to 6 months) — while they are continuing their
university (degree) education.
For a longer duration — this is generally after their formal university (degree) is
completed.

Services offered to interns generally include:

Airfare $$ Lump Sums Temporary housing

Lump sums
Lump sums are provided to the intern population by over 70% of Lump sum
participating companies. The amount provided falls to the lower
range of ₹Rs 50,000.
70%
Housing
Interns generally stay as “Paying Guests”. This housing service cost ranges from ₹Rs
5000 to ₹Rs 15,000 per month. Note that the interns pay for this housing cost out of
their allowances.

Other services
55% of companies provide a one-way flight along with a 7-14 day stay in a hotel.
At least one large technology organization provides hotel/service apartment
accommodation for the full duration of internship, along with transportation
and food. A large telecommunications company only provides flights. However,
approximately 27% of companies do not provide any relocation for interns, and only
hire local interns.

* It may be noted that if the hiring is as a full time employee then the relocation benefits applicable to
full time employees would apply.
In-house vs outsourcing

Expense management/ Lump sum/reimbursement

reimbursements with no services

25% Use RMC

38% Use RMC

75% Internal
62% Internal

Most companies do not use an RMC (Relocation Management Company). Of those

who use an RMC, the majority are limiting the usage only for payment processing
and expense management. Only one company uses an RMC
to manage its services. The reasons for not using RMC to
All the
manage services are the high cost and the lack of relevant
companies who
local vendors network.
use an RMC are
headquartered in
According to the research participants, no global RMC has
the US.
a strong enough presence in India to offer domestic
relocation, or a strong offering for this industry.

Technology
Technology used to manage the program

75% No technology

19% Internal partial tool (HCM/HRIS)

6.25% RMC technology

 What’s working
Satisfaction well

In general, there is low satisfaction with the current

50%
status of the program, the support offered to Very little. We need a
employees, and the volume of internal work. The change
number one concern is employee experience and how
it could be improved at a relatively low cost. Without 44%
dedicated support, employees spend a lot of time The internal process
finding things on their own, which causes a loss of
valuable, productive time. Previous research by London
6%
Business School and Benivo quantified this time loss
RMC process
at $8000 per employee move, with a typical loss of 80
working hours. Similar research by Altair Relocation
found the loss of time to be about 200 hours per move
(24.4 days * 8 hours per day).
What are the main
issues?
It is important to clarify that both the London Business
School and Altair researches were mostly focused on
international moves, so it’s likely the numbers are lower
56%
among domestic movers. As the loss of productivity Improve employee

from a domestic move is lower, the business’s experience

willingness to pay for a service that solves the issue

is also lower, and this highlights the importance of 19%
providing a cost effective solution for domestic moves, A simple internal
rather than a traditional solution which won’t generate process
a positive ROI (Return on Investment). Due to the
increasing costs of delivering services with humans, 13%
it is likely that the solution would offer the majority of Costs
the support through a technology product, with limited
human support available only when needed.
13%
Reimbursement/
Our research found that 80% of companies are looking
payments process
into technology solutions to deliver time savings and
increase employee satisfaction.
In addition to productivity loss and lower employee experience, all participating
companies reported a lack of efficiency in managing the relocation process, due
to the absence of a technology solution. The majority of the issues were related to
being unable to initiate and manage domestic relocations, having a manual process
managed through emails rather than technology-enabled workflows, lack of visibility
on the status of the cases, very little or no information available for analytics including
budgeted vs actual costs, exception
tracking, trends, time taken to move,
The companies estimated this loss of
and more. Not having a central point
productivity at 15-20 hours of internal
of reference for relocating employees
work per employee relocation.
resulted in a high number of repetitive
questions and queries, which required
internal HR teams to provide the same information over and over again.

This was especially true for new joiners (both fresh grads and lateral hires) as
there was little to no integration with the company’s induction processes. A lack
of automation and tools is another concern. A few companies were not satisfied
with the costs and value for money they receive from RMCs, with one company
sharing that the cost to distribute the lump sum is higher than the value of the
amount the employees receive. There were delays with payments in both expense
reimbursement and lump sum processes, as well as issues in tracking, spend
management, and using data to drive decision making.

With regard to employee experience, the main issues identified were the lack of
a central place to hold everything relocation related, advice about areas to live,
schools, shipping, cultural differences, support for partners, and state-specific
requirements such as lease templates, deposit terms and car registration.

The findings of our research were clear; domestic moves in India are becoming
more important than ever before. This presents an opportunity, particularly during
the pandemic, for Global Mobility teams to take ownership of the relocation
programs, deliver a better experience for relocating employees, and have a positive
impact on the business.
About Benivo

Benivo brings a decade of award-winning experience developing HR technology and

finance solutions for relocating employees, Global Mobility teams and their delivery
partners with a proven system that increases employee experience Net Promoter
Score (NPS) by over 50%.

Benivo’s client base includes

and 50 more top employers who collectively rate Benivo with an NPS of 76.

Benivo’s technology provides a digital

relocation experience globally, with a
large number of its clients using it for
both outbound and domestic moves in
India to achieve cost savings and improve
employee experience.

www.benivo.com