Written by: James Ponds
Since the industrial revolution and the rise of national or international corporations, finding the right location for your company's headquarters has been about finding a workforce. The need for employees has made urban environments ideal building grounds for big businesses, especially cities with materials needed for the industry, access to ports for importing and exporting goods and materials, and even access to banking institutions and governmental agencies for ease of doing business at scale. However, eCommerce has moved the shoppers online, remote work technology has moved employees online, and large corporations have started to see fewer benefits to headquartering with everyone else, especially when other municipalities and states offer incentives to move.
Tax Incentives
Buying enough real estate to build new headquarters or office buildings for your company is expensive, but paying for the materials, labor and crane rental Houston contracts to build an extensive campus can break the bank. For this reason, states are often in competition to see which ones can offer the best incentives to large corporations looking to build a new campus or relocate their headquarters. These incentives usually include tax breaks because the corporation will be spending money on labor and materials in the short term and employing state residents in the long run.
Recruitment
When asked why it is moving headquarters to Texas, HPE pointed out that Houston is one of its main recruitment hubs and making a move does not include laying any employees off. Colleges and universities nationwide have worked to create programs enticing students to enroll with promises of careers after graduation and advertising corporate partnerships. By locating your headquarters conveniently close to the colleges offering the training your company needs, you can create a showcase of your business goals for these students can visit. You can also partner more easily with the universities for internships, program design and recruitment.
Because remote work is so beneficial to both employees and employers, moving your headquarters does not mean that you have to relocate or replace your current workforce, especially for businesses in the tech industry and for office-based employees. You can offer the option of relocation, remote work in a current or parallel position, or transfer to a position that is not making a move. The more talent you can retain during your relocation project, the fewer costs you will have for recruitment and training.
Operating Costs
Remote work is helping employees find less expensive places to live without having to, necessarily, find a new job. A hybrid workforce can also help employers find less expensive locations to operate and reduce operating costs without moving. For example, having a sprawling campus for a couple of thousand employees commuting in every day means also having parking structures, desks and utilities for that number of people. Fewer employees needing to work from a central office means downsizing the number of buildings and rooms you need to heat, clean and pay rent on. For corporations with sprawling campuses, offering more remote work options and consolidating your workforce to fewer offices in the same spaces can allow you to rent out space and add on-site eating and shopping options for your employees.
Conclusion
With more companies switching to remote-only or remote-optional workforces, the need for headquarters in a large urban area is reduced. More companies are relocating to reduce operating costs, recruit from different labor pools and take advantage of tax incentives offered by municipal and state governments. Workers, particularly those with families, are also moving out of urban areas as their jobs provide remote work options, changing the future landscape from grouping the majority of the population in a few coastal cities to spreading the populace out into more suburban and rural areas.
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