mobility matters, s4 episode 2: US and canada domestic mobility survey: beyond the data

Terri: Hey there, listeners. Welcome back to another episode of our Cartus podcast, Mobility Matters. I’m Terri Bonfiglio, Director of Consulting Solutions.

Kristi: And I’m Kristi Lund, Director of Strategic Business Solutions here at Cartus, and we’re your hosts for today. Joining us are two VPs of global talent mobility at Cartus, Marilynn Giglio-Knapp, based in the US, and Tracey Rennie, based in Canada. Welcome to the show!

Marilynn: Thanks for having us.

Tracey: Hi. Glad to be here today.

Terri: We’re talking about initial observations from our recent 2025 mobility survey focused on US and Canada domestic programs. We first want to thank our 106 corporate mobility respondents for taking time from their busy schedules to contribute their experiences. As noted, the survey focused on intra-country moves within the United States or Canada, and over half of the respondents have domestic volumes in both of these countries. This gives us a nice data set to pull from. We also saw a fair split between the size of these mobility programs under versus over 100 moves per year specific to mobility volume. About 70% said it increased or stayed the same and noted company growth. 25% expansion into new markets. About 13% needed better access to talent as leading factors for the few who reflected a decrease; they pointed to cost containment, hybrid solutions, and reducing volumes in certain markets. With that, I’m excited to get this conversation started. Kristi, you ready?

Kristi: Absolutely. And if you haven’t downloaded the report, be sure to visit cartus.com to get your copy, or you can email cartussolutions@cartus.com.

Terri: Great reminder. Thanks. Okay, let’s get into it. I’d like to start with the top priorities for 2025, where 50% of our respondents rated the employee experience as a top area of focus, closely followed by 43% interested in optimizing in-house mobility processes and rounding the top three was 42% seeking a more flexible approach to mobility. I can also note that the top three domestic mobility challenges reflected cost at 51%, followed by meeting employee expectations and achieving more flexible approaches to mobility, they were in the 30 to 33% range.

It was interesting to see how the drive for flexible mobility programs has shifted over the last decade. According to the 2017 Cartus Domestic Relocation Policy and Practices Survey, cost control was the top priority at 63% at that time, and employee satisfaction was actually rated fifth, at 38%. So, we’ve seen the shift over the time between then and now. Although not a top three challenge, calculating return on investment, or ROI, we see as resurfacing with 22%, noting that as a hurdle for 2025, and that does align with the inquiries that we’re seeing in our consulting solutions team on how to best link mobility strategies to financial returns for the organization.

With that, I’d like to go to you, Tracey. First, does this reflect what you’ve seen over the last 12 months overall, and has the focus on employee experience continued to govern how folks are building their programs?

Tracey: Absolutely! So, I would agree that supporting a smooth, stress-free move that reduces pressure on the employee and their family, and one that allows the transferee to focus immediately on their new role, absolutely remains the key priority for our corporate mobility partners. Then, if you add to that the more personalized approach that’s often taken by our Canadian clients to support the employee, and that’s really driven by the smaller mobility team structure that we tend to have here, and those folks are often really very close to business leaders. You’re then able to gain some very intimate experience of the challenges of relocation, and that can be directly applied to your program build. So, we’re seeing some really innovative program enhancements that have been influenced through that very strong knowledge of program needs.

Terri: That’s very helpful. Marilynn, how about you? Have you noticed companies investing more time in employee experience in 2024 going into 2025?

Marilynn: Terri, yeah, absolutely. I think in the experience of relocation, customer experience has always been the key aspect of the experience, specifically. For the Cartus Insignia segment, which I lead, where we support clients that move fewer than 100 employees annually, there’s a strong focus on the employee experience. I think what’s unique to this profile of a program is, if you’re a program manager supporting less than 100 moves annually, there is often a very high internal visibility on these moves and such. There’s a lot of flexibility to meet these employees’ unique needs, especially regarding family circumstances.

Interestingly, when we look at our portfolio, over 70% of Cartus Insignia clients use our premier executive support. And I think that statistic just emphasizes the importance of employee experience to this profile of clients. I think we’ve all experienced that overall consumer expectations have evolved, and as we see customers really look for us to provide not only thoughtful and consultative responses, but really quick responses. Depending on the profile and demographic of our customers, the communication methods are also crucial to ensure we understand how we can best meet and exceed these expectations. Our premier executive team does an impressive job in supporting their employees.

Kristi: Absolutely, Marilynn, and that’s really why our survey’s theme is “Elevating Employee Experience: Navigating an Employee-Centric Era,” because we’re seeing this trend where companies strive to continually deliver an exceptional, positive relocation experience. So, now let’s pivot to a topic I know is at the forefront of a lot of minds, which is the real estate market. Terri, I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on this.

Terri: Yeah, real estate is certainly at the center of many of the conversations we were having in 2024 and considering the fact that the NAR settlement provisions are in effect for everyone now in the field, at least, focusing on how this is going to play out in future transactions is a high level of interest for relocation, real estate partners, etc. So, we’re going to keep an eye on that.

In the survey, we validated that 76% of domestic respondents felt they had a moderate to very good understanding of the NAR settlement, which is the National Association of Realtors in the United States. While most, 91%, had not made any specific policy changes, makes perfect sense, and 77% want to keep an eye on what transpires over time. So, going back to my original comments, Cartus Consulting will continue to share timely updates should we see a trend emerging in this area. But with regard to the broader topic of real estate, I’d like to start in the area of the programs that are executed in this area. So, Marilynn, what trends are you finding interesting when you look at the data around the US home sale programs?

Marilynn: Thanks, Terri. You know, I think for me, first off, what was not surprising was the fact that the buyer value option program continues to be the primary offering when it comes to home sale programs. This program certainly is popular because it offers tax protection if the compliance is followed for both the employee and the corporate clients. So, it is not surprising that this is a win-win situation for our clients and that the BVO program is certainly the primary program. However, I was surprised to see that 40% of the respondents continue to offer a guaranteed buyout as part of their relocation offerings. Given the trend we have seen moving away from this home sale program, this stat was quite unexpected, as we know there’s a lot of risk in these homes coming into inventory, and thus clients have really moved away from absorbing that risk. What was even more surprising in the data was that the direct reimbursement program, which is allowing the employee to sell the home on their own and then reimbursing them a component of those expenses, contributed to almost 50% of the move-types, according to the data. And I think this move type really has evolved over the years, which in many ways is kind of directly opposite of an employee experience as the full burden sits with the employee. So, I thought that was really interesting.

What also caught my attention was when we asked respondents on what they would consider adding to their program, nearly 30% highlighted new home purchase, which at first was a surprise, but when I saw the data indicating that 43% of the respondents indicated that they currently do not offer home purchase assistance, I found that this is a great way to help that employee experience. So, really helping employees purchase in the new location can be a really great support in getting them settled more expeditiously, focusing on their ultimate role in the new location for not only themselves but also their families. And therefore, in my opinion, this would support the continued focus and evolution we’re seeing in the employee experience.

Kristi: And Tracey, what about the Canadian housing market? What trends are you seeing there?

Tracey: Sure thing. So here in Canada, we’re also dealing with a fair amount of market uncertainty as we go into 2025. For last year, we saw job market health, province to province, driving really different housing trends across the country. For example, the Toronto market fell quite dramatically, as you may have seen at the end of 2024, and that was due to affordability strain in that particular section of the country. But overall, for 2025, it’s expected that we’re going to see some market recovery. It will be gradual, with some modest gains. And I’ll mention for everyone that Edmonton and Montreal are the hottest markets right now. And of course, awareness of differing market conditions provincially and city to city is really important for our mobility professionals so that we can counsel the business appropriately.

And then I’ll speak to a couple of factors driving a positive outlook for 2025: New mortgage rules came into place, increased price caps, and amortization periods. These are, of course, designed to reduce the down payment amount required and also to make monthly payments more manageable. And then, of course, we’ve seen some pretty nice interest cuts that we hope are going to continue at least into the early part of 2025, which should stimulate house buying interest and that is really tremendously important, as it is in the US as well, that we get some of these younger folks, young Canadians here, millennials and Gen Zs, we want them to be entering the market. So, employers will also need to know how to best support homeowners as they consider domestic moves to support company growth and, of course, their own career development. However, on the downside, there is genuine concern that the potential US trade tariffs could impact the overall economy as well as consumer confidence. So that’s something that we’re all watching really closely.

Terri: Yeah, those are really important points, nice, and a lot of synergy and alignment in the mortgage comments that you made. So, let’s move on to relocation program insights. So, Marilynn, I mentioned volume at the onset, so revisiting this topic and knowing that 90% of our respondents with Canadian programs have less than 100 moves, and over half of the US representative companies have smaller programs as well, and the fact that you lead our Insignia segment within Cartus, are there any interesting trends you’ve identified in serving these populations?

Marilynn: The data for moving less than 100 moves annually with the Cartus Insignia program, which is what I support, indicated that respondents were uncertain or not planning to review their programs in the next 12 to 24 months, which I found surprising, because although there is certain evolutions that happen, I think it’s just a good best practice to review programs to align with trends. But I think the reality of it is that a key challenge in this space is a lack of internal resources. So specifically, in the programs that move less than 100 on an annual basis, mobility owners wear multiple hats, there’s so many competing priorities, and it’s really tough to keep up with programs and the evolving trends. So, I think this highlights for us how important it is to align our account management teams and the value of partnering with our clients proactively in providing industry trends to help clients decide whether or not changes are even needed, right? Despite the competing priorities, at least they can feel confident understanding where their program sits against the competitive landscape today.

Kristi: Marilynn, that’s so interesting because it ties directly into a trend I’ve been seeing in speaking with my prospective clients over the past couple of years, specifically across Canada, that a lot of mobility team members are asking, how many HR team members in-house are managing programs in relation to move volume for the program? And the reason they’re asking is because they’re feeling like they’re getting tasked with more and more items, but they don’t have the support that they need, and they’re looking to request internally to justify the need for an additional head.

So, Tracey, could you help us dive into the report findings, and do you feel that this is a similar concern for your clients?

Tracey: It most certainly is. So, as the relocation industry evolves, we’re definitely seeing a parallel trend of shrinking mobility teams, and often in conjunction with an expansion of responsibilities. Terri mentioned that 90% of our Canadian respondents have less than 100 moves, and 89% of Canadian respondents have a mobility team size of just two to three. So, it’s not surprising that there is business pressure to fit mobility responsibility into an existing function such as HR and also to look for opportunities to broaden roles.

What makes sense, though, from an economic perspective, can give rise to considerable operational challenges, given the nature of relocation itself, where, as we all know, issues when they occur can be pretty sensitive and can often be very time-consuming to manage. So, this added pressure is really driving even more reliance on our account management teams to support mobility teams with accurate and complete program reporting and move status updates. So, we’re seeing a lot of increased interest in outsourcing mobility tasks, such as business counseling, as well to support that increased pressure that our corporate partners are facing.

Kristi: Yeah, that’s a great way to help address that challenge. And speaking of challenges, not to harp on them, but we wanted to move on to another challenge that we’ve noticed in the survey findings: overcoming resistance to relocation. So, what’s really interesting is the survey findings reported that the top four reasons to decline a move are family or personal circumstances, housing market challenges, spouse or partner, employment issues, and compensation and benefit issues.

So, Marilynn, can you speak to the strategies that we’re adopting here at Cartus to try to help our clients overcome such resistance to relocation?

Marilynn: Sure, Kristi. We’ve seen a strong response indicating that family dynamics play a significant role in relocation resistance. So, with more dual-income families and less traditional family units, it’s essential to consider the entire family unit rather than just focusing on the employee’s needs when considering an employee for relocation. Interestingly, the data also showed that corporations are adopting a more flexible approach to mobility.

At Cartus, we’ve been helping clients develop strategies that are more adaptable, which includes a tiered approach. And more recently, we’ve seen this trend on this core/flex approach. Now, the core/flex approach might not be aligned with every corporate culture, but it certainly has advantages. The idea is really to provide core benefits to all employees and then offer a suite of services that employees can choose from, and that choice, that flexibility, really supports and resonates the family’s unique circumstances and allows families to choose what they need to help them with this potential move. Our consultants endorse this, including both employee and spouse, on the initial policy review, right? Ensuring that we are understanding not only the employee’s needs, the spouse’s needs, and potentially the family’s needs that are really creating the connection which builds the foundation. And this approach has been well received in supporting the family unit, and it’s also a more inclusive approach to mobility, by focusing on the whole family unit and really offering flexible programs, companies can really, in my opinion, better address the challenges of relocation and the process is smoother for everyone involved, and helps in that resistance to relocation.

Terri: Yeah, those are really valid points. And I would, you know, add to that that the consulting solutions team has been seeing an increase in that evolution of core/flex and creativity around the flex components that families can use. And when you think about family, that doesn’t necessarily mean what we’ve thought of as traditional in the past, thinking about single families where you have other folks that may need to accompany. So, it has really been highly favorable and received very well by the companies that were engaging in those discussions. So now that we’ve covered flexible mobility, Tracey, what other considerations are there when we’re trying to overcome resistance to relocation? What are you seeing?

Tracey: Sure, Terri. First off, I’ll comment that the elements driving resistance to relocation that Marilynn mentioned are absolutely relevant to the Canadian domestic market as well, but for the Canadian market specifically, we’re experiencing two key challenges that can make an employee hesitate to immediately accept a transfer. One is the very high disparity we referred to earlier in home prices, province to province, city to city, and this can be a significant concern for many potential transferees. Naturally, given that purchasing a home is probably the single largest financial investment any of us will make in our lifetime, they do need to be confident that program support will ensure that the move makes financial sense for them.

We’re also seeing some resistance at times, from moving from cities to rural areas where our energy clients are often located. And in this case, the prohibition on corporate home sale programs is definitely proving a challenge. So, our clients are getting ahead of this by offering full selling support. They are extending temporary living, and we’re seeing property management programs increase as a valuable benefit as well. These additional elements, of course, add cost to the program, but when weighing that up, we do really need to consider what the cost is of replacing that perfect candidate who is going to be responsible for driving business growth in the new location.

Terri: Great insights. Thank you, Tracey. Perhaps we might end at the beginning with each of us sharing what your standout stat was, and I’ll kick us off. It actually relates to something you just said, Tracey. My standout would be the prominent shift we’re seeing to talent, employee-focused priorities, and how companies are making the connection between talent, attraction, retention, and the reputational standards a company supports. And, more importantly, how they demonstrate that was something I thought was interesting and actually tied into something that you said, Tracey.

Tracey, what do you think will stand out for you?

Tracey: Yep, for me, I was struck by what at first glance seems to be the conflicting priorities of providing a really stellar employee experience within the constraints of an environment of cost constraint. But this, of course, isn’t a new trend, but the pressure on mobility teams to juggle both of these elements is definitely becoming more intense, as we’ve referenced throughout this discussion. So really, as an RMC and a trusted advisor to our clients, we share those same pressures, and we’re equally as engaged in transforming our business to deliver best-in-class relocation support, while really examining every single aspect of our delivery process and our clients’ mobility programs, to find efficiencies and to manage program cost. This one’s going to be ongoing. We know it.

Terri: Absolutely. Marilynn, what are your thoughts?

Marilynn: For me, what caught my eye was the continued focus on the flexible approach. So, I have been in the industry for a bit of time, and we often see trends and buzzwords come and go, but I’m genuinely excited to see that this trend of flexibility is continuing to be a major area of focus. Mobility is such a people business, and it’s focused on serving your employees, serving our customers, and it’s crucial to recognize the diverse nature of employees’ needs and their family units. So, leading with the mindset of a flexible approach really helps keep the employee and the family at the center of what we’re all focused on, and tailoring relocation programs to meet the unique needs of each family ensures that they are feeling supported and valued throughout the process. For me, it’s really one of the most rewarding components of being in this industry. So, I was pleased to see that that continues to be an area of focus.

Terri: Absolutely. And we’ll round it out with Kristi. What was one of your standouts?

Kristi: Mine is very similar to Tracy’s, but I’m going for a little extra credit here. I found that a combination of three stats to be really interesting and the story that they tell together. So, first that 50% of respondents reported their top priority in 2025 is improving the employee experience. But 51% also reported that rising mobility costs are their top challenge in 2025, and then when you look at those two competing issues and the fact that 52% reported the top reason for mobility declining over the past two years is cost containment strategy. It really seems that global mobility teams are continually asked to be doing more with less, and so we can see that a need for continued creativity and flexibility in partnership with your relocation management company are really pivotal in making these three stats successfully work together and truly tell that story.

Terri: Yeah, this has been an amazing conversation. I really enjoyed getting your insights and perspectives. I think the passion and the joy that we have for the work that we do comes through when we have these conversations, and we could probably talk for hours, but we only have a set amount of time.

And so you know, the full report is available on cartus.com at this time. Be sure to go over and download a copy. And I really want to truly thank Marilynn, Tracey, and Kristi for your partnership in producing this podcast today. So, thank you all so very much.

Marilynn: Of course, thanks for having us.

Tracey: Thank you.

Kristi: And a big thank you to our listeners. We appreciate you staying with us. And if you have any follow-up questions or even ideas for future podcasts, please email cartussolutions@cartus.com or reach out on LinkedIn. We’ll see you next time. That’s a wrap for today’s episode of mobility matters. Thanks so much for tuning in.

Terri: If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

Kristi: And if you have any burning questions or topic suggestions, get in touch at cartussolutions@cartus.com.

Terri: See you next time you.