The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) arm of HCL Technologies is proud of its employee exchange programme between the United Kingdom and India. It is hawking the scheme as an added incentive for joining the company.

At eFunds, a transition team organises the movement of people between the US and India. This is a way to reduce the high attrition rates that IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) companies face.

The brass in an Indian company that has gone for a string of foreign takeovers is quietly identifying its staff who will be transferred abroad shortly. This includes not just executives but also workers. “We need to instill our corporate culture in the companies we have acquired,” says the HR head. “You can’t do it quickly enough by just sending a new boss from here. Besides, that is counterproductive. It is much better to move people at the shop floor level.”

Better it may be. But it is certainly not easier. There is the additional problem of having to keep quiet about it. There are already enough protests about outsourcing costing jobs in the West. To publicise the transfer of employees — limited though the number may be — would add to the clamour. (To be fair to the companies, however, they are treating this as an exchange programme. But while Indian workers are willing to spend a year or two in the UK, British workers are unwilling to come to India unless they are treated as maharajas.)

However you look at it — from internal company transfers to people job hopping — the numbers being relocated are on the upswing. The job hoppers don’t have much of a problem; they can negotiate the best deal for themselves. What they need to know, however, are the issues involved. You can’t move from Calcutta to London without a whopping increase in house rent allowance.

The issue is more difficult when you are being transferred by the company. Sure, this is not a punishment posting — a way of getting you to resign. But every HR department tries to minimise your compensatory allowances. It may not be reasonable or logical but people left behind in India will tend to compare your salary with theirs.

This is not just about moving abroad. A very similar set of problems arises (see box) when you are being transferred within the country. And the issues are becoming increasingly relevant when expats are sent to India. It’s no longer just fatted-and-feted CEOs; people are coming to India as trainees or at junior levels at BPOs and call centres. They too have to bargain for perks.

According to a study by the Wellesley College Centre for Research on Women, these days, there is growing resistance on the part of professionals to relocate in response to a job offer or transfer. “Revisions in corporate relocation policies may be needed to overcome this resistance,” says the study. The study showed that 68 per cent of the respondents had moved in the past 10 years while 15 per cent had refused. Some 60 per cent mentioned salary increase and professional advancement as incentives to move, 51 per cent mentioned a desirable location and 24 per cent cited assurance of suitable employment for their spouse. There are no relevant studies in India, but the ranking of the reasons is not likely to be very different.

Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh says you can agonise over the choices forever. But he has a simple test. First, look at where you will be in your career if you make the move and if you don’t. Second, look at where your net worth will be. Third, examine the home front: would you and your family have a better quality of life? If the result is positive on all three parameters (reject it out of hand if it is negative on even one), you are halfway to taking a decision. Finally, outline the pluses and minuses and let your spouse take the decision. The better half (male or female) knows better.

MOVING ISSUES

The problems people face while relocating

Your children resent the move
Your spouse can’t find work
You get slammed by hidden costs
You don’t like the new community
You’re shocked by the cost of living.

Source: How to Avoid Problems When You Relocate by Laura Lorber