Recruiting Suffers When the Pay Isn't Enough
By Peter Healy
Staff Writer
Re-Printed from The Stamford Advocate 9/26/05
Human
resources consultant David Lewis had a Fairfield County client who
wanted to hire an executive who lived in Texas.
The
client was willing to pay the executive a six-figure salary, plus
at least $50,000 for the cost of moving his furniture, the closing
costs for buying a house in a pricey Fairfield County suburb and
temporary housing expenses while he looked for a new residence, Lewis
said.
But
the salary, which Lewis did not disclose, was not enough. The executive
declined and stayed in Texas, said Lewis, founder and president of
OperationsInc, a Stamford-based human resource and operational
consulting firm.
The
executive's 4,000-square-foot house cost $350,000 in Texas and $1.4
million in lower Fairfield County, Lewis said. And taxes, maintenance
and utilities would be much higher here, he said.
"He
took a pass after we could not find something comparable," Lewis
said. "It just wasn't palatable."
For
executives who relocate to lower Fairfield County from less expensive
parts of the country, many local companies require them to pay back
part of their relocation costs if they leave the job in less than
two years, Lewis said.
If
high-priced employees are terminated because of a restructuring,
companies usually pay the cost for them to move back, Lewis said.
Stamford-based
Xerox Corp., the world's largest maker of copiers, pays a lump sum
to executives it relocates, company spokeswoman Kara Choquette said.
The allowance pays for moving and related costs, she said.
The
amounts, which the company would not reveal, are higher for employees
relocated to San Francisco, New York City or Stamford because of
the higher costs of living in those areas, Choquette said.
