AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
- A quarter of chief executives are considering moving their business operations to a cheaper location, a new poll said.
- States like Texas and Florida have become viable business hubs, as employers seek to flee cities with high costs of living.
- Work-from-home options are most attractive to larger companies.
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One in four business owners are considering moving their operations to a cheaper location, according to a poll of 150 C-Suite executives released Tuesday.
Remote work has diminished the importance of living in expensive hubs like San Francisco and New York City. In West Monroe’s Quarterly Executive Poll, business owners cited high cost of living and taxes as their primary reasons for relocating their businesses.
Most executives were considering moving their business operations to Texas, Florida, or Ohio — states generally known for their low costs of living and lower taxes.
Since the pandemic started, the work-from-home boom has prompted a mass exodus from cities with high costs of living, as millions of Americans moved away from urban areas to smaller towns and suburbs. Almost 16 million people in the US moved out of urban areas, with New York City topping the list, between February and July of 2020, according to an analysis of US Postal Service data by MyMove.
Over 30 major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs Group have been investigating properties in Florida and tech workers living in the Bay Area have found it less and less beneficial to live in the Bay Area, as companies like Twitter announce it will allow employees to work from home even after pandemic restrictions have been lifted.
Work-from-home options have become increasingly attractive to larger companies, according to the poll, which shows larger companies are more comfortable taking on remote work options. Over 20% of companies making over $3 billion considering doing their operations mostly remotely.
Most companies, however, were unwilling to commit to fully remote work, with 43% prioritizing splitting its workforce between people working remotely and on-site, according to the survey.
Companies were also hesitant to return to work entirely in-person, with less than 15% wanting to return to work fully on-site after COVID-19 restrictions lift, according to the poll.
A company's hesitancy to commit to entirely to remote operations could be fueled by the potential technical difficulties of working from home, as WiFi acess and technical understanding can vary between employees. Monitoring an employee's workload and communicating on a daily basis can also be more difficult in a remote work space.
The survey found that 34% of executives said remote work was hindering their employee's productivity. Another 45% said their company's productivity was inhibited by social distancing measures.