Relocation Concerns Slow Hiring of New Tech Leaders

livemint.com:

Companies hiring for CIO and CTO positions want boots on the ground at the corporate headquarters, eliminating some potential candidates and a slowing of the overall rate of tech executive hiring. For business technology executives, relocation can be the single biggest impediment to changing jobs, said Eric Sigurdson, who leads the Chief Information Officers Practice at search firm Russell Reynolds Associates. For a time, that impediment disappeared, although now it is back, he said.

“It’s a question we’re now having to ask that we’d haven’t had to ask for three years which is: are you willing to relocate?" Sigurdson said “You might get the answer: I’m not interested." “I think all the search firms have seen a slight decrease year-over-year in 2023…in the Technology Officer movement for that reason," he added. A Covid-fueled hiring frenzy saw the chief information officer or chief technology officer turnover rate jump more than 30% in 2022 compared with 2021, as companies poached talent with high salaries, assurances they wouldn’t have to relocate thanks to flexible remote-work arrangements and other perks. The end of the pandemic and a changing business environment led many companies to reconsider those perks, including remote-work.

Many have since issued return-to-office mandates for all employees, including CIOs. “More and more of our clients are going back to: hey, we need boots on the ground at the headquarters," said Dennis Baden, partner in the technology officers and digital officers practices at Heidrick & Struggles. Potential hires, accustomed to more flexible arrangements, often aren’t as willing to physically relocate.