If you work in Global Mobility, you've probably had this conversation.
The business comes to you with a new type of move. Maybe it's a remote worker wanting to relocate, a commuter arrangement, or an employee-initiated transfer that doesn't quite fit into any existing policy.
You work through it, figure out the implications, and find a way to support the business.
And then comes the next request.
"We're looking at moving more people domestically. Can Mobility take care of that, too?"
Of course we can. We're Mobility. Moving people is what we do.
But hang on. Which countries? How many moves? What benefits are we offering? Who's been managing these relocations until now? And, perhaps most importantly, do we have the tools and data we need?
Because while the scope of Mobility continues to grow, that doesn't always mean our resources are growing with it.
At first glance, domestic relocation seems relatively straightforward compared with an international assignment. We're not dealing with immigration, international schooling, or moving household goods across borders. But that doesn't mean domestic moves are simple.
Think about moving an employee from a smaller city to a major metropolitan area where housing costs are significantly higher. Or being asked to establish a domestic relocation policy in a country you've never previously supported. Suddenly, there are a lot of questions.
What should we cover? How much should we pay? Is a lump sum appropriate? What are the tax implications? And will the package actually encourage the employee to accept the move?
These are familiar Mobility questions, just in a different context.
And when we're being asked to take responsibility for domestic moves across multiple countries, we need to make sure our answers are based on reliable information rather than assumptions.
Let's be realistic. One of the first questions the business will ask is how much the relocation is going to cost. We need to be able to provide an estimate, often before all the details have been finalized.
For an international assignment, we might already have well-established tools and processes. But what happens when we're asked to estimate a domestic move in Germany, India, or Malaysia?
This is where AIRINC's Assignment Cost Estimator (ACE) can help.
ACE has expanded its domestic capabilities and now supports Domestic One-Way Transfers in eight additional countries:
This is in addition to its existing support for international assignments and transfers and U.S. domestic moves.
ACE brings together AIRINC's tax and relocation data, allowing Mobility teams to quickly estimate costs, compare scenarios, and help determine appropriate lump sum payments. It can be used with pre-configured options or configured to reflect your own policies, and accessed through the AIRLinc Platform, SSO, or API.
For those of us who have been asked to take on more responsibility without necessarily adding more people to the team, having a reliable way to produce these estimates is a good place to start. But estimating the cost of a move is only half the challenge.
This is where things get interesting.
Maybe your company has a domestic relocation policy, but it hasn't been reviewed for a while. Perhaps different business units offer different benefits. Or maybe you're starting from scratch because Mobility has never owned domestic moves before.
You can estimate the cost of a relocation, but that doesn't tell you whether you're offering the right benefits in the first place.
And sooner or later, someone will ask:
"What are other companies doing?"
Rather than guessing, I wanted to bring in my colleague Brooke Caligan, AIRINC's Director of Benchmarking, who spends a lot of time looking at exactly these kinds of questions.
One of the interesting things about domestic relocation is that organizations can approach the same challenge in very different ways.
Some rely on traditional relocation packages, while others use lump sums or more flexible benefit structures. Housing costs, employee expectations, and business priorities can all influence those decisions.
And domestic relocation isn't the same everywhere. What makes sense in the U.S. may not be appropriate in the UK, where property transactions, tax treatment, and common relocation benefits can look quite different.
That's why we're currently running AIRINC's 2026 U.S. and UK Domestic Relocation Benchmarking Surveys.
We want to understand how companies are supporting domestic moves today, including the benefits they provide, how they structure policies, and how they're responding to changing employee needs.
The surveys explore areas such as:
For Mobility teams inheriting responsibility for domestic moves, the results can provide a useful starting point for policy discussions. And for those already managing domestic relocation programs, benchmarking offers an opportunity to see how approaches are evolving and whether existing policies still meet business and employee needs.
| Participate in the U.S. Domestic Relocation Survey | Participate in the U.K. Domestic Relocation Survey |
And we're not stopping there. We're also looking to expand our domestic relocation research into additional locations, so keep an eye out for further opportunities to participate and see how practices compare across different markets.
For now, if your organization manages domestic moves in the U.S. or UK, we'd love to hear from you. Organizations that participate will receive complimentary comprehensive benchmark results for each survey they complete. All responses will be aggregated and kept confidential.
Take Part in AIRINC's Domestic Relocation Benchmarking Surveys
The current surveys close on October 30, 2026.
I keep coming back to the same thought.
Mobility teams are being asked to support an increasingly wide range of employee moves. And I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Whether it's international assignments, remote work, employee-initiated transfers, or now domestic relocation, the business is looking to us for guidance.
That doesn't mean we have to become experts in every type of move overnight. But it does mean knowing what questions to ask, where to find reliable information, and how to help the business make informed decisions.
If domestic relocation is the next thing landing on your desk, I'd start with two questions:
> What is this move going to cost?
> And how does our approach compare with what other companies are doing?
Tools like ACE can help answer the first. Participating in AIRINC's Domestic Relocation Benchmarking Surveys can help with the second.
And perhaps, with the right resources in place, the next time someone asks, "Can Mobility take care of this too?" we'll feel a little more prepared to say yes.
Additional countries can be added to ACE based on client demand.