Human Capital Important to Corporate Location Decisions

The annual corporate site selection survey shows that access to labour remains a key decision factor for corporate management teams evaluating new locations. Together with ‘Labour costs’, ‘Availability of skilled labour’ were the second and third most important site selection criteria. For the first time in probably forever, ‘Quality of life’ was in the top five. Combined these results show the growing requirements to have access to skilled labour at the right price.

The results of the survey (see below) align well with the Amazon HQ RFP released late last year. Similar to the results below, the RFP had numerous requirements relating to costs and availability of the right building/site. However, the RFP also had a big focus on skilled workers, education and quality of life.

While costs will also be an important site selection factor, the increased weight being placed on skilled labour and quality of life (i.e. having a community that will be attractive to the skilled workers), shows a growing trend that is likely to remain well into the future. As most of the tech firms now show us, human capital will likely be the key resource for firms into the future.

How does your workforce stack up? Is your community preparing the right sort of future workers?

Give us a call if you want to discuss further 1-800-940-990 (or info@lucideconomics.com.au).

Figure 1 Corporate Site Selection Factors (2017)