Facebook is currently offering its employees incentives in exchange of them moving closer to the company's headquarters.
$10,000 awaits single employees, while staffers with families receive $15,000 if they move near the Menlo Park headquarters, according to San Francisco Business Times. The offer requires that the employee must buy or rent homes within 10 miles from the headquarters in order to avail the incentive. Moreover, such perk has been in effect for about 12 months.
The incentives hope to reduce the travel times of the employees who reside in San Francisco, which according to SFBT has the worst commute times compared to Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
"Our benefits at Facebook are designed to support our employees and the people who matter most to them at all stages of life," a Facebook spokesman said as the article on Reuters read.
Facebook is not alone in giving incentives to employees to move closer to their HQ. Investment management technology company Addepar, data company Palantir and software firm SalesforceIQ also gave similar incentives, according to Reuters.
"For me, it wasn't financially driven as my rent has gone up more than 60 percent since I moved to Mountain View and the stipend doesn't keep up with the rent spikes in the area," said Mark Shim, an engineer who had worked at Addepar and has since joined another company.
"If you live closer to work you are less worried about leaving at an exact time, and if you're in the middle of solving a cool problem, you'll spend the extra time to finish that up.”
The Joint Venture report said that between 2011 and 2013, the number of commuters from one county to another has increased significantly, the article said.
Apparently, there is an increase of 33% of the number o residents that are commuting from San Francisco to Alameda County. And San Francisco residents who commutes to Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties increased by 23% and 27%, respectively.
Such incentive is not only good news to employees, but also to the real estate magnates in the vicinity of Facebook headquarters. They will be expected to raise their rents once the news hit them.
What do you think about the incentives given by Facebook to its employees?
