Ramblings on moving a company

Before the holidays I managed to interview Haralds Jass, CEO of dedicated server hosting company Superb Hosting, on the moving of their corporate headquarters to Honolulu, Hawaii. That interview will be out at Web Host Magazine next week Wednesday.

The interview was fairly informative and a few points caught my interest. Two points in particular actually. Considerations of the labor pool of the location and the impact the location’s stress level has on the company’s employees.

Of course there are many other things to consider but those are the stuff most companies already consider such as taxes and company incentives, etc, etc, etc. Also better writers than myself have already written volumes on these subjects and besides I am writing on the interesting parts of moving and tax law is not all that interesting.

With Superb the new location’s impact on the employees was the cornerstone of the move, i.e. a stress less environment. Honolulu is a fairly stress-free environment and offers employees a variety of recreation but it also has other worthwhile stats as well. According to various magazines and analyst companies, the statistics that go into a stress free city are low unemployment, plenty of sunshine, low levels of crime (murders and theft mostly), low traffic, low housing costs, clean air, and my personal favorite low heart disease deaths. As Superb can attest to, low stress means more productive employees.

When Haralds mentioned the large labor pool in Honolulu, I thought it odd. Not that there wouldn’t be technical proficient work force or that people would be willing to move, but it seemed to me like a lot of people put Honolulu down as wishful thinking. Seriously how many people do you know would love to work in Hawaii, I myself do not have enough fingers to count them all but its one of those things you put on your applications like a wish you would ask a genie. Yes I would like to be a billionaire, eat whatever I like and still remain physically fit, and for my last wish I wish to work in Honolulu.

So if you are thinking of moving don’t forget about the impact of the location itself to your work force specifically stress and consider the labor force of the place you are going to. I hear Honolulu is especially good this time of year.