I don't have any statistics on sales reps (or any other groups of employees) promoted to a new position but not having to relocate there. I do hear of these arrangements fairly often though I think they are still the exception and not the norm.

I know that in some companies with multiple locations, the company is bending to allow a person who has a job in one location to stay there while assuming a new job in another location. Usually this is due to something like a spouse having a good job in the first location, or other family issues - but increasingly it's simply because the person loves location A and hates location B.

In these cases, I think it is essential for two things to happen:

• the person should go to the new location and live in a hotel for a couple of weeks while spending time in the new office for an orientation/assimilation period. Even if the person knows the people there, I think it is useful to have that initial "bonding" experience;
• the person should be prepared to visit the new office location on a regular basis, such as two days every two weeks or at least two days a month. And in the interim, good use should be made of various communications tools such as email, fax, voice mail, audioconferencing, videoconferencing, Web conferencing, et al.