Top level international business executives often those that bring in the most money to the Island have been leaving Bermuda in droves over the past year as companies have been letting go of staff or moving jobs overseas.That is according to relocation services firm Corporate Concierge Bermuda Ltd, which has seen for the first time in its four-year history more departures than arrivals to the Island in 2011.Most of those directly affected are from re/insurance companies and cite Government’s stringent immigration policy as the number one reason for their going, followed by the high cost of doing business and accommodation and the fear of crime, the company said.Despite many of these departures going unrecorded, the effects are already being felt throughout the community with almost everyone impacted from taxis, buses, grocery stores, shops, restaurants, bars, hotels and guest houses to landlords and schools.Over the past 12 months one company has moved its entire accounting department and another firm has relocated its legal department of 15 staff overseas, according to Corporate Concierge.Sylvia Jones, managing director of Corporate Concierge, and Vaughan Sullivan, executive concierge, were prompted to speak out about the silent exodus following a conversation with one of the service providers they use on behalf of their clients who said they had noticed a trend of more people leaving than coming to Bermuda’s shores.“We just felt that people need to realise the scale of what is happening,” said Ms Jones.“A lot of us are concerned about when it will stop we don’t know what will happen and how far away that end point is.”Ms Sullivan said that said that for every person who left the Island a landlord may be missing out on his rent, service providers had one less electric, telephone or cable bill payment coming in, one less car or bike was being sold, had to be maintained or needed insurance and the grocery stores had one less customer.She said that the knock-on effect was also felt within the local employment market as senior executives left with their personal assistant’s position and immediate team often no longer required in Bermuda a lot of which had been occupied by Bermudians.As a result, Ms Sullivan said that while many locals who had been let go received good compensation packages, they would struggle to find work in a saturated jobs market with even some of those who were lucky enough to get work with another company having their spending power greatly reduced after moving from an international to a local firm and thus struggle to pay their mortgage and make ends meet.She said the trickle-down effect of the departures was similarly been seen in private schools who were hurting from the number of top level executives with families who had left.Ms Jones said that due to the increasing number of people leaving, her company had decided to focus on its departure service.“We have primarily for the last four years focused on the top executives coming in to Bermuda and those are now the same people who are moving out,” she said.“These are not recorded as jobs lost a whole accounting department and a legal department have gone overseas and the companies affected to our knowledge do not plan on replacing those in Bermuda because it is cheaper to operate overseas.”Ms Sullivan said that Government’s “belligerence” towards international businesses had proved to be a sticking point with many companies with it taking anything up to six months for a CEO or general counsel to obtain a work permit and in some cases a middle management applicant receiving their permit before a top end executive despite submitting their applications at the same time.The next hurdle would be for those granted a temporary work permit being unable to bring their spouse and children to the country to settle with many questioning whether the rigid immigration policy meant it was really worth coming to Bermuda in the first place.For the company concerned it can also be a lengthy and costly business, and for those looking to move their whole operation to the Island the current policy was very restrictive in its terms, she said.Ms Jones said that she had also witnesses a slow down in hiring with many companies put in place a hiring freeze as they consider their next move.She said that her experience was that the departures of senior executives were being made from at least six to eight top re/insurance companies with anything from one to 12 people leaving each firm with the US, Ireland and Switzerland among the main destinations. For every one executive level job lost, another three which supported that role also went.“There has to be a reality check for people now to realise that now is the time to reverse this trend or bring now business to Bermuda before it gets too late and it is getting really close to that,” said Ms Jones.Ms Sullivan said that landlords were having to drop their rents for executive accommodations by on average $2,000 to $3,000 per month, meaning that their income was reduced by about $24,000 to $36,000 per year, as companies told their management to reduce costs by moving into lower rated rentals, as well as slashing school fees, golf club memberships and other relocation costs.Additionally landscaping and pool maintenance firms were being forced to reduce staff or has gone out of business altogether as the landlords cut back on the frequency of service as a result, she said.From a hospitality perspective, Ms Sullivan said that companies were flying their executives in for meetings and they would often leave the same day rather than the traditional two or three-day stay when they would make use of the hotels, restaurants and golf courses.On the flipside, Ms Jones said that Corporate Concierge, whose clientele includes re/insurance companies, hedge funds and capital management firms, had seen one or two new small companies come in to set up offices of two to three staff and those that did choose to come often had the pick of office space and were able to negotiate the rent down.However, Ms Sullivan said that poor customer service and laissez-faire attitude had on occasion put some clients off with one in particular deciding to settle for secondary office space having originally set out to secure prime space due to his experience of the level of service he received.“You would hope that because there are less people here that the quality of customer service would improve,” said Ms Jones.“In some cases there has been an improvement on the part of the service provider, but we have to see that happen across the board.“People coming here are international and have high standards and expectations that the quality of service will match those, but that is not always afforded to them in Bermuda.“We need to offer top-notch service to the people that we are dealing with because they are the ones who are sustaining the economy.”Crime was another big issue deterring executives and their families from being based in Bermuda and according to Ms Jones it is the number one question from those candidates who come over on a pre-assignment visit to see the place.One top executive, she said, had been witness to a crime and once exposed to such there is always the danger that that fear would spread within their organisation and start people questioning whether it was safe to be in Bermuda as the nature of the crime became more brazen.What do you think about the number of people and companies leaving Bermuda? What have been your experiences? Write to business[AT]rg.bm