The HUB/RELO strategy sole goal is cost reduction-nothing to do with efficiency, it is a masked layoff-based head count reduction strategy. Consider this-when a company does a layoff. they generally must adhere to being neutral regarding protected classes based on race, gender, and age. Any perceived deviation results in successful class action discrimination lawsuits costing big settlements and legal fees and lots of bad press. To minimize the risk requires time-consuming and costly HR and consulting expense.
If all employees are subject to the same changed employment conditions across various geographical locations (a HUB/relocation requirement) instead of a simple layoff, then the company does not have to parse their employee demographics and keep longer tenured and more expensive individuals that they want to get rid of just to satisfy EEO requirements even if non-HUB locations significantly skew older more expensive employees.
This strategy is highly age discriminatory. It is both very unethical and unfortunately very clever.