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Employee Relocation and Duty of Care: Communicating with your Employees and Always Knowing Where They Are

| June 21, 2021

common law duty of careThe COVID-19 pandemic revealed that many companies lacked effective emergency communication plans with their employees on relocation or assignment. The situation was fluid and communication, too often, was neither timely nor adequate. Some employees made emergency decisions on their own with little assistance or resources.

Some employees and their families left their belongings in the host location in a rush to get back home—only to discover they would be gone indefinitely. Other assignees could shelter in their host location, but they lacked the space and resources to work from home effectively. Higher frequency and quality communications would have assisted these employees in making crucial decisions with less work disruption. Read More

Employee Relocation and Duty of Care: Physical and Mental Health Considerations

| June 7, 2021

dury of careDuty of care is a longstanding common law principle. In the employer-employee relationship, the duty of care definition refers to the company’s obligation to take reasonable actions to protect its employees and safeguard their health and safety. For relocating employees, the duty of care is the legal and moral obligation of an employer to ensure the welfare of employees and their families throughout a relocation or assignment.

The sudden pandemic-driven disruption of business and threat to all employees underlined the importance of regular risk assessments and appropriate mitigation. For those assignees and their families living outside of their home country, it was difficult to know if the best response to the crisis was to shelter in place or return home, but one thing that’s for sure, is that one of the most fundamental parts of duty of care is safeguarding the physical and mental health of employees and their families. Read More

The Role of Relocation Management Companies in a New Era of Talent Mobility

| May 27, 2021

relocation management companiesAs the Covid pandemic begins to recede in the U.S., companies are contemplating how their post-covid workplaces will look. Will they allow most employees to continue to work remotely? Require them to return to the office? Embrace a hybrid in-office/remote model? And what role will relocation  and relocation management companies play in managing a dispersed workforce? While it’s impossible to answer these questions definitively, if you read the tea leaves, we have quite a few clues already.

Right now, the short-term, Covid-related talent shortage is very much in the news. Particularly acute in the service and hospitality industries, this shortage stems from several factors. It is likely to sort itself out in the coming months as the economy recovers, children return to school, and women fully return to the workforce.

However, this simply brings us back to where we were pre-pandemic: a significant and growing long-term shortage of professional workers. This shortage, taken with other emerging trends, suggests that relocation and relocation management companies could become even more relevant over the next decade. Read More

Economic Recovery Propelling Rising Prices and Higher Average Relocation Costs

| May 14, 2021

rising average relocation costsShaking off the pandemic-driven slowdown, the country’s GDP grew 1.6 percent in the first quarter. The Fed is expecting 6.5 percent growth for the year—the fastest increase since 1984.

Meanwhile, the consumer price index rose 0.8 percent in April after increasing 0.6 percent in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, the index is up 4.2 percent year over year, the most significant 12-month increase since 2008. More robust demand for goods and services—everything from gasoline to food to building supplies, appliances and vehicles—boosts prices across the board.

According to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, “We are seeing very substantial inflation. It’s very interesting. We are raising prices. People are raising prices to us, and it’s being accepted. We’ve got nine homebuilders in addition to our manufactured housing operation, which is the largest in the country. So we really do a lot of housing. The costs are just up, up, up. Steel costs, you know, just every day they’re going up.” Berkshire owns Clayton Homes, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, and other housing-related companies, such as Benjamin Moore paints and Shaw flooring. Read More

How to Become a Relocation Expert in Four Easy Steps…or Just Look Like One!

| February 12, 2021

employee-relocation-experts-toolkitMany companies today lack in-house relocation experts and little or no experience with corporate relocation. They identify the perfect candidate for a position—but she lives on the other side of the world. Or they need to move a current employee to a different company location as soon as practical, but they don’t know where to begin. Forced to make decisions quickly, and with limited knowledge, they can easily over or undershoot the relocation benefits package, incur unnecessary taxes, run afoul of immigration laws or incur a host of other problems.

Though the employment market has been disrupted by the COVID pandemic, the long-term trend of talent shortages continues unabated. Employee relocation can be a powerful tool to help your company recruit and retain talent—but where do you begin? It is far better to have at least a basic relocation policy and program ready for use when needed than to risk losing a prized candidate or delaying the start of a project. Read More

International Corporate Relocation Services Best Practices: Compensation & Benefits

| January 16, 2021

American Dollar Bills

For all the value they can bring to an organization, traditional international assignments come with a daunting price tag. In response, companies have been trimming relocation benefits and costs for several years, making the packages less generous for assignees and less costly for employers. Certainly, there is much more variation in the assistance offered to assignees than in the past.

Employees today are more likely to see an international assignment less as a hardship and more as a career- and life-enhancing experience—and they are more likely to seek out these experiences with fewer incentives. Of course, benefits vary depending on the company’s policies, culture and competitive environment, the employee’s seniority and the assignment location. The goal is to deliver the support needed without providing a windfall. Read More

How Will Employee Relocation Emerge from the Pandemic?

| December 21, 2020

global mobility trendsIt is safe to say that none of us will be sorry to see 2020 end? The year brought personal and professional challenges for almost all of us, and real hardship for too many families.

All major events bring unanticipated consequences, and the coronavirus pandemic changed how and where we worked and collaborated. In some cases, it accelerated trends that were already underway. Incredibly, all of this happened within the span of a few months! Read More

Opportunities for Cost Reduction within Your Company Relocation Policy

| December 14, 2020

company relocation policy cut costsEffectively managing a company relocation policy and the program costs requires a comprehensive approach. You must first consider your company’s culture and overarching talent management objectives, as these give you a sense of the degree of cost control that might be possible. Ultimately, your plan will likely include a combination of smaller adjustments and refinements and larger policy shifts.

For some companies, it is easier to phase in more sweeping changes over several years. This approach also allows you to analyze the preliminary results and refine your plan as needed. A successful initiative will reduce excess costs, better align your relocation benefits with employee needs and expectations and support your talent and business objectives. Read More

Ways to Reduce the Costs of Your Corporate Relocation Program

| November 20, 2020

American Dollar BillsThe pressure to reduce global mobility services costs began before the current pandemic, but Covid-19 is certainly accelerating that process. As we slowly return to normalcy, companies will want to consider how they can preserve some of these cost savings while still achieving their talent management and business objectives.

Cost-reduction initiatives are definitely not one size fits all.  In this eBook, we suggest areas to review.  And while not all will apply to your company, with almost any corporate relocation program, there is at least some opportunity for cost savings. Read More

Employee Relocation Packages:  Home Sales Assistance

| November 11, 2020

Employee Relocation Package - Home Sales AssistanceConsidering Employee Home Sales Support Programs

Though the trend has been to offer more lump sums and other relocation benefits short of a full home sale program, home sale services remain a central part of a well-rounded corporate relocation program. Lump sums can help to control costs, and they are certainly simple to administer, but the results are not always what the company and employee expect. Home sale assistance represents a greater commitment to the employee and his or her future with the organization—a fact that is not lost on the employee. And the economic ups and downs of the past decade have resulted in some innovative practices and approaches that allow employers to offer home sale assistance as part of their employee relocation packages while maintaining better control over costs.

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