About to undertake a multiple-personnel group relocation project? Discover how working with a specialist corporate relocation company can transform the process.
92% of businesses report the need to increase or maintain global mobility in 2018. Whether it’s shifting offices to a new location or moving a team abroad, many companies have faced, or will face, the prospect of managing multiple personnel moves to facilitate such demand.
Group moves, however, are a challenging process.
Even for experienced HRs, project management can be tough. With so many aspects and elements of moving to execute and monitor, the threat of potential for mistakes is raised tremendously. Those without experience in this area will struggle even more so. Relocation of one employee can be a difficult process, but that of several or more can sometimes seem like an insurmountable task.
Help is available, though. Corporate relocation companies, like us here at Gerson Relocation, exist to support the movement of personnel around the globe, and that includes group moves. Still, the question we find many HRs asking us is: how?
Facing a group move project and looking for the help of corporate relocation companies? Here are the beneficial services we offer:
A Bespoke Corporate Relocation Service
Every company is different, as is every employee on their roster. To offer a one-size-fits-all service would not allow us to approach the unique challenges of moving a unique organisation. Therefore, we offer a bespoke service to all our clients. We’ll carry out interviews and surveys to decipher the exact goals of the relocation, as well as the needs of both employee and employer.
Relocation Logistics and Legal Obligations
Moving your employees overseas comes with a certain level of legal responsibility. You’ll have to advise both their country of origin and the target destination about the relocation, including management of tax obligations, immigration and any other legal stipulations related to moving overseas, as established by either nation.
This is a complicated and time-consuming process — one which requires specialist knowledge to accurately navigate without excessive use of resources. Corporate relocation companies have the expertise necessary to effectively arrange such processes, streamlining your entire group move project.
Expense Management of a Group Move Project
In the same AIRINC report that outlined the demand for global mobility, it was also identified that while most businesses will create cost estimations for relocation, on 47% would actually monitor and maintain assigned budgets. During a group move process, the management of financial investment is crucial. Without proper attention, costs can quickly get out of control.
Corporate relocation companies have experience managing large moving processes and know exactly how to maintain the financial commitments involved in a group move. Together with your targets, budget constrictions and input, we can create an analysis of your group move’s costs, producing a plan that balances investment of financial resources while enabling a realistic relocation process.
Our expense management systems can ultimately help reduce costs by boosting efficiency of certain move elements and cutting out unnecessary expenses.
Establish a Group Move Plan
Effective move management is all about establishing a strong relocation plan. Having an outline of all elements involved in a move enables corporations to closely monitor their progress, make changes when necessary and ensure vital processes don’t get missed. These elements include everything from those people being relocated, what their needs are and how you are going to communicate the process to them, to resources required, timelines and budget restrictions.
Yet, creating an effective plan can be more difficult than you might think. So many elements exist — with so many responsibilities and subtasks branching off from those elements — that producing a comprehensive outline requires a great deal of knowledge about the actual processes involved in relocation. Unfortunately, the best plans cannot be devised as new information is learned. It has to come from an existing wealth of knowledge.
Corporate relocation companies know group moves inside and out. They know what is involved, they know what needs to be done and they know how to do it. Support from a business like Gerson Relocation ensures your plan is strong, effective and full of crucial details.
Creation of a Corporate Relocation Policy
When moving one or more people across the world, you have certain responsibilities. These are not legal responsibilities, however, and there is no dictation anywhere that says you must offer certain levels of support and management by law. Any legal responsibility you may have will be included in your employment contracts, often under a mobility clause, but these are not required by government.
That is not to say you have no legal obligations at all. Companies always have a duty of care to employees under their management. They must adhere to standards of movement that ensure steps are taken to avoid potential harm, both mental and physical. You cannot, for example, send an employee on an international assignment that is unsafe or will present them with psychological stressors that are likely to have consequences on wellbeing and health, that you are unwilling to help support.
With that being said, beyond duty of care, what further support you offer will be outlined in your relocation policy and is not stipulated anywhere else. The result is that there are many different companies offer varying levels of assistance with regards to moving employees abroad. Often, relocation is based around company culture. A reflection of the brand and how they are willing to support employees, and where they believe their responsibilities end, your policy must chime in with the ideals and principles upheld by your business. A company that claims to put its employees first, but then offers subpar support structures, is set to alienate their assignee.
So what exactly is a relocation policy?
A relocation policy is a document or series of documents that provides details on everything you will manage during the process of employee relocation, as well as your obligations once complete.
The policy is a very important internal document that offers clear instructions to management and employees about what is involved in a relocation process and where certain responsibilities lie. An improperly designed document can result in confusion and disagreements over responsibility, with the potential to create major problems. The more clearly defined and comprehensive your policy, the less chance you have of such issues occuring.
Hiring a corporate relocation company means you can ensure it is written up by experts in the process, eliminating the possibility of confusion and promoting corporate transparency.
Corporate relocation companies offer real value when it comes to group moves, reducing many of the elements of risk that come attached to self-management. If you’d like support from Gerson Relocation on your group move project, get in touch to find out how we can help today.
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