Employee Relocation

Kathryn Cassidy

Vice President/General Manager, Global Assignment Services

SIRVA Relocation

Julian Yates

Vice President, Global Client Services

SIRVA Relocation

As its title illustrates, Julian and Kathryn’s presentation this morning explored the fundamentals of global relocation and the essential elements of a successful relocation. After discussing the wide-ranging reasons for globalization itself—which range from a push for technology improvements to a desire to add diversity—Julian and Kathryn discussed why companies’ have the need to relocate employees internationally in the first place. Many drivers of global relocation are similar to those for domestic relocation, such as relocating an employee to mange a special project. As attendees learned, however, global relocations present new challenges not present in domestic relocations.

Relocating an employee and his or her family internationally simply creates more room for problems to arise. As Julian and Kathryn explained, issues can stem from administrative tasks, such as obtaining visas and work permits, or from the many aspects of situating the transferee’s family in the new location, such as finding schools for the children or employment for the spouse. Furthermore, relocating an employee globally versus domestically presents more cultural, financial and logistical concerns that the company must consider. Despite the challenges of relocating employees internationally, Julian and Kathryn provided attendees with best practices that companies can use to ensure successful global relocations for their employees.

Developing and maintaining a strong global relocation policy topped their list as the most important factor for successful global relocations. In addition to employing a good policy as the foundation for an effective global relocation, Julian and Kathryn explained that careful candidate selection can improve the success of global relocations. By screening possible candidates and selecting only adaptable, flexible people for global assignments, companies can avoid potential problems from the start. Using benchmarks, performing cost estimates and analyses, using proven providers, and having a repatriation and reintegration plan were just a few of the additional best practices Julian and Kathryn gave attendees to keep in mind as they explore global relocation within their own companies.

What challenges has your company overcome in dealing with global relocations?