Relocation Specialist

As relocation professionals, what are some things we can do to prepare our transferees to navigate through this complicated and confusing time?
The first and probably best thing a transferee can do is talk to a relocation lender early in the process. Knowing where you are and what you need to do is critical to avoid stress, as well as be in a position to be aggressive with a home purchase offer, close on your terms and complete a successful relocation. The up-front application discussion should cover these seven things to ensure a successful home purchase. 

1. Know Your Credit Report: Many people don’t know what is on their credit report, a complete review is necessary to understand your credit situation and fix any issues that may exist.

2. Be Prepared to Provide Documentation: Income and asset documentation is required now. With all of the changes that have occurred in the mortgage industry, the level of verification is considerably higher than it was a few years ago.
 
3. Do Research on Product Availability: There are still many products available to fit a variety of needs. Understanding what is available and how you qualify is essential.

4. Learn about Property Type Trends: With declining property values, some property types such as condominiums, and other unique housing types are experiencing resale issues as guidelines have become more restrictive on property issues. Preparing for this reality is essential in setting sale expectations.

5. Be Ready to Provide Information for Rate Calculations: Many applicants call to ask “what is your rate?”, but this isn’t an easy question to answer anymore. Interest rates take into consideration factors like credit, LTV, property type, location, and loan size—so be prepared to provide your loan counselor with additional information.

6. Get Pre-Approved: You can still be approved over the phone or online quickly and easily in most cases. By being approved up front, you will be in the best negotiating position when you are ready to buy.

7. Talk through the Complete Mortgage Process: A complete conversation will include the entire mortgage process. Understanding the what, when and whys of returning your documents, the home appraisal, your loan commitment as well as what is involved in closing your loan is critical. It is important to know exactly what you should expect after the closing. Setting the right expectation will lead to a successful transaction.

Talking to a professional relocation lender applies to those buying in the short, intermediate or long-term. Start the conversation early on and a successful purchase will follow.  Please contact me if you have any questions.
 

In case you haven’t noticed there have been some significant exchange rate movements in the past few months due to the global financial crisis that is churning. International HR professionals are well aware of this and so are expatriates whose compensation packages appear to be impacted by such movements.

For example, the U.S. dollar has declined significantly since late 2006; it then rebounded abruptly in the Fall of 2008. Five currencies have experienced noticeable changes in the last two months, the Australian Dollar (AUD), the Brazilian Real (BRL), the Canadian Dollar (CAD), the British Pound (GBP) and the South-Korean Won (KRW).

So what should companies do about this? First, they should use specialist third party organizations such as ORC and Air Inc. to provide advice on cost-of-living data and other related information to help provide accurate solutions. These companies use complex formulas to track cost-of-living and related exchange rates to minimize the negative financial impact that currency fluctuations can have on expatriates living under one currency but being remunerated in another currency. 

Such currency volatility is not unprecedented, and urgent action is not normally required as long as allowances and payments are reviewed frequently; for example moving to a quarterly review may be worth considering. Only where inflation is running out of control should exchange rates be considered more frequently (e.g. Zimbabwe), but in these extreme cases, a local currency should be avoided if possible.

Below are some solutions that should be considered:

• Quarterly reviews of allowances and payments made in an affected currency
• Consider a split pay approach that would deliver a combined goods and services amount normally spent at home, plus a goods and services differential in the host currency
• Communicate with expatriates, to show how their purchasing power is being protected

For assistance in reviewing your company’s global mobility policies and process related to expatriate compensation, please contact SIRVA.

The U.S. housing market is continuing to slow, and most economists and housing professionals predict the housing slump will linger longer than previously forecasted.

A downturn in real estate markets creates several challenges for employers' relocating transferees, the most significant of which is the growing number of homes that end up in inventory. This rise in home inventory leads to higher overall relocation costs and increased property management duties for employers.

Total home sale costs also become less predictable in sluggish real estate markets, and unpredictable home sale costs translate into unpredictable total relocation costs.

Relocation service providers (RSPs) offer several home sale programs, each with varying levels of risk, to help corporate relocation transferees. Employers should consider the advantages and disadvantages of each program to determine the level of risk involved, and those employers who want a predictable and low-risk home sale program should consider a fixed-fee program.

Learn more about the fixed-fee program.

Lynn Bragg, Worldwide ERC® CEO, has agreed to speak at this year's SIRVA University, which will be held on April 1 - 4, 2009 at The Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Florida.

Lynn will be presenting a 2009 relocation industry outlook address, which is sure to be an informative session for the relocation professionals who attend this year's event.

Lynn's Full Bio
Video of Lynn Speaking at ERC's Global Workforce Symposium

More information about this anticipated event to follow.

If you have a group move to manage and are seeking assistance, SIRVA Relocation is able to provide the following services:

Defining Objectives
SIRVA works closely with your Company’s management team to define the overall objectives of the move and ensure their implementation during the move process. As a part of our consultation, we will discuss the Company’s business and human resources goals and objectives, policy issues, the group move timeline, and factors to consider in the cost analysis and process development.

Relocation Cost Analysis
We provide expertise in analyzing the total cost of a group move by detailing the cost impact of policy decisions and local market conditions on both the Company and the employee.

Policy Design
SIRVA can incorporate your business objectives into an appropriate group move policy. A key component of policy design is the solicitation, review and analysis of your employees’ input via the employee survey that we will design to meet the needs of your employee population and the constraints your management has placed on the process. This information, along with policy and benefit guidelines, will result in a Group Move Policy Handbook detailing the corporate relocation program for your employees.

Employee Presentations
We have the depth of experience to assist the Company in securing the employee’s enthusiastic commitment to the move through a carefully planned and professionally presented program for the entire family. This program includes a complete overview of the new destination city and state, plus the ability for employees to ask questions and address concerns about the move. In short, we bring the experts in each resource area to the transferee.

Relocation Resource Center
SIRVA can prepare an on-site, on-going “Relocation Resource Center” for employees and their families, which provides information about the destination city’s schools, housing options, medical facilities, etc.

Information Kit
Each employee will receive a complete package of information about the destination city including, if appropriate, a video about the city. Employees will be assigned a personal relocation counselor who is available to answer questions, research any specific needs they or their family members may have, and arrange for individual home finding trips to the new city (if included in the plan).

Area Tours
SIRVA can organize area tours guaranteed to satisfy your employees’ questions about their new city.

Other services include:
• Home Marketing Assistance
• Home Purchase Assistance
• Home Finding Assistance
• Temporary Housing Assistance
• Spouse Job-Finding Assistance
• Employee Expense Tracking Administration and Tax Calculation Capabilities
• Mortgage Assistance
• Vendor Selection and Management
• Training Material and Programs

Here are a few things to remember when instituting a cross-cultural awareness program into your corporate relocation program. For a full account of information regarding this service visit our resource library.

Don't forget the family
Just as spouses should be involved in the assignment selection process, they should be involved in training for global assignments. Some experts estimate that nearly 80 percent of all failed global (international) assignments can be linked to the spouse's inability to adjust to the new environment. Each member of the family faces special issues in the expatriate environment that should be addressed.

Other cultural resources
Organizations should consider utilizing their returning expatriates for help with cultural awareness initiatives. Employees who have already completed similar assignments can act as subject matter experts (SMEs) to help new expatriates learn business customs and how to navigate foreign business circles. SMEs can also prove invaluable in helping new expatriates learn the hierarchy in companies with which they will be dealing. It's important to note, however, that companies should not rely solely on employees to provide guidance to new expatriates. Relying exclusively on veteran expatriates can be problematic if the guidance reinforces cultural stereotypes or results in the new expatriate adopting the predecessor's bad habits. While other international assignees have a role to play in helping newcomers adjust, they should not replace professional consultants/trainers.

Alternative views
Although cross-cultural awareness is important, some might argue that its importance is just a hyped up myth. In actuality, on average only 30 percent of American managers sent on international assignment lasting from one to five years receive any cross-cultural training. It can be argued that managing is simply "managing," so where it is done is irrelevant. Another point of view is that any type of short-term cultural training would be ineffective because people can't learn to work and live in a foreign culture after only a few days (or even a few weeks) of training. Others argue that an understanding of a country's culture is something people assimilate over many years based on personal experiences in that specific culture. Others will say that corporate culture takes precedence over country culture. For example, a local employee working for a "bullish" American firm in Thailand might show traits of aggressiveness and conflict, which are not traits normally associated with the Thai culture. These traits, however, may be common in the corporate company culture of the employee's organization, causing the Thai employee to act outside his or her normal cultural dimensions.

Nevertheless, in order to be successful, an expatriate must be comfortable with his or her staff, colleagues, clients and business atmosphere--regardless of location. Cultural specialists also agree that to be successful in dealing with people from other cultures, expatriates need knowledge about the cultural differences (and the similarities) among work locations. The global employee of today's business world can only benefit from gaining cultural awareness, either through direct training or personal experience, which would lead to greater professional effectiveness and company performance. Read more

If you would like more information about cross-cultural education and how it can be added to your international relocation package/program, please contact our corporate relocation consulting team.

SIRVA recently released a whitepaper dedicated to outlining our fixed-fee home sale program and how it can improve predictability and reduce real estate risk in a slow housing market. Below is an excerpt from this whitepaper, along with a link to the complete document.

The U.S. housing market is continuing to slow, and most economists and housing professionals predict the housing slump will linger longer than previous forecast. Total home sale costs become less predictable in sluggish real estate markets, and unpredictable home sale costs translate into unpredictable total relocation costs.

Relocation service companies offer several home sale programs, each with varying levels of risk, to help employers relocate transferees. Employers should consider the advantages of each program to determine the level of risk involved, and those employers who want a predictable and low-risk home sale program should consider a fixed-fee program.

For more information about our SIRVA’s fixed-fee program, view the complete whitepaper or contact us.

Improving Accent Through Training
A foreign national’s accent may impede their communication ability, even though they are fluent in English. Research indicates accents are caused mostly through differences in rhythm and stress, as well as difficulty in making certain sounds linguistically. A common example is putting an emphasis on the wrong syllable.

Accent is almost impossible to improve without training. Speakers seldom can hear what they are mispronouncing and even if a listener points it out to them, they are unlikely to know how to correct it.

For example, certain regions mix up L and R sounds because they cannot hear the difference, they may not notice a mispronunciation, but others may not be able to understand what they trying to communicate.

Accent reduction training is provided by universities and private training companies where individuals are trained how to identify incorrect pronunciations and how to exercise their mouth and tongue to correct the problem. Other teaching methods include mimicry, which helps students correct pronunciation, rhythm and stress by watching videos of native language speakers, then mimicking what they hear and see, including body language. 

Typically, most training programs incorporate individualized programs developed as a result of a comprehensive speech analysis. These programs mostly last between ten and 20 sessions. For some, improvement can be seen immediately, but it can also take between three and six months for others.

Most programs can be provided one-on-one or in a classroom setting. Classroom programs generally take longer and are less expensive than one-on-one tutoring but one-on-one tutoring is more effective and quicker.

Linguistics Plays a Part
Accent and grammar are usually established by ages six and twelve respectively. In order to help someone change their accent, an instructor needs to be a linguistics specialist and have the knowledge of a speech therapist.

A language school may claim to provide this training, but beware, a language instructor will not have the skills and training of a linguistics professional.

Accents are influenced by the tongue, lip position, vocal cords and air movement through the mouth or nose; instructors must be able to show students how to manipulate these in order to limit mispronunciations as a result of their accent.

Many companies offer language training to international corporate relocation transferees, though few offer accent modification training which is often required more than traditional language training.

Companies often dismiss accent modification as being too expensive, or because they feel there is little that can be done to correct the problems caused by accents. In fact, there is much that can be done to correct accent-related problems, and as companies research the various options available they will find that it is surprisingly cost effective and beneficial.

Let me know if you require a referral to an accent modification specialist.

fundamentals of relocation webinar
Thursday, May 22, 2008
1:00 p.m. EST (10:00 a.m. PT)

Speaker: David Barlow, SCRP, GMS, Senior Vice President, Client Support Services, SIRVA
Duration: One hour

This "relocation 101" webinar is designed for new relocation professionals, procurement managers and supply chain managers who would like an overview of relocation fundamentals, and for anyone who wants to stay current with the latest policy trends and best practices.

This session will provide a brief history of the industry, and a broad overview of the relocation process, including a review of the terms and concepts most common to relocation policy development and implementation. The discussion will include household goods and temporary living options, the home sale process based on IRS Revenue Rulings, and industry trends such as lump-sum benefits and high-cost area assistance.

Register at https://van.webex.com/van/j.php?ED=91994767&RG=1

Details for joining the session will be included in the registration confirmation e-mail

fundamentals of relocation webinar
Thursday, May 22, 2008
1:00 p.m. EST (10:00 a.m. PT)

Speaker: David Barlow, SCRP, GMS, Senior Vice President, Client Support Services, SIRVA
Duration: One hour

This "relocation 101" webinar is designed for new relocation professionals, procurement managers and supply chain managers who would like an overview of relocation fundamentals, and for anyone who wants to stay current with the latest policy trends and best practices.

This session will provide a brief history of the industry, and a broad overview of the relocation process, including a review of the terms and concepts most common to relocation policy development and implementation. The discussion will include household goods and temporary living options, the home sale process based on IRS Revenue Rulings, and industry trends such as lump-sum benefits and high-cost area assistance.

Register at https://van.webex.com/van/j.php?ED=91994767&RG=1

Details for joining the session will be included in the registration confirmation e-mail

fundamentals of relocation webinar
Thursday, May 22, 2008
1:00 p.m. EST (10:00 a.m. PT)

Speaker: David Barlow, SCRP, GMS, Senior Vice President, Client Support Services, SIRVA
Duration: One hour

This "relocation 101" webinar is designed for new relocation professionals, procurement managers and supply chain managers who would like an overview of relocation fundamentals, and for anyone who wants to stay current with the latest policy trends and best practices.

This session will provide a brief history of the industry, and a broad overview of the relocation process, including a review of the terms and concepts most common to relocation policy development and implementation. The discussion will include household goods and temporary living options, the home sale process based on IRS Revenue Rulings, and industry trends such as lump-sum benefits and high-cost area assistance.

Register at https://van.webex.com/van/j.php?ED=91994767&RG=1

Details for joining the session will be included in the registration confirmation e-mail

fundamentals of relocation webinar
Thursday, May 22, 2008
1:00 p.m. EST (10:00 a.m. PT)

Speaker: David Barlow, SCRP, GMS, Senior Vice President, Client Support Services, SIRVA
Duration: One hour

This "relocation 101" webinar is designed for new relocation professionals, procurement managers and supply chain managers who would like an overview of relocation fundamentals, and for anyone who wants to stay current with the latest policy trends and best practices.

This session will provide a brief history of the industry, and a broad overview of the relocation process, including a review of the terms and concepts most common to relocation policy development and implementation. The discussion will include household goods and temporary living options, the home sale process based on IRS Revenue Rulings, and industry trends such as lump-sum benefits and high-cost area assistance.

Register at https://van.webex.com/van/j.php?ED=91994767&RG=1

Details for joining the session will be included in the registration confirmation e-mail

This March SIRVA University, SIRVA Relocation’s annual conference exploring corporate relocation industry trends and professional development, played host to 150 of the nation’s top relocation industry executives. The event, which was held at the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., provided an exclusive forum for industry insiders to discuss vital, ongoing and emerging industry issues with experts
and colleagues.

Attendees included representatives from human resources, domestic and global relocation, procurement and supply chain departments from more than 75
different companies.

”Our industry is facing a lot of challenges, and SIRVA University provides an opportunity for human resource and relocation professionals/specialists to gather and discuss best practices and practical solutions,” noted Mike McMahon, president, SIRVA Relocation.

This year, conference roundtables and educational sessions covered topics ranging from tips for promoting relocation programs within an organization, home loss-on-sale assistance to relocation trends in China. Additional sessions addressed relocation fundamentals, such as policy trends and best practices, and provided a comprehensive history of the industry—on both a domestic and global scale.

“The educational roundtables in particular were an opportune time for attendees to interact directly with SIRVA executives and fellow relocation professionals,”
said McMahon. “And the keynote speakers were incredibly well received by all.”

SIRVA University Presentations Available Online

Those who were unable to attend this year’s event can download SIRVA University presentations and event images at www.sirvauniversity.com/agenda.asp. Individuals can also download audio recordings of the various sessions to hear them as they were presented, including question-and-answer sessions. Individuals seeking more information on SIRVA University 2008 can e-mail sirvau@sirva.com. If you'd like more information about SIRVA or corporate relocation consulting visit: www.sirva.com.

This March SIRVA University, SIRVA Relocation’s annual conference exploring corporate relocation industry trends and professional development, played host to 150 of the nation’s top relocation industry executives. The event, which was held at the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., provided an exclusive forum for industry insiders to discuss vital, ongoing and emerging relocation industry issues with experts and colleagues.

Attendees included representatives from human resources, domestic relocation, global mobility, and procurement and supply chain departments from more than 75 different companies.

This year, conference roundtables and educational sessions covered topics ranging from promoting corporate relocation programs, home loss-on-sale assistance, developing employee relocation packages for global mobility and relocation trends in China. Additional sessions addressed relocation fundamentals, such as policy trends and best practices, and provided a comprehensive history of the industry—on both a domestic and global scale.

SIRVA University Presentations Available Online

Those who were unable to attend this year’s event can download SIRVA University presentations and event images at www.sirvauniversity.com/agenda.asp. Individuals can also download audio recordings of the various sessions to hear them as they were presented, including question-and-answer sessions. Individuals seeking more information on SIRVA University 2008 can e-mail sirvau@sirva.com.

Avrom Goldberg
Managing Director, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
SIRVA Relocation

Lorraine Jennings
Manager, Consulting Services, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
SIRVA Relocation

As Avrom Goldberg and Lorraine Jennings explained, it is important for relocation professionals to stay up-to-date on relocation trends in China because of the country’s power as regional and global economic engine.  For each of the past 30 years, China has demonstrated eight to 12 percent economic growth, and it is showing no signs of slowing down.  In order to provide attendees with valuable insights and analysis of the current relocation trends in this rising economic power, Avrom and Lorraine described the findings of the SIRVA’s China Mobility Report.  While Avrom and Lorraine could not summarize the entire 95-page report during the presentation, they shared highlights of their findings.

Increased demand for deployment to China, one trend discussed during the presentation, is expected to continue.  However, the sources of assignees selected for deployment are changing.  Traditionally, assignees to China came from Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.  Recently, hiring has been more concentrated in Asia, with most assignees coming in the form of returning Chinese workers or locally hired foreigners.

Companies who continue to send assignees to China are using a variety of selection and planning processes that do not follow a pattern.  For example, pre-assignment visits ranged from a brief three days to a full week; some companies offer extensive cross-cultural training for assignees while others do not; certain companies assign mentors, some extend mentoring programs to leadership programs, and others offer no structured mentoring to assignees in China.  In these areas of their relocation programs, companies are not following a uniform trend, but rather they are doing what is in the best interest of their individual organizations.

On the other hand, companies are moving in the same direction in other areas of their programs.  For example, many companies are changing their philosophies of hardship allowances.  While 51% of companies offer hardship allowances across all assignments, many are developing new ideas of what places they consider “difficult.”  Avrom and Lorraine mentioned Shanghai and Beijing as places that recently necessitated hardship allowances, but may no longer justify as high of a level of compensation.  Furthermore, many companies are shifting from a host-based to a home-based approach for hardship allowance policies, which illustrates that companies are finding a home-based method more effective in China’s current economic framework.  

Regardless of which specific policies and programs companies decide are most useful when sending their employees on assignments to China, the companies within SIRVA’s study agreed on the obstacles that they must overcome.  They identified the following as the top-five human resources and mobility challenges they face when filling assignments in China:

• Creating effective policy frameworks for separate groups, such as locally hired foreigners or international new hires who are not full assignee
• Understanding, capturing and reporting the total cost of assignments to the company, including measuring the return on investment of the assignments
• Locating quality service providers in China with a strategic vision
• Developing a young workforce with global cultural competency
• Finding credible benchmarks for hardship allowances and housing data for assignments in China

As a kick-off to my blog, A Closer Look at Global Relocation, I wanted to introduce myself and explain what I plan to discuss over the next couple months.

As a global relocation services leader, I am in contact with a variety of global mobility customers and providers on a day-to-day basis and I’ve found that there are some topics that seem to be of interest to most professionals whenever they relocate employees—be it the U.S., China or anywhere else in the world. Since I have been able to benchmark and study these highly relevant topics, I thought it would make the most sense to start this blog with some of this information. With that said, I will be initiating a discussion on barriers to assignment acceptance and how to overcome them, then I will be covering the latest trends in relocating to and within China and the true cost of an expatriate assignment, how to measure and track—all of which I feel will instigate a solid discussion on the challenges and barriers facing global mobility programs and introduce some best practices for overcoming these obstacles.

Are there any other topics that you feel would be relevant to cover? I am open to suggestions.