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On The Road Again
In an ever more mobile world, companies discover that transferring employees involves so much more than just a plane ticket
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Business New Haven
4/16/2001
By: Susan Cornell
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Getting married, getting divorced and moving, it is said, are the three most stressful changes in life. For a business, divorcing an employee from one location and marrying him or her to another as well as moving the employee's family requires carefully considered solutions and strategies to minimize the stress imposed on all. Whether the relocation involves one top-tiered executive or thousands of employees, it behooves the business to have step-by-step plans in place to simplify and facilitate the entire process.
With today's labor shortage, firms recognize that the three Rs - recruiting, retaining and relocating - are critical to growth. Increasingly, these firms are providing support and assistance regarding settling-in issues as well as post-move follow-up and a whole host of other services that accompany the relocation process. In the old days, the typical transferee was a married, home-owning, white male between 35 and 45 with 2.5 children. This predictable profile has shifted with demographic changes, and now potential transferees come in any number of different flavors. Accordingly, companies must develop new and custom-tailored relocation strategies in to attract and retain the cream of the crop.
Two biggies in the business of providing relocation expertise and services are located in Connecticut: Cendant Mobility and Prudential Relocation Services. Cendant, based in Danbury, is the largest provider of corporate relocation services in the U.S. In fact, the company facilitates the transfer of more than 100,000 annually around the globe. The company's services include providing purchase assistance and home sales, obtaining mortgage loans, and managing the personal side of relocating.
Cendant offers technical tools and proprietary and serves over two-thirds of the Fortune 50, with more than 1,700 clients in all. Cendant also touts its outsourcing expertise that provides companies with time and cost-efficient relocation solutions.
Under Cendant's real-estate division are nearly 12,000 residential real estate offices operating under the Century 21, Coldwell Banker and ERA brand names. This real-estate expertise makes the home-buying and -selling processes more convenient and simpler for clients.
In January, Century 21 launched a new employer-incentive program, "Compliments of the House," which assists Century 21 companies in establishing business relationships. Says Century 21 President and COO Van Davis, "In today's real estate market, relocation business opportunities are limited and extremely competitive. The "Complements of the House" program equips our offices with the tools they need to leverage such business opportunities in their local market."
The Century 21 Connections program is an alliance marketing system building relocation, home-related and related services such as North American Van Lines, ADT, DirecTV and the Century 21 Home Protection Plan. Information on businesses under the Cendant umbrella can be found on the company's Web site at www.cendant.com.
Shelton is home to Prudential Relocation Services, which provides a broad array of services worldwide including: relocation outsourcing, relocation policy consulting, home marketing assistance, home sale services, home management services, international services including intercultural training, relocation cost management, destination services, transportation services, group-move services and government services. The company's Web site (www.prudential.com), provides a plethora of details as well as a full library of downloadable reports on strategic policies, financial and tax issues, critical-issues survey reports (domestic and international), and those on managing international assignments.
Under Prudential's Corporate Relocation Services umbrella is also a business location consulting service that allows "clients to deploy their corporate resources throughout the world in order to capitalize on the geographic advantages of different locations."
Finally, the Home Listing Site allows a search of corporate-owned homes acquired through the company's clients.
One of the most valuable reports available in the library covers ten strategies to simplify the relocation operation. These strategies are applicable whether the firm is moving one top dog or thousands of the working-dog class and include:
1. Know your company and its culture, including benefits strategy, frequency of movement and mergers and acquisitions.
2. Know your transferee. Evaluate demographic trends, including the impact of Generation X and women and family issues pertaining to relocation.
3. Design an effective policy and communicate it.
4. Minimize risk and expenses through effective marketing and home-sale assistance.
5. Use existing and new technology to its fullest capacity.
6. Integrate temporary-living benefits into your policy.
7. Reduce the negative impact of relocation transition with customized destination assistance.
8. Have a plan to manage transportation of household goods.
9. Maximize return on international assignment programs.
10. Review your relocation expense/tax management process.
Relocation specialists recognize that differences exist between the needs of senior or executive-level transferees and mid-level employees, and these experts are adept at incorporating and customizing plans based on the client's particular population involved in the relocation. Also, relo professionals are sensitive to issues such as recent survey findings that more than half of employees offered a transfer refused the move because of their partner's or spouse's career. With 84 percent of all married couples having dual-incomes, potential transferees simply are not as portable as they used to be. Clients must find ways to make the move an attractive proposition.
According to a Prudential report on "Relocation Strategies for a New Generation," "To overcome dual-income Gen-X barriers to moving, companies have incorporated various life-partner and spouse career-assistance counseling to all transferring employees - not just to senior or executive level transferees who may be less likely to need it."
By not offering career assistance to partners and spouses, the client may be considered non-competitive in terms of the relocation package offered. Clients need to stay ahead of the curve and promote a family-friendly company image.
Ife Brown, manager of business development at Prudential Relocation, finds that "The basic needs of a relocating employee and a relocating executive are primarily the same: transportation of goods, home selling and home finding. Where their needs differ lies in the company's relocation policy itself.
"Provisions are usually made for high-level executives," Brown says. "For example, executives tend to have more expensive homes and occasionally need temporary home-management services while the home is on the market. Home management services could be a provision given only to executives. Prudential does have policy consulting if companies need assistance in creating a policy to meet the needs of their transferees."
In a nutshell, relocation is more complex than even before. There are a host of issues to face, but each provides companies with opportunities to create policies to increase competitiveness and to develop a winning relocation program. With all of these considerations, it is no wonder that corporate relocation as a business is booming; the expertise, advice, planning, and array of services provided by companies such as Cendant and Prudential make such companies the real movers.
Prudential Relocation's sister business unit, Prudential Real Estate, offers one of the largest network of real estate companies in the world. The business offers a broad spectrum of services to residential, commercial, and resort real estate buyers and sellers. Prudential Connecticut Realty's two relocation centers in Rocky Hill and Stamford provide a number of relocation services targeting the corporate world and was recently earned the top national "Group Move Support Award" for "outstanding performance in customer satisfaction, responsiveness and client support" for managing the largest group move into the state.
Additionally, the Connecticut affiliate won the prestigious "Per-Person Productivity Award" and the "Incoming Conversation Ratio Award." The former is granted "for generating the highest number of outgoing referrals to other parts of the country and abroad" while the latter was earned for "handling the highest number of moves into Connecticut."
The array of relocation services offered by Prudential Real Estate's network range from individual employee counseling and spousal support to group-move facilitation to expatriate moves. Counseling can focus on any of a number of relocation stressors as a client may in reality be moving a package (a family), not simply an individual. There are issues that arise from settling-in, moving, switching schools, establishing new friendships.
Chris Cooke, Prudential's vice president of relocation, notes that Prudential Connecticut Realty personnel counseled more than 3,000 employees and their families. Additionally, he reports, "With our vast relocation referral network, two in-state relocation centers and some of the best relocation and sales executive personnel, we're able to provide the best relocation services possible. Last year, relocation services accounted for nearly half a billion dollars of the firm's $2.5 billion in total closed volume."
The issues, offerings and considerations regarding relocating an executive can differ considerably from the concerns and packages developed for non-executive employees. Connecticut's robust economy has made relocation and recruitment of executives a challenge for many companies.
To attract seasoned executive talent to the state, companies need to market a competitive advantage by employing effective resources. One such offering is the River Highlands in Cromwell, a golf course community whose target market is corporate executives. The River Highlands developers recognized that executives and their spouses often were relocating from a golf course community or were considering golf course living at transfer time. Many wanted to maintain or enhance this lifestyle. River Highlands is affiliated with the Tournament Players Club, a championship PGA tour-owned 18-hole golf course that hosts the annual Greater Hartford Open.
Companies which are in tune to demographic shifts and are able to adjust policies and programs in response to the changing needs of employees at all levels are the ones that will offer the most flexible and competitive relocation packages. By utilizing the services of qualified relocation professionals - whether they be experts offering a broad spectrum of custom-tailored programs or astute real estate professionals with a clear understanding of what attracts the exec or the Gen X'er - Connecticut corporations can retain and attract the brightest and best employees at all levels.
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