Payroll and accounts payable might seem like a simple, straightforward process. You need to calculate hours and send out paychecks, right? In reality, there’s a lot more to it, especially with the addition of relocation policy expenses and all the vendor invoices that must be tracked and allocated for government payroll reporting and compliance.

Things can get complicated quickly, which is why we created our own proprietary technology to meet all of your payroll and accounts payable needs. Our technology and ability to collect compensation detail is designed with one thing in mind: to make your job simpler.

We want your payroll and accounts payable processes to be as streamlined as possible for future growth and compliance with federal, state and international laws. As such, we own and maintain our relocation technologies in-house and use best business practices for effectively streamlining your accounts payable process and providing effective solutions for your billing needs. When it comes to global mobility technology, processing payroll and accounts payable accurately and consistently is necessary for demonstrating your company’s financial stability while also safeguarding your employee’s trust in your business.

What Does This Mean for You?

Our system effectively manages these processes, so your company is always compliant with the appropriate country tax laws. All companies have a different way of operating their systems and processing payroll information, and our system is unique in that we offer complete configuration of our technology so that it works exactly as your relocation program requires.

Because relocation is one of the most stressful experiences someone can go through, we respond immediately when a client calls looking for a specific report or billing format.  Whether you need individual billing, offset billing, or group billing, we have the capability to meet format requests and provide you with the invoice you need with the simplicity you deserve at no extra charge.

With over 15 years of ongoing development and improvement, our technology is a mature and scalable platform with a predictive workflow system that tracks over 3,000 data points and 300 critical events. Because we’re all looking for the same result—happy, stress-free employees that are ready to get to work in the new location—we proactively search for ways we can create efficiencies for a high-touch and personalized approach.

Complete Compliance = Payroll Efficiency

Complex compliance issues can create daily challenges for those managing relocation programs, and the consequences of being non-compliant can hold large implications for the company and the transferring employee. For instance, flawed accounts payable processes can negatively impact business operations and result in increased expenses for your business. Similarly, an incorrect W2 can have personal tax implications for an employee. For this reason, every parameter, every expense limit, and every cap for your program lives within our system.

From the start of the relocation process to the end, our technology communicates events with our counseling teams to ensure all payroll and accounts payable elements are monitored and delivered accordingly and satisfactorily. In this way, our teams work in conjunction with our workflow tracking technology and our system can offer both the flexibility and confidence to meet your unique policy requirements for 100% compliance at all times.

Every WHR Group employee is committed to saving our clients time, lowering their costs, and providing efficient and streamlined payroll and accounts payable processes—and our technology plays a big part in accomplishing these goals. To take our technology for a spin, explore what your company’s relocation policy might look like through our free Domestic Relocation Policy Designer.

There’s something about moving that makes us all want to ignore it until we can’t anymore. From day-long Netflix binges to finding every other excuse for procrastinating the inevitable, we delay as long as we can because packing up those boxes, moving all the furniture, and checking every nook and cranny for forgotten items can feel like a frustrating and tedious process that has no end in sight.

The same could be said for dealing with issues that arise from the home inspection phase of the corporate home sale process. It’s been our experience that there can be a lot of frustration upon realizing the number of vendors each transferee needs to meet with, and all before they can even move! From real estate agents to appraisers and household goods vans, to third party services for the washer and dryer, to inspection services and more, the sheer number of services that need coordination is, in a word, overwhelming. And then the home inspection is done and suddenly there’s a list of minor repairs that need attention.

This leads to having to invite even more people into the process to get multiple estimates for prices that aren’t inflated, which of course adds even more stress and difficulty to the move. A lot of times by this point, the transferring employee may have already relocated, which means they’re in the new location working, and their spouse and kids might be waiting until a later date to move. Now they’re managing the issues arising from the home inspection AND complications from being separated from their family. Obviously, this is a less than ideal situation.

At the end of the day, there are parts of relocations that truly just…suck. As we see it, you have two options. You can accept the inspection process as a necessary evil, or you can find ways to make them less difficult.

WHR Group excels at making sure every single employee feels supported throughout their move. Our service model is designed to address every anxiety and more during a relocation process, effectively managing any concerns before they become problems. So how do we make the home inspection process less stressful? We implement a Major Component Inspection. 

What are the Benefits of a Major Component Inspection?

Often, the repairs found in a relocation home inspection can be argued as nitpicky and borderline cosmetic. A Major Component Inspection alleviates many of the fussy, rigid, and stress-inducing requirements that come with a general home inspection. Instead of focusing on small code items that often cause tension, the less rigid Major Component Inspection focuses on the important areas of the home like structural and safety issues. 

With fewer repairs identified that the employee would have to spend time remediating, a Major Component Inspection makes for happier transferees, as there is a consistent inspection process from person to person. Not only that, but there is significantly less stress and transferees can give their full attention to their new job.

How Has the Major Component Inspection Benefited Our Clients in the Past?

We wanted to challenge the status quo of the home inspection process, and have spent the last five years looking at how we can improve the process. Our exceptional home inspection experience is, at its core, a legit issue combined with a legit solution that works for both our clients and their transferees. And, really, isn’t that what creates most pivotal ideas?

With a Major Component Inspection, most “minor” repair items, such as a cracked light switch, that would have otherwise been identified and then disclosed to the future buyer are not, which reduces the time and cost that goes into the offer negotiation process. In the event that a buyer did choose to complete their own home inspection, we had the ability to negotiate any and all requested repairs.

Because the Major Component Inspection is designed to simplify the inspection process for the employee and eliminate any nitpicky repair items, the cost to the transferee did go down. From 2015-2016, we had four clients make the change to a Major Component Inspection and employee-paid repair costs decreased by 36%.  

Similarly, while at first there was a perceived risk that a Major Component Inspection might add additional costs for our clients, in reality their overall investment only went up $8 per transferee. Given the benefits of the Major Component Inspection, we would say that this only shows the dedication we share for advancing lives forward with the best service possible.

WHR Group was founded on the promise to provide relocation services at an unmatched level of quality. We invite you to learn more about our business philosophy and the commitment we hold to helping your relocating employees feel great about their move. 

As a company that moves employees frequently, you know intimately there’s a lot more to relocating than calling a moving van. From house-hunting to policy consulting to dealing with rental agreements, there are many elements to consider when constructing a domestic or international relocation program. And while some might say that the perfect relocation process doesn’t exist, everyone at WHR Group would disagree (a lot). We know that while every move is unique to the individual, there are best practices and processes that make every relocation program truly perfect for your organization and culture.  Here are a few examples of how you can create a successful program based on your needs and capacity, and how to execute.

A Tiered Policy Approach

The benefit of a set, tiered approach is simplicity. We create policy tiers during implementation that match the organization and transferee’s needs, leaving little to no administration work when a relocation is initiated. For example, all director level homeowners would receive the same tier and benefits. There is no guesswork and the tiered approach promotes consistency and fairness.

A Core Flex Approach

While a traditional tiered approach can be a bit rigid for some cultures, you can add a level of flexibility by creating a tiered core flex program. An example would be that every employee would receive the same “core” benefits, such as a household goods move and tax and immigration assistance. Then, depending on the tier, the transferee would be able to select from a list of ancillary benefits like temporary housing, spousal assistance, or storage. Tier 1 might get to choose 2 additional benefits while Tier 2 might only get one. This not only promotes flexibility but puts an eye on cost containment as well.

In this way, your relocation program will not only provide consistent and positive results, it will align with your company’s talent management targets for long-term business growth and hiring objectives. While a relocation program may differ based on a company’s budget, resources, and business goals; it should always get a transferee where they need to be in a way that makes them happy.

In doing so, they can focus completely on their new job without a lot of hassle, and you can feel great knowing that the entire process was financially viable and stress-free as possible.

Creative and Flexible Programs

In order to service every demographic and age group, you may need to offer even more flexibility within your relocation program. Many transferring employees now prefer to handle their relocation without the one-on-one assistance of a relocation counselor. We at WHR provide a technology-driven, self-move tool where transferees who are receiving a simple lump sum can access our independent supplier network and discounts themselves. Through our transferee portal and mobile app, your employees can select which suppliers they receive bids from, set up their own dates, and pay their own bills. Our portal and app do include an instant messaging feature should they need a question answered.

Another great program that offers superior flexibility, but more support, is a managed lump sum program. As compared to the simple lump sum program, the managed lump sum option contains an added layer of service with a dedicated counselor at their disposal from start to finish. Whether it’s gathering bids, setting up direct pay options from employer to supplier, opting to use Airbnb as a relocation tool, or just needing expert advice; this option allows you as the organization the control to create restrictions around how budgets are used.

Of course, similar to the tale of Goldilocks, you’re seldom providing a lump sum amount that’s just right. Because we understand that some relocation programs don’t serve the whole of a transferee’s needs, if an employee with a family desires many house-hunting trips, or they want to ship the family pet, we can also create an a la carte program that’s customizable to those specific requirements. Each transferee may get a tailored program detailed to their move. While this option does take additional administrative time and can be difficult to forecast from a budget standpoint, it ensures your employees receive the exact assistance they need throughout the entire relocation process. Be sure to steer clear of any semblance of discrimination. 

24/7 Communication and Support

It goes without saying that poor communication can lead to stress, performance issues, high turnover rates, and negative watercooler conversations. The last thing any company needs is a previously transferred employee encouraging another who is considering a move NOT to go through with it because the experience was so bad. This is why we put such a high emphasis and value on proactive workflows and concrete results.

Moves are all about the people and our processes start with our people. Our empathetic counselors are hand-selected and highly trained on what makes a perfect relocation process—and every client receives a two-person team who will reach out to help explain, manage, and discuss all services and support impacting the policy before questions even arise. From there, our workflows are designed to identify pain points before they become problems. From setting appointments and finding temporary housing, to ensuring consistent and timely updates on each service along the way; we are constantly looking for potential complications so we can proactively identify solutions before the issue ever arises. Layered into every experience is our amazing technology, including our mobile chat app where transferees can get policy guidance, benefit updates, and access to all timelines.

Our relocation process is specific, purposeful—and it works. It’s the reason our clients trust us with the critically important job of relocating their most valuable employees. At the end of the day, it’s not a relocation company’s size that’s at the heart of their success, but the forethought they put into their processes and the conviction they have in constantly pursuing even better ways to care for their clients.

Do you know what WHR Group, USAA, Amazon, Apple, Nordstrom, and Ritz Carlton have in common? We’re known as THE leaders for providing the best service possible—regardless of industry. Whether it’s across client service-centric retailers or highly complicated processes and technology, being the best requires a deep understanding of people. An understanding that goes beyond client satisfaction and realizes loyalty is built on cultivating meaningful relationships. Which is why our mission is to provide the highest quality service to every client throughout the entirety of the relocation process.

Our commitment to providing exceptional service on each and every move is forefront to the values we hold as a company. Our dedication to great service is exactly why we—and USAA, Amazon, Apple, Nordstrom, and the Ritz—use NPS® (Net Promoter Score®) as a key measurement tool across every aspect of what we do. When it comes to providing outstanding service, companies like us prefer a proactive approach to improving our service structure, and NPS provides the insight we need to be the very best there is.

The Role of NPS

While NPS is still fairly new from an awareness standpoint in the relocation industry, it is the best in terms of simplicity and as a measurement of brand loyalty. It is for these exact reasons why more than two-thirds of Fortune 1000 companies are now using NPS.

As a customer satisfaction benchmark, the score for NPS is calculated based on responses to a single question: “How likely are you to recommend WHR Group to a friend or colleague?” Based on a scale of 0 to 10, the responses can be categorized into three groups:

We calculate our NPS score by disregarding the passives and subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. The objective being, of course, to achieve a high NPS score by having significantly more promoters than detractors. Depending on how our clients answered the NPS question, this score can range anywhere from -100 (all detractors) to +100 (all promoters).

The NPS question is just one of many that we ask our clients and transferees to answer. As we look at the full survey, we can easily connect the dots and pinpoint what service areas usually scored low when we had detractors. Not only are we able to pinpoint detractors based on these other questions, we can also ID problem areas in our workflow to proactively avoid potential issues ahead of time. 

How WHR Group Uses NPS

The design of NPS is to measure loyalty to our brand and by making NPS a key metric for our teams, we can focus solely on providing our customers with a positive experience at every interaction and maintaining a work culture that encourages exceptional performance while achieving the best results possible.

Here’s how this looks behind the scenes: Every Monday, our leadership team reviews the data and specific scenarios compiled by our surveys, which include the NPS question. Our leadership team looks for trends of detractors and come up with meaningful ways to help our team avoid those circumstances. For example, we know that filing a household goods claim due to broken or lost items increases the chance of people becoming a detractor exponentially. For this reason, we use claim rates as a major factor to select vendors for each move. Additionally, and as a result of our independence, we choose our vendors based only in our client’s best interest and regardless of vendor affiliation.

Because NPS doesn’t share the whole of the problem, just the effects of underlying root causes, when someone is a detractor, we look at everything that has happened throughout the relocation process. In doing so, we might find that they are a detractor simply because they are losing money on their home. While we may not necessarily be able to do anything about it, we CAN adjust our process to be more proactive in talking to transferees about possible issues up front in order to better prepare them for the reality of their situation.

Here’s why we do this: Our customers are incredibly loyal and with 100% client retention over the last decade, we want our client’s transferees to be loyal to them. NPS helps us promote loyalty within our client’s organization and highlight why relocation is an asset to both the organization and the employees themselves. Most of all, we use NPS because if your employee has a great relocation experience and their coworker also needs to relocate, it’s likely that one great experience will lead to another for greater acceptance of relocation jobs and employee retention.

If you’re ready to get the service your top talent deserves during their move, reach out. We’re happy to share some of our favorite success stories and walk you through our process.

In a recent post, we looked at how relocation pricing works and how to positively impact your relocation spend and budget. In this post, we continue our discussion of relocation pricing, focusing on three ways you can lower your relocation expenses.

Audit Your Relocation Program

Before you can start making decisions on how to reduce costs, you have to understand your current program – what you offer, what you don’t, and most importantly how your program reflects the real-life experiences of your relocating employees. That means going through each step of the relocation process and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data; not only looking at the numbers from your previous moves, but also surveying your employees who went through the relocation process and uncovering what benefits were truly meaningful to them. For example:

• Which benefits did they use the most, and how were they used? For example, if your program allowed for one house hunting trip, would a second trip have been helpful?
• Which benefits did they use the least? Is that because they truly didn’t find it helpful, or because they didn’t understand the policy or its value?
• What changes to the program would they like to see? Why?

Even if budgetary limitations prevent you from following through on every request, fully understanding the process can help you make sure you’re providing the right benefits and eliminating the ones that aren’t providing value. By making sure the policies are clean from the start, you’re laying the foundation for a time- and cost-efficient relocation.

Stay on Top of Exceptions

One thing every relocation has in common is the need for precise timing and logistics: When the unexpected occurs during a relocation, you can bet it will impact the logistics throughout the rest of the process. The closing on a new home gets delayed? That means you’ll need to find temporary housing for the transferring employee’s family and extend their storage arrangements. These exceptions result in higher costs. In fact, two-thirds of moving exceptions stem from temporary housing.

The first step to minimizing exceptions and their impact to your bottom line is by designing a thoughtful and data-driven relocation program. The more your program reflects the lived experiences of your transferring employees, the better you’re able to plan around the exceptions. However, the execution of the program is equally as important. Which is why we train our Relocation Counselors to anticipate needs before they are requested, level-set expectations upfront, and regularly check in with transferees throughout the move. Should an exception be required, our Counselors review all possible alternatives first—Can a closing date be moved? Is there a more cost-efficient storage alternative? Can the cost be covered by a miscellaneous allowance?—to make sure the impact on the relocation budget is minimal.

Staying on Top of the Trends

To find relocation cost savings, you don’t always want to look at the dollars – you want to look at the pennies. When you move 100 people per year, there is a lot you can’t change. Real estate prices are what they are and moving fees are largely consistent among service providers. But with a little creativity and by staying current on what’s happening in the industry, you’d be surprised what savings you can find.

One of our favorite examples is flat screen TVs. Fifteen years ago, when flat-screens were first in demand, they were both expensive and incredibly fragile. Moving companies would build custom crates to transport at a cost of nearly $500 each.

And what’s a little crazy is…that’s still the process today. Even though flat-screens have evolved since the early 2000s, are far less expensive, more durable, and most people have 3 or 4 per house. You no longer need a custom box to transport them. A blanket will do just fine. If you take that savings of $2,000 per move and multiply it by the number of moves you have per year, suddenly we’re talking about a significant savings.

Or look at home sale bonuses. Ten years ago, companies would offer $10,000 bonuses to employees to motivate them to sell their homes quickly. That benefit is still prevalent today, even though homes are currently on the market on average only 78-days.

Through the use of regular benchmark studies and clear and consistent reporting, we’re able to identify any gaps and redundancies in your policy as well as opportunities for savings. Savings that can then be used to optimize your policy for a better relocation experience for your employees.

While a relocation benefit is a significant investment in your employees and your business, there are ways to implement it thoughtfully in a way that keeps your employees happy and minimizes costs. Tailoring your program to the real-world experiences of your transferring employees, keeping on top of the relocation process and staying aware of industry trends not only make for a smoother move experience for your employees, but it helps keep your expenses down.

When looking to reduce how much you spend on moving your employees, the first question you might want to ask a relocation partner might be, “How much are your fees?” While that’s a reasonable place to start, if your top concern is making a significant and meaningful impact to your company’s relocation budget, what you need to be asking is, “What’s the right policy for my company and employees?”

The Truth About Fees

There are two things every cost-conscious human resources professional needs to understand about relocation company fees: they’re generally consistent across providers and they tend to be the smallest portion of your relocation budget.

Because the truth is, when you start comparing relocation companies, you’ll find that there isn’t a ton of variation in the fees they charge. Here’s why:

Relocation is a mature industry with streamlined pricing. Most reputable relocation firms have been in the business since its inception, which leads to little difference in operational cost from one company to another. That translates to tighter margins and little room for discounts.

Prices are largely fixed. Every relocation firm works with third-party real estate professionals, movers, and packers – all of whom charge roughly the same for their services. Everyone’s household goods moving process requires the same number of boxes, trucks, and boats across the regions they serve. Because these costs are flat, so are the fees across the industry.

Not only are fees pretty consistent from company to company, they’re also a fairly small slice of a traditional relocation budget. Consider the following chart:

The vast majority of a relocation program’s budget is spent on housing, moving and storing household goods, and taxes. Again, there’s very little to make up in fees.

The Real Savings Are in the Policy

The best way to realize relocation program savings is by creating a policy suited to your company’s unique needs and its people. The moving industry will always be people-centric and largely depend on human intervention to get your employees from point A to point B. Which is why WHR Group starts every relationship by thoroughly understanding each client’s relocation priorities and applying technology thoughtfully. This allows us to create exceptional and compliant programs.

We begin with a clear and accurate understanding of how each of our client’s relocation dollars are spent. Our in-house, proprietary technology is able to analyze the current program against real-world relocation experiences and identify opportunities for potential savings. Whether it’s outdated policies, unnecessary gross-up, or too many exceptions; we tailor the program and our support to actual usage. Allowing our clients to maximize efficiency while minimizing costs.

Better still, while we’re customizing your plan to your company, we can also gauge its competitiveness. Our benchmark reporting stacks your program against your competitors using in-house client and non-client data, so you can see not only any gaps in offerings but also if you’re overspending by providing benefits your industry doesn’t value.

Perhaps the best recommendation for making sure you’re not overpaying for your relocation program is to partner with a company that’s focused exclusively on your specific budget and needs. We’d be happy to talk with you about your program and how we can tailor it to really make it work for you.