Relocating Internationally During COVID-19: Brew City To Lion City, And The Colorado Rockies To The Swiss Alps.

WHR’s Linden Houghtby & Jennifer Elsby speak with International HR Adviser about their experiences relocating during COVID-19.

As Global Mobility professionals, we all know the logistics of moving expatriates from A-B, but none of us have ever faced managing international relocations during a global pandemic. We’d like to share our personal international relocation experiences over the past six months, in hopes that it will offer advice if you are currently relocating your expatriate colleagues during this global pandemic.

Arrival And Quarantine In Singapore

Like so many others planning to move or travel internationally last year, 2020 required us to adapt and adjust our international expansion plans. As a result, my personal and professional move to Singapore was postponed by about six months. Instead of moving in June, I did not arrive in Singapore until the end of December. As you may know, Singapore had enacted strict procedures for allowing travelers into the country to minimize the spread of COVID-19 within the city-state. This includes entry approval requests, PCR testing and mandatory quarantines. Preparing for my flight and the subsequent quarantine was both daunting and stressful, but while there are many requirements, Singapore does have a system in place to make arrival and quarantining a smooth process.

As we know, anytime you are moving your expatriate employees internationally for work, having all necessary documentation in order is crucial, and even more important
now since many additional documents are required. All my documentation was presented and reviewed countless times
from airport check-in, to transfer, to my quarantine hotel.

Once I arrived at my designated quarantine hotel where I would be spending the next 15 days, much of the worry I had regarding the experience dissipated as I was lucky in my hotel assignment. I could put my worst-case scenario fears to rest. I was assigned a room with large windows overlooking the Singapore River, a small desk with a chair, and enough floor space for a yoga mat. Much better than some posts in various Facebook groups led me to expect.

Not that spending 15 days in one hotel room is easy or an experience I look forward to repeating any time soon, but the hotel staff did a phenomenal job taking care of me during my stay. The Wellness staff called daily just to check in and see how I was doing and if I needed anything. The hotel also organised virtual events and activities for those in quarantine including a New Year’s Eve Zoom party; towel folding competitions; Singapore themed crossword puzzle; and exercise/yoga classes.

I know that everyone’s quarantine experience will be different, but here are some tips that helped me through mine:
• Manage your expatriates’ expectations – do not expect a 5-star hotel experience, even if staying at a 5-star hotel
• Take your own cutlery – I do not know why, but having something other than plastic utensils was very nice
• Pack snacks – we were served three meals a day, but it was nice to have some snacks
• Take things to do – books, puzzles, knitting, drawing, whatever you enjoy doing to help pass the time and break up the days
• Be prepared for it to get hard – I compared my stay to a CrossFit workout: the first third is not bad, you are confident and motivated; the second third is painful, and you may want to give up; but the final third gets easier as the end is in sight
• Stay in contact with family and friends – video calls/texting were great distractions from feeling stuck or isolated without any direct human contact in days.

For anyone planning to travel internationally who will be required to quarantine, know that you are in good company and that you can do it! Taking some time to prepare can make a world of difference!

Making It Home

Unpacking my suitcases for the last time and stocking my fridge were relatively small tasks, but doing those things made me feel more grounded and comfortable than I have been since leaving Wisconsin in late October. I did not realize that I was carrying an extra layer of tension or discomfort until it melted away by feeling at home again. The past few months have been an incredible adventure and opportunity. I am very thankful for going to both Switzerland and Singapore for WHR’s international expansion, but it has not been without its challenges. After a while, living in temporary apartments and hotels got wearing and the thought of having to pack and unpack yet again was daunting. These feelings motivated me to secure my long-term housing, truly unpack and get settled. While I knew I was ready to feel less transient and more like I was actually living in Singapore, I did not expect to feel such a difference so quickly upon moving into my new home…

Given the many changes businesses have encountered from COVID-19, including employees working remotely, you might think there’s no reason to review your company’s employee relocation policy right now. Well, think again. Many companies are still relocating employees to fill needed roles. Reviewing your policy and making needed adjustments now can help your organization in the following areas:

• Controlling Business Costs
• Ensuring You’re Meeting Employee Needs
• Attracting and Retaining Top Talent
• Benchmarking Your Policy Against the Competition

The following examples are from policy reviews WHR Global conducted for its clients. These examples demonstrate just how important it is to review your relocation policy on a regular basis.

A. Control Business Costs & Stop Paying for Unnecessary Benefits

Make sure you’re allocating the right amount of dollars to both transferees and organizational needs. It’s also essential that you’re not paying for unnecessary or outdated benefits.

• Example #1
  A company whose policy we reviewed was giving every transferee a standard $5K-$10K relocation lump sum to assist with any extra expenses. They were also giving executives a lump sum equal to 6 weeks salary on top of the $5K-$10K lump sum. Since some executives had large salaries, this allowance sometimes equated to $50K per executive! After review, we recommended the company cut back on that practice for executives. The company saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Example #2
  A client was paying a cost of living differential if the employee was relocating to a higher cost area. They were paying this out for 3–4 years, plus they were also providing a big lump sum benefit. We recommended a minimum 5% cost of living threshold so that they were not paying transferees moving to only slightly higher cost of living areas. The client saved millions.
• Example #3
  Another client was giving out non-promotional bonuses to current employees willing to relocate for a lateral role. These bonuses equated to 5% of the employees’ salaries. Since this practice is not common, we recommended they eliminate this from their relocation policy, which saved them significant costs without lowering the value of their program.
• Example #4
  One of our clients was paying a loan origination fee. Some lenders don’t even charge this fee, but if they know the client will pay, they will still charge the fee anyway. Once the client realized this, they stopped paying the fee unless necessary.

B. Meet Your Employees’ Needs

It’s important that your relocation policy meets your transferees’ needs. This helps to reduce transferee stress so that employees can focus on work in their new location. Giving transferees time off to assimilate in their new location, providing support to transferees’ families, and gathering post-relocation feedback to make future policy decisions will all help to address your transferees’ needs. 

• Example #1
  One of our clients was offering a lump sum benefit for all international relocations. By gathering post-relocation survey feedback, we found out transferees were trying to coordinate their own international household goods (HHG) shipments and were not spending the full lump sum, in hopes of keeping some money. The survey feedback also showed that giving employees that level of choice was adding more stress on them, and it was making the relocation process take longer. Basically, transferees were trying to do it all on their own plus pinch pennies. The client considered all key benefits and determined the lump sum was not working. They shifted from a lump sum to a core flex benefit. This meant the client would cover HHG shipments, destination service providers and temporary housing, but they still gave transferees a lump sum amount to be used at the employees’ discretion. Not only did this help reduce transferee stress, but it also helped control business costs.

• Example #2
  One client was not offering destination services to the spouses/partners and families of intra-European moves. They assumed that if a transferee/family was relocating from Russia to the UK, for example, destination services were not needed. Through post-relocation survey feedback, it was determined that spouses/partners required career assistance, language training and help with school searches for their children. The employee had office workers to help them assimilate in the new locations, but the transferees’ partners were struggling with the new language and even struggling to find necessities like grocery stores. Recognizing the needs of the entire family unit, and not just the transferee, is crucial to ensuring a successful move and assimilation.

C. Attracting/Retaining Talent Plus Benchmarking Your Policy Against the Competition

Hopefully, your relocation policy is already part of your total rewards and talent management strategy. The right policy will help your company retain current employees and attract perspective candidates. A weak relocation policy could have a negative impact on your recruiting success rate.

Benchmarking your policy against other companies will help you stay competitive in the war for talent. Make sure your policy provides a choice of offerings, since relocation policies are wrapped into job offers. If you don’t benchmark against your competitors, you won’t know if your offerings are good or not. Are they subpar to what everyone else is offering? If you are hiring high level executives, for example, and the talent is very specific and not easy to come by, you’ll want to make sure you’re competitive with salary, benefits, and your relocation policy.

At the same time, benchmarking will ensure you’re not giving away too much when none of your competitors are doing that. Benchmarking your policy against others shows you are in line with the industry. It’s also important to not only look at your industry, but also other industries you compete with for talent.

• Example #1
  Imagine losing a potential candidate because your relocation policy is missing benefits your competitors are including. For example, if your candidate is an executive expecting a full buyout, but your policy only includes a HHG move and lump sum payout, then you have to go back and forth negotiating with your superiors and the candidate. This can waste a lot of time. In the interim, the candidate might receive a better job offer, including more relocation benefits. A relocation policy can be a factor for candidates deciding whether to take one job over another. If you’ve benchmarked your policy against your competition, you’ll already know what their policies include.

• Example #2
  A client was getting feedback from its talent acquisition team that it was difficult filling certain positions. After reviewing their policy and benchmarking it against their competitors, we discovered that their competition was offering far richer relocation benefits. As a result, the company decided to expand its range of jobs eligible for full relocation benefits.

D. How often should you review your policy?

WHR recommends you review your employee relocation policy annually or every couple of years at the very longest. It does not have to be a huge overhaul, but it’s a chance for you to pause and look at employee feedback. Additionally, you should confirm any changes in your company culture, driving principles, core values, talent strategy, the industry, and your competition. The review is a time for you to make sure your policy is aligned with all of those pieces and your key stakeholders (talent acquisition teams, recruiting teams, HR business partners).

Here are six ways your company can save on relocation costs right now. Of course there are many other ways to make your relocation program more cost effective, but we hope this short list will help get you started.

1. Review Your Policy

When was the last time you reviewed your relocation program? Before you can start making decisions on how to cut costs, it’s important to understand your current program. What are you offering, what don’t you offer and most importantly, does your program reflect the real-life experiences and the needs of your relocating employees?

You’ll need to go through each step of the relocation process and analyze quantitative and qualitative data; look at the numbers from previous moves; survey employees who went through the relocation process and find out which benefits were most important to them; and which benefits did they use the most, and how? 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? Were some benefits unused because transferees didn’t find them necessary or because they didn’t understand the benefit and its value? What changes to the program would they like to see and why?

Even if budget limitations prevent you from adjusting your policy to satisfy every requested change, having a thorough understanding of your relocation program will ensure you’re providing the right benefits, eliminating those that don’t provide value and ultimately cutting costs where needed.

If you are working with a Relocation Management Company (RMC), they can be a great asset in this process by helping you save costs in more ways than just what’s listed here.

2. Introduce Caps

If it’s policy to offer transferees benefits like a home sale bonus, a cost-of-living adjustment or a loss on sale allowance (for examples), consider placing caps on these. Caps will help reduce excess allowances that may not be needed.

3. Manage Exceptions

Hopefully, your current RMC is tracking all exceptions and analyzing both the requests and outcomes. This will help you determine where policy changes might be needed. If there is an exception consistently requested, you may want to consider adding this benefit to your policy. By designing a data-driven relocation program, you can minimize future exceptions. 

When the unexpected occurs during a relocation, it impacts the logistics throughout the rest of the process. For example, if a home closing gets delayed, you may be asked to help with additional costs such as temporary housing or household goods storage. These exceptions result in higher costs.

4. Ensure You are Receiving all Available Tax Benefits

While moving expenses are no longer tax exempt, there are areas where you can still receive certain tax benefits, especially if you are offering a home sale program. Offering a direct reimbursement on home sale expenses may sound like the easiest option, but with no tax benefit it may not be the best option for your employee – and it will most likely be more costly if you choose to provide tax assistance on the reimbursement. A better strategy would be to use the Guaranteed Buyout or Buyer Value Options. Make sure your programs adhere to IRS requirements to benefit from other possible tax savings.

5. Stay on Top of Trends & Benchmark Your Policy

To stay competitive, you need to know how your policy stacks up against others in your industry. If your talent management strategy does not offer competitive relocation benefits, you may lose existing employees or potential new hires to other companies. Make sure your policy provides a choice of offerings since relocation policies are wrapped into job offers. If you don’t benchmark against your competitors, you won’t know if your offerings are good or not.

Benchmarking your policy can also uncover places you’re spending unnecessary dollars or giving away too much when none of your competitors are. In other words, benchmarking your policy against others ensures you are in line with the industry. It’s also important to look at other industries you compete with for talent. WHR’s 2020 Benchmark Report will help you see how your relocation policy stacks up. The report also provides cost saving tips and it discusses trends to watch for.

6. Hire a Relocation Management Partner

The bottom line is that having a dedicated and knowledgeable RMC partner is an invaluable resource and should be part of your talent management and cost savings strategies.

2020 will be a year to remember for so many reasons. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the U.S. presidential election, and everything in between, 2020 will be a year that no one ever forgets. As our company reflects on this past year, we wanted to share how the changing world has affected us and how we have persevered in what has been one of the toughest of times for so many companies.

25th Anniversary

Solely owned and operated since its inception, WHR Group, Inc. (WHR) celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2020! Founded 25 years ago by Roger Thrun to service and support in-house relocation departments, WHR has grown significantly from its early beginnings. WHR now services some of the largest organizations in the world and has relocated hundreds of thousands of employees. Having the same owner for over 25 years provides our clients with a stable partner they can count on since clients don’t have to worry about their relocation management provider changing hands.

International Expansion

In addition to our 25th anniversary, we had another reason to celebrate in 2020. WHR opened offices in Basel, Switzerland, and Singapore. Our Basel office supports clients and their transferees in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while our Singapore office supports the Asia Pacific region. As an international leader in the employee relocation industry, we felt these expansions were crucial to support the needs of our global clients. Along with this international expansion, WHR joined EuRA (The European Relocation Association).

COVID-19 Pandemic

In March, when the Safer at Home order was issued by our Wisconsin Governor, WHR employees were sent home to work remotely. Just before everyone left the office that day, we had an all-staff meeting where our Owner, Roger Thrun, made promises to WHR employees. He promised that no one would lose their jobs or be furloughed in 2020 due to the pandemic, and he promised that all employees would continue receiving their full salaries regardless of the changing economic landscape. All promises were kept.

Once the Safer at Home order was lifted, WHR employees were given the option to work in the office on a weekly rotational basis (to minimize the number of employees in the office at the same time). In other words, alternating weeks half the staff was allowed in the office while the other half work remotely. To facilitate this back to work effort and keep employees safe, WHR installed a hospital-grade technology, also used by The Johns Hopkins Hospital, that provided a real-time social distancing alert; real-time hand hygiene alert and hand sanitizing stations; and real-time tracking/tracing if anyone became infected with the coronavirus.

Even during the coronavirus pandemic, WHR still experienced a 7% increase in employee growth during 2020.

Business Ratings

WHR is globally rated among the top 1% of professional service organizations, measured by our Net Promoter Score (NPS). In 2020, WHR received its highest ever transferee NPS Score of +80. Our client NPS score has maintained +100 for the last two years. NPS is adopted by two-thirds of Fortune 1000 companies and measures both transferee and client loyalty.

Additionally, WHR received its Better Business Bureau accreditation this year with an A+ rating.

Top Workplaces Award

For the seventh consecutive year, WHR was named a Top Workplace by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. WHR’s passion of Advancing Lives Forward™ dictates how we treat our clients and employees. We believe in challenging, engaging and empowering our employees to grow their careers and be successful. WHR is proud of this seven-time recognition and our talented team.

Community Support and Philanthropic Contributions

WHR provided charitable monetary contributions to the following organizations in 2020:

• St. Marcus School – Milwaukee, Wisconsin. WHR’s ongoing contributions help inner-city K3-8th grade students. St. Marcus is the largest urban Lutheran school in the U.S.
• Mayo Clinic – Rochester, Minnesota. WHR’s ongoing contributions are specifically targeted to help pancreatic cancer patients who have been told they are out of options. Mayo Clinic’s revolutionary pancreatic cancer research lab is saving lives with its personalized chemotherapy program.
• Karts 4 Kids benefiting Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital – St. Petersburg, Florida.
• Froedtert Hospital Foundation – Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians at Holy Hill – Hubertus, Wisconsin.
• Milwaukee Film – Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Kidney Cancer Association – Chicago, Illinois.

2021 and Beyond

WHR looks forward to serving the needs of our global clients and their transferees in 2021. With the help of our dedicated employees and trusted service partners, WHR will continue Advancing Lives Forward™ and Making the Complex Simple.

For more information about WHR Group, Inc. please contact us as sales@whrg.com or 800-523-3318.

Moving is often considered a top life stressor, so what happens when you add in a few other big stressors like buying/selling a home and starting a different job in the new location? How stressful might that be for a transferring employee? More importantly, how is your relocating employee and their family emotionally impacted by this stress?

Managing the potential emotional toll is a key factor all employers should address, especially if your company considers your employees one of its most valuable assets. As an employer you must consider costs and logistics but don’t ignore the potential emotional tolls too!

What is the Emotional Toll of Relocating on the Employee?

According to WHR Group Human Resources Manager, Kimberley Uitz, SHRM-CP, “The stress of moving can directly impact an employee’s mental health and engagement with their employer. When employee’s start to become disengaged, their productivity will start to decline. This will become a trickle-down effect that can directly impact teams and eventually the company itself. Companies need to be proactive when it comes to relocation and their employee’s mental health; and take steps to prevent these declines in both engagement and productivity.”

Even in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have continued transferring their employees to new domestic and international destinations. Transferees and their families face a host of potential emotional and mental tolls from a relocation:

• If one or more family members are unhappy with the move and having trouble settling-in, the stress could affect the employee too. The employee might be feeling distracted, disengaged, unhappy, and they might even consider leaving the new role and moving back to their original location. Uprooting an entire family’s life and acclimating to a new community can be quite difficult.
• Employee stress associated with moving to a new location might include concerns about a partner’s career, children’s education, learning new languages, cultural differences, selling their old home or even leaving old coworkers behind.
• There may be anxiety surrounding new cultural amenities or concerns about the new destination’s real estate market or crime rates.
• The transferring employee may be worried if the new job will work out.
• A tired, disengaged or distracted employee’s attitude may be felt by new team members and affect team dynamics.

Employers Should Focus on Employees’ Emotional and Mental Health

All of these stressors can lower employee engagement, decrease company loyalty, increase turnover and affect team interactions. Given the war for talent, it’s important to consider more than just the costs and logistics of an employee relocation. A transferee’s emotional needs should not be excluded. “The war for talent continues even with unemployment reaching new highs back in 2020. Recruiters are all competing to fill those critical positions, and companies cannot afford to lose talent as economies will start to bounce back. Those companies that are ready to compete will win in 2021,” says Uitz.

According to an article in Employee Benefit News, “When it comes to employee relocation, most organizations focus on the nuts and bolts, thinking strategically about the costs associated with the move and what will be the most affordable option to get their people from point A to point B. It makes sense from a business perspective, but it’s not how to make a relocation successful. Employers have to remember they are moving people, not just boxes. Any time you deal with people, you need to adopt a human-centered approach.

“While you’re helping them get their belongings from one place to the next, they’re dealing with switching insurances, licenses and addresses. If they have a family, they need to enroll their children in new schools, find doctors and a new job for their spouse or partner. On top of that, they might be dealing with some negative emotions from their family, unhappy with the move. All of this can influence how your employee feels about their new position and how they assimilate into their new role.”

The stakes can be even higher when the employee is relocating from their home country to a new country, and the emotional tolls might take on a new tone. According to WHR’s International Client Services Manager, Linden Houghtby, GMS®, who recently relocated from the U.S. to our Switzerland office, “When relocating to another country, there is additional stress involved in the regular activities that you take for granted at home, like buying groceries, for example. This additional stress can be emotionally wearing.”

According to an article from Talaera, a language training company, “As an HR manager, you want employee relocation to be as smooth as possible. But for many employees, leaving their home country behind is a big deal. The human element is critical to the well-being of your international hires.”

What Can Employers Do to Minimize the Emotional Toll of Relocation?

“Employee engagement can be directly linked to employee mental health. If employees are not engaged, turnover increases and employer costs rise. If a company wishes to remain competitive in the coming year, they need to ensure that all of their employees’ needs are met, including emotional health,” says Uitz.

Make sure you have a relocation policy that includes all potential support including the following:

• Lists of Community Resources
• Cost of Living Pay Adjustments for Higher Cost Areas
• Driver’s License and Registration Information
• Spousal/Partner Career Assistance

”If a relocation is not handled successfully, it threatens the employer’s ability to retain the employee—and it risks losing someone the employer has devoted time and money to develop and move,” according to a SHRM article.

If you want to attract and retain top talent and if you consider your employees one of your most important assets, remember to address more than just costs and logistics. Taking care of your employees’ emotional health will pay out for years to come. Lastly, partner with a good Relocation Management Company (RMC) that will help you provide these invaluable services to your most important assets. It’s important that your RMC understands and honors your company culture.

For more information about WHR’s Relocation Management Services, contact sales@whrg.com or 800-523-3318.