There is a natural tension between costs and services provided in relocation. Everyone understands that supportive services help make the move to a new area more comfortable and positive. But there are often the realities of financial limits as well as uniformity that need to be considered.
Here are thoughts about policy design that could create both consistency and cost savings:
Home Sale – Provide clear guidelines for both price and condition of a home listed for sale. Work with the homeowner and list agent to assure the home is market ready before any advertising is done.
Home Purchase – Preferred lenders offer streamlined costs and processes for transferring employees. Many companies deny costs associated with new construction as a means of limiting their exposure to added expenses.
Temporary Housing – By providing the housing for the employee only (not entire family unit), costs can be reduced.
Exceptions to Policy– A clear and well designed policy minimizes requests for exceptions. Exceptions are costly in several ways. First, there is the time spent to get authorization internally for the change. Secondly, there is the hard cost of the actual request. Thirdly, there is a cost assigned to the precedent set for other employees who request the same or similar adjustments.
From our experience, there is no exception that is kept quiet and confidential among employees. It is surprising how fast news travels that something was added to the policy for one person. It may be social media at its finest!
Each area of relocation expense offers an opportunity to re-think and design the policy to give guidance and structure to the costs.