Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/136276
Relocation relocation decisions. "This way the client can better understand the employment options," says Ellie Sullivan, Weichert's vice president of marketing and consulting. Pre-decision programmes should be designed to answer the questions that arise when a family is confronting a move domestically or internationally, such as the children's education, healthcare availability, the safety of the community, and so on. "We are seeing many companies offer a pre-assessment programme that's designed to support the transferee's needs and identify the associated costs in advance of the relocation," Norwick says. "As part of this programme a detailed needs assessment is performed that allows the relocation provider to identify and discuss the housing and lifestyle needs and priorities of the relocating employee and family." This assessment comprises a discussion of the specific home sale and/or home purchase requirements, including location, price range, market conditions, schools, and preferred commute, she notes. "Based on these needs, a relocation provider will employ a variety of valuation tools to determine the … total relocation programme costs, addressing employee needs, the timeline of events and associated costs," she says. Norwick says seeing the new locale first hand is often the most influential. "The key to avoiding split family relocations is a pre-decision trip designed to help the family evaluate their situation before accepting the relocation and identify this type of situation early on," she says. Nemer notes that split family relocations tend to occur at certain times during the year, such as prior to a break in the school year. "Many families prefer that their children remain in the home location to complete the semester before starting in a new curriculum," he says. "The family is then reunited shortly afterwards." Leah Johnson, a senior director and Nemer's colleague at Graebel Relocation, offered other ways to avoid a split family relocation, including a policy that helps soften the blow the current real market often incurs. "Many U.S.-based companies have added a `loss on sale' benefit to their policy, which provides for the home to be sold at a loss so the family can move to the new location sooner," Johnson says. "Several of our clients have transitioned from a loss on sale policy exception to making this benefit a policy. The change reduces the time that relocations require, as well as the need for added costs such as extended temporary living and duplicate housing." Nevertheless, she acknowledged that it is more difficult [32] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | SPRING 2013 to avoid split-family relocations internationally, since more companies are utilising short-term and extended business traveler types of programmes, "which are usually unaccompanied assignments," Johnson explains. "Here, more frequent home leave trips are usually allowed, and many companies permit the spouse or partner to visit the host location in lieu of its employee traveling home." In such cases where split family assignments cannot be avoided, Timm Runnion, CEO of Mobility Services International, advises family counseling. "Spouse and family transition counseling helps families prepare for the upheaval that can occur," he explains. Sullivan has her own perspective. "In some cases, it may behoove the company to dispatch the entire family abroad, but doing that invites a host of questions, such as educational reimbursements, sale of the existing home in what might be a down market, and the length of the stay," she says. "The goal should always be for the client and the executive being considered for the assignment to have as many options as possible." Expat Alternatives Another HR talent concern is assessing the prudence of an expatriate assignment in the first place. Reznicek says the first thing a company needs to do when considering an international assignment is to step back and think through the purpose of the relocation—"moving talent to the right place at the right time and right cost," as he put it. "At the same time, you need to explore other options, chiefly the breadth and expertise of local talent. You also may want to send the person there on an expat basis for a short time, with the goal of finding someone local to stand in." Ways to avoid long-term international expat assignments include the obvious—hiring someone local, says Selders. "For example, we've been involved in assignments involving technology transfer, where a subject matter expert is dispatched abroad and then transfers his or her knowledge and the actual technology through training to a local employee," he explains. "We're also seeing expanded commuting assignments across borders, rather than an international assignment. Lastly, we're seeing situations where the expat is localised in the country, which ties back to economic drivers." Localisation refers to an assignment where an executive might be in a country abroad for a certain number of years on an expatriate basis, and for cost reasons is localised, i.e., provided local pay and benefits, as opposed to a more costly expat package. Sullivan agrees that both commuting