Big companies can greatly benefit from adopting global relocation practices in multiple ways, whether they are moving individual employees or an entire department to an overseas location.
But setting up a global relocation program takes a lot of time, effort, and money. That is why many large businesses outsource global relocation services.
If you are not convinced that a third-party firm can benefit your relocation management and operations, you need to carefully consider the following reasons why outsourcing is the best way to go.
Things Will Run Smoothly When You Outsource Your Global Relocation Services
Hours of planning are required to successfully relocate employees internationally. Operational plans need to be put into place and workable strategies need to be undertaken to ensure everything runs smoothly for both the relocating employees and your company.
When you outsource the planning to a professional global relocation services company, the firm will already have the infrastructure and experience required to create smooth transitions.
From dealing with international tax issues and visas to helping relocating employees to sell their homes and find new ones in their overseas locations, an outsourced global relocation service can be invaluable.
And when the relocation process runs smoothly, it can in turn help to improve relocating employees’ performance and create a boost in revenue.
But there are many other reasons why big companies should consider global relocation outsourcing.
An Outsourced Global Relocation Services Company Has the Right Integrated Technology to Make Relocation Processes Simpler and More Efficient
When you outsource global relocation services, the company you hire is sure to have some type of integrated technology to help facilitate all of their duties and simplify the relocation system.
The firm should have access to invoice history, live cloud-based reporting, and a satisfaction rating system, to name just a few features that help relocations to run efficiently.
It would be very costly and time-consuming to set up your own technological systems that know how to handle each area of the relocation strategy and process, so it typically makes sense to outsource your global relocation requirements to a company that already has a foolproof system in place.
Outsourcing Enables You to Take Advantage of Tailored Relocation Strategies
One important consideration for any global relocation program is understanding which benefits will entice the best candidates for the position to move abroad.
Getting the balance right is a delicate matter. You will want to ensure that your costs are kept low but you will also want to provide relocating employees with as much support as possible.
A relocation services company will have expert knowledge and experience to help you come up with competitive policies to help you attract the best candidates for your international assignments.
It can also come up with tailored relocation strategies that best suit your business’s goals. Tailored strategies typically fall into two types of approaches: a tiered approach and an a la carte approach.
The Tiered Approach
This approach often involves having four tiers available in your relocation policy, enabling you to significantly minimize your company’s administrative duties.
Tiered policies provide relocating employees with varying benefits, with the higher value benefits at the higher tiers. Usually, employees who have long tenure or high status within a company will be offered the highest tier.
The a la Carte Approach
An a la carte policy is better if your company is highly selective about the employees it considers for relocation and wants to provide benefits to relocating workers on an individual basis.
Basically, the a la carte approach enables you to create a customized plan for each relocating employee that’s based on each person’s individual needs.
Tax Compliance Becomes Much Easier When You Outsource Your Relocation Services to an Experienced Company
Relocating employees globally involves a lot more than getting the right relocation strategy and offering the best type of package to the relocating workers.
For instance, complying with overseas tax requirements can be a lengthy and challenging process.
But when you outsource relocation services to an experienced relocation management company, it will already have the know-how and infrastructure in place to ensure business and employee taxes are handled correctly for the particular country the employee is moving to.
By staying tax compliant for each country that you send employees to, you will not face any unexpected problems or penalties.
Other legal requirements, such as visas, can also be efficiently handled by a third-party relocation services management company.
Handling Real Estate Becomes Much Easier When You Outsource Your Relocation Services
From a relocating employee’s point of view, one of the most important things is knowing that it will be easy to move from one property to another.
Experienced companies that handle relocation services can help both homeowners and renters.
When employees own properties, your company may wish to include a guaranteed buyout program as part of its benefits package, to make the move easier for a relocating employee and his or her family, and to ensure the move happens swiftly.
There is nothing worse than laying the groundwork for relocation only to find the employee cannot start on time or additional costs are required to temporarily accommodate the employee and his or her family, due to issues with the selling and buying of real estate.
With an experienced and knowledgeable relocation services company on board, you can avoid such issues.
An experienced firm will not only have tried-and-tested strategies in place to avoid or deal with setbacks. It will also have experience in dealing with real estate in multiple countries to ensure the transition runs smoothly no matter what country your employees are relocating to.
When You Outsource Relocation Services, Budgeting Is Easier and Relocation Costs Are Effectively Tracked
The benefits of a relocation package typically include your company covering the costs of things like moving trucks, plane tickets, and temporary accommodation for the relocating employee and his or her family.
You could also cover other expenses, such as the cost of foreign language courses, home buying and selling expenses, and inductions into local culture.
When you outsource your global relocation services, it is much easier to stay on budget. Furthermore, it becomes simple to track the cost of relocations for each employee.
With invaluable analysis and reports available, you can further hone your relocation packages and benefits over time, with the assistance of your outsourced relocation services company, to ensure you get the balance right between offering employees the right incentives and staying within your budget.
Believe it or not, the vast majority of big companies that manage their own in-house relocation programs are unaware of their internal operating costs. Without effective tracking of expenses, the true costs remain hidden, which means they cannot be effectively controlled or reduced.
You Are Sure to See More Assignment Successes When You Outsource Relocation Services to an Experienced Company
When global relocation services are set up in-house, the team will have a lot less experience and knowledge than a professional relocation services company.
In turn, that means relocating employees and their families will face more challenges. Ultimately, that can result in more assignment failures.
Seeing as a lot of time and money is invested into relocation programs, it is essential that assignments are successful.
That not only means providing the right benefits and services to relocating employees and their families ahead of the move. It also means providing additional support when the employees and their families have moved to the new location.
An experienced outsourced global relocation services company can help employees and their families to adapt to cultural nuances, learn new languages, navigate new cities, find suitable schools for the children, and much more.
When relocating employees have fewer obstacles to navigate, they will be able to focus more on their new roles and be happier in their work and their new lives.
For employee morale to remain high, it is crucial that enough resources are allocated to fully support employees during their transitions to other countries.
By working with experts who have extensive experience and knowledge in all areas of global relocation, your company is sure to see more assignment successes. In turn, that enables your company to save time and money.
The Bottom Line
Setting up an effective and cost-effective global relocation service can be more challenging than you think, especially when you run a big company that is transferring lots of employees to different locations.
You need to ensure you provide the right services and incentives to make the relocation package attractive to prospective relocating employees and their families.
But you also need to make sure the packages you offer ultimately help your company to become more productive and profitable.
There are also numerous things to consider and handle when relocating employees, such as buying and selling real estate, covering moving costs, and complying with international tax and visa requirements.
Handing all of these things, and more can be a stressful and costly process.
On the other hand, when you outsource your global relocation packages to an experienced company with expert know-how regarding each area of the relocation process, everything becomes easier, smoother, and more cost-effective.
Ultimately, as a big company, it makes sense to outsource your global relocation services.