More and more companies are seeing the value of employee relocation.
By moving your workers to different locations, you can ensure that the best people are in the right positions and retain your top talent.
Implementing a relocation program can certainly be beneficial in numerous ways. It allows operations to become more productive and efficient, which ultimately results in higher profits.
However, a relocation program can be costly, so you need to get the figures right before you begin drafting policies.
Luckily, there are several ways in which you can lower employee relocation expenses. Here are five methods that you should consider.
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1. Go with a Professional Relocation Service
Coming up with and implementing a relocation program takes a lot of time, effort, and money. The same goes for handling the relocation process for each individual employee that is moving.
On the other hand, when you go with a professional relocation company like ARC Relocation, you significantly reduce the time and cost it takes to implement a program and organize each employee’s move.
By using a professional relocation service, all elements of employee relocation can be taken care of. That includes things like handling immigration and visas, assisting with selling homes and dealing with moving companies, finding new properties, shipping pets and vehicles, and finding service providers like doctors and dentists in the new locations.
When you outsource your employee relocation program, you can also increase relocation success rates and attract and retain the best talent.
2. Provide Packages That Are Tailored to Individual Employees
Whether you get assistance from a professional relocation company or you implement your own program, one great way of reducing costs is to provide different packages to different employees.
Sure, the process can be more complex, which is one reason it helps to go with a professional relocation service, but by tailoring packages to the needs of individual employees, you can make significant savings.
You could go with a tiered approach, such as offering some employees basic relocation packages and reserving advanced packages for your top executives. Each package would contain different, and relevant, things.
When you implement various packages with different benefits correctly, you can significantly cut down your overall costs.
3. Ensure All of Your Relocation Policy’s Details Are Crystal Clear
The relocation packages that you offer should be detailed and very clear.
Each part of the policy should be extremely clear in its parameters because if anything is ambiguous, you could end up paying out a lot more for things than you intended.
A good relocation policy should always use easy-to-read language and make clear what is and is not included.
4. Put Expense Caps in Place
One great way of reducing the costs of employee relocation is to place caps on some of the package’s benefits. For instance, you could put an expense cap on the sale of an employee’s home.
Ensure your relocation policy states the maximum amount that can be paid out for reimbursements and losses.
5. Remove the Storage Benefit and Replace it with Home-finding Services
Not long ago, most relocation packages always included the benefits of shipping employees’ household goods, covering travel expenses, and paying for storage expenses.
However, because tax laws have now changed in the U.S., many companies that relocate workers have removed the storage benefit.
It is the one benefit that is not always required, and by removing it, you can make substantial savings.
In its place, consider providing your relocating employees with things like temporary accommodation and home-finding services, meaning those employees will not need to rely on storage facilities in the first place.
