This article first appeared in Public Service Director, September 2004

Long standing research into the impact of life events on our well-being, reveals that being relocated can rank alongside divorce and bereavement in terms of increasing stress. In the light of this it would seem that being offered the choice of being moved to a new location with a job comes at a high price, but the UK still has one of the most mobile workforces in Europe. So are we a nation of peripatetic stressed out workers? Further research does show a large increase in the number of work days being lost to stress related illnesses, but still we move around the country at the behest of our employers. As companies and civil service departments rely more heavily than ever on the willingness of key staff to move in order to increase profits and efficiency, so they have a responsibility to ensure that the impact on those staff is as minimal as possible.
Therefore, the primary question any employer needs to ask is "Do I need to move this person at all?"
In the majority of domestic and international moves within the corporate sector, there is an inducement to move. That is, the employee is aware that his or her situation will improve as a result of this move, either through a better financial package, or promotion. These factors can make the idea of the move seem more attractive, but will not in themselves lessen the impact of relocating on the family.
If there is no inducement to move, a different set of factors must be taken into account. Where there will be no direct financial or status benefit associated with the move, will there be a cost of living difference? If an employee is being moved from the M40 corridor to Derbyshire, there will be a distinct increase in living standards and concurrent drop in living costs. This in itself may be the inducement to move. If the situation is reversed and you are asking an employee to move from Derbyshire to Reading, they will most likely have to live in a much smaller house and have an increased journey time to work. There is also no guarantee when moving either way, that school systems will be concurrent. Just moving within the M40 corridor from Berks to Bucks, and your children will be in two entirely different school systems, one Comprehensive and one Grammar.
All of these factors will affect whether or not the employee will consider moving without the direct inducement of promotion or a better package.
The impact on the family will be even more profound. If the partner is employed, s/he will have to seek new employment in the new area. If the children are happy within their school and peer group, they will not thank the employee for moving them away. These factors will have a direct baring on whether the move is successful.
In the commercial environment, staff being relocated are generally able to go back to their old post should the move not work out. However, if an entire production site or department is being moved employees will not have this choice. This brings up an interesting difference between the type of moves undertaken between industry and government. In the corporate sector a group move may not get past the feasibility stage, if the disruption to the core business of the company would be too costly. In government, where keeping costs down is essential within the political climate of state controlled bodies, moving may not carry the same risks. We have all read of moves and system changes which have resulted in chaos and delays within government departments, a replication of which in the commercial sector would have caused the death of the company.
If then, it is decided that the move is necessary, and the employee decides after six months to return to their original home, they have to leave their job to do this. In this case the HR department has a moral duty of care to staff to ensure that the move is handled correctly. This means using specialist Relocation Service Providers, who are more than aware of the problems associated with relocating staff, and whose core business it is to prevent those problems causing disruption to the life of the family and ultimately to the productivity of the business.
One of the great Mantra’s of management gurus is “Concentrate on your Core Business”
If your core business is administering the benefits system in a given area then your HR department’s core business is recruiting and keeping the staff who will fulfil this remit. They will have as much knowledge of relocation issues as the Accounts Department will have about developing a website.
Only organisations relocating staff on a regular basis will invest in the development of a relocation team. For example Unilever have a dedicated division know as Unilever Peoplelink made up of specialist staff who have come out of the relocation industry. But the cost of a dedicated team can run into millions.
The relocation industry exists because HR Departments are more than aware that relocation is not their core business. The traditional solution for HR Department’s relocating staff internally was to throw money at the employees but the relocation industry has proved that resources are better spent on specialist relocation support.
In order to mitigate the worst impact of a relocation on both the employee and the family, there a number of key points which can help to smooth the process significantly.
Getting the whole family involved in the process from the start is a very positive way to make the relocation seem less like leaping into the unknown. It is obvious that a collaborative approach within the family to those aspects of life which involve every member, will prevent future recriminations.
Bringing the family into the initial presentations on the move will also help in getting every member to feel that their opinions and fears are being taken seriously. Combining this with accurate timescales within which each part of the process is clearly organised also helps to reduce uncertainty around the move.
Using a relocation specialist as a first point of contact for the family throughout the move provides a familiar face who will be there to guide them through any potential problems, thus making the move seem much less daunting.
The whole family should be accompanied by their relocation specialist on an orientation tour of the new area as soon as is practicable after the announcement of the move. This helps to lessen the unfamiliarity of both the process and of the new location. This often also helps the HR department to quickly identify any families for whom the move absolutely will not work, saving the additional trauma of them having move back to the original location immediately afterwards.
In the case of a group move, the relocation company will set up a resource centre in the new location to help before, during and after the move. In many cases the relocation company will actively seek the support of the partners of the employees in staffing this centre. This helps to maintain a social network. A partner can very quickly feel socially isolated following a move away from a group of friends and the wider family. Some relocation companies will bring in specialist individual and family counsellors to try and get issues solved before they become a problem.
Most relocation specialists will provide a Guaranteed Price Scheme, to help the employee sell an existing property and provide home search assistance in the new destination. Taking the lengthy process of buying and selling away from the employee is a very powerful way to minimise the stress of a move on the wider family. The Guaranteed Price Scheme operates to buy the existing property from the employee at a price taken from the average of three commercial valuations. The family do not have the worry of selling their home.
Relocation specialists provide a full range of services in the new destination including school searches and career consultancy for a partner who will need to seek employment in the new location.

The only way to ensure the successful relocation of employees and their families is to minimise the stress relating to the move. By working with relocation professionals and making employees and their partners feel supported they may even be persuaded to relocate to an alien location without financial inducement.
The single most compelling reason for using specialists in relocating employees is to reduce the stress on the individual and the family. This is not simply an altruistic gesture on the part of the employer. It makes commercial sense to protect the greatest resource to the organisation; the employee.

Copyright ARA

This article was published in Government Business, July 2004