Reality-Based Relocation

Family issues during a relocation are no longer perceived as “touchy, feely” soft issues. Truly progressive organizations understand that family concerns will impact the success of a domestic relocation or international assignment. And those are the companies that will succeed in today’s competitive environment.

Work force dynamics have changed drastically over the last decade. We now have 66% of Americans who would reduce their work hours an average of 21% for more family and personal time (based on a poll conducted by Robert Half International, Inc.). No longer can organizations command who they want and where they want them by throwing money at employees and recruits. Child care, elder care, pet care and other family related issues must be acknowledged as part of the employee package before moving the employee can be approached.

Not only have issues of importance in an employee’s life changed, their attitudes and behaviors have changed drastically. If employers are still in the mindset that they control the career development of the employee, that they have the ability to dictate every detail of the job and schedules, then those organizations are not creating an environment conducive to what today’s employees are seeking.

Today’s worker strives to achieve success through balance. Success is no longer defined as staying with a company until retirement, and working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Workers are increasingly picky about where they want to work. At the same time, opportunities available to today’s worker are abundant.

Companies must acknowledge that the employee of the 21st century will be one who views success in quality terms, and not merely quantity items such as who works the longest hours (often producing no more results) and who is willing to give up the most for their employer. Today’s workers seek employers who understand that they have lives outside the office that will impact workplace productivity if not appropriately acknowledged.

When an employee is asked to relocate or accept an international assignment, companies would be terribly remiss if they do not consider the following statistics, based on research from Runzheimer International, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and others.

• 80% of all households will be dual career by the beginning of the 21st century
• 49.5% of company managers with children have a working spouse
• 41% of elder caregivers are caring for children under the age of 18 at the same time
• 16% of all transferees are single; many of which are single parents

Additionally, according to the 1999 Atlas Van Lines Survey, approximately 70% of relocation declines are due to family issues; spouse/partner employment concerns were cited by 63% of respondents to a 1998 Runzheimer study.

There are many personal concerns involved in relocation declines. A relocation manager, vice president of HR or recruiter is never going to hear the issues involved; they will only hear the refusal to move. Most concerns the employee experiences are personal, and the majority of employees will not be willing to share such information, nor should HR want to be involved in these issues. Certainly there will be those employees who will “tell all,” but most are not going to open their personal lives to employers. And the ones who remain silent are most likely to be lost, both in productivity and to your competitors.

Consider a typical scenario for an employee. He or she is asked to relocate and is in a relationship where dual career issues exist. Typically this means that the partner is going to give up his or her job to move. This likely will mean a reduction of family income averaging 28%.

This significant decrease in income could continue for an average of four to six months if the partner is not offered services that will provide job seeking assistance. Then in addition to the partner giving up his or her job, he or she is often alienated from friends and family, feels a lost sense of purpose and has even less time with his/her spouse/partner.

In contrast, the employee has new responsibilities and colleagues, sometimes increased travel away from home, and typically longer hours. These dynamics are what result in The Circle of Chaos (Exhibit A). At this point, the family dynamics begin to disintegrate into dysfunction and withdrawal.

The Circle of Chaos is defined as a point during a relocation or international assignment when the dynamics between partners can disintegrate significantly. The employee and partner have very different experiences and needs during this time and they are often not compatible experiences and/or needs. Often the employee’s experience is one of gain: new goals, aspirations, work community, and challenges. The partner’s experience may be surrounded by losses: loss of job, friends, family, familiar surroundings, and often loss of purpose.

Exhibit A will take you through The Circle of Chaos the partners often encounter. The partners react to each other in negative ways. As the partners are dealing with completely different dynamics, each becomes frustrated by the other’s issues; this is truly a point of disintegration in the relationship. By having consultants available who are experts in advising on such dynamics, these issues can be normalized for the couple. Only by normalizing and acknowledging these chaotic dynamics will the experience of relocation or international assignment be optimal for the people involved, and ultimately the organization.

If family issues are ignored, it can cost the company, on average, six months of lower productivity while the employee is trying to put his or her family life back together. The question employers need to ask themselves is “Why let the family structure suffer during the relocation or international assignment?” Would it not be a much better investment from the company’s perspective to provide proactive family and spouse/partner assistance services up front, thus reducing the potential loss on their investment (the employee)?

A reactive approach will negatively affect the company’s bottom line. When employees must deal with family life issues, it will be done on the job, and the immeasurable costs to the company alone are guaranteed to be astounding--impaired productivity, lost sales, poor decision making, low morale. Should things escalate, there is the distinct possibility of losing a valued employee.

Traditionally, typical corporate relocation priorities are as follows:

1. Attention to logistics
2. Skills for adjustment
3. Spouse/Partner assistance

Many companies place spousal/partner assistance even lower on the priority list. But why not make this benefit an integral part of policy, since it is the unaddressed family factors that are most likely to result in relocation failure?

Financial Benefits of Relocation Assistance to the Employee

• Increased productivity: By having access to benefits that are family friendly, an employee can focus on the job, as opposed to putting out fires at home while on company time.
• Reduced turnover: Employees are going to be less likely to leave your company when you project a philosophy of work/life balance and assist the employee in achieving this.
• Enhanced recruitment: Top candidates are more attracted to organizations with progressive family friendly benefits.
• Improved morale: Your work force will be more focused and dedicated.
• Reduced work/life stress: Employees will have fewer concerns to deal with, thus remaining more productive and more positive in your environment.
• Decreased absenteeism and tardiness: When faced with too many work/life stressors, inevitably workers will miss more work and be late more often. To think that personal and family concerns are not affecting the performance and productivity of your employees is a costly fantasy, a comfort zone but not a reality.

What can companies do to facilitate domestic relations and international assignments?

• Offer support services before, during, and after the move.
• Incorporate employee, spouse/partner, and family assistance in domestic relocation and international assignment policies and offer assistance to everyone—not just those who reveal their concerns.
• Be aware that your transferees will have personal adjustment needs that they will not openly share with managers or recruiters.

Always remember that worker beliefs are key to profits and productivity. Workers who believe that their basic needs are being met are 50% more likely to achieve customer loyalty and 44% more likely to produce above average profits. Furthermore, employers supporting their employees’ basic needs experienced 24% more profitability, 19% higher revenue, and 10% lower turnover (SHRM/HR News Online, Aug., 1998, Gallup Survey Study).

Also keep in mind that your reality differs significantly from that of another; you cannot and should not expect employees to move based on what you think their reality should be. Only reality-based relocations will be profitable and successful. Human resource professionals often speak of “keeping the employee whole” during a domestic relocation or an international assignment. This usually means that the financial and logistic concerns were addressed and, as much as possible, standard of living replicated in the new area. This being done, there would be no other concerns that would affect the move.

However, can we really consider an employee “whole” if his or her family life is in turmoil, personal productivity has declined, and contribution to the company is not what it could be?

When we speak of keeping an employee “whole,” let’s start to think in terms of offering employees and their families a holistic experience. This will be achieved not only by keeping the employee financially whole, but also keeping the family structurally and functionally whole.

Reprinted with permission of Mobility magazine