What THEY don’t do ~ HR and Real Estate Agents
What THEY don’t do ~ HR and Real Estate Agents
-We hire them to help and then they don’t do what we think they should-
When we accept a corporate relocation, it feels like we have been given a gift. The employer is offering money and people to help us move from here to there. This feels so much easier than even our last move across town. Especially when they provide “people”.
When we move from place to place or even across town the responsibility for everything is in our laps. We could hire people if we wanted to spend the money…if we thought we could afford it. But typically we don’t. We do as much as we can ourselves to “save money.”
But now we are being given money and people, we’ve hit the jackpot!
The challenge is that we really don’t understand what we are being offered. We assume it is one thing when really it does not begin to cover the entire breadth of what we have just agreed to do.
In order to make this relocation work, it is imperative to understand what they do and most importantly what they do not do.
It is when we expect them to do something and they don’t that we get mad, frustrated, overwhelmed, despondent…none of which help this relocation move down the road.
Human Resources ~ Global Mobility departments
Many times the employee will have a contact within one of these two departments. On some level many of us expect that these people will help to facilitate the relocation. It is in their best interest after all that this work out for everyone. However, they are typically not part of facilitating the relocation.
Human Resources or Global Mobility is a business function that creates policies and oversees the management of those and other processes within the business. So, they may be responsible for processing a reimbursement, but they are not responsible for a mover who is late or lost something.
Employee Communication ONLY
One of the most frustrating things is that typically, they will ONLY talk to the employee about any part of the policy, be that reimbursement, exceptions, benefits etc. This becomes a challenge for the accompanying spouse or partner who is on the front lines literally facilitating the relocation. The employee/assignee may be in weeks of training or even traveling to meet new clients or teams, ramping up their new assignment and doesn’t have time or ability to make those calls or walk a document into the internal departments.
When this happens funds are delayed, a personal need is not answered and the accompanying spouse is not able to advance the relocation forward, until their spouse or partner is able to make that call or walk that document.
This may cause a bad game of “telephone” can ensue and the messages or communications can get misunderstood or even lost.
When this is the reality of the employer’s policies, be sure to be a concise as possible and keep everything in writing.
The Policies are about Some Costs Not All
Read the policy from first word to last word as soon as it is available. This is the set of rules, connections and processes that must be adhered to in order to receive the funds or help that was offered.
The relocation policy and procedures will many times include the amount of money involved as a lump sum or for individual items. It will include time periods and deadlines. Most of the time it is primarily concerned with housing and moving the household items from one place to the next.
Moving lives and anything beyond this, is on the individual and family moving.
Even in the case of a “this is all you get” policy, there may be another solution beyond HR and the relocation policy. Sometimes the department or the hiring manager has some leeway and accessible funds to help mitigate these surprises.
Always ask because a yes may be an option.
If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
Real Estate Agents
Either overtly or subconsciously we think this about real estate agents. We do because they are our first trusted connection to the community, the beginning of our support system here. And yet, most of us have found that once the contract is in process or after we close, they wander away.
Sure, they are genuinely interested and helpful, but what many of us find out is that they are not actually our “friends.” They move on after the close.
One of the biggest complaints I have heard about relocation buyer’s agents is that one the buyers weekend is over it is so hard to get a hold of their agent. It can seem like they disappear after the contract is signed, way before closing.
Are they doing their job?
Are they managing the contract?
Why won’t they answer my question about hiring painters?
What they Don’t Do…
See you next Tuesday for another ReloWomen Blog!
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