Relocation Survival Guide: Tips to Make the Move Seamless for Your Employees

If you want to establish or reestablish yourself in a given market, it may be appropriate to have employees head to a new locale so that they can run a new building in ways that you already recognize and are comfortable with.

People Managing People say relocation can seem straightforward on paper, but it holds a litany of potential hang-ups if the folks leaving aren’t prepared.

Most businesses provide a relocation package, but that doesn’t end your obligations. Done well, some research and care can go a long way toward making employees feel valued and cared for as they make a move that will change their lives in temporary and assuredly permanent ways.

Talk to your spouse if you’re married

The last scenario you want is that you have a new, trusted employee in a new locale, but their home life is in disarray because the family isn’t on the same page.

Uprooting one’s life is enough of an ordeal, but if the family doesn’t understand the nuances behind the move, it could make for everyone a short and tumultuous stay. Your staff should be forthright in helping these employees and providing spousal support where possible.

Impact Group, an HR consulting group based in St. Louis, actually asserts that spouses are the main reasons that employee relocations fail. Learn from other companies’ mistakes and prepare to help folks who did not necessarily sign up for a big, unexpected move in the middle of the calendar year.

Similarly, teams from the National Football League and other professional leagues employ social workers for the same reason. You don’t necessarily need to do the same where staffing is concerned, but the concept and desire to be helpful for families who have to move is equally important.

It should go without saying that you want your married employees to stay married because if their personal life falls apart, you can see why they might move back to a familiar area, even if it means leaving your company.

Look at schools in your new city

It’s easy to figure out how Topeka’s weather and climate differ from Milwaukee’s.

Figuring out the school situation requires a bit more nuance, and you can bet that all of your employees who are parents will be thinking about how a move like this will impact their children, who will have to figure out how to put together new lives in what is essentially a new city.

Be prepared to talk about school vouchers, which have become especially prevalent in states like Florida and Wisconsin.

Figure out where some of the better schools in the new locale are, and magnet programs might be even better depending on a particular family’s situation. Parents whose children have special needs will be especially grateful that you did some research that might make their move easier.

Autism or cerebral palsy, for example, can especially complicate a move since parents are concerned about the level of services in the new city where they are headed. That’s a legitimate concern, and your staff needs to prepare for the questions that will inevitably come alongside the news.

It isn’t your job to be an educational policy analyst, but you want to be able to help refer people to the resources they’ll need as they adjust to their big move.

A big move can especially impact children, and parents will appreciate you having their obligations in mind and asking them to make a move that they did not expect even a matter of months ago.