Your employees need to move to work, not work to move. Relocating can be a logistical nightmare for employees and a budgeting nightmare for you. You need a new kind of relocation management company. One that can deliver positive, personalized experiences for your employees based on flexibility, choice, and intuitive software. One that cuts costs, but not satisfaction. While other relocation partners keep employers in the dark with murky, confusing practices and pricing models, we put the power back in your hands, giving you the clarity and flexibility you need to set your people up for success on day one.
Why Use a Relocation Software Solution?
Why Use a Relocation Software Solution?
When it comes to relocation, the HR industry is in the process of transformation, putting choice and flexibility in the hands of employees. Rather than dictating restrictive policies and processes to employees, forward-thinking HR teams are committed to creating new and innovative solutions so employees consistently enjoy the best possible relocation experience.
In 2023, the number of companies around the world poised to evaluate their legacy mobility policies is skyrocketing. Teams are looking to streamline and simplify policies and programs—while searching for ways to deliver more to employees for a fraction of the cost. Companies desire more support, flexibility, information and guidance, without added administrative costs. This is creating a widespread movement towards UrbanBound.
Historically, the practice of supporting employees while relocating was to provide:
- Specific, predetermined relocation benefits and services, and
- A dedicated consultant to coordinate the entire move.
This led to expensive, restrictive and administratively-complex programs that sparked countless exceptions. Most companies that continue to operate in this environment are overspending by 60-70% per move. In addition, they have very limited access to real-time relocation data that would allow them to make well-informed decisions.
In an effort to reduce costs and their administrative burden, companies are often turning to lump-sum policies. The problem is these not only result in significant overspending but deliver a consistently poor relocation experience for employees.
What Employees Want & Expect
The demographics of mobile employees are rapidly changing. The majority of employees relocating today are digital natives who expect software to assist in their relocation. They’re tech dependent and savvy. Without technology, they don’t feel fully supported and are inconvenienced by coordinating relocation details over the phone.
They value flexibility, choice, simplicity, technology and offline support when needed—regardless of age, geography or seniority. (Managed budget policies will align perfectly with this shift in demographics allowing each employee to feel like they had a personalized one-on-one relocation experience based on their unique needs.)
What Mobility Teams Need
Mobility departments are shrinking and continue to have limited internal resources. They’re struggling with increasing scale and complexity while trying to meet the growing demands of business leaders.
In fact, more than 85% of UrbanBound’s clients don’t have a mobility department. Relocation continues to be a hot potato that’s owned by an HR leader who raises his or her hand to take on a program that’s often broken (and only gets noticed when things go wrong).
HR leaders have found that traditional employee relocation packages, managed budget policies and lump sum moves still require significant involvement, whether advising employees, managing exceptions, or coordinating vendors…all while tending to their primary job responsibilities.
The UrbanBound Solution
We know that companies have been looking for a middle ground between the rich, expensive benefits provided by outdated, offline relocation management companies and bare-bones, unsupported lump-sum programs. Many companies want to eliminate the cumbersome, time-consuming layers of manual administration required by their current relocation programs.
Managed Budgets: Choice, Control and Ease
Managed budget solutions allow employers to set a budget for employees to spend on a predefined list of relocation services. Employees use UrbanBound’s technology to manage their budget however it suits them best, with the help and guidance of their personal relocation consultant.
- Employees can plan out their budget within the UB portal.
- Employees can choose to have most expenses directly billed to best-in-class suppliers.
- Employees can search for, book and communicate with vetted suppliers through UrbanBound, while claiming reimbursement of expenses within their budget—all from one centralized place.
- To prevent overspending, notifications are triggered when costs near the budget maximum.
- If a move goes over budget, employees can pay the difference out-of-pocket directly to the vetted supplier or seek an exception.
Fully-Managed Moves, with VIP and VIP+ Options
Combining our end-to-end relocation platform with our team of mobility experts, we help ensure that your most important people can move stress-free while providing you with guidance on program design, custom reporting, policy recommendations, benchmarking, change management, and more!
UrbanBound VIP+ is an add-on offering to our VIP experience that provides your staff with the ability to grant their Relocation Consultant (RC) Concierge Access, enabling their RC to book their move services & even submit expenses, so they can focus on their new role without the need to login to their relocation platform to manage their own move.
Benefits UrbanBound Offers Employers
Savings and Transparency
Regardless of plan design, our software allows HR teams to easily monitor the status of each move and report on how employees are using their budgets. UrbanBound’s solution has led to 94% of employees staying under budget, and all savings go back to the employers. Currently, the average savings per move exceeds 24%, with an employee satisfaction score of 4.8 stars out of 5.
Less Daily
Involvement
Employees need access to trusted, vetted suppliers to deliver a great relocation experience. Otherwise, hours of employee time can be wasted crawling the internet, reading reviews, and comparing quotes. This often leads to unwanted stress and confusion, which translates to hiring managers and mobility teams deluged in emails and phone calls asking for help.
Fewer Reimbursement Headaches
In addition, paying vendor invoices and expense reimbursements around the world in different currencies and jurisdictions is very challenging for employers. UrbanBound is able to make these payments directly in a wide range of currencies, alleviating the administrative and cash flow burden for all involved.
