5 Ways You May Not be Holding Your RMC Accountable

You count on your relocation management company (RMC) to move your employees smoothly and cost-effectively. But do you have a clear sense of how good a job it’s really doing?

For example, you know how much you’re paying your RMC, but do you know if you’re getting good value for the money? Or, conversely, how much it’s saved you? Or the quality of the service your people receive?

While most corporations hold their various vendors accountable using one set of measurements or another, some are strangely passive when it comes to evaluating their RMC’s performance.

Don’t be. Your relocation program is a significant financial investment that helps you attract and leverage valued talent. If you don’t know how or what to look at in order to evaluate your RMC’s performance, that’s an easy fix. Start by reviewing these five key areas.

 

1. Determine Your Cost Savings (If You Can)

Many relocation management companies promise to deliver cost savings when they’re wooing your company, but many will go on to encourage fully-covered, uncapped benefits.

The truth is, many traditional relocation management companies don’t really have a vehicle for effectively tracking cost savings, let alone sharing that data with employers.

Nor do they have a means of reimbursing lower-cost suppliers outside their vendor networks, so employers miss out on potential cost savings.

If your relocation management company can’t easily tell you how much it’s saved you on a particular move or for a given time period, you should wonder how hard they’re trying.

 

2. Conduct Detailed Invoice Audits

Of course, you eyeball your RMC’s invoices before you sign off on them. But how closely do you review each line item? Have you ever questioned an expense?

There’s no question: mobility managers are incredibly busy, and long, itemized invoices are labor-intensive to review. However, when employers fail to audit their bills, RMCs inevitably benefit. After all, from double billings to basic math miscalculations, errors happen.

Another common issue: some suppliers may lowball their quotes by underestimating, say, the weight of the household goods to be moved. However, after the move, the actual weight, distance or other variables may seriously drive up the final costs. If this happens routinely, something’s wrong. But you won’t know unless you’re comparing the numbers.

 

3. Ensure Suppliers Are “Right-Sized” for the Move

One drawback of using traditional RMCs is that they require employees to use their own partners, even when it’s not a good fit. It’s no secret that relocation management companies earn a commission based on sending business to their partners, which is why your relocating employees may not always get choices or even the services they need most.

As a result, for example, employees with minimal belongings may be forced to use a full-service van line with weight minimums when a different option would have been more appropriate.

If your RMC doesn’t offer a flexible approach to suppliers, chances are, it’s costing you.

Stay up to date

Subscribe to the blog for the latest updates

4. Make Sure Your RMC Offers Quality Support for Your Renters

Many traditional relocation management companies assess customer value based on the number of homeowners they relocate each year. This is because the majority of their revenue comes from the commission on home buying and selling. As a result, they may not be as enthusiastic when servicing employees who rent.

Sometimes they’ll recommend you pay these employees a cash lump sum, so they don’t need to devote resources to supporting these less-profitable moves. That means that your employees who rent are left more or less on their own.

The problem with that: depending on your office location or who you are moving some of your highest-impact employees or new hires may not own a home. These individuals offer tremendous value to your company, and they deserve the same level of moving support as others who own homes.

 

5. Evaluate Your RMC’s Customer-Facing Technology

Crazy to think, but many RMCs have been doing business the same way for decades. What made sense in 2005 doesn’t make sense today, but not everyone’s caught up.

Every other benefit at your company has a software tool built to help manage the respective program. For instance, in just a few clicks you can check your company’s 401K plan, launch a job post through your ATS system, or update employee work schedules and get live support whenever you need it. Relocation benefits should also have a great software tool!

Big data, analytics, and budgeting are more critical than ever for leadership teams. If it takes you longer than three minutes to pull a report regarding the hundreds of thousands of dollars you’ve spent on relocations, your RMC isn’t serving you well.

The bottom line is, you should be evaluating your relocation management company’s performance just as rigorously as your other vendors. And if your RMC isn’t performing to your expectations, it’s time to find one that will.

Human Resources Today