The COVID-19 pandemic has vastly changed the ways companies do business. For organizations that depend on relocation to execute their talent acquisition initiatives, crisis-driven shutdowns, border closings and stay-at-home orders have created unprecedented mobility challenges.
Even as relocation experts are recalibrating and problem-solving in real-time, they’re contemplating what this will mean for the future. To that end, UrbanBound recently hosted a virtual roundtable of industry thought leaders. Our Cofounder Jeff Ellman asked them to share their struggles, victories, observations, and predictions—and wow, did they ever.
We are grateful to our roundtable participants, which included leaders from Intel, Zillow Group, Spotify, Illumina, Stryker Corp., Direct Supply, Gartner, Fresenius-Kabi, Brown-Forman, Dalton State College, Fiserv and Mohawk Industries, Inc.
Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences. For you and for everyone who missed out, we’ve recapped our 10 top takeaways here.
From considering more choice-driven relocation policies to moving to virtual internship programs, our roundtable participants recognized that flexibility is key to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in an employee-centric way.
For example, early on in the crisis, a number of roundtable participants gave employees who are foreign nationals the option of returning to their countries of origin, covering flights and short-term housing costs, while offering guidance everything from taxes to benefits. The overall consensus: do whatever it takes to do right by employees.
In addition, several indicated that, in light of travel bans and social distancing requirements, they’re honoring their summer internships, but they’ve transformed them into remote programs, providing stipends so interns can secure temporary work locations wherever they find themselves.
Speaking of flexibility, some roundtable participants indicated they had been gravitating toward tech-based solutions even before COVID-19. Now, the related financial downturn has accelerated their thinking, because tech-driven platforms offer greater cost-effectiveness and process efficiencies than traditional relocation management companies do.
However, it was also noted that, in order to provide the best employee experience—especially with international moves—it’s important to maintain a balance of high-tech efficiency and high-touch service.
Traditional RMCs have been hard-hit by COVID-19 as well. One attendee noted that her RMC partner put its consultants on a 50% work schedule due to plummeting activity.
UrbanBound side note: the relocation management industry has seen traditional RMCs lose market share to tech-based providers (like us) for the last decade. We expect that trend to accelerate as a result of COVID-19, partly because tech-based solutions help employers cut costs and partly because high-tech and high-touch are not mutually exclusive. (Little known fact: every relocating employee using the UrbanBound platform also has unlimited access to experienced relocation consultants.)
Our roundtable experts were universal in asserting that the pandemic is transforming the way companies approach relocation. Furthermore, they believe this is just the beginning, speculating that:
It was widely expressed that, as revenues dwindle in the months ahead, companies will explore and implement a wide range of downsizing strategies.
While the mobility departments represented at the roundtable have not experienced layoffs to date, they did acknowledge if the travel bans drag on, that day might come. They also noted that other companies have already laid-off or furloughed large portions of their workforce.
To lower relocation program costs, some participants are considering strategies such as tweaking relocation benefits, managing lump sum plans, and moving to tech-based relocation platforms.
On the bright side, at least two companies represented in our roundtable are continuing to hire and relocate talent during the COVID-19 shutdown. (Both are considered critical infrastructure.)
Our roundtable expressed concern for global employees who are “stuck in limbo,” as a result of sudden border closings. Some employers have secured short-term housing for relocating employees trapped for now in their origin countries, noting their household goods—and even in some cases, their pets—have already been shipped to the U.S.
Another variation on this problem: some foreign nationals working in the U.S. are running of time here, but can’t extend their status. They can’t be repatriated to their origin countries due to the closed borders, nor can they work at their employer’s Canadian facility—once thought to be a solution—because those borders are closed too.
The longer border closings continue, the greater the anxiety for employees caught in the middle—and their employers.