2019 Atlas Forum Learning Sessions

Natural disasters. New legislation. Political unrest. Worldwide current events often have a direct impact on global mobility programs. This stellar panel of mobility professionals took attendees to each region around the world to discuss how recent events have impacted programs and left them preparing for the future.

Hot topics such as Brexit, immigration changes, safety, the Mexico border, natural disasters and more have impacted moving and relocation. Panelists took time to address these timely topics and provided specific examples of how they are implementing relocation policy flexibility and creating new resources and incentives to support global mobility for their organizations.

While company policies, budgets and procedures differ, the constant across panelists was their commitment to getting employees from one place to the next in the best way possible. Similarly, they are all playing a major role in the shift in aligning mobility with talent management and strategic business decisions.

Each year the landscape surrounding employee relocation and global mobility grows more complex. Industry research, combined with social and economic data, can provide insight into the factors driving the need for greater creativity and flexibility in policies. In this session, the moderator and panelists utilized Atlas Van Lines’ 52nd Annual Corporate Relocation Survey to conduct an interactive team exercise to analyze various relocation scenarios from numerous perspectives and work together to identify meaningful solutions.

Each team was provided a relocation scenario and problem statement based on a question from this year’s Corporate Relocation Survey. From there, each team member was assigned a role in the scenario, ranging from transferee to mobility manager to hiring manager and more. Keeping their roles in mind, teams then discussed the issue from all sides and compiled their recommended solutions for the larger group discussion.

Covering timely topics like Brexit as well as consistent relocation obstacles such as family moves, information breakdowns and exceptions, participants rose to the challenge and worked together to identify meaningful relocation solutions that each attendee can consider as they encounter similar scenarios in their day-to-day roles.

Because we knew it would be a popular session, we hosted it twice! This time around, the session started off with a fun icebreaker mirroring the game show “Match Game.” The moderator presented a question on various mobility and relocation topics while the audience wrote answers and saw how many of theirs matched the panelists. Similarly, each team was provided a relocation scenario and problem statement based on a question from this year’s Corporate Relocation Survey. From there, each team member was assigned a role in the scenario, ranging from transferee to mobility manager to hiring manager and more. Keeping their roles in mind, teams then discussed the issue from all sides and compiled their recommended solutions for the larger group discussion.

This group covered important topics like communication, employee assistance programs and family assistance programs. Once again, participants rose to the challenge and brought forth meaningful relocation solutions that can be considered and put to use in their mobility programs.

Six of the industry’s brightest minds came together to discuss the hottest topics in relocation: how to ensure your mobility department is viewed as a strategic partner within your company, effective group move preparation and implementation, and building lump sum programs that provide a quality experience for your transferees.

Gaisser and Bautista provided specific insights on how they ensure mobility is viewed and remains a strategic partner to the business. They highlighted the importance of tracking data analytics related to mobility to showcase its impact on business goals and the significant time that should be dedicated to building relationships with transferees to ensure a meaningful and seamless process for both parties.

Higgins and Anderson utilized their time to provide recommendations on building and maintaining an effective lump sum program that provides a quality experience given the current tax environment. They highlighted the use of flexibility in lump sums along with meeting the needs of the employee and budget of a company. Because lump sums are becoming a popular choice for early career talent, they advised on how they are working to inform transferees and provide access to local resources and city guides.

Lastly, Valverde and Strohschein advised attendees on how to properly prepare for and implement a group move. With talent retention at the core of the process, both shared meaningful advice and experiences from their involvement in managing Nike’s group move ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and McKesson’s HQ move from San Francisco to Irving, Texas.

Forum Learning Sessions

AROUND THE WORLD IN 60 MINUTES

FINE-TUNING RELOCATION POLICY THROUGH THE EXAMINATION OF RESEARCH TRENDS

FINE-TUNING RELOCATION POLICY THROUGH THE EXAMINATION OF RESEARCH TRENDS

THE VOICE OF MOBILITY