5 Simple Ways to Cut Relocation Costs

by | Apr 5, 2018 | News

It’s no secret that employee relocations are expensive. While we’ve spent the last 24 years finding ways to save our clients tens of millions of dollars on their relocation programs, there are other things you can be doing right now to save on your relocations.

Here are 5 simple ways to cut relocation costs right now.

 

Review, Review, Review

When was the last time you really took a hard look at your relocation program? If you’re thinking it’s been more than a year, it may be time to complete a review. Ask your current relocation provider for recommendations if they aren’t already providing them proactively.

Plus, when’s the last time you benchmarked your program against your peers? To stay competitive in the war for talent you need to know how your policy stacks up against others in your industry.

Have you considered introducing caps?

If it’s policy to offer benefits like a home sale bonus or a loss on sale allowance for your employees, consider placing a cap on these items if you aren’t already doing so. Caps will help reduce allowances in excess and simplify the benefit across all employees.

Two words…Exception Management

Your current relocation provider should be analyzing your company’s exception requests, and if not, it’s time to ask. At WHR Group, our Client Services Managers track and report on exceptions on an ongoing basis. We review commonalities and offer solutions based on our findings. You should ask: Are the exceptions being requested “wants” or are they “needs”? These are all things that need to be addressed when handling exceptions for your transferees.

Add a little competition

Ask yourself, does your relocation provider use certain vendors all the time? Conversely, does your relocation company have a vested interest in using those specific vendors? If so, is your provider being transparent with you about these revenue sources? At WHR Group, we’ve found that by being independent we can use vendors that offer the best service at the most competitive price. That’s why we introduced our Move Management Platform, or MMP™, so our clients can save even more without compromising the white glove service standard WHR Group is known for.

Make sure you’re receiving all available tax benefits

There has been a lot of tax changes this year. While moving expenses are no longer tax exempt, there are still areas within the relocation industry where you can still receive certain tax benefits, especially if you are offering a home sale program. Offering a direct reimbursement of home sale expenses may sound like the easiest option, but with no tax benefit, it may not be the best option for you or your employee. You may be better off using the Guaranteed Buyout or Buyer Value Options. And, as long as these programs adhere to IRS requirements, your company can still benefit from certain tax savings.

 

Interested in learning about the other ways WHR Group is helping our clients save money? Contact us today at [email protected] or 800-523-3318.

Learn More about Exception Management and How Being Flexible Can Help Ease the Transition of Your Employees

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Preparing Your Expat For Assignment

by | Mar 27, 2018 | News

Relocating for work has its trials in even the easiest of transfers, but moving to a new country typically comes with significant challenges. Aside from the logistics associated with a big move, there are numerous other factors you should consider when preparing your expat for assignment.

As you prepare your expat for assignment abroad, you can help to ease the transition by putting things in motion well in advance. Regardless if the assignment is short-term, permanent, or rotational, you can help them understand what they’ll be facing and set them up with programs for success in their new host country.

Is your employee ready to move abroad?

Before you designate any assignments to specific employees, you should have defined selection criteria for who is chosen. When making this determination, it helps to do an assessment by asking yourself a few questions:

  • Is the employee prepared to move to a new country? Is the family ready?
  • Do the employee and his or her family have a full understanding of challenges they’ll face? Are they equipped to handle them?
  • Is the employee culturally astute? Do they possess a global mindset?
  • Do you have a formal diagnostic tool for an employee and family to take prior to selection?

One study suggests 40 percent of expats find being away from family and friends to be a challenge, with 20 percent saying it’s difficult to make new friends. Thirty-two percent of children had difficulty being away from loved ones, with 28 percent saying they had trouble making friends.

You want to be sure your employees don’t fall into these statistics. You can ensure this by providing the right coaching, training, and education.

Providing coaching, training, and education

Employers can equip employees and their families with the knowledge and tools they’ll need to relocate to another country. Preparations you can organize and provide for your employees include:

  • Business coaching – Even though they’ll be working for the same company, consider the cultural differences that span international borders. Business practices, social norms, and etiquette will differ from country to country. Give your employees the tools needed to learn the ropes in their new location.
  • Cultural training – The more employees and their families learn about their host country and its people, the better prepared they’ll be to interact within their community when they arrive.
  • Language classes – It’s important to consider employees may not be familiar with the primary language spoken in their host country and, even if they are, are likely to be a bit rusty. Help them and their families by enrolling them in language classes.

Providing your employees with these skills and knowledge will greatly raise their probability of success as they assimilate into their new environment. Relocation management companies can help you to set these up.

Consider the work culture and prepare them

Be sure each employee has sufficient time to meet their new team prior to moving. You can set up an online call or video conference to allow everyone to meet and get better acquainted. This will help reduce any discomfort or awkward interaction after the relocation is complete.

Remember, once employees accomplished their relocations and are settled in, the preparation doesn’t stop there. To help them succeed in their new roles, it’s helpful to provide ongoing training and support. And, once the assignment is complete, you should also consider repatriation assistance.

 

In our 24 years at WHR Group, we put our customers’ needs first and have been proactive in facilitating a seamless relocation. Preparation is one of the best benefits you can offer. We understand the importance of helping employees to know what to expect. It will help reduce any anxiety and/or apprehension, along with increasing their comfort level, guiding them to success.

Our company has global partnerships with industry experts across the globe, enabling us to provide cultural and language training services to help expats and their families prepare for relocation abroad. For more information on how WHR Group can assist your employees with their international move and new assignment, give us a call at 800-523-3318 or email [email protected].

Explore the Top Expat Assignment Typed for Your Mobility Program

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3 Benefits to Offer Your International Assignees

by | Mar 6, 2018 | News

A strong cultural and language training program is one of the most important benefits you can offer employees who are moving abroad. International relocation is stressful on the employee as well as their family, which is why it is so easy for an employee to struggle in a new country, especially if they don’t understand the culture, customs, business culture, and language. This can lead to seclusion, depression, and ultimately, a failed transfer.
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Offering cultural and language assistance will allow your employee to assimilate into the new culture as quickly as possible, providing them with the tools they will need to not only succeed in their new role but thrive in their new environment as well.

International assignments are challenging for all involved: the employee, the spouse, their children, and your company. You can make the transition easier for all by offering these 3 benefits:

1. Cultural Training

Culture shock often occurs when your employees and their families are dropped into a new situation without any knowledge of their new environment. Cultural training isn’t just about learning the host country’s environment and culture, it is also about helping your employee understand their new business culture. Even though your employee may be just transferring offices, the business practices can vary greatly between different countries.

It is also important for you to find and share outside activities that will assist your employees in meeting new people, allowing them to learn the new culture and language in a more social setting. The more they immerse themselves into the culture, the happier they will be in their new position and new lifestyle.

Help and encourage your employees to learn about their new country’s history, common business and social practices, and the local customs. This ensures they truly feel at home in their new location.

2. Language Training

Language training is a benefit that is often overlooked when transferring an employee internationally. Because English is the standard business language, it is just assumed that English is the only language they will need. While this may be true in the sense that they will be able to communicate the essentials at their new office, you also have to consider how they will be able to interact outside of work. Things that were once simple, like going to the grocery store or hosting a dinner party, become daunting.

Language skills are essential to not only help your employees advance in their new positions, but also fully assimilate into their new country. Language training can begin the moment the employee accepts their new position with the use of online tools and/or in person language training sessions, and can continue even after they make the transfer.

3. Spousal and Family Assistance

Spousal and family assistance is another way of ensuring your employees experience success in their new location. The most common reason for failed transfers is family related issues. Often times, the family is forgotten about when it comes to the benefits offered. Spouses and partners leave behind careers and extended family; children leave the schools and friends they’ve come to rely on.

Offering assistance to the families of relocating employees makes the transfer more successful. The employee’s spouse may need help finding a new job or even finding the best stores to shop at. They, too, may need to find social groups to help them engage in their new environment and assistance in learning the new language. Schools are another major consideration when relocating families abroad. Children will need to learn the new culture and language as well, all while acclimating to their new school system.

Spousal and family assistance should include both cultural and language training and should begin as soon as your employee accepts their new role.

Download our Sample International Relocation Letter Today!

Use this sample International Relocation Letter to help move your employees to any location, across the globe. This template includes everything you need to get started!
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How WHR Group Can Help

WHR has global partnerships with industry experts all over the world, allowing us to deliver cultural and language training services to relocating employees and their families. These experts have been evaluated to design flexible training programs based on a professional assessment of the individual’s and family’s needs, including online and/or face-to-face training preferences. We also track and report on training completion, which is provided to ensure the effectiveness of the program for everyone involved.

Contact WHR Group today for more information on our global mobility services and how to implement your culture and language training program: 800-523-3318 or [email protected].

Winners Announced for 2017 Partner in Quality Awards

by | Feb 14, 2018 | Press Release

Bringing attention to vendors with an excellent service and performance record, WHR Group is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2017 Partner in Quality Awards.

The Partner in Quality Awards is an international evaluation of WHR’s Global Partner Network for those with a commitment to exceeding pre-determined service and performance standards. The Partner in Quality Award requires a minimum of 20 transactions over the course of the year, and ranking within the top 1 percentile of the relocation partner’s category.

The 2017 Award winners are:

Tax Assistance and Your Global Mobility Tax Program

by | Feb 6, 2018 | News

Find the updated version of this article here!

In December 2017, the U.S. government passed legislation that directly impacts taxpayers. Under the new law, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, taxpayers will be unable to claim certain deductions, including job-related moving expenses.

relocation expenses taxable to employee, tax gross-up, global mobility tax

Job-related moving expenses now taxable

In accordance with the new legislation, taxpayers must treat any direct payment or reimbursement of moving expenses received from their employer for job-related moving expenses as taxable income. Previously, employees only needed to pass the time and distance test (criteria 50-miles, 39-weeks, and 1 year) to be qualified to deduct moving expenses related to household goods moves, storage, and final moving expenses. Alternatively, an employee paying their own moving expenses could deduct those moving expenses, even if they didn’t itemize.

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, all moving expenditures will be taxed accordingly, at least until 2025. However, active-duty military members may still deduct moving expenses.

For employers like you, this can have a significant impact because it could be a deterrent to attracting new talent, or current employees may be less inclined to take a promotion that involves moving. One possible solution you can consider is to offer tax assistance.

What is tax assistance?

Tax assistance, often called gross-up assistance, is an approach where an employer “grosses up” an employee’s taxable relocation benefits. This is done to alleviate some tax burden on a portion of the employee’s income. However, there are some benefits and drawbacks with this approach, and it’s important to consider the impact.

Pros and cons of tax assistance

When considering whether to implement tax gross-up, you should carefully examine the advantages and disadvantages.

Pros of offering tax assistance

  • Helps your relocation program remain competitive.
  • Enables you to attract and retain top talent.
  • Alleviates some tax burdens placed on employees.

Drawbacks associated with tax assistance

  • Increasing an employee’s taxable income can change their tax bracket, which may increase the employee’s tax rate and phase out certain tax credits.
  • Increases company relocation expenses.

If your company decides to take the tax assistance approach, it is essential your employees are educated on what gross-up is and how it impacts their taxable income. Relocation management companies can help by explaining how tax assistance works to your staff. RMCs can also manage everything, including ensuring tax assistance is correctly calculated and implemented.

At WHR Global, we are committed to helping our clients hire top talent as well as helping their employees feel comfortable in their new location. We can help your company modify its relocation plans to adjust to the new tax law. We’ll also help you find the best solutions to help alleviate the potential tax burdens associated with moving and relocation for your employees.

For more information on how WHR Global can assist and explain how to incorporate tax assistance, give us a call at +1-800-523-3318 or email [email protected].

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