What to Know About Moving Household Goods
The movement of household goods is one of the most important pieces of an employee relocation program. The household goods (HHG) move, from start to finish, takes an incredible amount of planning and must run like a well-oiled machine in order. Home moving services are not all created equal.
The physical move of a family’s belongings can ultimately be the driving force to whether a relocation is “successful.” The overwhelming majority of companies we have surveyed in our benchmarking efforts offer an HHG move to their employees at all levels.
Anyone who has ever moved from one residence to another can tell you horror stories. Like the one about a couch that wouldn’t fit down a flight of stairs, or when your entertainment center fell off the back of your dad’s truck on the highway…Now, imagine the things that can go wrong with moving across the country or internationally. Add the stress of moving an entire family, starting a new job, and selling one residence, and buying or renting another. The assistance of a professional relocation service and experts in moving. This can help alleviate any of these risks and ensure the best odds of a safe and timely delivery of goods.
5 Important Factors of Offering a Household Goods Move Benefit
A full-service, professional HHG move isn’t as simple as a truck arriving at the relocating employee’s home, picking up their things, and delivering them to their new residence. There are many intricacies between these stages. Including taking a detailed inventory of the employee’s items, ordering services to disassemble or reassemble certain complex items, and properly uninstalling and reinstalling appliances. Meeting deadlines and ensuring the proper insurance is in place in case of damage during the move is also important.
There are quite a few factors to keep in mind if you are considering offering a formal HHG move benefit. Household moving services should consider these items.
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Time and Energy
Moving without the assistance of a relocation company and HHG provider can be an exhausting process and take away from an employee’s productivity. A professional household moving company will take roughly three to four days to pack and load a 2,000 sq. ft. moderately furnished home. Having a homeowner pack his or her own goods will likely take much longer and could require the employee to take time off from work. Additionally, most house movers cannot insure the household goods unless they pack each box.
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Logistics
Planning a long-distance household good move takes careful consideration. Multiple drivers and crews, storage facilities, and third-party services for disassembling and reassembling furniture and appliances are all pieces. A transferring employee may be buying and selling homes during the relocation and may run into delays in closing dates. This can cause a chain reaction in the move process. Having a relocation provider to keep these pieces synchronized is essential.
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Cost
Moving a home’s worth of household goods is not cheap. In fact, it can be one of the most expensive parts of the relocation process. Having upfront agreements in place with moving companies can help reduce the overall cost.
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Storage
Temporary storage is oftentimes a necessary piece during a relocation. The demand for employees to move quickly without an opportunity to close on a new home or begin a new lease can force an employee to put certain goods into storage temporarily. Most companies that offer home moving services also cover storage options. The most common number of days covered in storage is 30, but 60 days or more is not uncommon for richer policies.
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Liability
Packing goods into boxes, loading expensive furniture into a moving truck, driving cross-country, and eventually unloading presents numerous opportunities for goods to be lost or damaged. A formal HHG policy should be accompanied by insurance for any situation.
Offering a formal household good move as part of a relocation package can alleviate undue stress for your employees during an already difficult time. Ensure that your company’s goals are met and employees are ready to be effective and efficient from the start. WHR Group has the resources, house moving services, and experience to help you craft the best HHG policy for your employees while eliminating any excessive costs or delays to the process.