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Examples of this could be fully-paid or reimbursed area tours for not just the employee, but for the entire family. This is not a hefty cost, but shows a desire to acclimate the family into their new surroundings. Of course, a homesale program still is highly competitive and does offer significant monetary and tax benefits to an employee. Other benefit items might include complete pack and load services or reimbursing for the hiring of someone to assist in home “decluttering,” a fairly new service that has proven to save significant costs on the household goods shipment. Whatever the benefit may be, the key is to continue to ask the question, “does this help us to acquire talent?” The same guiding principle of tying the benefits back to the tal-
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ent management strategy can be applied whether you are in an employee retention or employee development mode.
Looking Through a Strategic Lens It is easy to get trapped in the mindset that what works for one company in a similar industry will be successfully transferable to your organization. Benchmarking against the competition does create a rational foundation and baseline for policy development. However, it may create future problems if it is not serving the greater need of talent management. Even if talent management goals are not clearly defined within your organization, the opportunity still exists to take a step back and look at the
program from a strategic level by asking these questions: “What is the overall purpose of our program?” “What are the intended or anticipated results?” “How will we know it is successful?” When these questions are asked and answered, selecting and defining the benefits will become simpler, costs associated with the move will align with the intended return on investment, and managers as well as employees will have clearer expectations and ultimately greater satisfaction. Jody Walstrom is team leader, business development support for Plus Relocation, Minneapolis, MN, and a member of the MOBILITY Editorial Advisory Committee. She can be reached at +1 1 952 512 5523 or e-mail jwalstrom@plusrelocation.com.