Choosing a relocation management company is one of the few HR vendor decisions your employees feel personally. This guide lists what to evaluate and the questions to ask.
What should you look for in a relocation management company?
Look for a relocation management company that gives you one accountable contact and keeps the same consultants on your account, chooses and oversees suppliers on merit, controls household goods moving rather than simply brokering it, handles feedback and service issues openly, offers policy, tax and expense expertise, and can show you long-standing client references.
Will you have a single point of contact, and will that person stay?
When home sale, the move, temporary housing and expenses each have a different contact, HR ends up coordinating the vendor. One accountable contact who owns the whole file keeps questions from bouncing between departments.
Continuity matters as much as the org chart. A consultant who has worked your program for years already knows your policy exceptions, your approval chain and which executives need extra care. Frequent turnover means you retrain the provider every time.
Questions to ask:
- Who will be our day-to-day contact, and who covers when they are out?
- How long have the consultants proposed for our account been with the company?
- Will the same team stay on our account after implementation?
How does the provider select and manage its suppliers?
Most relocation services are delivered through a network of partners: real estate agents, destination consultants, temporary housing providers, immigration counsel and carriers. What matters is how those partners are chosen and who holds them to account.
Ask whether the provider is free to choose the best partner in each market or is steered toward affiliated companies. Independence gives the provider room to replace an underperforming supplier without a conflict of interest.
Questions to ask:
- Are you required to use any supplier because of ownership or affiliation?
- What criteria do you use to select partners in a new market?
- How do you monitor supplier performance, and what happens when a partner falls short?
Is household goods moving handled in-house or brokered?
The move itself is where transferees form their strongest impression. Some providers own their moving operation; others pass the shipment to a third-party carrier and manage it from a distance. Know which one you are buying and who answers when a delivery slips or an item arrives damaged.
If moving is in-house, ask what the provider actually owns. If it is brokered, ask how carriers are chosen and how claims are resolved.
Questions to ask:
- Do you use your own staff, crews, equipment and facilities, or subcontract the move?
- Who is the transferee’s contact on moving day?
- How are valuation coverage and claims handled?
How are service issues and feedback handled?
Every relocation program has problems. The question is how quickly you hear about them and how they get fixed. A good provider collects written and verbal feedback from transferees, shares results with you, and responds to service concerns promptly instead of waiting for an annual review.
Questions to ask:
- How do you collect transferee feedback, and how often will we see it?
- Walk us through a recent service issue and how you resolved it.
- Who at your company can we escalate to, and how quickly will they respond?
Which references and retention details should you ask for?
Ask to speak with HR contacts at clients similar to you in size and move mix, ideally ones who have worked with the provider for many years. Ask about client tenure and how many clients have left, and why. Long relationships are usually the clearest signal that service holds up after the sales process ends.
Questions to ask:
- Can we speak with two or three current clients with a similar program?
- How long have your longest-standing clients been with you?
- Why did your most recent former clients leave?
Can the provider help design and update your relocation policy?
A policy that was written years ago may no longer match your talent market, budget or employee expectations. A provider with policy consulting experience can review your tiers and help transferees understand what they are entitled to.
Questions to ask:
- Do you offer policy consulting, and is it part of the standard service?
- Who explains the policy to each transferee?
How are relocation expenses and taxes handled?
Relocation payments create payroll and tax work: tracking expenses, reimbursing employees, calculating gross-up and issuing year-end documents. Ask for specifics rather than assurances.
Questions to ask:
- Do you track, audit and reimburse expenses yourselves?
- How do you handle gross-up and year-end tax documents?
- What expense reporting will HR and finance receive?
What destination and immigration support is available?
Getting the household to the new address is only part of the job. Families need help with housing, schools, spousal support and settling in. For international moves, add visas, immigration, cross-cultural and language training, and repatriation planning.
Questions to ask:
- Which destination and settling-in services are included?
- How do you coordinate visa and immigration support for international moves?
- What support continues during a long-term assignment?
How Continuum answers these questions
We use our own model as a worked example. Everything below comes from Continuum’s published site pages.
- One point of contact. Our Relocation Management Services page describes “one point of accountability” and “experienced Relocation Consultants,” and our About page lists One Contact and Staff Continuity as core values.
- Consultant continuity. Our Team page states that most of our CRP and GMS certified consultants have been with us for more than seven years and serve the same client, with the same client team in place, for most of that client’s tenure.
- Supplier independence. Our About page explains that, as a private, independently owned company, we select service partners based on commitment to service, quality, value and technology, and are not required to use a particular provider because of company affiliation.
- In-house moving. Per our About page, we have our own in-house Moving Services Division with our own staff, crew, equipment and facilities. Our Moving Services page lists a dedicated moving services consultant, pre-move surveys in person or by video, and full replacement value insurance coverage.
- Policy, tax and expense. The Relocation Management Services page lists policy consulting, employee policy consulting, expense management and gross-up, expense tracking, audit and reimbursement, and issuance of year-end tax documents.
- Destination and immigration. The same page lists destination and settling-in services, spousal and family assistance, school search, visa, immigration and passport assistance, cross-cultural and language training, and repatriation services.
- References. Client and transferee comments are published on our Testimonials page, and we are glad to arrange reference conversations.
What a longstanding client says
We spoke with a longstanding client, an HR Business Partner who has worked with Continuum for 20 years and has outsourced more than one hundred moves to us. The move types included wine cellars, pianos, cars, rare art pieces and a treasured beanie baby.
“Nothing was too small or too big for Continuum to manage. It did not matter. Every transferee was supported with VIP care.”
“Continuum made my life easy and glitch-free. It gave me comfort knowing that my relocating employees, including Senior VPs were extremely well taken care of from start to finish, and that there was ‘no noise.’ I always knew that Continuum was a trusted partner.”
HR Business Partner, longstanding Continuum client
Is a larger relocation management company always better?
No. Size matters less than how carefully the provider listens, how quickly it responds and whether the people you meet during the sale are the people who manage your moves.
Should we put our relocation program out to bid?
A structured review is worthwhile if service has slipped or your policy has changed. Use the questions above so that every provider answers the same things, and weight reference calls heavily.
Does an in-house moving division matter for domestic moves?
It can. When the relocation company controls the crews and facilities, there is one party responsible for the shipment, which simplifies communication and issue resolution for the transferee and for HR.
What should HR prepare before talking to providers?
Gather your current policy, a rough annual move mix (domestic, international, homeowner, renter), known pain points and the approval steps your team follows. This lets providers respond to your program rather than a generic one.
Ready to compare notes on your program? Contact Continuum International to talk with our team.