We find out why the European Relocation Agency is encouraging more involvement from the corporate side.

The face of the relocation industry has changed dramatically over the past few years. "Gone are the days when relocation meant hiring a nice lady who lived locally and who showed people pretty houses," laughs Michele Bar-Pereg, president of Foursquare group, who recalls entering the relocation business herself 20 years ago armed only with a handbag and a telephone.

The Netherlands-based relocation company Foursquare now has offices in Switzerland, the UK and France and is allied with partner relocation consultants throughout Europe.

The array of services on offer can be puzzling to the uninitiated.

"Any manager of a relocation company nowadays really has to be well-trained," says Bar-Pereg. "They have to know about sales targets and evaluation and market research as well as labour law and constantly changing immigration law. And of course they need to understand the needs of the accompanying spouse and the assignee's family," she adds.

Bar-Pereg is also President of the European Relocation Association (EuRA), which was set up in response to the increasing demand for a European industry body to set guiding principals of conduct for members as well as creating an interactive forum.

"EuRA has come a long way since its launch in Brussels in 1998," says Bar-Pereg. "Now we are much more interested in training to raise the level of professionalism of our members which now include companies from many more countries within Europe including several of the European accession countries," she says.

"We really needed a unified approach to provide training to the relocation industry across Europe, which is why EuRA is concentrating on developing this arm of training," she says.

Since beginning her two-year EuRA presidency, Bar-Pereg has seen a big change in the style and professionalism needed to start a relocation company in Europe.

"I think this is partly because EuRA has been providing training as part of the European Academy for Relocation Professionals (EARP) training programme. The people who come to our conferences and our meetings from across Europe are also coming to gain a higher level of professionalism," she says.

Certified European Relocation Professional training

EARP's training programme, which results in the Certified European Relocation Professional (CERP) qualification, can be taken in modules which eventually lead to a three-level qualification.

"Level one is interesting to those who have only recently started their own relocation company or newcomers who have just come in and are working for a relocation company," says Bar-Pereg.

As the EuRA website explains, "those people who have been working in the industry for some time will qualify for exemption points towards the Level One part of the CERP qualification."

Once trainees have successfully completed level three, they will be awarded the designation Certified European Relocation Professional, Level 3 (CERP3). However, to maintain their status as CERP3, individuals need to continue their training to "keep abreast of what is a very fast changing, dynamic industry."

Areas of ongoing study that will be most useful to those who have reached level 3 of the EARP programme could include, training in legal aspects of relocation such as country-specific property legislation, immigration legislation both country-specific and EU wide, EU trade laws and EU customs laws governing movement of goods and money.

"Increasing the level of training for EuRA members will improve the quality of relocation companies working throughout Europe, which in turn is going to benefit HR managers who will work with them in the future," says Bar-Pereg.

Paul van der Smissen, General Manager for Sirva Relocation Europe, has achieved the CERP2 level. He believes that the EARP accreditation gives clients a way of differentiating between relocation companies.

However, Van der Smissen, who is based in the Netherlands, would like to see more frequent training in more countries, including his home base.

Currently the bodies qualified to carry out the EARP training are the founding members of EARP; EuRA, ABRA (the Association of Belgian Relocation Agencies), ARA (the Association of Relocation Agents, United Kingdom) and SNPRM (Société Nationale des Professionels de la Rélocation et de la Mobilité, France).

Van der Smissen would also be pleased if more of his competitors in the Netherlands gained the industry standard. "If the quality level of the industry is raised it is a benefit to all," he says, pointing out that relocation companies will "then be better recognised by the corporate world."

But the quality bar can be raised from both sides according to Bar-Pereg.
"Most companies simply don't know how to choose a vendor," she observes.

Knowing what you need

"Sometimes relocation companies get these huge and complicated requests for proposal which they need to have a trained staff member just to answer to. If HR professionals involved in mobility management took part in some of the training courses offered by EuRA, then they would understand better what their companies actually need," she says.

Van der Smissen agrees. "Without the input of our clients, we are developing our services in a vacuum. The more input they can give into our industry as a whole the better service we can give them," he says.

14 March 2006

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[Copyright Expatica 2006]

Subject: Relocation services, assignment planning, relocation policy