Managing the move of a group of employees, particularly to an international location, can seem like a daunting prospect. Including certain key details in the planning phase will increase the chances of a successful outcome.

For the Human Resources professional asked to manage the move of a group of employees, particularly to an international location, the challenges can be daunting. The myriad of details for a group – languages, work permits, cultural preparation, travel documents, goods shipments, schools, offices, housing – can more than multiply the usual plan of action for moving one employee and their family.

Adding to the pressure is the reality that even with the best of HR support, a good percentage of expat executives return home early, often due to their family’s inability to adjust to the new location. Moving a group of employees then becomes a balancing act between organizing the best in quantitative help ( such as housing allowances, school fees, moving expenses, salary adjustments) with qualitative assistance (such as cross cultural training, mentoring from repats, language classes).

The business objectives of the move are paramount, and often successfully reaching those objectives means making employees and their families content. In particular, there can be a conflict between locations – high quality of life versus best for business. For example, a recent survey done by real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield Healy & Baker revealed that while London is the number one location in Europe for doing business, it failed to make the top ten for quality of life. Rome, on the other hand, tied with Amsterdam in eighth place for quality of life, but failed to make the top ten for doing business.

Top ten cities for business that failed to make the grade for quality of life included Berlin, Frankfurt, Brussels, and Milan. Those that were judged great places to live – Geneva, Zurich, Oslo and Stockholm – did not make in the business top ten. That leaves Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Munich as the cities that made the top ten for both business and quality of life.

Carrie Shearer, an international HR consultant and writer based in the US, recalls managing the group move for Caltex Petroleum of 500 employees and their families to Thailand from the US, UK, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Singapore.

The three critical factors to ensure the success of such relocations, says Shearer, are, “Having policies that are transparent across the various nationalities, avoiding creating a system of an ‘us versus them’ mentality, and developing a compensation system under which employees from different countries earn the same amount of local currency for the same job.” Shearer emphasizes that policies which differentiate between expats – those from the home country and others, for example – can result in resentment and “a belief that the one nationality gets more than the others, even if this is not true.”

Amsterdam-based Nannette Ripmeester is founder and managing director of consultancy Expertise in Labour Mobility. Ripmeester observes that a slightly different approach is necessary when relocations are for groups rather than for individual employees. On the positive side, there is the possibility of an expat support system when the groups know each other, as they might if they work or train together. The pitfall is that while, “Individuals must adapt to the local culture; groups tend to stick together and not mingle much outside their own circle.”

Circumstances differ if the relocating group is forming a new entity or joining an existing entity. If the latter is the case, Ripmeester says, “There must be focus also on the people already in place. A sudden invasion of new faces can be threatening to them.” In fact, without good communication, the old-timers may begin to think the arrival of the newcomers is an indication that the headquarters no longer takes them seriously.

Ideally, Ripmeester believes, companies must “Use those employees already in place to help those coming in – As long as the people are already at ease in the location and know everything.”

Ripmeester recalls a case when an Australian company moved a group to China. The Australians who got up each morning to shower were perplexed to find only cold water. Uninformed of the cultural differences, they assumed that the Chinese did not use hot water to bathe; they later discovered that Chinese shower in the evening and heat the water then, rather than in the morning.

The major mistake some companies make is to think that because they have provided a course on do’s and don’ts and covered the practical things, they have done the job of preparing employees for relocation abroad.

“Research has shown,” Ripmeester says, “That the opinions of expats are totally different from those of the companies when it comes to evaluating support programmes.” The ultimate irony is the story she tells about a telecom company which moved employees abroad, expecting them to represent the high technology enterprise, but failed to arrange their connection to the Internet.

If HR people travel occasionally to the locations where they have a large number of expats, mistakes such as these will diminish.

Shearer agrees. Speaking of the Caltex move, she said, “Prior to the move we ran programmes for the families explaining what we had learned from several trips to the area. We put together comprehensive lists of foods in the markets, sizes and brands of clothing, and even restaurants and entertainment.” As a result of language and culture classes conducted before the move, many of the families had already made friends prior to relocating and settled in more easily.

Both Shearer and Ripmeester agree that planning time is essential to making these group moves work. In the case of Caltex, Shearer had eighteen months in which to plan the huge relocation project. Ripmeester, who is especially concerned about qualitative preparation for departing employees and their families, thinks that at least six months of advance notice is ideal, with two months the absolute minimum.

HR executives across the globe must often work in a less than ideal time frame, however. Corporate decisions are often made which must be affected very quickly. Having a game plan in place for these eventualities can speed up the process and make certain no important details are overlooked.

November 2003

Sharri Whiting specializes in reporting on business and cross cultural issues and is guest lecturer at the American University of Rome and Simmons College in Boston.