How bad can a move be?

By Richard Clarke

Everyone knows the horror stories. If you’ve been in the HR business long, you and your transferees have likely experienced a few yourselves. The typical nightmares include destroyed or lost items, horrendous service, unpaid claims, and even shipments held hostage by unscrupulous moving companies or brokers. The level of stress and blame is amplified in accordance with the level of employee or executive involved. An entry-level, new-hire, lump-sum is bad; a top executive? Forget about it.

“A bad move equals an unhappy employee, equals lost productivity. Choose a moving company wisely.”
-Carrie Corless, VP National Accounts, Ace Relocation Systems

Relocation is the landmark experience. In your employees' eyes, if the move is bad, your company is bad.  There is a bad feeling as the new hire or transferee begins work. What if it results in a failed assignment? The true cost multiplies as your company has to begin the process of hiring and relocating all over again.

As an HR Executive you're put in a bind. Your directive from above is: do it, do it quick and do it cheap.  At the same time, you would like to do right by the transferee who is uprooting his or her family. 

Sometimes you may get blindsided by company executives who are not familiar with the relocation process and have unrealistic expectations. In the past, company leaders have approached the HR department with a candidate for a foreign assignment and instructions to have the employee at the overseas location within a few weeks, but such expectations are impossible given the immigration laws of the location country, among a myriad of other factors.

As the number of lump-sum relocation packages continues to rise, so does the number of bad relocations. When the transferee is left to find his or her own mover at the cheapest price, they many times end up choosing a cut-rate mover and getting what they paid for.  If the company's attitude is "here's some money to move, you're on your own, good luck to ya" then the likelihood of the nightmare increases.  If you're able to vet the moving companies and make recommendations, then that risk is mitigated.  If your company has both a direct-bill and lump-sum program, then recommending your preferred relocation vendor is easy.

If you don't have one in place, choosing the right moving company is crucial. Whether you're contracting with them directly, whether you have a full service relocation company choosing for you, or whether you're giving your transferees a lump-sum payment, your transferees are going to be counting on you to ensure their life's belongings arrive in tact and on time at the new destination you have assigned them to.

Surprisingly some HR executives don't give too much thought to the people they hire to move their employees' household goods from point A to point B. This is unfortunate because the ease and simplicity of a move can be greatly multiplied by choosing the right moving company.  None are perfect, but some are much better than others. 

Ultimately you need to trust your moving company just as if you were choosing a company for yourself. Do research, get several estimates and pick the most reputable ones you think will deliver the best value. You need to maximize your relocation dollars, but the cheapest bids are rarely the best.  

So how do you pick the right mover?  What to look for in a moving company:

Look for a specialist in employee relocation, a company that is versed in corporate moves - ask for list of clients, history, number of annual moves, licenses, insurance, van line affiliations, and references.

Make sure the moving company performs in-person surveys of the home listing the items to be moved and the area in the home where they will be moved from. As a matter of fact, they must provide an in-person quote, not a phone or web quote. Giving a quote over the phone is like giving a haircut over the phone.

The mover should be able to provide a contractually binding quote accompanied by a detailed basis/scope of services. This protects your transferee from last minute surprise charges, further elevating the degree of moving day stress and confusion.

Give yourself enough time to make the right decision. Don't settle for second best at the last minute; instead start early to give yourself enough time to do your research. Look for moving company partners - most companies choose three approved vendors - to be an extension to your relocation department.

Just because a company offers the lowest quotes it does not mean that they offer a quality service that is right for you and your employees. You would probably hate to hire the company with the lowest quote only to find out that their lack of insurance coverage allows for such low prices. Some moving companies do nothing more than drop off a truck, let the client pack the goods, and drive the truck to the final destination. 

Unfortunately there are such things as "rogue movers", they're very bad. According to Moving.com, this is how to spot them:

1.  Won't come out to the home to do an inspection; will only do it over the phone

2.  Asks for large deposits before the move

3.  Won't give you a copy of "Your rights and responsibilities when you move" document

4.  Doesn't have a local facility with trucks (they can have a local address that is just a P.O. box)

5.  Doesn't have the proper local and federal licensing

6.  Offers "blanket insurance" (and not true moving industry "valuation")

7.  Get recordings when you call during normal business hours

8.  Won't let you come visit their location

9.  Use trucks that don't have their company name on them

Much more responsibility rests on the shoulders of the movers than you may think.  Not only are they responsible for moving household goods, they are also responsible for helping your transferees move on, a process which can't fully begin until he or she is in possession of all of their goods

Remember: a bad move equals an unhappy employee, equals lost productivity.  Choose wisely.

Richard Clarke is Sr. Vice President Sales at Ace Relocation Systems, Inc. (www.AceRelocation.com) Richard has been in the relocation business for 35 years and currently oversees nearly $40 million in annual revenue at Ace.