When you go shopping for that new family car, it’s not unusual for everyone in the family to get in on a little tire kicking. It’s a big, important purchase, and everyone wants to feel a part of it. Likewise, when it comes to corporate relocation, we’re finding a greater need than ever before for the entire family to get on board with the plan – before the transferee actually makes the move.

            In a sense, it’s more important than ever that the whole family does a little “tire kicking” at the new destination, gaining a comfort level and a buy-in before the relocation actually takes place.

 

Changing Face of Relocation

 

            If there’s something of a changing face of relocation these days, it’s evident in transferees’ hesitation to make a full commitment to the entire family’s move to the new destination. Why? In part it’s the fear, or at least unease, associated with the unknown.

            For instance, if there are school-age children involved, it’s frequently the case that parents are reluctant to pull their kids out of their present school environment. “The schools can’t possibly compare to what they would be leaving behind,” some parents – and children – insist.

            Even if they could compare, there’s a strong desire to maintain the continuity already established in the child’s present school situation. “Let’s let junior finish high school where he started. After all, he’s on a fast-track to Harvard!”

            It’s of course human nature to be simultaneously apprehensive about the unknown while secure and comfortable with the familiar. Moving certainly shakes up the status quo some, especially when a corporate transfer may be rather sudden.

While the employee may feel a confident commitment to the planned move, the rest of the family may understandably have some reservations. They have one foot in the new community, but one foot out, keeping a toehold in the familiar territory they’re reluctant to leave behind.

 

A Smooth Transition

 

            By the same token, companies want the employee to make a commitment and get settled in pretty quickly. They spend a lot of money in relocation costs and recruiting expenses to relocate the new candidate, transferee, or new hire. As a result, many firms prefer to see that the entire family moves to the new destination, which helps ensure a smooth, productive transition for everyone involved.

            On a practical level, if part of the family remained in the transferee’s former location, it’s simply exhausting for the employee to be commuting back home on weekends, or bi-weekly, sort of burning the candle at both ends. They run the risk of spreading themselves too thin, between professional and family obligations.

 

Seeing Is Believing

 

            Good news: there is a remedy! We’ve seen it work time and again. The corporation needs to provide the opportunity for the whole family to visit the destination city, not just the transferee, and right from the get-go. Like the car-buying scenario, it needs to be a family affair.

            In this way, everyone gets on the same page at the same time – and can quickly discover that the “unknown” is not only nothing to fear, but quite possibly something to embrace. Together, the family can explore and learn what’s available in the new location. This includes school visits (which we as relocation professionals routinely coordinate); community tours – another thing we handle; examination of housing options, and so forth.

            In short, it’s a matter of the whole family becoming educated – together – as to what’s available at their anticipated new home. It’s one thing to hear about possibilities, or imagine them, but quite another to actually see them for one’s self. Moreover, there’s often a renewed sense of excitement about such a move, because sometimes this kind of positive change was more overdue in people’s lives than they realized.

            Surfing the Internet to explore a proposed new town has the benefit of convenience, but it holds nowhere near the advantages of seeing things in person. Being in the new destination – walking around, learning about the community and its amenities, feeling a sense of the community’s pulse, discovering interesting new things – can and usually does make all the difference. Seeing is believing, as they say.

            When this is done together, as a family event, it’s all the more useful, not only because three or four sets of eyes and ears are better than one, but also because it’s done together. Everyone gets on the same page at the same time. It makes a difference.

            Our difference is that, as relocation specialists, we help the newcomer and his or her family literally every step of the way – from handling details at what will become the former residence, to taking care of virtually every detail at the new destination. Or, put another way, from kicking those tires to driving off comfortably in style!