Best Tips to Help Expanding Businesses Relocate Their Employees to New Locations

Expanding is the dream of pretty much every small business, right? It’s a sign of success—a sign that things are happening for the company and that it’s going places. When this happens, there is a lot of exciting things going on for both the company and its employees. New locations are set up, which means that some employees need to be relocated. Although sometimes the relocation can be in the same city or state, sometimes it can mean a relocation in another state or country. If your business is planning on relocating your employees due to an expansion, here are some tips that can help you make their relocation much smoother.

Be Flexible on the Timeline

Businesses often run on tight schedules and don’t have much flexibility to work with. However, you are definitely going to need to be flexible when it comes to relocating. You have to think about the employee and his or her family that you are asking for them to uproot their lives and move for the sake of your company. You have to think about whether or not their children are in school or if their spouse works too. To help ease the stress of the situation, you may want to have them relocate during the summer or over the winter break. If that isn’t doable, though, make sure that you plan ahead and give your employees a good amount of time to plan for the move so that it isn’t too sudden.

Pay for the Physical Move

Moves are expensive—there are trucks to rent and boxes to buy. Because of this, it would probably be in your company’s best interest to help compensate for part or all of the cost of moving. Reach out to moving companies, such as Bekins Van Lines Inc., that have a history of working with corporate clients to relocate employees. Doing this shows your employees that you value them and are thankful for the sacrifices that they are making by accepting the call to move.

Offer a Raise

Consider offering that employee a substantial raise and perhaps a promotion of some kind for making the move. Relocation is a huge investment by employees and their families, especially if they are moving somewhere where the cost of living would be different. If you don’t make it seem worth the effort, they may refuse the offer to relocate entirely.

Offer an Information Packet

Relocating also involves a lot of logistics and requirements beyond simply moving a person’s furniture from one city to another. Things an employee will have to do when moving to a different city in a different state include obtaining a new state ID, registering children for school, setting up a new bank account, applying for new insurance coverage, obtaining new doctors, setting up internet access and much more. To help your relocated employees, offer an information packet with this kind of information and assist them with this process so they can get situated in their new home more quickly.

Introduce Them to Their New Team

The process of creating bonds between relocated employees and their new co-workers should start well before the move even occurs. If coordinating a visit before the move is not reasonable, you can consider other options such as holding webcam teleconferences or facilitating communication via e-mail, instant messenger or collaboration software. When the employee does relocate, make sure that there are meetings and activities geared towards allowing each member of the team become comfortable with him or her and vice versa.

Overall, moving for any reason can by very stressful and time consuming. Make sure you are flexible and supportive enough to give your employees a more stress free relocation experience. With that support, they are more likely to stick with your company and help it expand as planned.