Archive for the ‘Corporate Relocation’ Category

Corporate Relocations within the U.S.

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

When people think of corporate relocation they often think of companies moving their operations overseas. While this is a common practice amongst many U.S manufacturing operations, companies often relocate their white collar centers and headquarters within the borders of the United States. They do this to take advantage of lower taxes and costs while still retaining the skills of the highly educated American workforce. Popular states to move to include Texas, Arizona and many other warm weather states that are attempting to attract more businesses.

Businesses can have a lot of difficulties relocating their headquarters even if they foresee drastic reductions in costs and increased profits. Many workers will decide to move wherever their jobs move to, but depending on the incentives offered for relocating, many will choose not to. This means that these companies should expect to have to hire and retrain a significant portion of their white collar workforce. With unemployment as high as it is, this may not be as bad a position to be in as it might be in a normal economy.

Many companies are moving to locations where they feel there is more of a friendly business atmosphere for their operations. They are also trying to take advantage of higher educated work forces in places where there are well regarded colleges and universities. Corporations are also attracted to places with general lower costs of living as it allows them to pay their employees less without affecting their lives negatively.

Reasons Corporations Relocate Operations Overseas

Saturday, September 24th, 2011

Corporate outsourcing to international countries has been a popular topic amongst the public and politicians through the past decade. A lot of people may be confused about why companies might relocate their operations overseas. Below is a short list of common reasons given for corporate relocations.

Labor Costs – most workers in international countries will work for less money than their U.S counterparts. This is because cost of living is typically much less expensive overseas and the labor force is not used to increased standards of living.

Taxes – many countries attempt to attract businesses by offering them low tax rates and a generally friendly business environment. Many countries even offer themselves out as sort of a tax haven where corporations can park their money without being chipped away at by the federal government.

Regulations – many companies claim that they move their operations overseas because the regulations are more reasonable in other countries. Manufacturing practices that would not be allowed or that would be penalized in the U.S are allowed to take place without restrictions in some countries.

Talent Pools – a lot of businesses complain that there are simply not enough qualified applicants for open positions within the United States. Whether this is true or not is difficult to measure statistically, but companies will often move to China or India to harness a high tech workforce.

Focus on Core Business – moving manufacturing overseas can allow a company to focus most of its attention on core business aspects like sales and marketing in order to increase revenue and profits.

Reduced Costs – corporate relocations ultimately come down to reducing costs and making more profit, as that is the primary motivator of all for-profit businesses. Relocating overseas has that benefit for many corporations, and they will continue to do so until that benefit expires.

Corporate Relocations to Mexico

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

United States owned factories in Mexican border towns, or maquiladoras, are nothing new. Large corporations such as major electronics manufacturers and automotive manufacturers have been operating plants in places like Mexicali and Tijuana for decades now. The reason for locating to these locations is cheaper labor relative to U.S. Wages and the ease of crossing goods over the border due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While American owned factories existed in border towns before the agreement was signed, the agreement paved the way for many more companies to open manufacturing centers there.

NAFTA allows relatively free movement of goods into and out of Mexico. Goods are being transported across the Mexican/U.S border in record numbers every year. U.S. goods imports from Canada and Mexico grew from $151 billion in 1993 to $500.7 billion in 2006, an increase of 231%. Examples of the types of industry that have moved to Mexico include textiles, consumer electronics, medical supply, chemical processing, high tech equipment and biotechnology. Many Americans have found themselves relocating to border towns in order to fill positions that could not be filled by the local labor force.

Relocating components of a company from the U.S to Mexico can range in difficulty depending on the location of the current plant and the size of its operations. Major manufacturing that requires large machinery and highly technical skills can require a lot of coordination and training. A global relocation company that offers corporate relocation can be an invaluable resource to businesses looking to transport some of their operations to Mexico. They can help coordinate and arrange the transport of business supplies and machinery so that company personal can concentrate on getting things up and running once everything is moved.

New Corporate Relocation Issues

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

The housing bubble and recession of the last few years have had profound impacts on corporate relocation issues. Companies are looking at different ways to deal with issues concerning new hires and people they transfer to facilities out of the country. Moving to a new place for a job is no longer just about pleasing family and the desirability of a new location, but has become increasingly about the inability of people to sell their existing homes. Many employees find themselves unable to accept new jobs across the country or overseas because they cannot deal with the financial burden of their existing home. Some companies alleviate this problem by purchasing the existing home from the transferred employee, but many don’t.

The current recession has also affected the reasoning used by corporations to relocate their operations. While the bottom line cost used to be the driving force, more and more companies are claiming that they relocate in order to take advantage of increased talent pools in new areas. This means that, instead of transferring old employees to new locations, companies will hire more new workers who are local to the companies new location. They will also hire those who are willing to pay for their own relocation costs. High unemployment has allowed companies to do this when they may have not been able to before.

Renting instead of buying housing has also become a more attractive option to workers trying to adapt to corporate relocations. Much of the time a worker will only be at a single location a year or less. Buying a home at each new place can be a huge headache and have very high financial costs. Many corporations who shuffle their employees around find that encouraging employees to rent can save them money and increase their productivity.

Corporate Relocation Issues: Training

Friday, August 12th, 2011

Many companies have found that relocating certain parts of their operations to international locations is good for the bottom line. Reduced labor, tax and land costs can reduce overall expenses and increase profit margins. Labor, however, often does not transfer perfectly to new locations. Many businesses may find subtle differences in culture, language, and ethics that make transferring operations more complicated than a simple move. Training new employees before the move can prevent a disaster from occurring when operations are suddenly put back online at their new home.

Depending on the type of business that is being relocated, training can occur at the new or old site. If manufacturing operations that require large and expensive equipment are being relocated, it is usually best if the new employees travel to the original site to train. This will allow for a seamless transition of operations that mitigates down time when the equipment is set up in its new location. For relocation of equipment that is cheap and easily duplicated, training can occur at the new site before all operations are fully relocated.

Special training may need to take place for any technological deficiencies that may exist in the new work force. Many workers and managers take things like phone and computer use for granted, but may find that employees in a new location lack the necessary experience to utilize these tools. Simple training on computers, phones and fax machines before the full relocation will allow for a minimum amount of down time when the relocation is finished. These things, along with using a comprehensive global relocation service, can make corporate relocation a success.

 

Top Company Concerns for Relocating Employees over the Next Decade – Continued

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Cross-Border Commuters

North America, Europe and Asia have had so-called “cross-border” commuters for years–employees who regularly move back and forth between countries because it is geographically expedient to do so. In the last 10 years or so, commuter assignments as an alternative to short-term (and even long-term) assignments have begun to take a larger role, primarily in Europe.

In the next decade, the report concludes, more companies will see cross-border commuter assignments as a viable component of their mobility program. Companies interviewed acknowledge that there will be a significant focus on this assignment type over the next decade.

Emerging Markets

Perhaps even more so than talent management and commuter assignments, the arena of emerging markets is set to expand significantly in the coming decade.

The term “emerging market” has traditionally referred to the new destinations where companies are transferring their employees. Top destinations vary by industry, company business objectives and global reach. Brookfield GRS’ 2010 Global Relocation Trends survey notes that emerging locations run the spectrum of countries–from those that are long-time assignment destinations to those that are just this year appearing as locations for expatriate assignments. The latter category includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Hungary and Sweden, among others.

Top Company Concerns for Relocating Employees over the Next Decade

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

According to a new report from Brookfield Global Relocation Services published in RISMedia concludes that the coming decade will be a critical one for companies with international workforces, as they grapple with several key issues, including the changing nature of temporary assignments, so-called “cross-border” commuters and emerging markets.

Titled “Employee Mobility in the New Decade,” the research report was released at the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) annual conference in San Diego. During the first quarter of this year, Brookfield Global Relocation Services surveyed senior mobility managers from multinational firms to determine their top concerns over the next five to 10 years.

“Our report is the first of its kind to take a detailed look at what challenges global relocation companies will be facing with their international mobility strategies during the next decade,” said Scott Sullivan, executive vice president of Brookfield Global Relocation Services. “This report validates research from our 2010 Global Relocation Trends Report, which found that emerging markets such as China, India and Russia, pose huge challenges to both expatriates and human resources executives.”

Specifically, mobility leaders point to challenges involving:Linking Talent Management and Employee Mobility:

Topping nearly every company’s list of challenges was linking talent management and employee mobility, in one form or another. The report points out that, as the nature of temporary assignments continues to evolve, it is causing companies and employees alike to take a measured look at the perceived benefits of the assignments. For their part, companies–faced with significant investments of money and time required for successful expatriate activities–are asking why, in fact, they are sending employees on international assignments and are increasingly attempting to quantify the returns on investment.

Global Compensation: Part Two

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

At the end of our last post, we asked a question that would lead into today’s continued topic: What can companies do to leverage technology in order to reduce cost, increase accuracy, compliance and reporting capabilities in the global mobility space?

Unipack provides new technologies and best practices to help manage global relocation cost, data and compensation accrual for tax reporting and budgeting. These are areas that are important to all companies, but in the past, they have been a challenge to achieve in this complex global compensation arena.

New, sophisticated services and programs can streamline otherwise labor-intensive reporting processes
. Additionally, they can provide customized reporting solutions on a faster, real-time basis while also reducing the rate of error. Corporate International Movers exist for these purposes—to provide administrative, back-office payroll and financial reporting solutions on a global scale.

When evaluating what type of program is right for a company—whether it is payroll management, tax preparation or managing global compensation—executives should select ones that are compatible with multiple countries and multiple sets of payroll codes.
Companies always struggle with tying together numbers at the end of year, but there should be ongoing, real-time reporting and analysis so that annual financial records become merely just another step. Let the Global Relocation Companies do the work for you and provide effective, accurate data to your organization.

Relocation Company vs Relocation Management Company

Saturday, June 25th, 2011

If you’re planning to relocate just a few employees to different offices or even planning a large-scale relocation of your entire workforce, you may think you can do it in-house, relying on your human resources staff to assist in booking a relocation company to, well, get things moving.

But a relocation company (otherwise known as a moving company) may not offer all the help you need. Don’t be misled by a name. A relocation company, which often estimates the cost of a move based on weight and mileage, offers little more than packing and transport services. Sure, a relocation company can help you transport your household goods, pets and vehicles — and do it well. But when you’re talking corporate relocation, there’s a lot more involved.

Understanding What a Relocation Management Company Can Do

A relocation management company will provide one single point of contact for all your other relocation services (including that relocation, or — more accurately — moving company). If you already work with relocation management providers, there might be no need to switch.

Your relocation management company will assess relocation service providers and the value they offer, making recommendations for new service providers when appropriate.

Relocating to the UAE

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

The UAE is a great place for adventurous and skilled people to relocate to for work. The UAE has an ever-growing economy that supplies great job opportunities to those who qualify. If you are a skilled worker, you will find big corporations willing to give you highly competitive contracts with great benefits. Moving to the UAE for your ideal job is a great way to further your career while increasing your income at the same time. Before you take the plunge, here are a few things to consider when relocating to the UAE.

Relocating Your Family

If you decide to relocate your entire family, you will need to secure visas for all of them. With a family residence visa you will be able to sponsor your spouse, children or parents to come live with you. Make sure you begin this process well in advance of your move to ensure you and your family meets all the necessary requirements.

Property

Unless your employer has secured housing for you, you will need to look into property to rent. The best way to do this is to start looking after you have arrived in the UAE. Make sure you book yourself into a hotel for a few weeks in order to allow yourself enough time to search for a residence without stressing yourself out. Once you have found your apartment, try to lock yourself into a long lease so that you can avoid any costly future hikes in rent.

Relocating to the UAE can be a very exciting experience for you if you make sure to take the necessary steps to secure your job and living situation. Keep in mind that you will be living in a country that is very different from the one you live in now. Make sure you are familiar with the laws and culture in order to avoid any trouble. By being organized and thoughtful, you’ll be able to make the most out of living in the UAE and pursuing your dream career.