How to prepare your employees for a cross country relocation
When moving your business, it doesn’t only affect you and your company. It will also affect your employees. Still, that doesn’t have to be so impactful when you are moving locally. However, when you are moving your business across the country, your employees will have a lot of problems following you. Therefore, you have to go beyond yourself to entice your workers to move with you. And there are many good ways to do so. So in the following article Best Cross Country Movers will show you how to prepare your employees for a cross country relocation. Let’s take a look.
Inform your employees about the move as soon as possible
Naturally, when you are preparing to relocate your business, one of the first things that you need to do is to notify your employees. And you need to do that as soon as possible to give them time to think about the situation and talk to their families about it. You see, when moving across the country, not only that your workers will have to deal with the situation but also their families. And that can be a particular issue if they have kids that go to school. So, tell your workers about your plans and give them enough time to think about it and, in some way, talk their families into the move as well.
Moving is costly so make sure that you give your workers a good offer
Naturally, in most cases, you will have to offer your movers some kind of enticement in order to lure them to follow you. Unless your business is so good and generous towards its workforce, you will have to provide them with some kind of reward or, at least, help them go through the move as smoothly as possible. And the best way to do that is to offer them relocation packages that will cover their moving costs. Of course, you also have to think about the benefits for your business, as relocation packages can be pretty costly for the firm as well. So before you give them an offer, sit down with your management and make calculations about the offer.
The biggest concern that you need to think about is whether it will be better to pay your current workers to move with the company or to find a new workforce after the move. If you think that finding new employees is not good for your business, then start preparing relocation packages for your workforce.
Offer your workers relocation packages
As we already mentioned, it can be pretty costly to prepare your employees for a cross country relocation. The average relocation package cost in America comes between $19,000 and $24,000 for renters and between $72,500 and $97,000 for homeowners. Among other expenses, your relocation package also needs to cover:
- The costs of traveling to the new location
- Hiring professional packing and moving services
- Adequate moving insurance
- Short-term housing solutions
- The costs of temporary storage solutions
- Home sale or purchase
- Tax gross-up for benefits
- Moving taxes
Don’t forget that your workers need to visit the new location in order to find a new home
Those are the standard expenses that your company needs to cover in order to prepare your employees for a cross country relocation. Unfortunately, there may be other expenses that you will also need to take into consideration when enticing your workers to move with your business. For example, since you are moving across the country, you may need to pay your employees a few visits to the area to allow them to get the know the new place and find a good home for their families.
Your company may need to find work for your employees’ spouses as well as schools for the kids
Another thing that you may need to take care of is helping your worker’s family with the move as well. For example, your company may need to help their spouses find suitable employment. Also, your company may also need to help your worker find adequate childcare and school for their kids. And that can also cost your business significantly.
You will also need to cover realtor and lawyer expenses
When moving house, you also need help from a real estate agency as well as lawyers. And that is also one of the things that your company will need to cover in order to help your employees move across the country.
If your business is moving to a state with a higher cost of living that also needs to be taken into consideration
If you are moving to a state with a higher cost of living, that also needs to be taken into consideration. This means that you will also need to pay your workers more in the future. Therefore, make sure that you offer your workers commensurate pay adjustments or some kind of bonuses to cover additional expenses that they will have in the future.
How much time you will give your employees before they show up for work?
New workers typically start about two weeks after accepting a job offer. When your old employee is moving with your business you may want to consider giving them more time. Moving across the country is a complicated and stressful process and your employee will need a lot of time in order to settle into a new home.
Think well before you offer relocation packages
Those are the most important things that you need to do in order to prepare your employees for a cross country relocation. As you can see, the process of moving your workforce is complex and costly. So make sure that you think well before you decide whether to move your current employees with you. Or to find new employees.