A good destination services provider has a high level of technology and should take the lead and assist transferees and assignees when it comes to everything to do with landing in a new country.
Many companies don’t even know Destination Services exist or try to get through on their own. This can result in challenges. Everyone involved in corporate relocation should know the typical pitfalls.
That is why we prepared a guide on what can go wrong with your destination services plan.
The importance of a destination services plan
Since relocating multiples of people each year can be stressful, companies seek professional companies to help make the process easier for their employees and themselves. A destination services plan is key to creating and maintaining a successful relocation. Seek out the advice of a Destination Service Provider (DSP) in order to create a destination services plan.
What can go wrong with your destination services plan
Leases
When looking to rent abroad, destination services plans and providers are the go-to help. Their job is to be the expert at landlord-tenant legislation, local market practices and appropriate and inappropriate clauses or deposit practices. Without this knowledge, an assignee can easily get stuck in a lease that is hard to get out of. Can you use a diplomatic clause in your destination location? A diplomatic clause allows you to end the lease with relatively short notice if the assignment finishes early (this happened a lot throughout the pandemic). B leases can leave an assignee in a bad situation that can usually only be resolved by money. Be t to let the experts assess the lease first before it is signed.
Local registrations
When we talk about local registrations, we mean all those documents one needs to successfully live and work in the destination: for example, Social Security numbers, bank accounts, health insurance, driver’s license, auto registration. When thinking on a global scale, the number of local registrations is seemingly endless.
Improperly done local registration can, at a minimum, cause multiple (unnecessary) visits to government offices, after the employee has not completed documents or brought appropriate supporting documentation. It can cause missed paycheques if the employee does not get on the payroll as quickly as possible. At the most, improper documentation can cause serious fines, if not expulsion from a country, in some places in the world. In many cases, like Canada, improper local registration can mean no health insurance when you need it (or unnecessarily extended expensive private insurance) or driving illegally. In many cases, the employee’s homework before they leave the origin country, so it is best to have them contacted by a Destination Services provider before they leave.
Poorly Executed Service
Many of the above problems result from a poorly executed destination service. Abo e and beyond local registrations and home finding in inappropriate communities, other specific destination services rely only on the assistance of your destination service provider, like education and area consultation.
When the service is proactive and delivered expertly, all issues are taken care of in a matter of days away from the office, and you have a happy and productive employee. Recovering from a problem is far harder than avoiding it in the first place.
Bad timing
Another category of problems can be bad timing. Of course, arriving in the middle of the school year or amidst a bad winter can create challenges for employees. But poorly timed arrival can also result in something as minor as paying for extra temporary accommodation. If someone arrives in a Canadian city towards the end of the month, all the possible permanent properties may have already been rented, and temporary accommodation needs to go over the thirty-day time period to bridge them to the next month when other permanent properties become available.
How to avoid pitfalls
When looking for a Destination Service Provider, do more than compare prices. In other words, be bold and interview your destination service providers in each country to understand their expertise, how they can support you, how you can support them, and what type of technology do they use to compete with misinformation that is available on the internet. If you have a Relocation Management Company managing your relocations, you should be able to demand that your Destination Service Providers have the latest technology to make your assignees’ lives easier and that create an excellent customer service experience.
In summary, initial problems regarding onboarding are often the result of destination services that could have been executed better. And the impression of a bad onboarding, unfortunately, sticks to the company. You can easily prevent this with the proper guidance and a competent partner or partners.
Contact All Points to get a quote for your corporate relocation.
