Relocating the Employee and Family

The relocation support offered to individual employees and their families will, firstly, affect the numbers choosing to relocate and will then be the key factor in minimising the stress and disruption experienced by those who make the move. An effective package of relocation support will normally incorporate:

• Employee counselling
• Guaranteed sale price
• Managing services
• Temporary accomodation
• Tracking costs & tax
• Management reports
• Full outsourcing

Employee counselling

The employee will wish to have a clear understanding of:

• The overall relocation process
• What specific support will be provided
• How any individual family issues will be resolved
• Expense claim procedures
• The services of panel suppliers and the opportunity to obtain answers to many questions

In part, this will be provided by a well-written Employee Relocation Guide, which TEAM can draft or revise. However, there is no substitute for an individual briefing session carried out by a relocation specialist and TEAM will provide this.

Throughout the relocation process, the employee will receive friendly and expert advice from a dedicated Client Manager at TEAM. This Manager (and a named substitute) will be a 'single point of contact' for the employee from start to finish.

Guaranteed sale price

This is the core relocation service which allows a homeowner to move to the new location, without having to worry about selling the old property. This is achieved by:

Offering the employee a fair Guaranteed Sale Price (based on independent valuations) for his or her home;
Providing the employee with interest-free funding, up to the level of the Guaranteed Sale Price, to allow completion of the house purchase at the new location.
Effectively, the employee is able to move to the new location as a 'cash-buyer'.

If the old house subsequently sells for less than the Guarantee, the shortfall is met by the employer. (Note: TEAM will only accept an offer below Guarantee with the prior approval of the employer). On the other hand, if the property sells for a 'profit', this will be paid to the employee, subject to any deductions stipulated by the employer.

TEAM take full responsibility for marketing the property and also for its maintenance while vacant. This includes insurance, garden maintenance and essential repairs.

An additional benefit of the Guaranteed Sale Price Scheme is that several costs which would otherwise be subject to tax (e.g. estate agent's bill), can effectively be excluded from the employee's tax calculation.

Managing services

In addition to offering advice and direct support to employees, TEAM also manage all the external specialist services which are needed by the employee during the course of the move, including:

• Solicitors 
• Estate agents (if employee not using Guaranteed Sale Price Scheme)
• Surveyors
• Electrical and drainage Experts
• Movers

TEAM advise on the appropriate choice of specialist, co-ordinate all timings and deal with any service issues which may arise. All suppliers' invoices are checked against agreed tariffs before payment.

Temporary accommodation

TEAM provide a temporary accommodation service for all parts of the UK. Depending on location and required length of stay, this can include:

• Hotels and guest-houses
• Serviced apartments
• Short-term rentals

TEAM will locate suitable accommodation, negotiate rates and deal with payments. In the case of leases, we check the terms, deal with the deposit and oversee the check-in and check-out.

Tracking costs & tax

TEAM use specialist software for the tracking of all relocation costs and providing regular client reports. These include any expenses which are paid out direct by the employer: this information can be easily downloaded to the TEAM system.

All expense information can be monitored online by the employer, by accessing a password-controlled section of TEAM's website.

TEAM also provide full reports for tax and NIC purposes. All costs are automatically coded as:

TEAM also provide a full expense claims service, relieving the employer of any responsibility for dealing with employee expense claims. Again, this is supported by a password-controlled online monitoring system for the employer.

Management reports

Online reports and monthly/quarterly hard-copy reports are provided in flexible formats to meet the specific requirements of each client. These will include Progress reports on each relocation, Cost Reports, and Performance Reports.

Full outsourcing

TEAM's objective is to work in partnership with each client and to assist in identifying the ideal mix of those services which will be delivered by the client's in-house staff and those which will be delivered by TEAM. Practical factors in determining the extent of outsourcing will include cost issues and the skills and capacity of existing staff. Capacity can be a particular issue in the context of a high-volume group move, though this capacity can be enhanced by the temporary secondment of specialists from TEAM.

In essence, it is possible to outsource all aspects of relocation management from the point at which an employee opts to relocate. TEAM will provide objective advice on all aspects of outsourcing options from employee briefings to expense claims management.