Managing the Expatriate Process
November 1, 2003

Over the last half century a global economy has emerged with companies expanding products and services internationally. Companies must consider the costs and issues associated with expansion, including relocating employees to other parts of the world, being aware of corporate cultures and business practices in other countries, and communicating to an international audience. This can be a daunting task for human resources professionals to endure on their own, so many seek the assistance of an external relocations provider to help manage their company ’s expatriate program.

Companies in Europe are increasingly outsourcing their mobility support, both within the European Union and throughout the rest of the continent. They recognize the strategic benefits of outsourcing to a global relocations provider, such as enhanced internal productivity, consistent quality of service worldwide, cost containment and concise international reporting.

The Crown Worldwide Group is a leader in providing relocation services to multinational companies around the world. The Group has over 100 offices in 42 countries, with branches in 13 European countries. Crown maintains Global Mobility Service (GMS) centers within the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, part of a tri-regional service delivery network consisting of Asia-Pacific and the Americas. These GMS centers provide a multilingual team of mobility consultants whose services include:

• Mobility program administration
• Global household goods coordination
• Policy consulting
• Intercultural training
• Ongoing assignment support including expense management
• Local destination services

Crown Relocations’ Spain operation has been in existence since 2001. The Madrid branch offers household goods shipment, relocation services and records management services and can support multinationals throughout the country. In addition, Crown Relocations has five branches within Central and South America, ensuring a consistent level of quality services for Spanish companies relocating their employees to these locations.

Example of Crown Relocations in Action – Case Study
Smith & Nephew PLC, a FTSE 100 company, specializes in the innovation of high technology devices. The organization employs 7,500 people in 34 countries and has a turnover of over £1 billion.

The Business Issue
Although Smith & Nephew already had an international assignment policy dating back to 1992, it was not widely or consistently used. This led to the evolution of an assortment of ‘hybrid’ packages and the raising of employee expectation levels when considering working abroad.

Smith & Nephew’s human resources function was also becoming involved in the administrative details of relocations. HR personnel were engaged in finding homes and orienting them around their new city, as well as handling and paying invoices from numerous suppliers. HR professionals were becoming increasingly perceived as administrators, rather than strategic advisors.

As new assignment and relocation policies became vital to revising the company’s HR function, it was apparent a single global relocation service provider could cut administration and provide an enhanced service leading to happier and more productive expatriates.

The Solution
In 2000, after appointing an International Assignment Coordinator, buy-in from Smith & Nephew’s Heads of HR around the world was sought and ‘Assignment Champions’ were created within the HR departments on the main Global Divisions sponsored by the Group HR Director.

The company then sought a relocation partner. Eight companies were invited to submit tenders for the work; two were short-listed and invited to present to the HR Indirect Purchasing Team.

Smith & Nephew selected Crown Relocations as the company offered a wide range of services, global presence, online support, well-trained staff and a partnership-focused approach.

Introducing the Service
One of the first joint actions of Smith & Nephew and Crown was to introduce the new process to the entire company. A group-wide International Assignment Workshop in York, UK, attended by 33 people from around the world was used to introduce Crown.

A common mission statement for the Crown and Smith & Nephew operation was also drawn up. Additional awareness days have since been held in the UK and the United States to enhance awareness of the potential of the relocation service.

Service Delivery
As the mission statement demonstrates, Crown and Smith & Nephew’s key focus is to make individuals productive. This means that their work is far more involved than simply moving people and their possessions. Over 30% of the work undertaken by Crown is aimed at the individual. Services include cultural awareness and language courses, home and school searches, local orientation and help with immigration issues. Crown’s strong international presence and use of local experts is key to problem solving in these areas.

A secondary aim of Crown’s work for Smith & Nephew is to reduce unnecessary costs. For example, rather than putting up an expatriate in a hotel for a standard one month, moving quickly to find a long-term home can significantly reduce costs. Another example is working towards providing more notice of international assignments so that less costly freight methods can be used. Storage costs are also being closely monitored.

The Business Impact
Crown has to date managed around 40 plus international relocations for Smith & Nephew. Feedback from transferees has been very positive, with 100% saying they would use Crown again.

Smith & Nephew’s International Assignment Coordinator, Kim Woodlock, feels that there has been a strong business benefit commenting, “We’ve come a long way in our perceptions of what an international assignment is all about.” She believes that Smith & Nephew are approaching best practice in global relocation.

The Future
Due to the success of this work, Crown has been asked by Smith & Nephew to handle international relocation work within the UK. It continues to handle the steadily growing number of international assignments and is continually looking to improve service levels.

Within Smith & Nephew, international relocation is being made more visible. A new section on their intranet is being devoted to issues around working abroad and the support available and career development managers are aware that international assignments are a toll they can use to retain and develop people.

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