Monthly Archives: September 2016

Household Goods Audit

A Fortune 1000 semiconductor supplier company with more than 22,000 employees worldwide in more than 50 locations. Products include power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom devices for automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, LED lighting, medical, military/aerospace and power applications. Paragon identified the need for expert-level review of client household goods invoices. For this client in particular, who used client-directed suppliers, the need was apparent through the number of household goods exceptions and questions on billing issues.

Building an Effective Relocation Program

The objective for each functional area in an organization is to find efficiencies and produce tangible savings. At the same time, HR must balance budget concerns with efforts to attract and retain talent. In this webinar/video, Joseph Morabito, Founder and CEO of Paragon Relocation, offers insight and recommendations to maximize both. Click here to begin the program.

Recruiting Millennials: Lessons Learned from Pokémon GO

Why did I choose to write about recruiting millennials? As of 2015, millennials, those born between 1980 and 2000, represent the largest single demographic in the U.S. workforce. According to the Pew Research Center, the rapid growth of this segment is partly attributable to an increase of college educated foreign nationals immigrating to the U.S. early in their careers. Between 2010 and 2015, almost 50% of new immigrant workers were millennials. The bottom line is your recruiting strategy has to target millennials, just due to their sheer numbers.

Cost Savings & Relocation Policy Design

Balancing the competing initiatives of developing and maintaining competitive relocation or assignment benefits and containing costs is difficult. With an increase in global economic volatility, most notably the economic crisis in South America, Brexit and the price of crude oil, many CFOs continue to look for ways to cut or contain costs. Human resource leaders will be evaluating their relocation service offerings, attempting to save money without negatively impacting recruiting and talent management initiatives. Policy Design is the first place to look when assessing cost saving opportunities for relocation and mobility programs.

The Robbie Report – Relocation Management Companies

We’ve all read the exciting news about large companies relocating their corporate offices to North Texas. This kind of progress brings thousands of new people to the area, providing an extra boost to our already flourishing local economy. These moves also provide an opportunity for companies such as Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty to lend a hand in the relocation process. It can be complex work, however, of critical importance to companies moving from one part of the country to another. Ginny Taylor is our Senior VP/relocation services. “Best schools and neighborhoods generally drive all relocation purchase decisions,” says Taylor, who has worked in the real estate and relocation industry for nearly three decades. Ginny and her colleagues have developed high quality partnerships with relocation companies assisting employees who are making moves. One of the tops firms that we work with is Paragon Global Relocation. Click here to continue reading.

A Reflection of Needs

The global transformation of business continues to alter workforce mobility patterns with many organizations revising their approach to long-term overseas assignments and shorter-term commuter arrangements, based on geopolitical, macroeconomic, and even demographic factors. As organizations seek advice and assistance to tackle this evolving paradigm of workforce mobility, it is breeding a range of new services. Chief among them is consulting services, data analytics, and benchmarking. Other trends include more boots on the ground in foreign locales, as well on-site personnel at the client facility as virtual extensions of its HR staff.

Reshaping Relocation

At the dawn of the 21st century, the term globalization was used to describe the tearing down of national and organizational borders to create truly global enterprises. Today, this sea change in business is evident in many large companies, with their multicultural workforces stretching across the globe, traveling constantly, and increasingly spending more of their time in far-off outposts on key assignments. In this environment, talent relocation has become strategic-the organization that best deploys the right talent in the right place over the right period of time gains a competitive edge. This strategic imperative is resulting in several key trends that are reshaping the services provided by global talent mobility firms.

A Buyer Value Option with A ‘Sunset Clause?’

As organizations and transferees confront the realities of a slow and uneven housing market recovery, including longer home marketing times and negative equity positions, attaching a “sunset clause” to buyer value option programs can help manage the risks inherent in these properties languishing on the market.

VAT 101 – an Introduction to the Value Added Tax Affecting Relocation Services

VAT or “value added tax” is charged on goods and services purchased by relocation companies and their clients. Many believe that VAT is applicable only in Europe when in fact this tax is common throughout the world. Currently, approximately 145 countries in the world have implemented a VAT or GST system, and the OECD has been known to say that “the spread of Value Added Tax has been the most important development in taxation over the last half-century” (OECD—International VAT/GST Guidelines. Centre for tax policy and administration—February 2006). Because VAT may have a significant financial impact on your business, regardless of its location or whether you are the client or service provider, it is important that managers in the relocation industry have a good un­der­standing of what VAT is in order to avoid any unnecessary costs. Click here to read the Worldwide ERC® introduction to VAT taxes.

Hot Trends in Global Mobility: Compliance (It’s the New Black)

Corporate compliance is becoming one of the trendiest mobility-related topics on the speaking and writing circuit lately. In the past few years, every relocation conference that I’ve attended has included multiple sessions on compliance, and it seems impossible to open a magazine or journal aimed at the relocation industry without reading articles on compliance. This article will focus on immigration compliance in particular, with reference to other areas to watch.