Relocating an Employee Within the United States

Family Assistance

Pete Jones and his family were recently transferred to a new city. They must now re-establish themselves in their new surroundings. As the Jones family has found, it can be time consuming and rather frustrating to learn where all of the necessary services are.

Until recently, companies left this entirely up to the family. Now, many companies are electing to provide help to transferees in settling into their new surroundings. Why? It helps the family and there’s a definite advantage to the company — the employee is able to settle into their job more quickly.

Spousal assistance

One of the most important programs is spousal assistance especially since dual-income families are now common. So, when a company wants to relocate an employee, that move may depend on whether the spouse can find employment in the new location. This situation is complicated by the fact that the job needed by a spouse may be at a much higher level than in the past. Spousal assistance programs can consist of a wide variety of aids:

• Preparation for job hunting. This may consist of helping the spouse with resume writing, networking, interviewing skills, or negotiating a salary.
• Finding job openings. This may range from showing the spouse how to find job opportunities (such as through the use of the Internet), to putting the spouse in contact with headhunters in the new location. The company itself may have jobs open in the area; or it might be able to contact specific companies and people in the new area.