Relocity Relocation Glossary
Relocation Terms You Should Know
In the global mobility industry, we have lots of terms that may not be familiar to you if you’re new to the industry. We want to make relocation easy for our corporate clients, partners, and the talent that we help relocate. So, here are the meanings of the typical global mobility phrases and terms to guide you through this unique part of human resources services and technology.
And we know that, sometimes, as a global mobility professional, you might find yourselves in the talent mobility, talent acquisition, workforce planning, or total rewards team sitting in operations, finance, or legal – each organization handles mobility a bit differently. Wherever you sit, Relocity is here to mobilize today’s talent to help you acquire, engage, and retain your people on the move.
Area orientation
Definition: Area orientation typically refers to a process where individuals, often those who are relocating to a new location, receive guidance and information about the specific area or region they are moving to.
How Relocity Helps: No one does area orientation better than Relocity. Whether you choose Relocity Concierge or Relocity Guide, we offer the resources your talent need to learn about and settle into their destinations. By providing detailed information about housing options, schools, transportation, local amenities, and more, Relocity helps your talent acclimate and make informed relocation decisions.
Assignee
Definition: In the global mobility industry, an assignee is the mobile employee or transferee who is being relocated, typically for a short or long-term assignment.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity helps assignees with any policy type relocate to thousands of cities across the United States, Europe, Singapore, and Australia.
Candidates and Pre-hires
Definition: Candidates and pre-hires are individuals in the hiring process who may need relocation assistance or need to better understand their potential future city and country before accepting or declining a new job offer as they will need to relocate to take the new role.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity offers expert support to candidates and pre-hires through Relocity Concierge. By consulting with your top talent and helping them understand their potential new city — everything from neighborhoods, school districts, rental prices, points of interest, healthcare options, and more — our expert in-destination Relocation Consultants help our enterprise clients’ talent acquisition teams improve their candidate-to-new hire conversion rates and speed time-to-hire times.
Core-Flex Programs
Definition: Core-flex programs provide employees with a set of core benefits and the flexibility to choose additional perks that round out their relocation package with services that best meet their individual needs.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity supports core-flex programs through Relocity One with our Choice add-on feature that customizes relocation packages to meet individual employee needs, ultimately offering flexibility within your defined parameters and enabling you to turn your relocation benefits into points or dollars so that transferees can select their desired services and solutions.
Departure services
Definition: Departure services typically refer to a range of assistance provided to individuals at the end of their stays in a particular destination. Departure services aim to facilitate a hassle-free and organized departure experience by allowing mobile employees to leave locations without any major concerns or difficulties. Departure services can be particularly helpful in foreign locations where mobile employees might face language barriers or logistical challenges.
How Relocity Helps: To ensure a smooth relocation experience, Relocity Concierge Personal Hosts assist mobile employees and their families as they move away from their destinations by organizing the logistics — such as arranging transportation, assisting with lease terminations, coordinating household goods shipments, providing move out inspections, and offering repatriation assistance. We can also help transferees depart their home locations in some cases.
Departure services
Definition: Departure services typically refer to a range of assistance provided to individuals at the end of their stays in a particular destination. Departure services aim to facilitate a hassle-free and organized departure experience by allowing mobile employees to leave locations without any major concerns or difficulties. Departure services can be particularly helpful in foreign locations where mobile employees might face language barriers or logistical challenges.
How Relocity Helps: To ensure a smooth relocation experience, Relocity Concierge Personal Hosts assist mobile employees and their families as they move away from their destinations by organizing the logistics — such as arranging transportation, assisting with lease terminations, coordinating household goods shipments, providing move out inspections, and offering repatriation assistance. We can also help transferees depart their home locations in some cases.
Destination services
Definition: Destination services typically refer to a range of employer-provided assistance and support given to individuals or families who are relocating to a new city or country. These services aim to help ease the transition and integration process into the new location via guidance, information, and practical help with various aspects of settling-in.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity Concierge is our full-service solution of in-person and virtual destination services and rental assistance, including home-finding assistance, area orientation, settling-in support, education consultation, and more. By alleviating mobile employee stress and solving relocation problems, we ensure smooth transitions that ultimately boost talent effectiveness and wellness.
Duty of Care
Definition: Duty of Care is the moral obligation of employers to protect transferees during assignment and relocation from undue risks. Considering Duty of Care is essential because lump sum transferees and especially interns, who are relatively inexperienced movers, are at higher risk of falling victim to leasing scams or mistakenly selecting temporary housing in high-crime neighborhoods, thus potentially subjecting themselves to experiencing violent crime. This also includes their information and data.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity Concierge Relocation Consultants help mitigate Duty of Care risks by guiding transferees through the moving journey and facilitating the completion of tasks. Relocity Guide serves as an invaluable tool for companies seeking to provide stronger Duty of Care by offering tools and insights around neighborhood recommendations, commuting radii, home-finding assistance, and destination insights. Our platform also abides with all applicable data protection laws and regulations and continues to implement data measures to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful misuse. Customer data is processed only as necessary to carry out services required on our clients’ behalf.
Essential services
Definition: Essential services refer to the support mobile employees receive to complete necessary tasks — such as enrolling in financial services, registering with local governments, and more — during relocation to a new destination. Essential services aim to create smooth transitions to foreign locations for newcomers.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity expertly guides mobile employees and their families through essential relocation tasks, from opening financial services accounts to completing local government registrations, registering vehicles, and other crucial steps. We ensure legal compliance and lower risks for a smooth integration of mobile talent into your strategic locations.
Global mobility
Definition: Global mobility refers to the ability of individuals, often within a workforce or as part of a professional context, to move and work in different locations around the world as part of strategic workforce planning, talent acquisition and retention, and leadership development.
How Relocity Helps: Operating within the broader global mobility industry, Relocity quickly connects employees on the move to new communities. Through our AI-driven platform, native mobile application, high-touch destination services, and destination content, we create a superb mobile employee experience that ultimately helps companies attract, retain, and engage global talent.
Group move
Definition: A group move refers to the relocation of multiple employees, often whole departments or other types of cohorts, from one location to another simultaneously or within a close timeframe.
How Relocity Helps: Through Relocity Concierge, we handle all aspects of collective moves, ensuring seamless and effective transitions for mobile employees and their families. From logistics coordination to housing arrangements and orientation programs, we manage the details for an efficient group relocation experience.
Healthcare services
Definition: Healthcare services encompass a range of provisions aimed at ensuring individuals or families transitioning to new locations have access to quality medical care and wellness facilities. These services involve assistance in navigating and accessing the local healthcare system, arranging medical appointments with trusted professionals or specialists, facilitating health insurance coverage or payment arrangements, providing information about healthcare options available in the destination country, and offering support for any specific medical needs or concerns, all with the objective of ensuring a smooth and reliable healthcare experience for individuals or families relocating to a new area.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity assists mobile employees and their families with navigating healthcare resources in a new location. Relocity Concierge’s healthcare services may include healthcare provider referrals, appointment scheduling, interpretation services, medical insurance coordination, and other support to ensure transferees receive appropriate, quality healthcare in their new city. With Relocity Guide, mobile talent can find local hospitals, urgent cares, and other healthcare support in their personalized maps and healthcare guides.
Home-finding (or home search) services
Definition: Home-finding refers to the process of securing suitable housing in a new location. Home-finding services simplify this process for individuals or families who might not be familiar with the local real estate market, regulations, cultural nuances, and commuting times. The goal of home-finding services is to assist mobile employees with their relocations to unknown destinations.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity leverages 2 million unique data points to help our transferees see which locations fit their lifestyle, transportation, and budget constraints. Through both Relocity Concierge and Relocity Guide, we help mobile employees and their families find suitable housing in their new cities by conducting personalized searches based on individual needs (such as budget, commute distance, safety, and local schools). With Relocity Concierge, our Relocation Consultants facilitate property viewings, negotiations, lease reviews, move-in inspections, and more.
Interns and New Grads
Definition: Interns and new grads are individuals entering the workforce, often requiring relocation for their first professional roles.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity assists interns and new grads in transitioning to new locations by providing relocation support, including rental assistance and area orientation, through both Relocity Concierge and Relocity Guide, depending on the mix of domestic and international talent and their respective policies.
Long- and Short-Term Assignments
Definition: Long- and short-term assignments refer to temporary placements of employees in different locations, with durations varying from a few months to several years.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity tailors relocation solutions for both long- and short-term assignments, managing logistics, housing, essential, and settling-in services for a hassle-free mobile employee experience. Relocity can support transferees with destination services and rental assistance through Relocity Concierge or destination content, housing, tips, guides, and our proprietary marketplace with discounts through Relocity Guide.
Long-Term Business Traveler
Definition: Virtual assignments are on the rise. Long-term business travelers are employees spending extended periods in a different location for work. Traveling for multiple weeks or months at a time for their roles to be with their teams for critical milestones, your talent needs to turn a business trip into a comfortable temporary home.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity ensures the comfort and efficiency of long-term business travelers by managing their relocation needs, creating a conducive work environment. Through either Relocity Guide or Relocity Concierge, your mobile employees can find the right neighborhood and housing close to your office, select the right transportation options, find points of interest, healthcare and fitness options, and more.
Lump Sum Relocation Program
Definition: A lump sum relocation program provides mobile employees and interns with a one-time, fixed amount to cover relocation expenses.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity aids employees in managing their relocation with a lump sum through Relocity Guide, our self-service native mobile app. It provides personalized guidance on cost-effective housing, safe neighborhoods that match their profile and preferences, discounted services and merchandise to help with their relocation, and a streamlined lump sum distribution process.
Lifestyle services
Definition: Lifestyle services encompass a range of support provided to mobile employees and their families during relocation to a new country or region. To help talent adapt to their new lifestyles and surroundings, lifestyle services go beyond basic relocation needs and focus on enhancing the overall quality of life and well-being during the transition period and beyond.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity Concierge’s lifestyle services enhance the overall well-being of mobile employees and their families in new locations — ultimately creating a great quality of life for them. Based on each individual's specific interests and needs, we personalize the exploration of activities and services (like dog-walking, elder care services, and house cleaning) and introduce mobile employees and their families to recreational and leisure activities, cultural events, places of worship, and more. Lump sum transferees can also benefit from Relocity Guide’s points of interest in a customized map based on the mobile employee profile that helps them find local parks, recreational areas, and gyms.
Managed Cap Programs
Definition: Managed cap programs involve setting a budget cap for relocation expenses.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity supports managed cap programs through Relocity One, optimizing relocation services within your budget constraints. Your RMC consultants can advise your talent through our in-app communication and chat functionality, and your talent can review and select one of your preferred suppliers to maximize their budgets, while keeping your overall program budgets in check – all within our native mobile app.
Managed Move Relocation Program
Definition: A managed move relocation program involves comprehensive outsourcing of the relocation process — including destination services and rental assistance — to a third-party provider.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity excels in managed move programs by taking full responsibility for the destination services and rental assistance process with Relocity Concierge, ensuring efficiency, cost savings, duty of care, and mobile employee satisfaction for our RMC partners and corporate mobility clients.
Permanent Transfers
Definition: Permanent transfers involve relocating employees either as a managed move or lump sum relocation to a new destination on a permanent basis.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity streamlines the permanent transfer process by providing comprehensive high-touch, high-tech relocation and destination services through a blend of on-demand, in-location relocation consultants enabled by our industry-leading native mobile app, Relocity Concierge – together delivering a smooth transition for employees and their families. For lump sum transferees, talent can benefit from Relocity Guide to find the right neighborhood, home, commuting options, schools for their children, and much more.
Pet services
Definition: Pet services refer to assistance provided to mobile employees relocating to a new place with pets. Relocating with pets involves various considerations, including regulatory compliance, transportation arrangements, and ensuring animal well-being during transit. Pet services aim to simplify this process, alleviate stress for pet owners, and ensure that their beloved animals are well taken-care-of before, during, and after the relocation.
How Relocity Helps: We assist mobile employees and their families with relocating their pets to their new cities. These services may include guidance on pet-friendly housing options, transportation arrangements, veterinary care, pet documentation, and other considerations to ensure the well-being and comfort of pets throughout the relocation journey.
Relocation (or corporate relocation)
Definition: Corporate relocation is the process of moving talent from one location to another, often across international borders, to fulfill job responsibilities or assignments. Relocation is a strategic initiative used by organizations to leverage the skills and expertise of their workforce on a global scale. Relocation aims to support talent career development while meeting the operational needs of the company by deploying talent to different locations where their skills are needed. Relocations are typically facilitated and supported by employers to ensure smooth transitions for mobile employees and their families.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity facilitates key aspects of corporate relocation, from managing employee transitions and offering destination services and rental support services to ensuring compliance for corporate global mobility programs. A partnership with Relocity directly contributes to mobile employee satisfaction, talent attraction and retention, and the successful execution of business objectives across state or national borders.
Relocation assistance
Definition: Relocation assistance or relocation services encompass a range of support provided to interns, candidates, or employees who are moving from one location to another, often due to job offers, job transfers, company relocations, or personal reasons. The goal is to help ease the transition and facilitate a smooth move to the new location.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity is a full-service provider of in-person and virtual relocation assistance. While our Relocity Concierge Personal Hosts provide in-person relocation assistance, our AI-driven technology offers digital-first (or mobile-first) relocation assistance. Our AI-powered platform allows us to personalize flexible, on-demand relocation assistance to all your mobile talent. Our effective mix of in-person and digital support boosts talent effectiveness, engagement, retention, and wellness while delivering a world-class relocation journey and mobile employee experience.
Relocation policy
Definition: A relocation policy refers to a structured set of guidelines and provisions established by an organization to govern and facilitate the movement of employees or individuals from one location to another, often across international borders. The policy outlines the terms, benefits, and support offered to employees undergoing relocation, including details on financial assistance, housing allowances, visa and immigration assistance, cultural integration support, education for dependents, temporary living arrangements, transportation, and other pertinent aspects crucial to the smooth transition of individuals or families to new work and living environments. The policy aims to standardize the relocation process, ensure consistency in offerings, and provide a framework for both the organization and the relocating individuals to manage expectations and facilitate successful moves.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity offers solutions that support a variety of relocation policies. For example, Relocity Concierge is a white-glove, destination services and rental assistance relocation experience that provides high-touch support for international and domestic relocations, whereas Relocity Guide offers a flexible self-serve lump sum management experience perfect for interns, supported self-initiated mobile employees, and lump sum recipients.
Relocation benefit package
Definition: A relocation benefit package refers to a comprehensive set of perks, allowances, and support offered by an organization to employees or individuals undergoing relocation, typically across national or international borders. These packages include various provisions, such as financial assistance for moving expenses, housing or accommodation allowances, transportation support, visa and immigration assistance, language or cultural training, educational support for dependents, spousal employment assistance, tax consultation, and other tailored benefits aimed at facilitating a smooth transition and ensuring the well-being and productivity of the relocating individual or family within the new environment.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity is a critical part of any comprehensive relocation benefit package. Our high-impact solutions efficiently transition your talent from one location to another, reducing employee stress levels (to enhance job satisfaction and boost productivity and engagement), strengthening your employee value proposition (to improve acquisition and retention rates), and lowering the administrative burden for your global mobility team and relocation management company (RMC) (to optimize your program operations).
School-finding services
Definition: School-finding services encompass specialized assistance that helps relocating families navigate the education system and find suitable educational opportunities for their children. This support involves understanding the educational needs of the children, providing information and guidance on local schools, explaining curriculum options, facilitating school visits or virtual tours, assisting with enrollment processes, and offering support to ensure continuity in the children's education within the new environment. The goal of school-finding services is to help families make informed decisions regarding their children's education and ease the process of integrating into a new educational system after relocation.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity supports mobile employees and their families in finding the right schools for their children during relocations. With strong connections to local administrators, our Relocity Concierge Personal Hosts complete needs assessments, research, tours, applications, and, with our user-friendly mobile app, we empower families to make informed decisions for a smooth transition. Relocity Guide offers a school data content layer with ratings from Great Schools that auto-populates schools on our map for families so that they can find the right school for their children in the right neighborhood. We also offer guides for the educational system in each transferee’s area.
Settling-in services
Definition: Settling-in services refer to assistance and support provided to individuals or families who have relocated to a new location, helping them adjust and establish themselves in their new environment smoothly.
How Relocity Helps: We assist mobile employees and their families after relocation to help them adjust and integrate into new environments smoothly. From offering services that simplify the connecting of their utilities to offering guidance on cultural orientation, local services, and other practical aspects, our Relocity Concierge Personal Hosts facilitate the transition and enhance overall well-being.
Spousal (or partner) assistance
Definition: Spousal or partner assistance, in the context of relocation, involves providing support and resources to the spouses or partners of employees who are relocating for work or other reasons.
How Relocity Helps: We support an accompanying spouse or partner who is relocating with a mobile employee. This assistance aims to help the spouse or partner integrate into the new environment via commuting information, resources, networking opportunities, career assistance, cultural orientation, and other tailored services to enhance their overall well-being. Through either Relocity Guide or Relocity Concierge, we support your mobile employees with varying degrees of guidance and support for their spouses or partners.
Talent mobility
Definition: Talent mobility refers to the movement of skilled individuals within an organization across various roles, departments, or geographic locations. Talent mobility is a strategic approach used by companies to maximize the potential of their workforce by deploying talent where their skills and expertise are needed most.
How Relocity Helps: To help companies fill skills gaps in key markets, Relocity manages corporate relocations, facilitates long-term and short-term business assignments, and more. Relocity supports both global mobility and talent mobility teams in achieving their objectives of engaging and retaining corporations’ top talent.
VIP (or executive) services
Definition: VIP services encompass assistance provided to high-profile employees during long-term business travel and corporate relocation. These services typically cater to the specific needs and preferences of executives and employees in upper management who seek a higher level of convenience, comfort, and support throughout their employment experience.
How Relocity Helps: Relocity delivers personalized, premium assistance to high-profile talent with specific needs and expectations through Relocity Concierge. Relocity’s VIP Services may include tailored support, luxury accommodations, private transportation, finding domestic care, interior decorating, and other specialized services designed to meet the unique requirements and preferences of executive transferees.
Work from home
Definition: Working from home is the practice of performing work duties remotely, usually from a residential setting rather than a traditional office environment. More and more, talent are choosing to make self-initiated moves to destinations that offer lower costs and higher quality of life.
How Relocity Helps: With Relocity Guide, we provide in-depth information about neighborhoods, housing, points of interest, and more about any community in the continental United States to help your talent smoothly make the move of their dreams a reality, while boosting their productivity and holistic wellness in the process.