5-1 Exploring Destination Services in Europe

What if the secret to global employee relocation success isn’t just in the planning—but in the landing? Join Sirva Soundbites host, Kate Rothwell, Renata Pereira and Darren Jackson as they uncover how destination services are transforming international relocations, helping employees thrive abroad and saving companies from costly assignment failures.

Renata Pereira is Director of Direct Delivery Strategic Projects at Sirva. Based in France, Renata plays a pivotal role in driving program delivery resourcing, revenue growth initiatives and  technologies to enhance Relocation and Visa and Immigration services offerings within the Direct Delivery organization. 

Darren Jackson is Director of Direct Delivery Services at Sirva. Darren leads the strategic and operational delivery of relocation services across Europe. With a proven track record in global mobility and regional leadership, he oversees a network of offices and teams dedicated to providing seamless, client-focused relocation experiences.

Get in touch with us: soundbites@sirva.com

Transcript

[00:00:00] You are listening to Sirva Soundbites, the official podcast of Sirva, a leading global relocation management and moving services company. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to Sirva Soundbites, where we aim to connect, inform, educate, and entertain our listeners. My name's Kate Rothwell. I'm a director of Global Advisory Services at Sirva.

Today we've got an extra special treat of two guests for our topic of destination services in Europe. The first of those is Renata Pereira. Renata is a director of direct delivery strategic projects for Sirva in Europe, and the second is Darren Jackson, who is a regional operations director at Sirva.

They are here to discuss with us the important topic of destination services, Renata. Darren, welcome to Sirva Soundbites. Um, can I ask you to introduce yourselves for our listeners, please? Let's [00:01:00] start with you, Renata. Thanks Kate. Um, hello everyone. Um, I'm Renata Perrera, uh, director of Director Delivery Strategic Project at Sirva.

I'm based in France and I, um, play a pivotal role in driving program delivery, resourcing revenue growth initiative and technologies to enhance the relocation and Visa immigration services offerings within the direct to delivery organization. Hi, I'm Darren Jackson. Um, I'm the regional director for direct delivery services across Europe.

Looking after 18 activities across our seven European locations. I've been with Sirva for nearly 20 years now in a variety of different roles. And yeah, looking forward to speaking today. Thank you both for joining us. Well, destination services are one of the most important services in the employee relocation, and they can sometimes be [00:02:00] sidelined.

Um, I think. In this day and age, many housing markets around the world are constrained. Landlords are leaving the market because of they are choosing to, uh, put their property onto short term rental platforms. In some cases, there are legal restrictions that are being introduced to make it easier for landlords to rent to, uh, national employees.

And as a result, it is getting much more difficult for international hires to find appropriate housing. But sometimes companies choose not to provide the services, do they? Why do you think that is Renata? Um, that's a good question, Kate. Um, yes. Cost is often the most excited reason for companies not opting for destination services.

We understand cost is, is a concern, especially in today's uncertain economic [00:03:00] milieu. However, in my experience, employees who are given the option to partake in destination services have benefited tremendously in terms of better assimilation into into the new host country, and definitely resulting in lower failed assignments.

There are, I would say there are unique benefits that, uh, we could consider in the use of destination services, including local knowledge of conditions, requirements, resources, closer relationships with providers, immigration authorities, among other, but, well, I couldn't agree with you more, Renata, and I think aside from the actual process Yeah.

Of. Identifying, um, housing in a new location. Destinations consultant will have kind of a really deep understanding of their market. They're so well placed to [00:04:00] advocate on behalf of the employee, um, but also manage expectations, right? Um, they're also really indispensable at the end of a tendency when you might have dilapidations to negotiate, aren't they?

Yeah, absolutely. We have, um, several challenges at the moment with, um, Darren will be kind of going through them. Uh, but cost is definitely, cost savings are definitely a hot, a hot, um, discussion at the moment. And we are here to actually support our clients on this type of need, uh, by offering our strategic, uh, service delivery within.

So maybe Renata, you can tell me a bit more about that. What does our, what does the Sirva destination services in Europe, uh, look like? How does the team work with clients to address their needs in specific locations? [00:05:00] Of course. So the Sirva direct to deliver teams, the, the Sirva direct to deliver Team cover seven locations in Europe, namely the uk.

Belgium, France, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and Switzerland. We serve all destination services in-house, such as, um, the preview, trip orientation, tour, visa, immigration, the bundle packages including home search, school search, settling services, tenants management and departure services. All these services are delivered based on a needs assessment questionnaire that is, um, reviewed with the as assignee to make sure that we are tailor our services to our clients.

Perfect. Thanks, Renata. So let's widen up the lens a little bit and look at some of the key challenges that companies are facing when they relocate their employees into [00:06:00] Europe. Darren, maybe you could tell our listeners a bit about this. Yeah, I can go into a bit more detail and I don't think we're looking at any surprises.

I think we've alluded to it earlier, but one of the biggest, uh, challenges we're facing is housing stock. Uh, Europe across the whole region is looking at around a 3.5%, uh, deficit of housing stock, which equates to 9.6 million homes. So it's quite substantial number mm-hmm. Of homes missing from that, from that rental market.

Uh, it's even worse in kind of, um, urban centers and relocation hotspots. So a lot of the places that we are going to, we're facing these challenges. Affordability is a big factor and has been for a long time. Spikes inflation across our Europe zone over the last few years has driven prices up and despite that easing a little bit, um, affordability still a, a, a big concern for tenants.

Mm-hmm. Um, we're still looking, you know, on average across the region, 4% rises this year in rent will only make things worse. Uh, you mentioned earlier, landlord exodus. Um, this has certainly happened in some [00:07:00] locations, uh, places like the uk. The additional stamp duty left above the government and the loss of tax relief on mortgage interest has really led to quite a sharp and maybe not so professional landlords.

The landlords have one or two properties. Um, which is good and bad. He takes properties out the market, but what's left, you've got kind of a more professional landlord set and, and maybe more suited to that corporate, corporate letter than we do. Uh, and there's also all, all kinds of scaremongering going on about future tax burdens, which is, is putting landlords off.

Um, it's becoming less and less profitable in some markets. So, uh, yeah, that's, that's what we're left with. And if you wanna kind of look at a couple of case studies or, no, no, let's do that. If you had some case studies to share about, uh, kind of how, how your team supported clients through these challenging markets, that that would be great.

Yeah, of course. Uh, one of the most challenging markets at the moment is Netherlands. Um, it's been a big [00:08:00] issue this year and it's meant we've had to work really closely with our clients, with our CXO teams, with our DGAs to, to keep everyone abreast of, of the current situation. The situation is that properties are rented within days, often attracting as many as 50 to 120 applicants per property.

So really, really crazy markets. Um, landlords and agents, you know, are living by their own rules. Viewings are organized to suit the landlord or the agent. You know, we have to work around them. Um, homes as part of an orientation tour just isn't possible. Um, the landlords or the agents don't need. But you know, they've got the pick of their tenants.

So we really have to set expectations that while we can, you know, do drive-bys of different neighborhoods and look at different kinds of housing stock, uh, the chances of being able to visit, you know, and just have a look around on an orientation to are pretty low. Uh, a real estate agent in the Netherlands absolutely crucial to, uh, to, to find the best quality housing stock Sirva have negotiated a really competitive cap.

Uh, typically, uh. [00:09:00] Agency fee would be one month's rent. Um, so, so have agreed to cap on that and that's led to some really substantial cost savings for our clients. Um, I think we looked at 2024 and across our client group business cost saving about 80,000 euros. Uh, so certainly something that's, uh, kind of worth looking at.

And you know, when, when it puts it into perspective that you have to pay the agency fee, you'd have to pay it anyway. But you know, whilst using survey, you are getting some pretty big savings. Um, the Sirva DS team are kind of in constant contact with C-X-O-D-A sales feeding information, current legislation, you know, where prices are, where they need to be, and what we want to try and avoid is the sign need come in unprepared with a budget, unrealistic.

Mm-hmm. Um, you know, and that, that's, that's based on kind of current housing market and how we're doing it. I've got a second example as well that shows how things that can come up and they're not linked to current housing market. It just comes as surprise. So we had an assignee in Belgium, uh, arrive or due to [00:10:00] arrive.

Uh, they needed especially adapted temporary accommodation because of using a specialist wheelchair. The wheelchair was bigger than the usual wheelchair, so it didn't put standard doors, standard elevators. And just shows through strength of networking. Um, you know, whilst it's important to network within our, with our suppliers, uh, one of our team in Belgium from Benjamin Events recently and got talking to a supplier that specializes in placing disabled, uh, assignee in specialist housing.

And through that network we were able to find temporary accommodation that easily fitted, you know, the, the, the requirements. And these, you know, the site is really happy, uh, because it wouldn't. I've worked with a standard temporary accommodation. Um, so this just kind of shows that strength of network in the strength of our contacts and, and where, where the benefit lies of working with a specialist relocation company.

That's, those are some great examples Darren and I, and I know from having worked with organizations who are moving people into the [00:11:00] Netherlands, that is such a challenging, such a challenging market and it is changing all the time, uh, from day to day. Um, and your example for Belgium, it's just incredible, isn't it?

How, um, things that sometimes you might take for granted, um, aren't always the case. And like having, having the ability to move people in an inclusive way, uh, is really important. Great examples. Thank you. But, so really some challenges and I think all of our listeners will, uh, agree that it. Rarely gets easier when it comes to, um, moving employees and their families.

Um, I long for the days when there are normal market conditions, but as, as we've heard, there really, uh, global events and events that are beyond everyone's control here, um, disrupt what we might refer to as normal market conditions. Perfect. And if, if we [00:12:00] change tack a little bit, um, Reta one of the biggest topics in mobility.

Um, today is the age of intelligence, um, with AI enabling businesses, enhancing the way that we do things. And Renata, how do you see AI being incorporated into destination services? Yeah, this is the, the hot topic at the moment. So we are, well, we have noticed AI is increasingly, as we know, it's increasingly.

Transforming destination services by streamlining operations, enhancing personalization, and improving the overall experience for both relo relocating employees and service providers. So there are analysts possibilities with ai, and we are really excited using AI in our work. So here at Serva, we understand.

That is [00:13:00] smart to use of integration of AI is definitely an, uh, the enabler of optimal customer experience in relocation and visa and immigration delivery. I would say some, some of the key ways AI is being incorporated into our services are, uh, through virtual relocation. Um, virtual relocation at. That's when, uh, AI powered chat box and virtual assistance are being used to provide a 24 7 supported to assignee.

One of my favorite ones is personalized destination services. That's when AI tailors destination services to individual needs. There are platforms that allow you to create videos in different languages. So that would be definitely, um, something that helps the, as iee to kind of understand that, the message in their mother tongue, for instance.

Um, and one of the key one is the data, data [00:14:00] driven decision making. That's when AI analyzes. Vast amount of data from past relocations to identify trends and data specific employee preferences and satisfaction. So these are key AI tools and that we have been working to make sure that we leverage our, uh, customer experience with our clients, that we can put our services, um, in another level to enhance, uh, customer experience.

That's fantastic. So it's almost like AI is working in the background to, um, support, like you said, the the employee experience, but also helping the consultant to be really consultative and use that data and that information to help the employee making the right choices. Absolutely because we have been realizing that, um, enhancing personalization is the [00:15:00] key thing for today needs.

Um, in the past, all the ese were, uh, they had to pass through a abortion call and do, and kind of follow the same process. But today's, um, um, technology can allow us, uh, to kind of personalize. So you have a different profile than myself. So your needs are different than mine. So how we can use AI to actually personalize, um, your customer experience.

So that's where we are at the moment. Fantastic. Thanks for sharing that, Renata. Um, so this has been really informative. I'm sure our listeners have learned a lot, but before I let you go, we always like to ask our guests to share one top tip. What would you, uh, say, uh, as your top tip for our listeners? Um, if you manage, I would say if you manage your company's global mobility program.[00:16:00] 

Um, often local providers can offer very competitive, uh, pricing, better in-country delivery of key services without a necessary step, which most of the time can translate to a win-win formula for your, for your organization, and can result in cost savings, straightforward process, and an easier relocation for your mobile employees.

And here at Sirva direct to delivery. We can definitely support our clients with this assistance. Fantastic. That was great. Thanks so much, Renata. It was a pleasure to have you and Darren on our show. Uh, once again, thank you to all our listeners for tuning into Sirva Soundbites. If you enjoy the show, please click subscribe and share and come back next time if you have any questions or comments.

Feel free to drop us a note at soundbites@sirva.com. [00:17:00] Until then, this is Kate Reta and Darren, don't forget, Sirva provides everything you need to move talent and deliver experience. See you next time. Thank you, Kate. Thank you, Darren. Thank you.