Skip to Content

About: ptrelo

Recent Posts by ptrelo

By

in

Relocation Industry News

Posted

February 21, 2017 at 11:00 am

Cons of Capping Homesale Programs

Caps on Costs in Homesale Programs Should Be Avoided

Mobility magazine, November 2016

By Peter Scott

Companies that offer homesale benefits to employees sometimes ask whether there is a way to control the costs that may be incurred by imposing limits on those costs, referred to here as “caps.” Because the company is buying and then selling the employee’s old home, and must do so in a way that will satisfy Internal Revenue Service requirements that the two sales be separate and independent—see Rev. Rul. 2005-74, explained below—costs may be significant. But meeting those requirements is important because it means that the homesale costs will not be taxable to the employee and will not need to be grossed up.

In an appraised value, amended value (AV), or buyer value option (BVO) program, the employee does not realize any income from avoiding the costs of selling the home to an ultimate purchaser because that sale is regarded as separate and independent from the sale to the employer or relocation management company. The costs incurred are considered costs of the employer, not costs of the employee reimbursed by the employer.

Consequently, the costs do not have to be withheld upon, no employment taxes are due, nor is any gross-up required. If that second sale is not separate and independent, however, the employee will be regarded as the seller, and all costs will be taxable to the employee as wages.

A cap on homesale program expenses is a way of reducing the cost exposure to the company and shifts the burden of a part of the cost of the homesale program to the employee. Although the answer is not absolutely clear, there is a substantial risk that such program provisions would cause the IRS and the courts to conclude that the two sales are not separate and independent, and that the real seller in the ultimate sale to the outside buyer is the employee, not the company. A program cost cap that shifts homesale risk to the employee, no matter how structured, therefore, will expose the home purchase program to significant risk that all the costs will be taxable to the employee. Consequently, such program provisions should be avoided.

How is a cost cap imposed? There are a number of possibilities. For example, a company might limit the broker commission it will pay to 5 percent. Or, it might impose either a percentage or overall cost cap on all real estate sale expenses. Such a program might, for example, limit the total of all real estate sale costs to 7 percent of the homesale price, or limit those costs to $10,000. Another approach to the issue is to provide a lump sum from which real estate sale costs must be paid.

Program cost caps tend to be particularly attractive to companies moving from a direct reimbursement program to a homesale program. Such caps are appealing because many companies with direct reimbursement programs already include some type of reimbursable cost cap, or real estate cost lump sum, in their program, and they are reluctant to eliminate those controls and to take on the full cost of the homesale. There is no tax issue with this approach in a direct reimbursement program because all amounts actually given to the employee or incurred on the employee’s behalf are taxable wages, no matter how they are computed. It is only when the company wants to avoid that tax result by using a homesale program that the caps become an issue.

Homesale program expense caps shift the burden and risk of a part of the cost of a homesale to the employee. As noted, in a direct reimbursement program, there is nothing wrong with that from a tax perspective. Once the company decides to institute a homesale program, however, the picture changes, and the shifting of risk to the employee is a problem.

In 1985, Worldwide ERC® published a list of 11 key elements of an AV transaction. These were developed by Worldwide ERC®’s Public Policy Committee (now Tax Forum) and are intended to provide the best case to support the independence of the two sales. They also apply to the BVO. The principles contained in the 11 key elements were followed by the IRS in Rev. Rul. 2005-74, 2005-2 C.B. 1153, in holding that appraised value and standard amended value transactions result in two separate, independent sales in which costs are not taxable to employees. A key to this conclusion is full assumption of ownership risk by the company. But capping the costs the company will absorb results in a significant diminution of those ownership risks. The company is limiting its exposure to the full costs of homeownership.

A company whose program contains caps still has ownership risk. If the second sale falls through, for example, the company will be responsible for the costs of carrying the property, and it still must bear its share of the disposal costs. But the fact remains that it has left part of the ownership responsibility with the employee in the form of part of the disposal costs. From a tax perspective, that may well be enough to cause the program to fail.

Rev. Rul. 2005-74 explicitly relies for its conclusion on the employer or relocation management company bearing all the burdens of ownership and, as noted, is modeled after—although it does not cite—the 11 key elements. Consequently, any provision in a program that is inconsistent with full assumption of ownership risk or that links the employee to the second sale is highly inadvisable. A cap that shifts homesale cost risk to the employee, no matter how it is structured, will expose the home purchase program to significant tax risk.

Peter Scott is Worldwide ERC® tax counsel and principal of Peter K. Scott Associates. He can be reached at +1 910 579 5332 or [email protected].

About Premier Transitions

Premier Transitions is a family owned, privately held relocation services company headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee with additional offices in North Haven, Connecticut and Charlotte, North Carolina. Our network of professional moving and real estate resources provides coast to coast capability for corporate clients and senior communities. A deeply held commitment to service, innovation and building lasting partnerships is our hallmark. We provide our clients and their employees trusted guidance in an inclusive environment, resulting in highly effective relocation solutions.

0 0 Continue Reading →

By

in

Premier Transitions News, Press Releases

Posted

February 14, 2017 at 2:41 am

Meritorious Service Award Winner

Debbie's Bio Picture

Worldwide ERC Meritorious Service Award Winners

Debbie Robinson Honored with Worldwide ERC® Meritorious Service Award

Debbie Robinson – Executive Vice President, Premier Transitions has earned a Meritorious Service Award from Worldwide ERC®, the workforce mobility association. The award will be announced at the Worldwide ERC® Americas Mobility Conference, 17-19 May in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

The Worldwide ERC® Service Recognition Awards Program was established in 1989 to honor members who voluntarily share their time, talent and expertise through various contributions to the association.  Members earn a Meritorious Service Award upon accumulating 10 service points.

Robinson earned the award for her individual contributions to the organization, including serving on the current Foundation Board of Worldwide ERC® , enjoying a fifteen year membership tenure and co-authoring several articles for Mobility Magazine.

Since 1964, Worldwide ERC® has been the voice, community and professional membership organization for workforce mobility professionals; growing in relevance, authority and integrity as its reach expands globally and across industries. Volunteer insight and participation play an integral role in the organization’s foundation of knowledge, its quality of networking and benchmarking, and pool of expertise. Worldwide ERC® is honored to congratulate and formally recognize its dedicated members for their contributions to its significant talent management role in the world’s workforce.

 

About Premier Transitions

Premier Transitions is a family owned, privately held relocation services company headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee with additional offices in North Haven, Connecticut and Charlotte, North Carolina. Our network of professional moving and real estate resources provides coast to coast capability for corporate clients and senior communities. A deeply held commitment to service, innovation and building lasting partnerships is our hallmark. We provide our clients and their employees trusted guidance in an inclusive environment, resulting in highly effective relocation solutions.

About Worldwide ERC®
Since 1964, Worldwide ERC® has been committed to connecting and educating workforce mobility professionals across the globe. A global not-for-profit organization, Worldwide ERC® is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in London and Shanghai, and is the source of global mobility knowledge and innovation in talent management from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to Asia and across the Americas. For more information, visit www.WorldwideERC.org.

 

 

0 0 Continue Reading →

By

in

Real Estate Industry News

Posted

February 13, 2017 at 8:00 am

Homeownership Offers Stability & Wealth Creation

Homeownership Offers Stability & Wealth Creation

by on February 7, 2017 in First Time Home Buyers, For Buyers, Move-Up Buyers

The most recent Housing Pulse Survey released by the National Association of Realtors revealed that the two major reasons Americans prefer owning their own home instead of renting are:

  1. They want the opportunity to build equity.
  2. They want a stable and safe environment.

Building Equity

In a recent article by The Mortgage Reports, they report that “buying and owning a home is the essence of ‘The American Dream.’ Each month, your housing payments go toward owning your home instead of renting it; building your personal wealth and assets instead of someone else’s.

History has shown that homeownership is a clear path to wealth-building, with homeowners boasting a net worth [that is] multiples higher than the net worth of renters.”  

Family Stability 

Does owning your home really create a more stable environment for your family?

A survey of property managers conducted by rent.com disclosed two reasons tenants should feel less stable with their housing situation:

  • 68% of property managers predict that rental rates will continue to rise in the next year by an average of 8%.
  • 53% of property managers said that they were more likely to bring in a new tenant at a higher rate than to negotiate and renew a lease with a current tenant they already know.

We can see from these survey results that renting will provide anything but a stable environment in the near future.

Bottom Line

Homeowners enjoy a more stable environment, and at the same time are given the opportunity to build their family’s net worth.

 

Premier Transitions – ptrelo.com – caters to the needs of corporations seeking solutions to their mobility programs. We invite you to learn about our menu of relocation solutions and how we work to serve the needs of transferring families. Let us know how we can help you by calling us at 888-254-0005 or sending a note to [email protected].

0 0 Continue Reading →

By

in

Global News

Posted

January 24, 2017 at 12:00 pm

Brexit’s Impact on Business Strategy

Business Beyond Brexit

Negotiations on the U.K.’s split from the European Union could take years. Instead of waiting, enterprise leaders should rethink their strategies now.

Article Courtesy of PricewaterhouseCoopers

by David Lancefield

The election of Donald Trump shocked many observers, but those of us watching from the United Kingdom had a distinct sense of déjà vu. In June, when U.K. residents voted to leave the European Union (the British exit, or “Brexit”), pollsters had mostly anticipated a victory for the “remain” side. Now business leaders have to figure out their way forward in a geopolitical landscape that barely resembles the one from a year ago. The primary lesson for major companies: You need to prepare yourself for several years of uncertainty. If yours is a global company, with operations in countries on both sides of the Atlantic, you may also need to rethink your approaches to managing people, expanding into new territories, maintaining your geographic footprint, and improving your company’s reputation.

Whereas the U.S. political transition will take a few months, the British government and the E.U. will spend the next several years negotiating a divorce that balances their economic, political, and social interests. Governments and businesses in other countries will be watching closely, if not intervening. The terms of exit and the trade deals that will follow will be unprecedented in their complexity, and there are no clear rules to follow.

Nor is there a reliable timetable. The negotiations were supposed to be concluded in two years, but the High Court’s decision this month mandating that Parliament must be involved calls that into question. Even if that decision is reversed, it could take much longer to resolve related issues (such as the post-Brexit status of Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales). To get a sense of the potential delay, consider that Greenland’s exit from the European Economic Community (the E.U.’s predecessor) in 1985 took three years to negotiate. It involved only one industry, one product, and 56,000 people. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the E.U. and Canada was 10 years in the making, in part because the Wallonia region of Belgium blocked the Belgian government’s consent. The terms of the British exit, which will require approval from at least 72 percent of the E.U. member nations, are vastly more complicated. Moreover, the U.K. also needs to negotiate other critical trade deals with nations such as China and the United States. These nations may have incentives to delay, especially after Trump takes office, and the E.U. may intervene if these ancillary negotiations start before the main negotiations are concluded.

What should you, as a leader of private enterprise, do in the meantime? You may think your primary response should be either to do nothing or to try to influence the talks and resulting policies. The latter may, in fact, be a viable option; many business leaders are engaging the various parts of the U.K. government involved in shaping the negotiations and the industrial policy that follows. In October, for example, as reported by BBC News, the secretary of state for business publicly stated that the government was aiming for tariff-free trade with the E.U. This reassurance was enough for Nissan to make a statement that it was increasing its investment in the U.K. Other businesses, including Aston-Martin, have noticed and are beginning to lobby for concessions of their own; for example, some have succeeded in influencing the U.K. government to dial back its rhetoric on immigration and monetary policy. Lobbying efforts are similarly beginning to move rapidly in the United States, and we’ll undoubtedly see more of them.

But political influence, no matter how focused, can only go so far in a time of immense structural change. The political forces that led to this moment — the mistrust of globalization, elites, trade, open borders, migration, and labor mobility in Europe and the U.S. — are extremely relevant to your business strategy. And the “leave” vote, the Trump election, and the nationalism that is roiling many countries, are all raising the same difficult questions that were probably not on your radar even one year ago.

For example: How should you respond to changes in global trade routes and labor flows, which are influenced not just by protectionist policies but by currency movements? Should you channel your investments differently, even before you have a clear idea of what will happen next? If your current activities span global geographies — not just the U.K. and E.U., but major countries like the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, and India — should you expect new barriers to arise among them, and if so, how should you navigate those boundaries? How much will your industry change, and can you afford to stand by while your competitors move forward? Or if they are confused and paralyzed (as many business leaders are), how can you take advantage of their state to strengthen your own competitive position? Finally, if protectionist movements take hold in more countries — as they might in either developed or emerging economies — what, if anything, should you do differently?

Many of your competitors are probably still ignoring the aftermath of Brexit, especially the potential changes that may come. Their companies continue business as usual. That gives you an opportunity to step out in front. Instead of waiting for more certainty before choosing a course of action, use the shock as a catalyst for constructive change. Take this opportunity to redesign the one thing you have control over: What your company does and how it operates. Indeed, getting your reaction to Brexit (and other events with a nationalist, isolationist flavor) right could spur innovation and growth in your company. It could also help you build stronger, more transparent, and more responsive relationships with your constituents, including customers, suppliers, workers, shareholders, and directors.

As you define your post-Brexit strategy, you may find yourself leading amid ambiguity — not just in the external world, but in your own organization. More than 100 C-suite executives have told us that the challenges they have faced since the referendum are different from any they’ve dealt with before. You can build an effective post-Brexit strategy around these basic principles:

Develop a course of action that will be robust under many scenarios. In a period marked by uncertainty, retaining your clarity of purpose is difficult. The fundamental goal is to place your company in a position of strength and readiness, no matter how the geopolitical winds blow and shift. This will help you avoid spinning your wheels and feeling overwhelmed by the unknown.

One way to accomplish this is to use a variation of scenario planning. This approach, which involves gathering information and analyzing potential outcomes, will give you more confidence in charting a course. First, think about the possible big-picture effects of Brexit, the Trump election, and other changes in the global landscape. Then take an existing element of your business — for example, a strategic priority, critical program, or value driver — and think through all the possible ways it could be affected by those larger changes.

Consolidate your many alternative futures into just a few; it’s hard to think cogently about more than three or four, and the point is not to be comprehensive, but to jump-start your thinking process. Each scenario should be a plausible story that demonstrates how this situation could evolve; they should all be mutually exclusive and fascinating to think about. Most important, each should have a counterintuitive aspect, something you can learn from. Don’t focus on how likely they are to occur. After all, some of the most significant events of our time (including both Brexit and the Trump election, as well as the 9/11 attacks and the Syrian crisis) were considered unlikely or near-impossible before they happened.

You might imagine several scenarios for how the E.U. and its relationship with the U.K. change after the divorce. In one future, the E.U. commits to further reform, in part to preempt exits from other member states. In another, it becomes more unified, but also more controlling and isolated from the rest of the world. In a third, it fragments, and some countries form stronger ties with the U.K. than they had before. Your own most relevant scenarios might involve a different issue, such as food supply, access to university research, but they would still involve thinking about alternatives.

As you put these themes together, try to consider the unintended consequences of actions that many others are overlooking, but that are relevant to your business. For example, after the U.K.’s stops contributing financially to the E.U. budget, the E.U. will still have to support 27 countries. How will it manage that change? Brexit may also open the door for new E.U. policies that the U.K. historically opposed, such as a shared military or a single banking market. Ideally, at least one of your scenarios should challenge your view of the way the world works. For example, if you believe that movement toward free trade is inevitable, imagine an alternative future in which the world gradually comes to accept tariffs and barriers.

Having articulated these alternative futures, look into the impact each of them could have on your company. How significant would they be? What would be the likely timing of events? Which of your competitors would thrive under this scenario if you did not? What else would have to happen for this scenario to occur? Highlight any risks or opportunities involved, especially those that are more elusive.

Finally, instead of devising a separate response for each scenario, bring your colleagues together to consider these questions: What strategy could we adopt that would be robust under any of these scenarios? What investments could we make now to ensure that whatever scenario comes to pass, we will be glad we made that choice? And what can we do now to influence the development of the preferred scenario?

Rethink your global footprint. The aftershocks of Brexit provide an opening to launch soul-searching exercises to examine the map of countries where you manufacture and sell your portfolio of goods and services. These exercises can also help you reconsider cost allocation, to adjust expenses to match your new global needs. Focus on strategic objectives: making the most of your capabilities, ensuring access to markets where your capabilities can help you stand out, managing regulators, finding suitable labor pools, and providing opportunities for innovation.

For instance, U.S. biotech company Alnylam is going ahead with its pre-Brexit plans to house its European clinical trials and operations center in Maidenhead, U.K., in large part because Britain has a strong life sciences sector and workers skilled in the field. But in a nod to the Brexit vote, Alnylam plans to set up its E.U. headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. Although Switzerland is only an associate member of the E.U., this location is logistically close to European markets and will give Alnylam continued access to pharmaceutical innovation and intellectual property.

General Electric is using the Brexit vote more broadly as the spur for a new, decentralized footprint. Under this plan, companies will increasingly create autonomous manufacturing and services operations in countries around the world — units that interact, share knowledge, and coordinate with the global business while management, decision making, and R&D are controlled locally. Honda Motor has employed this strategy to its advantage for decades, but it is only now becoming attractive to other multinationals. GE CEO Jeff Immelt argued in a recent article in Fortune magazine: “In the future, sustainable growth will require a local capability within a global footprint…. A localization strategy can’t be shut down by protectionist politics.”

The U.K. TV network ITV announced a cost reduction exercise in response to the economic uncertainty that sprang up after the vote. Some banks announced they were reviewing the location of their HQ.

Encourage a diversity of perspectives within your company. Now is the time to build a stronger culture in which people feel welcome to express their own points of view. It’s particularly important to be inclusive in addressing the challenges of a post-Brexit world. Organizations are made up of many types of people, occupying any number of socioeconomic strata and holding a variety of political positions. Employees will hold a wide range of views about the risks of your post-Brexit strategy and the direction your company should take. This diversity of perspective is a strength, not a weakness, of your enterprise.

Give a large group of trusted managers and employees the task of developing a course of action in Europe and the U.K. Then encourage them to question one another’s biases and assumptions. In this way, you can guard against what behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman calls the overconfidence bias, in which people become so enamored of their subjective perceptions that they never question their conclusions or hear out anyone else’s divergent opinions. If your decision makers hold views that are mirror images, or if they are afraid that disagreeing with management would harm their position in the organization, their collective biases and blinders may prevent them from seeing an optimal strategy.

To make your prospective pool of decision makers as large as possible, draw in people with a range of experiences, professional backgrounds, interests, and areas of knowledge. Include advisors with deep sets of intelligence in areas as diverse as economic development, political engagement, devolution, immigration policy, industry trends, and customer data. Ask open questions to make sure that responses are not exclusively what people believe management wants to hear.

 As a leader, be transparent and choose your words carefully. In difficult periods, executives must be cautious about what they say and the stances they take. They should express sincere compassion and be on guard against statements that may ruffle feathers throughout the organization. The Brexit and Trump votes have triggered strong emotional reactions, not just in the U.K. and U.S. The environment within many companies doing business in the U.K. has become sensitive. For some individuals living there, the Brexit results raise questions of whether their country is still inclusive. They also have concerns about their stocks and pensions, their jobs, and their ability to get a mortgage in the future. Others are bristling with resentment about generous executive pay and high bonuses. Still others see Brexit as an opportunity to develop a new, perhaps more realistic relationship with the rest of the world. In the end, the vote may lead to tighter controls in some companies, and more “conscious capitalism” efforts, including more participative management and broader-based reward systems, in others. You may have to choose an approach based on what will help you attract and hold the best people in the future.

No matter what your perspective is, allow people to communicate their views freely. If people express fear or concern, offer tangible aid whenever possible. Avoid language that can be perceived by employees as callous or threatening; for example, even low-key statements such as “We’re thinking differently about next year’s budget” could be heard in a menacing way. Be similarly self-aware when interacting with customers, suppliers, and shareholders. In a time of turmoil, clearly and effectively communicating the organization’s plans and strategic mission to stakeholders, even if they are still subject to change, can open up new sales channels and precipitate real improvement in product lines and quality.

Develop your company’s “foreign policy.” As the global environment shifts, multinational companies will have to become adept at navigating the changing regulations, consumer preferences, and cultural mores in regional and local markets. As John Chipman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies suggests, companies need to develop many of the skills traditionally associated with diplomacy and statecraft. That’s what we mean by a foreign policy, in this context.

These skills will be even more important after Brexit is implemented. If the aftermath of the referendum propels you to move into foreign territories that have their own evolving post-Brexit characteristics, you will need to integrate your company with the local society and government. If your enterprise doesn’t yet have these capabilities, you may need to build them. Use the expertise you have gained in your current business locations to collect on-the-ground intelligence (for example, from observers within local governments) that can inform strategies designed to minimize risk. For example, you won’t be surprised by political activism or labor dissatisfaction if your entry into a new country includes enough advance study of the conditions.

Instituting a well-resourced corporate foreign policy is an excellent way to buoy your localization strategy. For example, a British company hoping to tap into new opportunities or to avoid potential trade impediments and reputational damage could start explicitly building ties with other countries’ local and national leaders. This could lead to more favorable consideration as the new order evolves.

One critical aspect of your company’s foreign policy, of course, is your thoughtful engagement of issues related to Brexit, trade barriers, and globalization. The Japanese government, and some U.S. officials have encouraged businesses to speak out publicly about Brexit, even if it takes them out of their comfort zone. This type of encouragement is unprecedented, and it may lead a number of companies to take positions on Brexit or other geopolitical issues before they have developed true diplomatic skills. The more prowess you have as a company with a foreign policy, the more powerful and nuanced an effect you will have.

Author Profile:

  • David Lancefield is a partner with PwC UK for Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting group. Based in London, he writes and comments regularly on leadership, digital innovation, megatrends, and the implications of Brexit.
0 0 Continue Reading →

By

in

Real Estate Industry News

Posted

January 4, 2017 at 12:05 pm

2017 Housing Market Trends

 

These 5 Trends Will Shape the Housing Market in 2017

Chris Matthews
Updated: Jan 03, 2017 10:16 AM Central | Originally published: Dec 29, 2016

If the U.S. economy is to hit escape velocity in 2017, you can expect the real estate sector to serve as its rocket fuel.

At its most broadly defined, housing can be counted on to compose 15% of GDP. It hasn’t done that much heavy lifting lately, however. That’s because in the wake of the real estate bubble, lending standards have remained tight, while the cautious builders who survived the crisis have been reluctant to dive headfirst into expanding their operations again.

But there are signs that these trends are about to change. As the new year rolls on, we’ll fill you in on the health of builders and other key trends to watch below.

1. Rising Rates

In December, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for only the second time since 2006, and a majority of the members of the Fed’s rate-setting board predict there will be three more increases coming in 2017. These decisions will cause mortgage rates to rise, potentially making it more difficult for prospective homebuyers to be able to afford the home of their dreams. (In fact, those rates have already started creeping up.) But don’t worry too much about this trend. As Redfin Chief Economist Nela Richardson predicts in a recent blog post, “We expect mortgage interest rates to increase, but to no higher than 4.3 percent on the 30-year fixed rate.” That’s still a great deal compared to historical norms.

2. More Credit

Redfin’s Richardson also points out that though rates may rise, mortgage credit will likely be more widely available due to slightly looser lending standards. She points out that the Federal Housing Administration will likely lower fees it charges first-time homebuyers, a continuation of a trend begun in the Obama administration, under which it lowered fees in 2015.

In addition, starting in 2017, government-owned mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will begin backing larger mortgages for the first time in over a decade, making it easier for buyers in expensive markets to finance their purchases.

3. More New Homes

Though the most recent data on new home construction showed that builders pulled back on new projects in November, the overall trend in home construction is clearly positive, with the average annual rate of new groundbreakings reaching a 1.163 million rate so far in 2016, up about 5% from 1.108 million in 2015.

Expect this to continue in 2017, as home builders are encouraged by higher wages, looser credit, and increased demand from buyers.

4. The Continued Rise of Medium-sized Cities

One of the dominant stories of the current economic recovery is that top-tier economic cities like New York, Seattle, and San Francisco have seen property values rise as workers flock to these locations to take advantage of high-paying jobs. But this trend has put a strain on those cities’ real estate markets , because new construction is often unable to keep pace with demand due to geographic constraints, or restrictions imposed by local government regulations.

That’s why more younger folks are finding themselves attracted to medium-sized cities, which may not have the same professional opportunities as their larger counterparts, but provide housing affordability. Cities like Raleigh, N.C., and Fort Collins, Colo., have seen building permit issuance soar over the past six years as they attract younger adults seeking cheap rents and lower asking prices. Expect the trend to continue in 2017.

5. Foreign Buyers Aren’t Going Away

One trend that is helping drive prices beyond the realm of affordability in places like New York and Los Angeles is an influx of foreign buyers of U.S. real estate. This has only increased of late, fueled in particular by buyers from China who are looking for safe places to store their wealth, away from the slowing economy of the homeland, where repressive financial policies make it difficult to earn decent returns on savings. “U.S. and Europe continue to attract growing amounts of foreign capital, especially from Asian investors,” writes Scott Brown, global head of real estate at Barings Real Estate Advisers.

0 0 Continue Reading →

By

in

Human Resource Trends

Posted

August 12, 2016 at 6:10 am

Onboarding New Employees

How to make learning a stronger part of the onboarding process

Article Courtesy of HR Dive

By | July 19, 2016

BambooHR, a workforce management software firm, conducted a survey of 1,005 American employees over the age of 24 to uncover why nearly 31% quit jobs in the first 6 months. What most respondents said would make a difference would be on-the-job training conducted in the first few weeks, to prepare them for the challenges ahead.

Why structured onboarding is critical

Onboarding matters. And its long-lasting effects can be highly beneficial to both employees and the company. In general, onboarding has been shown to increase retention, ramp up new hires quicker, improve the sense of loyalty in new hires, reduce stress in a new role, and produce higher job satisfaction.

Designing learning-based onboarding

The millennial generation is known for being voracious learners, having grown up with information at their fingertips. Employers must find ways to improve onboarding programs by making learning the foundation of all onboarding efforts. A well-designed onboarding process can include stepped learning that slowly introduces new concepts, tasks, and procedures to employees, while honoring their individual learning styles.

An onboarding program designed around learning can look like this:

  • Orientation happens before the employee officially starts – with a welcome packet sent to the new hire that includes a personalized letter from members of management, more detailed information about the company and benefits, and a schedule for the first day’s orientation. In many cases, a video can be sent to share much of this information in an interactive way.
  • First day on the new job – this is where learning counts the most. All employees like a building tour, to meet their new colleagues and have a solid introduction to the environment in which they will be working. Make it a positive experience, keep new information brief, and spend more time answering questions than quizzing new hires on what you have thrown at them.
  • The first 6 weeks on the job – managers must be trained on how to onboard new hires. Partnering with a mentor on the team helps to transfer knowledge, but there should also be time to learn new concepts and skills through classroom, hands-on, and video training methods. Learning management platforms can deliver this information and allow employees to learn at their own pace, around other work responsibilities.

Everyone learns at their own pace

Be patient with new hires. According to most experts, like Christina Marino, CRO of Click Boarding LLC., an employee onboarding software firm, it takes between “8-12 months for new hires to be as proficient as their tenured colleagues.” Keep in mind that much of the learning that takes place during onboarding happens organically, as new hires face challenges and overcome problems on the job, work with clients, and connect with peers.

As your company prepares to improve the current onboarding process, remember that the learning needs of each generation can dictate their comfort with how information is introduced. For example, millennials and generation X may be better able to digest information in micro snippets – like videos and interactive lessons. Older workers may prefer content delivered in a written or visual format, with plenty of time to go over questions and work through problems in a live classroom setting. Use a blend of all of the above training methods when designing your employee onboarding programs for the best results.

Top Image Credit: Full Rights Image / Depositphotos
0 3 Continue Reading →

By

in

Premier Transitions News

Posted

August 8, 2016 at 6:00 am

Premier Transitions Launches New Website!

Premier Transitions is proud to announce the launch of our new website – PTRelo.com. Catering to the needs of corporations seeking solutions to their mobility programs, the site provides comprehensive information about our services and approach to partnering with our clients. We invite you to take a tour, learn about our menu of relocation solutions, our history and how we work to serve the needs of transferring families. Let us know how we can help you by calling us at 888-254-0005 or sending a note to [email protected].

0 2 Continue Reading →

 

Recent Comments by ptrelo

    No comments by ptrelo