GROUP MOVES
GROUP MOVES
Group moves are becoming a focus of media attention as UK-based organisations assess post-Brexit location options. For global mobility professionals, this means planning a strategic approach to change management. Dr Sue Shortland reports on how successful change management business strategies can be applied to relocation.
Managing strategic choices
W
ith Brexit on the not-so- distant horizon, the media are increasingly presenting features
and news stories on potential and impending major relocation exercises, in which the banking and finance sectors feature heavily. These reports highlight a range of
attractive global cities, all competing to entice business away from the UK post- Brexit. In the Winter 2016/17 edition of Relocate magazine, David Sapsted’s article The Brexit Dividend: A Boost for Global Cities? spotlighted a number of European cities that appeared particularly attractive to business. These included Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, and Paris. Beyond Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore are also gaining attention, especially in the technology sector.
Despite all the publicity surrounding
organisations’ plans to exit the UK, London is a global centre for business and likely to remain so. As such, firms are likely to wish to maintain or institute a UK presence, as well as centres of operations within the EU. For global mobility professionals, this
is likely to lead to the relocation of some teams/units into EU cities over the next few years, while other personnel are retained within, or moved into, the UK, thereby maintaining business operations from the current base. Handling such international group
moves will require a strategic approach to change management, conscious of the effects of relocation on both those moving and those left behind. The first factsheet in Relocate’s
Group Moves Toolkit contains advice on the principles of planning and communicating a group move applicable to both international and domestic large-scale relocations. It provides guidance on necessary process steps, including data gathering, staffing requirements, communications tools, and tips for developing a mobility culture. Underlining these aspects is the change
management strategy – and this requires attention to be paid to strategic choice.
Strategic choices in managing group moves Change initiatives usually lead to employee resistance, typically because individuals fear the unknown, are suspicious of the reasons for change because they are concerned that they will lose out as a result
10 | Re:locate | Spring 2017
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