mobility matters, s4 bonus episode: from jitters to joy: western union’s implementation experience

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Morgan: Hello, and welcome to a special bonus episode of Mobility Matters. I’m your guest host, Morgan Snapp. I’m a Director of Business Solutions here at Cartus, and I know Season Four just wrapped up, and we couldn’t resist sneaking in one last episode before the year ends. Why? Because today we’re tackling implementation, which is a hot topic on everyone’s mind. The idea seems like a good one, but a work effort can be a little scary, especially with the unknown. So, we’re hoping to ease those fears today and share a real-life account of just how smooth and successful an implementation can really be.

Here to discuss their own recent experiences with implementation, Kellie Nichols and Maggie Porter, global mobility managers at Western Union. For those of you who don’t know, Western Union is a global financial services and money movement company that enables people and businesses to send and receive money across borders and across currencies. Welcome Maggie and Kellie and thank you so much for spending some time with us today!

Kellie: Thank you, Morgan, and Meghan, we’re happy to be here.

Maggie: Yes, thank you. Happy to be here as well.

Morgan: Also joining us today is Cartus’ very own Meghan McCall, a manager in global talent mobility. Meghan has worked closely with the Western Union crew during their onboarding process and is also here to share her expertise on what it takes to deliver a positive experience, as well as to dispel any myths and legends along the way, as to how challenging it really is for an in-house mobility or HR team. Welcome Meghan!

Meghan: Thank you. Glad to be here and looking forward to the discussion.

Morgan: Before we delve into the information and how the implementation unfolded, can we set the stage just a little bit? Kellie, would you mind sharing a little bit about the program for Western Union with us? Things like key locations involved, the scale of your population, that’ll help our listeners get a feel for the program that you’re managing day-to-day.

Kellie: Yes, absolutely Morgan. So, our key locations that we would move employees to would be our corporate headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Also, a hub for us is Austin, Texas. And newly opened is Atlanta, Georgia. We also have quite a few folks going to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. And in 2024 we had approximately 80 relocations, and that broke out to be about 35 domestic and 45 international. But we are a global company, so we can have moves from anywhere, right, like so, maybe Lithuania to UK, or, you know, we’re moving some people from Austria to, I think it’s another one who’s going to Dubai. So, we can just have any combination pop up, just depending on where there’s a need for someone to move to or from.

Morgan: Yeah, I was surprised to learn that Western Union is in over 190 countries. So, you really are the biggest of the global money movers around the world, which is really exciting when you decided to potentially change suppliers. Maggie, what was your key objective? What were you looking for in ways for your mobility program to evolve?

Maggie: I think we were really looking for consistency in the quality of services, both for the employee experience and also for Kellie and I working with the provider. We were in need of proactive account management. We wanted to kind of go through our policies and modernize them where applicable. And we wanted reliable reporting. And this was, I think our biggest hot topic, was user-friendly cost estimates. So, we wanted to be able to go into the provider’s platform and run estimates ourselves, make edits and do that rather quickly. So, we really wanted attention to detail when it comes to our policies, benefits, and even exceptions. We wanted our provider to make recommendations when our employees come to us requesting exceptions, whether or not that would be advisable.

Morgan: Yeah, it sounds more like you’re looking for a true partner instead of just a vendor.

Maggie: Exactly.

Morgan: Meghan switching over to you. Can you talk us through the timeline? When did implementation kick off and what was the targeted go-live date?

Meghan: Sure, the first meeting was held on July 9, 2025, with an original go-live date of October 1, but thanks to some early process improvements that we identified, we were able to move up the target date to September 1 and were even able to get our first authorization earlier than that, on August 26.

Morgan: Great job! Maggie and Kellie just, in regard to timeline, I know you, and Meghan had mentioned that we had just targeted October 1, and then we bumped it to September 1. How was that received internally with Western Union? Did that help you, kind of, with those conversations with your stakeholders?

Kellie: It did absolutely help, and Cartus was very efficient and accommodating with the go-live date and adjusting because we had moves coming up that didn’t make sense to initiate with our current RMC. And so, deadlines were always met or exceeded. From the Cartus side, from your standpoint, you action items that you were supposed to do when you said you would do it, you got things done, and it overall, was a pleasure just working with the entire team as it was not a painful process at all.

Maggie: So yes, having a closer go-live date made this a less daunting process. It cut the implementation time, which meant less calls overall, and less overlap between the two vendors. So, like Kellie mentioned, we actually had a few initiations prior to our closer go-live date, where Cartus was super accommodating, and we were able to work together to find a few workarounds to get those cases initiated before the go-live date.

Morgan: There always seems to be that, that one that is so close but not quite after go-live, that’s critical for Cartus to be able to take on. Meghan, you touched on that tight schedule that we had. Can you share some specific Cartus actions that were taken to complete that timeline and how you kept everything managed and moving forward?

Meghan: Sure, we offered Western Union a couple of different options, extending the meetings multiple meetings, but ultimately, Western Union chose to hold two, one-hour implementation meetings per week to help keep everyone aligned and on track. Key parts of the success for this implementation, as well as all of our Cartus implementations, is the expert support from our Cartus global implementation services team. And in this case, we had our project manager, Francina Carruthers and our financial project manager, Arianny Espinal. So together with that team, we set out right from the beginning to assign the different workstream owners and map out the timeline and next steps. And then the result was a smooth and efficient implementation.

Morgan: And Maggie, from your perspective, did the Western Union team see value in this twice a week structure? And what were your personal takeaways from everything that happened in the last couple months?

Maggie: Absolutely again, it really cut the overall implementation process in half, and it also allowed us to keep the calls to one hour. I think any time after that, at Western Union, we tend to lose our train of thought. So having two calls a week at one hour, even though not everyone wants to have a call on Friday morning, myself included, it was definitely worth it. And the calls, you know, were really enjoyable. They were concise and productive. So, we got straight to the point, and we were able to meet that earlier, go-live date.

Morgan: Yeah, that’s something that our implementation team always impresses me when I’m involved in the onboarding, is how efficient the time together is, you know, the behind the scenes work that they’re doing to make sure that we’re really taking on 80% of the work, you know, heavy lift. So, you’re coming in and just validating the assumptions and clarifying anything that needs to happen. Those agendas that they send out the day before are always helpful because they keep us on track. And you know, it’s very targeted so that stakeholders can determine if they’re adding value or if they’re not, for a particular call, turning it over to you.

Kellie, did the implementation process turn out to be as challenging or as intimidating as you had thought? And please be honest here because we want full transparency. We know our listeners are very curious about your experience.

Kellie: It did not turn out to be as challenging. As I had mentioned earlier in the podcast, I’ve been through some other implementations, and they were painful. So, in terms of implementation, this was one of the smoothest that I’ve ever been involved in, and I think that’s mainly due to Cartus has such a well-defined and very methodical system, there was a clear agenda for each implementation call. It kept us on track, and it really allowed us to meet all the deliverables and not miss any of the key areas that we needed to focus on.

So, it, you know, when we first started talking about looking at a different RMC, and again, I’ve been through a couple of these pretty recently, and really just the bandwidth it takes, and the time involved. We were hesitant, right? And, you know, we were leery, but, but we just did a lot of the upfront work, I think, and asked a lot of the questions to make sure that we really were getting what we wanted, so that we did not find ourselves in a similar situation.

Morgan: So, Kellie, how did you do the due diligence ahead of time to make sure that this was the right fit for you?

Kellie: So, we really analyzed what was not working with our current RMC and what our ultimate end goal was and just made sure. And you know, we asked, you probably know, we asked you some of the same questions numerous times. We’re like, “Are you sure?” Like, we do not want to make a switch and be back in the same situation. If we’re going to do this again, we need to make sure that we have a good product, a good partnership, what we’re looking for and what will work for us. So, I think we just, because we were so gun shy and very detailed and analytical about this, just again to make sure that we were getting exactly what we needed.

Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. I remember those, those follow up calls of, “Walk me through this one more time. I have a couple more questions,” which we love, because we always want to make sure that we can honor the promises that we make, and that the partnership truly is delivering on what you’re looking for.

Maggie, did you have anything that you wanted to add there of your experience on the onboarding process?

Maggie: So, I’m a little less experienced than Kellie. I had only been through one implementation prior to this, and it was when I just started at Western Union, and I also was not looking forward to having to make the switch again. But this implementation was honestly painless. It felt like it only took a few weeks, few calls, and they were really productive. It felt like we were getting a lot of value out of it with going through all of our policies and making sure that they were in line with the market and getting recommendations from you, all the experts, it was very valuable.

Morgan: Great. Meghan, I just want to circle back to you… any key takeaways that you learned from going through the process with Western Union, whether about the program or just about the onboarding experience?

Meghan: Well, I learned that it’s a team effort, so we all have to have the right people in place, have the conversations and collaborate well with each other. In this particular case, Western Union was very happy to collaborate with us, take our suggestions. We had a lot of valuable conversations during the implementation process, some of which the recommendations they took some of which they didn’t, but we had a lot of good conversations. So that’s the best part of implementation, is the collaboration with everybody.

Morgan: Yeah, you really get to know the nuances of a program and why you’re doing what you’re doing and how you’re accomplishing it. So, it’s a lot of fun to get to learn about each other and really become a true partner. And then Kellie, back to the present day now. You’ve gone through the implementation process. You’re on the other side of go-live. Can catch your breath a little bit. But I do have to ask, was it worth swapping relocation management companies?

Kellie: It was absolutely worth it. And I think to tag on to what Meghan said, it’s all about the right people in the right places, right? Like I do feel like we click and have a good working relationship, but yes, we are up and running. Things are going smoothly, and as part of the implementation process, Cartus did help us benchmark our policies. And that’s kind of also what Meghan alluded to, some things we accepted, others we didn’t. But I think we are in a much better spot now from an overall perspective, including the policies and administering the program and the strategic partnership and the personality fit that, you know, we talked about a little bit already, although there are a few items after the fact that we realized needed to be included, you’re always going to have that right? But you know, we’re working on getting those added, and we have a good, solid foundation for us to build on.

Morgan: That’s awesome. And Maggie, on your side, was all the work and effort of onboarding and making the switch, was it worth that? The final result?

Maggie: It definitely was. And now thinking about it, it felt really fast, but not rushed. So, it felt like all the calls that we did have had a lot of value, and we’re already feeling a lot better. We’ve had a few of our talent acquisition members reach out to us asking for cost estimates, and we just went in and got those out in five minutes or less. So, it just makes our job a lot easier and takes the anxiety off of our day-to-day.

Morgan: Oh, that’s awesome.

Kellie: And even one of those, one of those talent acquisition requests she [Maggie] had mentioned to me. After the fact, because these typically used to take us a lot longer to do because we hated to go in and run them. They were so painful. And she made a comment, she’s like, “Oh yeah, I thought you got this back to me really quickly.” So, our partners internally are already realizing that it’s a simpler and better process for us and not as painful, even internally, for us to do things for our stakeholders.

Morgan: That’s awesome. That’s great. That internal feedback is like, “Okay, good. We’ve made a wise choice, and the best is yet to come.” I know we have some future goals when it comes to cost estimator tools and things like that that Western Union is excited about. So, we’ll have to touch base with you in six months to see if Cartus is continuing to deliver on all of our promises.

Maggie, when we’re looking to the future, maybe a year or even five years down the line, where do you see your mobility program headed?

Maggie: I think we’ll continue to see fluctuations in terms of volumes of move just based on the economy and the job market. And with that, we may need to implement some more robust lump sum policies to accommodate some of the moves that don’t fit within the manager’s budgets with our current policies, but we feel that Cartus will help us make recommendations for improvement, and that’s still in line with market data if we do need to make that switch, and also that fit with Western Union’s needs as a company.

And so, you know, just overall, again, as Kellie mentioned, we’re already seeing internally. We’re getting a lot of positive feedback, and we just think this, this will also trickle down to a better employee experience, which is the ultimate goal.

Morgan: Absolutely, so final question for you, Kellie and Maggie, if there is just one thing or maybe two that you could tell mobility managers out there who are listening today, who are thinking about maybe making a change, but are nervous about the onboarding process and what it entails, what would your one piece of advice be?

Kellie: So, I would say, take the chance to investigate, right? Like they don’t have anything to lose if something’s not currently working, take the time to investigate. Make sure you’re asking the right questions up front to ensure that you can get to the end result you desire if you do choose to make a change.

Maggie: That is so true. Kellie, and related to that, I was just hiking with a friend, and we were discussing relationships and how too many people fall into this sunk cost fallacy, thinking that because they’ve invested significant time, oftentimes many years, into a relationship, it would be a waste to end it, even if it’s no longer working. And in reality, just like a romantic relationship, if the current relationship with your provider isn’t a match, it’s better to move in a different direction and invest the time now with the right partner to ensure an improved process moving forward.

So, like Kellie said, you know, do your research, find the right fit for your company needs. And just like relationships, it’s not always just about looking good on paper, right? So, it’s, it’s about finding the right team, having a good working relationship and personal rapport.

Morgan: I think that does make all the difference. Meghan, anything to add?

Meghan: I guess I agree with all of those sentiments, you know, having that right relationship and right balance, to make it a partner relationship versus a vendor relationship really makes all the difference, and we’re glad that Western Union did that due diligence and are enjoying their time with Cartus.

Morgan: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Kellie, Maggie, and Meghan, for joining this special episode of Mobility Matters. Thank you to our listeners for tuning in, and if any of our listeners have any questions or would like to follow up, please email cartussolutions@cartus.com or reach out on our LinkedIn page for any future podcast updates or questions, and we will see you next time.

Kellie: Thank you.

Megham: Thank you.

Maggie: Thank you for having us.