mobility matters, S5E3: supplier showdown at the c-suite corral

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Client Forum narrator: Good morning, everyone. Please join me in welcoming back to the stage Cartus Executive Senior Vice President of Global Talent Mobility, David Pascoe, along with our esteemed panelists, GRA President and CEO Dave Dickey, Atlas Van Lines President and COO, Ryan McConnell, Dwellworks President and CEO James Conigliaro, and Oasis CEO, Steve Frey.

David: So, let’s kick off with our first theme, which is market shifts and employee reality. So, first question to you, Dave, so what are the biggest shifts that you’re seeing in the mortgage product requests from transferees versus two to three years ago?

Dave: So, you know, I think you would all agree, a lot has happened in real estate, especially. I’ve been doing this for 38 years, but especially pretty acutely over the last five years. So, affordability constraints are still prevalent in most markets. You have inventory constraints in both markets, so everything’s super, super competitive. And I think from a product perspective, we’ve done a really nice job of developing new products and programs to meet some of those needs. The affordability is still a challenge, but I don’t know that we’ve done enough to educate. But having said that, I think what I see in the demands of the of a relocation and a mobility client is just having optionality, a lot of options. I think for years, again, I’ve been doing this for a long time. A 30 year fixed mortgage could fit the need of pretty much anyone, and most mortgage companies kind of run down that lane, but having a whole bunch of products and programs available that give the mobility client the option to choose how they want to use their assets, so maybe they want to preserve more cash, maybe they want to use more cash, maybe payment is more important, or maybe holding on to their assets and cash is more important, so having really good consultation, but then laying out all those options, super important. You can actually buy a home before you sell your home, and most people don’t know that too. So, having a really good consultation is important, but over the last two, three years, for sure, having a lot more products and programs to meet the need of this constrained affordability and in inventory.

David: Got it. Thank you. From a destination services perspective, and I’ll shoot this to you, James. How are those changes showing up in employee expectations, and what could corporations do differently to potentially change the relocation outcome?

James: Yeah, I think some of the changes that we’re seeing are maybe threefold. First, is we’re moving away from sort of a very high, dynamically growing volume-based mobility. It’s more about strategic moves that are aligned with business goals of the organizations. I think that ties in really nicely to the Cartus Concierge program, and we’re really excited at Dwellworks to be partnering with Cartus for that program, but then thinking about some other populations that we’re servicing that maybe are somewhat new in a lot of ways, so there’s, you know, a lot more Chinese nationals who are moving outbound into the West, so sort of adapting and adjusting to what those expectations are. There’s also more moves for levels of employees we haven’t seen a lot in the past, maintenance workers, for example, or employees who are going to be supporting data centers and things like that. And I think last is on the domestic side, we’ve seen, you know, in the US, we’ve always had a very strong rental services program, particularly for Cartus, helping us to US moves. I think what we’re seeing over the last 12 to 18 months or so are more intra company moves in places that maybe we didn’t see before, so in France, in. Germany, we’ve always seen a little bit in the UK and Canada, so supporting those populations are a little different, and the expectations for those assignees require some adaptations on the way we’re servicing them, how we’re communicating to them, and getting them the service they need, because their needs are a little bit different, and we think about this from combining it with that idea that we need more personalization at the employee level to really create great employee outcomes.

David: Great, thank you, Steve. Next question to you, I think it’s fair to say, over the last probably five to seven years, there’s been a lot of progress in terms of technology platforms that support the temp living process. What kind of impact do you think that’s having?

Steve: I think it’s evolved. It’s interesting. I listen to what you guys are saying, and you talk about optionality and customization, and I think that’s part of where you have to look at it, and you go, okay, what’s technology’s role going to be in this space and I think it started as a way to really aggregate and create a central hub for really a really fragmented marketplace and so what you’re able to see is that so much of the demand was being spread so thin amongst so many so many partners around the world of really high focus being put on getting to the lowest price, that it put a lot of strain on the industry as a whole, and so you go, where’s that pendulum going to swing, where’s this going to settle to, and I think really what it’s going to now is going back to understanding there’s still a human being at the core of all this, it’s still a hospitality product, and even though we need to have great technology that supports that customization and optionality to it can’t lose sight of really what we’re trying to accomplish is putting a smile on somebody’s face and making somebody happy at the end of the day, so I think it’s really moving towards how do we create that in a systems environment to say well what our objective is for one person may not be for another, and so, how do we create a system that allows that to happen, that can be pretty complicated, but it needs to feel easy, right? So, I think we’re going back to that right now, where it’s putting the human priorities back at the center, and it’s being supported by good technology.

David: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Hey Ryan, from a household goods perspective, what, how is technology influencing kind of behavior and expectations from transferees?

Ryan: Yeah, it’s.. it’s interesting. Steve mentioned, right, the outcome, and that’s where our team really focuses. What’s the outcome that’s in mind every time you sit down, and you start to look at how do you move from a paper-based world into something that’s truly AI-driven and can use that structured data in a way that really will help everybody make decisions going forward. I’ll take kind of ground level approach. So, for us, we’re looking at the ability to go to digital inventory, both at the survey point and the loading point. And as you do that, now I have that piece of data captured. As I do it, what’s the projection on that? How does AI fit into what we’re doing, and then how do we move forward together? So, if you don’t know that outcome when you start that process, what’s that going to look like at the end? And it does go back to how does the customer experience actually drive itself forward in a database world.

David: Great, thank you. So, we’re going to jump on to our second theme. So, our second theme is cost, value, and risk trade-offs. So, you know, cost pressure is constant, but you know understanding cost often isn’t so. Again, maybe first question to you, Dave, what cost driver in the mortgage financing is being most is most misunderstood?

Dave: Probably the amount of money you need to buy a home, probably the so this was two years ago, I think it was NerdWallet does survey and 63% of Americans still believe you need to put 20% down to buy a home. Does anybody else think that? Yeah, just you. I thought there’s more. You’re the brave, you’re the one that raised your hand. That’s awesome. But that was… that’s it’s kind of… it’s interesting. It’s better. So, again, I got in in 1987 It wasn’t the case then, but that just built up over time. So, I think again, just the fact that I think there’s a barrier in many, many cases, because everybody thinks you need to have either a certain amount down or you need to have a certain amount liquid assets to buy a home, and you could buy a home with as little as 5% down, no down, 1% down. So, I think that’s it, like the cost, and, and also thinking that’s gonna be very expensive to do that, so, but again, I think, again, because I kind of said earlier, just optionality, a really good consultation to know exactly what all of the options are, is super important, but I still find that there’s a lot of people and me. And you, that’s it.

David: Great. Hey James, so are you seeing any cost focus shifts? And I guess the follow up, the kind of second part to that question is where do you think mobility programs can be simplified or modernized to help that.

James: So, obviously, first when I think about cost, we know from the corporate side, looking at your cost and the pricing that suppliers are charging is critically important. I think we’ve been really successful, David Cartus and Dwellworks, together at keeping our destination services prices steady for more than 20 years now. So, keeping those prices steady puts the burden on companies like Dwellworks to make sure we’re taking cost out of our process on a continuous basis, so we’ve really focused on that over the last several years to make sure we’re able to take cost out of our service to deliver, keep prices for you steady over time, but still continue to provide the quality of service that assignees, employees are expecting today, especially with that extra work for personalization. So, some different examples for things are in some ways fighting against the reflex we’ve got across the industry for customization on things like process, as opposed to personalization for the individual employee, moving those sort of customizations that I think of without value are really focusing on the process and the way we deliver the work, and I’ll give a specific example. I could deepen, dive deep a little. Over the last 18 months, we looked at something that’s really key. A key deliverable in destination services is a lease summary. So, once the assignee has secured a home, corporate clients want a summary of that lease, so they can understand what their employee has obligated themselves to. We looked at that process, and there was something like 35 different versions of a lease summary form across all clients. All of them had simple, similar information, but our team was spending time managing through which form do I use for which clients in which country at which time. So, we did a real deep dive into that, and said, how do we standardize that to one version of that form through a lot of collaboration with the Cartus teams and people in this room to get to that consistency. Now we’re able to apply technology AI at doing 80% of that work for us instead of having that done manually, and then what that allows us to do is free up all that capacity on our internal teams to focus on the human interactions that really achieve the personalizations that we need, so we’re really proud that we’ve been able to take a lot of work and cost out of the work to deliver the service, and we’ve actually seen an improvement in our service scores with Cartus over the last two years. So, I think that’s one of those examples where we focus a lot on the cost to deliver to keep the prices at a lower point where your corporate clients need it to be.

David: No, that’s great, super helpful. I’ve actually seen the tool that James is talking about, it’s very impressive. It also then uploads everything we need into our system after the AI has done the review, so yeah, super great, super helpful. Ryan, question for you. So, in terms of cost-saving initiatives, where do you think that might introduce risk that maybe some of our corporate colleagues in the rooms may not anticipate when you know when cost savings initiatives have been kind of playing out in the in the household goods world.

Ryan: Yeah, there’s a couple of places where those trade-offs actually are occurring now, and probably just within the last week some things that are impacting that from a regulatory perspective as well. The big one for our associations at the industry level for moving and storage really start to lean back into the core flex, the lump sum pieces that are there. David, and I think what we’re really seeing is will the carrier that is being selected or the rental truck that’s being used really fulfill that experience and the need that’s out there, and what’s that introduced as far as the risk levels and the productivity side, and then you shift into the insurance pieces that are all associated with that, and what do those coverages end up doing? The big piece that’s probably come out of the Supreme Court’s probably the one of the biggest rulings here over the course of the last week for us is what happens with rules around brokering, so they’ll actually move some of that risk back upstream from the carrier perspective into the shipper to some extent, and the broker in the middle will then have some level of responsibility that they didn’t have in the past, so as those items start to look like cheaper options, what. Happens to the expense factors that are involved in that, and then even more so those risk factors that are involved that could come at enormous expenses.

David: That makes sense. Okay, we’re going to jump onto our third theme, which is housing decisions that make or break the experience. So, let’s kick off with you, Steve. What do employees value most in temporary accommodation that can often be underestimated by their organization?

Steve: I think it’s different for everybody, but you know it comes down to what your individual focus is. For me, I look at this stuff and I go, I think it’s underestimated what design and style and what things feel like when you move. Yeah, we’ve shown, and we’ve looked at some. We do a private collection in about 18 different cities around the world, and every unit is different, and every unit at a high spec level. And so you might look at one and go, that doesn’t really meet my style, but you see another one that might be modern and have some, you know, fancy, you know, bright artwork in it, and that does, and, and so I think when you, when you can find something that speaks to you, you don’t have to pick if standardization is great from process from a process perspective, but something that uniquely speaks to you creates an experience, and I always think about if, if it’s my family that had to move somewhere, and you’re changing the environment so drastically from where they’re coming from, you have this one moment where they open up that door and you can either go this all right, or you can go, wow, this place is amazing, and so I think that’s that it’s that it’s that reaction that we’re always trying to go to, and I think sometimes we get focused so much on can you do this the same way across every location around the world that we lose sight of for that one person walking, opening that one door, and they walk in, what’s that moment like for them? And sometimes that can get underestimated, I think, and we want to make sure we’re paying attention to that.

David: No, for sure. Thank you. Next question to Dave. So, in today’s market, what strategies are actually working for Trans Freeze, potentially competing for permanent housing? So, yeah, appreciate your thoughts.

Dave: Yeah, the competition is fierce in a lot of markets really intense. I, there was a cash was a home in Jersey went viral. It sold for 50% more than listing price and had 17 offers. The key to this, in for the mortgage side of it, is to get really to compete is to get a full preapproval. It’s, it’s been prevalent in the industry for a long, long time that a prequalification, right, and it would suffice, and it really doesn’t. Today’s market, the difference is a prequalification is not touching underwriter, right? Nobody’s actually verified documentation, income, assets, employment. The good news is, in today’s world, that can be done mostly through digital processes and AI workflows, so that can happen. You can get a full pre-approval, no human had to touch it, and it can happen within 30 minutes. It’s well done, but that’s key, because the listing agent, the seller, are looking for someone who is ready to go. There’s no questions. It’s actually been touched by an underwriter, and so getting the mortgage is key. Yes, but getting a full pre-approval to compete with all these other offers that may be on the table is super important.

David: Got it. Yeah, makes sense, James. So, with from a home funding perspective, looking at a lot of the virtual or digital tools that are available, which ones do you think are actually adding value, and where do you think some of them may still be falling short?

James: Yeah, I think some context for that is probably helpful too. You know, pre-pandemic, I think the mandate was destination services was expected to be delivered face to face with time, because of the realities of the pandemic and people’s ability to travel together, enter buildings together. We really started leveraging some virtual tools to do some of that home finding, and I think we found it was really successful. I think as the populations of assignees are changing, they’re getting used to using technology tools to do some of those things that had to be done in person, I think they’re super helpful in our My Dwellworks platform, in which we deliver destination services and home finding. We find that the tools are really, really helpful at the beginning of the process to help an employee get a sense of the market and start working through the volumes of properties and neighborhoods and locations that they can live in, and I think the tools are also really helpful for narrowing down what some of those options are, and really getting a tight list of properties, but I think they fall down is that final decision that. Being made, and that’s where David, you and I have had lots of conversations about that, that the local expert in destination services, and we’ve got 2000 of them around the globe in 16 countries, that knowledge that they have is super critical and most valuable at this point for that final mile decision making for that transferee and employee to make sure they’re selecting the right home, so I think it’s a balance, really. It’s a tool that can help streamline the process and simplify some things, but at the end of the day, that local knowledge from someone who’s in market knows those properties in and out and could really help guide the decision making is still very critical in a successful destination services program.

David: Great, no, that’s super helpful. So, knowing how these housing decisions have such a huge impact on the relocation journey, what changes are you seeing from a household goods perspective that impact that in your area?

Ryan: Yeah, sure, it kind of leads into a little bit of what David said, right. It’s the speed at which things are moving is having an enormous impact. Where, where I’ll say, when I started into this business, right, a month or two, it wasn’t uncommon to find out, hey, this reload is going to happen, start preparing, get the communication path going. Our lead times are now measured in days, not weeks, and it all gets a little bit back to, hey, the faster I can close on that home, the faster I make the move, the shorter that window is to trade property, hot commodity, right? And as we do that, it starts to really play into every phase of the expectation setting that has to actually go on. So, what we could do this week and next week and the week after is now condensed into a phone call, and I get really excited when I see things right that you guys presented here in the opening. What are the AI chat bots going to do? How is that policy consulting going to try and improve that? And as we do the pieces and the steps and what we do as right the transportation provider and the move process, it’ll feed into the tools that you’re using and be able to drive that forward.

David: I don’t know, though, makes perfect sense. And again, you know, I know that’s absolutely critical, right, in terms of trying to set expectations over something that, particularly in household goods, isn’t always within your control, right? So that’s a tough one.  

Ryan: It is. You step back and you start to take a look at all those, and right, our teams work together, and those process items become apparent, right? You close those gaps, and that becomes extremely important as we do that process for the Cartus team, the Atlas team, all of the service providing supply chain to be able to do that with you.

David: Thank you. All right, we jump onto our fourth theme, so, and we’ve touched a little bit on this already, so employee experience execution and visibility, so actually going to go straight back to you, Ryan. Actually, so which shipment related risks, and I know this won’t be familiar to anyone in this room, escalate fastest if expectations aren’t set correctly at the start again.

Ryan: It does drive right off of what we were talking about, right, the communication, right, and the details and everything that we do become extremely important. The alignment of crews and driver and equipment, inventory of tools that are going to be needed for any particular move that happens become mission critical. So, as we start to look down that path. How are we prepared for that process when it comes into play, and we’ve, we’ve seen a number of challenges. I think the one that probably escalates the fastest or becomes the biggest issue is when you have an inventory and you don’t see right high value items that later become a challenge downstream in a claims process, and while no one wants to solicit for a claim, right, we want to make sure that the process is very clear. If there is an issue, right, here’s how we’ll handle it in a timely, reasonable fashion that makes sense for everyone involved.

David: Yep, makes sense. So, this is a question to any of you here. So, what’s one decision that you think our corporate clients in the room here could make differently that may materially improve the assignee experience without increasing cost?

James: One thing I think about is communication is so important among the mobility leaders and Cartus, and all of us suppliers here. I think the more we have a deeper understanding of what the goals and objectives of your mobility program are overall the better we can align what we’re doing to help you meet those goals, and that’s sort of on a strategic level. I think you bring that down to the transactional level as well, and the more we know about a specific transaction, even. It’s a group move, and I was speaking to someone at lunch yesterday who talked about, we understand you’ve got challenges internally in getting all the information you need from the stakeholders across your organization in advance, but as soon as you know whatever you know, the soonest you know it, communicating that with us is so important because it can really help us drive the outcomes that you’re trying to achieve for your program.

David: Excellent. Okay, we’re going to jump to our fifth theme again. We have about three and a half minutes on the clock.

Dave: I’m going to ask this question to all of you, so one by one. So, if HR, all the global mobility leaders in the room, could take one action differently in the next 12 months, based on what you’re seeing in terms of the market changes, what might it be? Quick one, go for it, Steve.

Steve: So, I think one of those actions, and it kind of goes back to the last question, too, is really putting making environmental sustainability a focal point. You know, I think with any, with anything that we do, there’s a price range that we all know is kind of the sweet spot that we need to stay within, and so there’s a decision that we can make to prioritize environmental sustainability. I think a lot of us have continued to increase our focus on that, and we go and we’re thinking about how do we implement it, how do we improve it, but having the support from a customer base to say this is important to us allows us to then go to all of the people that we work with in that environment to say, hey, this is important, not just to us, but to your customers and everybody in this whole environment. We just did, and you guys have encouraged it a lot with us, but we did a baseline study to look at our carbon usage, and not just for us as a company, but with all the apartments that we have that are being occupied all around the world, and it showed that we use the same amount of energy as the Burj Khalifa, and it made you realize, wow, if we could really just try to influence light bulbs in half the properties that we’re using, imagine the impact that it can make. So, I think if that’s one thing that I could ask, make part of the consideration, I think it would be, it would make a seismic shift in the outcomes.

David: That makes sense, and I’m pretty sure Andy must have got to you, you’ve queued up his next session! James. What are your thoughts?

James: Yeah, I guess I’d think about if you know what I mentioned earlier. If we are aligned around what the important outcomes for your program are, I think we should think about over the next 12 to 18 months about how do we align how you measure our performance with what those goals are like very closely, so for example, if employee retention is the most important thing for your mobility program, let’s start aligning the measurements of our performance with you achieving those goals, so we can make sure we’re aligned with you meeting your internal company goals, because that’s what we’re here for.

Ryan: David, for me, I’m a good philosophical baby bore so than anything else. Here, I’ll lean into what Matt said yesterday. We still have a lot of challenges across the entire mobility space. You can’t rate, you can’t correct the economy or the markets of the challenge, but you can affect the smile on your face, the positivity, and every move that can have that pushed into it. Every reload that has that pushed into it changes the experience, and we’re driving that through our teams in order to try and push that back through the entire supply chain. When a van operator shows up as a professional in front of someone, they’re the face of a lot of us, and we have to make sure that that positive experience is.

David: Great. Any final thoughts, Dave?

Dave: Yeah, I would just like to get more education around home ownership, and I’m like, home ownership pertains by getting further upstream, so community workshops, employee workshops to help understand access to home ownership and what might take place, so you’re then when the mobility relocation event happens, it’s not maybe as scary at that time. So, I’d love to get us further upstream on education.

David: Okay. Perfect. Well, thank you all. That brings us to the end of our session. Round of applause for our panelists.