The Journey to Flexible Mobility

In this episode, Cartus' Andy Conduit-Turner, Director, Sustainable Growth Enablement, and special guests, Alex von Springer, US Policy Adviser, Shell and Lisa Johnson, Cartus’ Director, Global DEI Solutions discuss flexible mobility and the positive impact it can have on the employee experience. 

Our guests:

Alex von Springer

Alex joined Shell in 2017 and has held a variety of HR generalist roles, primarily supporting downstream manufacturing sites. As a part of her current role as US HR Policy Advisor, she is responsible for management of the US Domestic Relocation Program. Alex recently led a project to modernize the suite of policies within the Shell US Domestic Relocation Program, including the transition of some policies to a core/flex delivery model. Alex has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Master of Business Administration from Louisiana State University (LSU). In her free time she enjoys cooking, being active with her rescue dog, “Shep,” spending time with friends and family, and cheering on LSU at any and all NCAA sporting events… GEAUX TIGERS!

Lisa Johnson

Lisa represents Cartus in DE&I space as a thought leader and solution facilitator for clients looking to address Global DE&I in their mobility solutions. Among her many achievements—including leading some of the industry’s earliest research initiatives on the topic—Lisa was named one of the Global Mobility Top 100 Professionals in 2021 and was recently named the 2022 Chairperson of the Curriculum Committee for Worldwide ERC®'s Upward Mobility internship Initiative focused on increasing diversity in our industry and she sits on their Editorial Taskforce. She also holds both Worldwide ERC®’s Meritorious and Distinguished Service Awards and is an active member of SHRM.

Our host:

Andy Conduit-Turner

Andy has performed a number of roles throughout his global mobility career with Cartus, which followed his own time living and working internationally. After building his skills in both account management and transformation projects, when asked to describe his role today as Director, Sustainable Growth Enablement, Andy’s one word response is, “Questions.” Specifically answering the questions that our partners and the broader mobility community have for us, and asking our own in order to move our innovations in the direction that best serves our clients, as well helping to support the long-term, sustainable growth of our solutions. 

 
Executive production: Louise Koncowski 

Transcript

Andy: Hello, and welcome to today's episode of Mobility Matters, the Cartus official podcast. I am your host, Andy Conduit-Turner, Director of Sustainable Growth Enablement. And today I am joined by two guests. One of them, those listening to this podcast before will know her well... Lisa Johnson from our DEI Solutions team. Hello, Lisa, how you doing?

Lisa: Hi. It's great to be here, Andy.

Andy: And joining us today, a very special first-time guest of the podcast. She is the architect behind Shell’s mobility program over in the US, the US domestic program. We have Alex von Springer with us. Hello, Alex, how you doing?

Alex: Hi, I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.

Andy: No, thank you very much for coming to join us. Let's dive straight into the topic today, shall we? So, if you didn't see the topic, when you chose to listen to this podcast already, I can reveal that today we are talking about flexible mobility solutions. And a lot of organizations are seeing an increased demand for flexibility within their mobility program. In fact, in our recent survey, 65% of our respondents actively called out seeing an increased demand for flexibility in that program. So, Alex, Shell developed its US domestic core/flex policy with Cartus less than a year ago. So, maybe let's kick off, can you tell us a little bit about that journey that you've been through?

Alex: Yeah, so we're almost one year in, we've rolled out a refreshed US domestic relocation program in April of 2023, and our previous program that we had in place was what I think a lot of people will refer to as a traditional tiered policy. So, prior to implementing the core/flex archetype and today, Shell's US domestic relocation program consisted of five policies for different move-types. When we rolled out the refresh program in April of last year, three of those five policies were reformatted and are now delivered in a core/flex format. And three of those five policies are meant to support what we like to call permanent moves, or where we don't see people either relocating temporarily like for our intern program, or on a temporary assignment, which are intended to cover the company moves that are taking place for less than a 12-month period. So, our homeowner, renter, and graduate higher policies are now delivered to employees in a core/flex format. 

Andy: That's amazing. So, when you started going down this path to change to a core/flex program, what were the main driving factors that brought you to the decision that that was the direction you wanted to go? 

Alex: Yeah, so being newer to the mobility industry, I had heard that prior to embarking on this project myself at Shell, that oftentimes mobility teams or companies may entertain moving to a core/flex setup for their programs to save costs when it comes to relocation spend. Cutting costs actually wasn't a key driver for Shell at the time that I was looking at moving some of our policies to a core/flex format. But really, what we were looking to do was to find some new tools or ideas that would help enhance the user experience in the US domestic relocation program and the key drivers were looking to improve experience by offering increased employee choice to provide individuals more flexibility and ownership during their individual move process. And looking at how digital solutions can streamline and make an individual's moving process more user-friendly and just overall more efficient. 

We recognize that the traditional tiered format that our policies had previously been structured in were a bit static and didn't necessarily address the unique needs across our diverse US employee population. So, really improving user experience through flexibility in digital tools was what we're looking to accomplish. And, conveniently, Cartus, who had already been our relocation provider for many years, has developed the internal tool, the Benefits Builder technology that provided a really modern, familiar app-like experience that most individuals are familiar with, all the time we spend on smartphones. And some demos of the Benefits Builder tool really convinced myself and the rest of our project team that we could really improve and have some meaningful changes to our program by implementing a core/flex.

Andy: Those are brilliant examples. Thank you. So, Lisa, no pressure, but of course for you, the rest of the world, and the range of other clients that we work with as well... are there any other sort of driving factors that you're observing as well?

Lisa: Well, you know, I feel like the reasons that Shell moved to a core/flex policy and adding flexibility are really on par with what we see across the industry, when it comes to adding more flexibility to policy. So, most companies care a lot about the employee experience, we know that to be true. Most companies see that their employees are changing. Those definitions of family are evolving: dependent parents, blended families, single parents, culturally diverse employees, and their needs and priorities are really different. And so, with those changing demographics, employee expectations are changing. And as you mentioned earlier, it's the top reason why companies are adding flexibility to policy and changing employee needs is also a big driver. 

But you also talked, you know, I think, Alex about exceptions. And I don't know if you talked about it now but I know we've talked about this before and wanting to reduce those exceptions. And when it comes to managing exceptions today, we're more inclined to consider inclusions, we think about inclusions, how do we make sure that people see themselves in policy. And so, another thing that I really love about the way that companies are adding flexibility to policy now is really about empowering that employee. And I think that that's another factor that I see in Cheryl's policy today is talking about empowering that employee. And a lot of our best practice clients are recognizing that “one size fits all” is not going to meet all those changing needs. So, I think it's really aligned. Shell's story aligns with a lot of what we're seeing. 

Andy: That's great. Thank you, Lisa. So, returning to Alex, when we, when you began implementing this new, as you say, radical shift in what the policy was looking like, what were some of the challenges you had to overcome? Was there any resistance to change that you faced did you have to do much investment in education, for example, with the HR or the communities that you work with?

Alex: So, my biggest hesitation with moving to a new policy format and structure was making sure that we didn't roll out a policy that was perceived to be a change that was being driven by cost savings, or a large takeaway of benefits. I think the other piece that is helpful to understand is that fortunately, at Shell, I would say that our HR function that I'm a part of and report up through, has a really well-established and credible seat at the table. So, I think if we, in a lot of the different projects and work that we do come in with, you know, data and a strong narrative that, you know, our business leaders and other functional partners, you know, have a lot of trust in us that we're acting in the best interest of the organization. 

So, with those two things in mind, our Cartus [Manager, Consulting Solutions], Robyn Russell, who helped us out with our project a lot, she probably heard me at least once a week say, “Oh, that seems like a takeaway,” or “Oh, I'm really worried about how that might land with employees who had traditionally, you know, in the relocation process had, you know, large financial gains.” So, I think something that was really helpful that the Cartus team that partnered with us on this project reinforced time and time again, was just because the benchmarking data indicated that a certain level of benefit or amount of benefit or amount of service, may be kind of standard in other industries, where companies are using core/flex policies more often, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing for Shell. So, I think reinforcing that, you know, making decisions based on company culture, and so it was really important. So, I think, that reminder helped myself and the project team design a program that was really fit for purpose for Shell. And honestly, we were really fortunate, and that we didn't meet a lot of resistance to when we rolled out. And I think part of that can be attributed to the fact that we use narrative kind of like a current policy and future policy example to bring different move-types to life for our leaders in our HR function as well as business leaders were rolling out the change. 

So, it was a really helpful tool, to use a couple of our common moves. So, like early-in-career individual moving you know, with no dependents or family members and then a larger family size doing a move between Texas and Louisiana, which is one of our most popular move routes domestically in the US. And a couple other examples too, that really would bring to life. Okay. And these examples, you know, there may be large cash payments in the current policy. But if that's something that's really important to an individual, they can utilize the flexible pool of points, to still create a cash rich policy in a way. But there's also a lot more that we were able to include and offer.

Andy: In ways that are meaningful to them. Right? 

Alex: Right, right, to make the experience really tailored to the individual.

Andy: That sounds wonderful. So, like a really large exercise by the sound of things in, as you mentioned, managing that narrative, really controlling those perceptions to make sure that by approaching it thoughtfully and communicating the right messages at the right time, keeping those perceptions with the intent of what you were trying to build, rather than let the narrative get away from you. And people begin to worry about the changes that are being made, and as you say, potentially perceived them as a takeaway, when in fact, it's just focusing on what's important to each individual.

Lisa, again, talking about the broad range of clients that you've been supporting, how else do you see, what are the challenges do you see? And what are the best practices that you recommend to clients when you're working with them that how they should deal with them? How should they avoid the pitfalls of making these large changes to their policy? 

Lisa: Right. Well, Alex has just given us a masterclass in how it's done. And, you know, she worked with a great team, I have to say, and Robyn is, you know, a master in doing this, but you just walked us through so many of the best practices in making any kind of policy change. And it's really common to start off the change from a more traditional policy structure to core/flex with, starting with understanding the business goals and drivers. As Alex said, for Shell, it was never about cost savings, it was about improving that employee experience and managing exceptions. And knowing that there are more up to date ways to move people, right. And we also look at what are the typical costs of that baseline program that's going to be changed to understand budgets. And again, those expectations. 

The third step is really about doing some kind of “voice of customer” surveys, really talking to the stakeholders who will be impacted by this change, whether it's because they are delivering and communicating the new policy or because they are some of your repeat relocators that you happen to have, and Shell is a good example of that understanding the current state and the future state, and to plan for it. And then when you think about those challenges within policy transitions, no matter what type of change that you have, you always have to take into consideration that employee population that is familiar with what I call the legacy policy, right, and how they might perceive those changes. 

And so, Alex, I loved your descriptions of, you know, just making sure that it wouldn't be perceived as a takeaway, when they relocate the next time. Because, you know, and I think we talked about this when we were planning for the podcast, but with repeat relocators. And that can happen with an international program or a domestic program, that population, you know, down the road, some of them may eventually retire may not move again, and new people will to the program who have never moved before, they won't know what they're missing. But really, for this particular change, and for a lot of changes to core/flex, it's about just changing the approach and empowering the employees and making sure that they have different choices, in terms of how the policy is applied. It's rarely intended to be takeaways. So, that's really important that how important communication is, and perception, it's really about marketing the new approach as well, when you're rolling it out. 

Andy: So, speaking of approaches, Lisa, I'll stick with you for a moment, if I may, we're talking about driving the flexibility within that policy. I mean, those choices themselves can sit with a number of different parties. Right. So, what is our research telling us? Where is the flexibility being placed, who are making the decisions across the industry today?

Lisa: Well, it's really interesting, and I was actually surprised by our latest research that's just coming out here at the beginning of this year, because it still is about half and half with business leaders and HR, having some of that control over flex and policy options. And then almost an equal number of companies where it's the employees that have control. I would say that even if the business is deciding on, you know the level of policy choices and the level a lot of policy options that they're giving to employees, companies are still adding some employee flexibility to those core/flex policies, even when the driver is the business. Because we know we all live in today's world, we know we expect choices, we expect options, and we like feeling empowered. So, even when it isn't the employee driving it, it is rare to find a core/flex policy that doesn't have some choices for employees. And at the end of the day, policy has always had some flexibility, starting with the traditional miscellaneous expense allowance that every policy has that's giving flexibility to your employees. But now we just see more and more. So, I'm surprised that the outcome was about half and half in terms of who has the power: the employee versus the business. But I think it will be very difficult to find a policy that doesn't give employees some new levels of options, even within the framework of a more managed program. 

Andy: Thanks, Lisa. And Alex bringing it to you. I mean, from what you've told me, it feels like the design that you put into Shell’s policy really put that flexibility of choice in the hands of the employees choosing from those lists of things that you were given them. Is that a fundamental part of your design? Is that where you wanted to see the decision sitting? 

Alex: Yeah, and it's ultimately where we landed that employees have full ownership of the choice in terms of the policy that they build within the parameters of the policy that that's governing their move, of course. And I think a big part of that, going back to my comments about what works for Shell may not work for the next company or the next company or any other company, but thinking about cultural fit. When it comes to communicating our employee value proposition and just HR policy offerings in general, its Shell’s equity and transparency are two key principles that we talk about quite a bit. So, regardless if somebody is ever going to move, never going to move with Shell, or if there's somebody that moves several times throughout their career domestically within the US, employees have access to the policies at their disposal, 24/7, through kind of our HR intranet and portal, so to speak. 

So, yeah, our employees can see what's offered in the policy as far as the core and the flex benefits, so that they've got a strong understanding and appreciation of what's offered. And hopefully they find, you know, robust set of offerings that meets their needs, should they choose to take a role that requires relocation, anytime during their career with Shell. 

So, the way that the flexible point budgets are set up in all of our policies is that depending on which policy is going to govern your move, you've got this predetermined budget of points. And we do even acknowledge some flexibility in that budget, if you are moving larger than our typical family size between the departure and the destination location. So, we did some data analytics to understand what our average mover looks like. And we even narrowed that down across certain move routes that are more popular than some of our other routes in the US to really get an intimate understanding of our population. And so, where we've got a larger than average family size, we’ll provide some additional points to those move profiles and acknowledgement that when you're moving more people, you're typically going to incur more expenses or need additional services for certain flexible benefits that we might offer. 

And to my point earlier, employees have, you know, the discretion to use all or some of their flexible points and to acknowledge that, you know, some of our individual movers may not need as many services or benefits to create a robust relocation experience. We've got some cash-out parameters built into the policies as well to acknowledge that, yeah, well, we've offered them a lot, they may not need it, and they may be able to cash out to address certain things that aren't provided by our policies.

Andy: Great range of flexibility. And I love that example you mentioned earlier about actually seeing that transparency and action with how you make that policy visible to people, even when they aren't in the midst of a move already, but may just be considering one, a really nice way of showcasing that value of transparency there. 

One final question for each of you… Lisa, I'm gonna give you the technical one, if you don't mind. Obviously, people take this investment in time and brainpower and energy to bring a flexible mobility program to life. After they do that hard work in that big shift. How do you keep it fresh? How do you keep it evolving?

Lisa: Well, I love this question because to me, core/flex is one of the most, it just feels more agile than the traditional policies. And the core/flex approach really kind of allows policy to remain updated and fresh. Because as a company wants to add support for perhaps a new population of employees that is emerging into the program, a family that has someone with disabilities, or there's a quick win, because some new benefits are available that hadn't been available before maybe adding something sustainable as an option, or a new type of service, it can be added to the flex options pretty easily. So, it does feel so much more agile, as opposed to waiting every couple of years and making a policy review to just say, “Hey, you know what this sounds like a ‘wow factor.’ This sounds like a new benefit that we could offer,” and being able to plug that into the flexible options. 

The other side to that is that sometimes companies will look at how people are using the core/flex policy. Or maybe there's a new leader in the organization who has experience with relocation themselves with their own family or with an international assignment. And the philosophy can change about the program. And you might add something to core that originally was designed to be in flex, because you realize, with some changes in the organization that this is really important to everyone who moves with our organization. So, we're going to make a change to core. And I just think this type of flexible policy allows for more of that agility really, to stay fresh. It's one of the things that I love about this type of policy.

Andy: Brilliant. Thank you, Lisa, and Alex, to finish with you. And don't feel that you have to limit yourself, just to Shell’s experience here. You know, we see a great deal of interest in adding flexibility to programs. What do you think could be next? If you're glancing into the future? Where would you be excited to see mobility offering more flexibility?

Alex: Yeah, and just one quick comment that I wanted to make based off of Lisa's last response, I think the agility and just flexibility of the core/flex format definitely allows for mobility managers and folks who are in the HR space covering relocation programs, to not only be able to more quickly make adjustments to their policy, but I think something that I'm most excited about, again, coming up one year on the rollout of our new program, is to really have access to the data to understand what is most important to our employees. And, Lisa, to your comment of making adjustments if we've got 100% of our population utilizing a certain benefit or service. Yeah, let's move that over into core if it's something that's, you know, really, really important and speaking to our employees, something that they feel like they definitely need during the relocation process. So, yeah, just as someone who manages one of these programs, something I'm really excited about is the data insights that you get.

Andy: Yeah, that's a wonderful example. Thanks, Alex. 

Lisa: Yeah, using that data, right, and being able to use the data and see what people are using and, and then, you know, have the, it gives you the ability to then make some adjustments. I love that too, Alex, that's a great example. 

Alex: Yeah, really just wanted to make that quick note. But thinking about what's next. And another area that really excites me, and kind of my day-to-day management and oversight of the domestic program in the US here at Shell is looking at how we can support our transferring employees, but not just that individual that's working for Shell, but their dependents that we maybe don't know as much about. So, I don't have a crystal ball. But something I hope to see in the future and want to start exploring for implementation at Shell as well or potential future implementation is, what did these families need? Is it something could we offer something to help make their transition to the new location more streamlined, or more comfortable, or more successful because they are not the ones you know, that are moving to this new job and maybe have all the excitement about, you know, new professional growth and development? But could we provide some sort of counselling-type service to help transferees with children find the right or the best fit from an education or, you know, care perspective to get them settled in the destination location, or for trailing spouses/partners? Is there something that we can do socially or in the community for them to help them get settled. 

So, looking at ways to support the employee just beyond getting them to the new location and settled but really thinking about what can help make the move a success with consideration for their life outside of the workplace because, yeah, that will definitely drive their ability to get settled with less stress and more success to be able to contribute in the new location. 

Andy: Yeah, fantastic direction as well looking at how you can support those family members, because obviously them settling and doing well in a new location, incredibly important for the employee's decision to stay there and to move their family to a place. They're enjoying life and settling well. Right?

Alex: For sure.

Lisa: I love that vision. That's great. 

Andy: Wonderful.

Andy: Thank you both. On that note, that is all the time that we have for today. So, thank you so much, Lisa, thank you very much, Alex. It's a great testament to the excitement of building more flexible programs that you are a year on down the road from this, the beginning of this journey where you will look to make that policy more flexible, to when to make those changes to the policy. And you're still happy to come and talk about it. So, that is a great, great example of how exciting and rewarding that change of that program can be. 

While I'm dishing them out: “Thanks.” So, thanks to everyone that has listened to us today. If you do have any more thoughts, any more questions on flex mobility, or indeed anything else in the mobility space, you can email us at cartussolutions@cartus.com. If you've got something particularly exciting, you'd love to see us talk about in a future episode. We'll see what we can do about that. For now, though, thank you again for listening and goodbye. 

Visit cartus.com/podcast for more episodes of Mobility Matters.