Relocation Fairs, Webinars and Guidebooks: Briefing Employees on Schools Before a Group Move
When a group move is announced, the employees who are deciding whether to go will ask about schools almost immediately. Companies that prepare the answer in advance, through a relocation fair, webinars, a written school guidebook or individual consultations, help families decide with confidence and avoid a wave of questions arriving at HR all at once.
By the time a group move is announced, HR and Global Mobility have usually done a great deal of work. The location is chosen, the timeline is set, and the policy is decided. Then the move is presented to the people being asked to go, and for anyone with children, the first questions are about school. Where would my kids go? Will there be space? Is the curriculum compatible with what they’re doing now? What will we have to pay for ourselves?
How a company answers those questions can shape who accepts the move and how the families who go feel about it from the start.
Start With the Research
The best briefings are built on research done before the announcement. If you’ve already commissioned an education landscape assessment for the destination, much of the content is already in hand. If you haven’t, it’s worth doing first. A webinar given without that research tends to raise more questions than it answers, and employees notice when the information changes later.
From there, companies choose one format or combine several.
Relocation Fairs
Large companies that move many employees at once sometimes hold a relocation fair: a day when the employees moving from one location to another can meet all of the providers in one place, from tax advisers and immigration specialists to the education team.
Bennett consultants have often been part of these fairs. We give a presentation on schooling in the destination and then speak with families one on one. For a parent, being able to ask a specific question about their own child, in person, before they’ve decided, is very reassuring. For the company, it means families arrive at the decision better informed.
Fairs tend to suit large companies that run group moves regularly. For smaller groups, the same goals can be met in other ways.
Webinars
Webinars are one of the most flexible ways to brief employees. They can be live, with time for questions, or prerecorded so families can watch when it suits them, which matters when employees are spread across time zones. We’ve run webinar series for companies relocating groups of employees between cities, and we’ve shared webinars on schooling in cities such as New York and Toronto with mobility managers and relocating families more broadly.
A good education webinar explains how schooling works in the destination, what the admissions timeline looks like, what the company’s policy covers, and what families should do first. It leaves room for the questions families didn’t know they had.
Education Overviews and School Guidebooks
A written education overview, or a guidebook for the destination, gives families something they can return to. It might be a version of the education landscape assessment written for families, or a shorter handbook covering how schooling works, the types of schools available, the school calendar and admissions timing. Families can read it before they decide, share it with a spouse or partner, and bring their questions to a conversation with a consultant.
Support for the Families Who Go
Once employees accept the move, companies support them in very different ways, depending on their policy. It could be that every family receives a copy of the education landscape assessment, and that’s it. It could be that webinars are followed by a one-hour consultation for each family. It could be that families with a neurodiverse child receive a level of support that other families don’t, or that a small group of senior executives receives full, white-glove placement support.
There’s no single right approach. What matters is that the support is decided with the location, the nature of the move, the number of people and their level in mind, and that employees know what to expect before they decide. For families who have a child with special education needs, being clear about the support available can make the difference to whether they feel able to accept, as we discuss in SEN Education Benefits Policy Advice: It’s Best to Be Direct.
How Bennett Helps
Bennett prepares the material and delivers the briefings: presentations and one-on-one conversations at relocation fairs, live and recorded webinars, education overviews and school guidebooks written for your employees, and individual support for the families who go. Our services are highly customized, so we’ll suggest a mix that fits your group and your budget. You can see how this fits with the research before an announcement, and the support after it, on our group move education consulting page, or read Planning a Group Move? Start the Education Research First.
Preparing to Announce a Group Move?
Tell us about the move and the employees involved, and we’ll suggest how to brief them on schools.
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Bennett International Education Consultancy works directly with hundreds of families each year across the globe. We support families by helping them make informed decisions about the best-fit schools for their children; with our guidance, they secure placement in preschools, private day schools, public/state schools, boarding schools, colleges and universities, including schools with particular programs, such as special needs support.
