Planning a Group Move? Start the Education Research First
When a company plans a group move, the schooling question arrives early, from the employees themselves, whether or not the project plan is ready for it. Researching the education landscape before the move is announced gives HR and Global Mobility teams the facts they need to set the budget, choose the timing and make offers with confidence.
A group move usually starts as a business decision: a new office, a project that needs a team on the ground, a function consolidated in one city. The early planning is about space, visas, housing and start dates. Schooling tends to come later, often when the first employee with children asks, “So where would our kids go?”
By then, some of the most important decisions may already be made. And as many of you have seen, the answers to that question can change the cost of the move, the date it can realistically happen, and which employees decide to go.
Three Stages, and the First One Matters Most
When we work with companies on group moves, we think about the education piece in three stages.
The first is everything HR and Global Mobility decide before employees are brought into the conversation. The second is how the move is presented to the employees who’ll be deciding whether to accept it. The third is the support families receive once they’ve said yes and are actually relocating.
Each stage matters, but the first one shapes the other two. If the research happens before the announcement, the information employees receive is accurate, the policy is settled, and the families who go have realistic expectations from the start.
What to Find Out Before You Announce
Before a move is announced, it’s worth answering a few questions about the destination, with the incoming group of children in mind.
- Is there a good international school, and who is it designed for? The word “international” has never been patented. Some schools that use it are built for globally mobile families; others serve mostly local students who want a bridge to a Western education. Both can be excellent, but they’re very different places for a child arriving from abroad.
- If there’s no suitable international school, are the local schools a viable option for this cohort? That depends on the language of instruction, the curriculum, the ages of the children, and whether newcomers can actually enroll.
- Are there places? In some destinations, international schools have waiting lists by grade. A group of 20 or 30 children arriving at once can be more than the schools can absorb.
- What resources exist for children with special education needs? Are there speech therapists or occupational therapists, and do any of them work in English, French or the family’s home language? In some locations, these specialists are scarce.
We share these findings with the HR or Global Mobility team because they affect so many other decisions: whether the policy will support private or international school tuition, how the company approaches hiring for the location, and when the moves can happen.
When the Assumption Doesn’t Hold
We’ve worked with companies that planned a group move on the assumption that the employees’ children would attend local schools, and budgeted accordingly. Then, as the employees started looking into schools themselves, it became clear that the local system wasn’t a realistic option for relocating children. In some destinations, the ministry of education gives priority to citizens and permanent residents; in others, entrance exams are a barrier for a child who has recently arrived. When that happens after the budget is set, the business unit has to go back and add tuition for every child in the group, and that can be a significant number.
Space is the other surprise. We’ve had companies call us after a group had already arrived, only to learn there were no places in the international schools. These situations can be solved, but they’re far easier to prevent. Cost, space and access all need to be thought through before the move, not after.
You can read more about testing a local-schools assumption in Can Relocating Children Use the Local Schools?
Start Earlier Than Feels Necessary
Depending on the location, the education piece may need problem solving a full year before anyone moves.
Take a group of executives moving to New York next summer. It’s tempting to wait until spring to think about schools, but private school applications in New York happen in the fall for the following September, and public school options take their own planning. A family that starts in the spring may find that the most important deadlines have already passed. Our post on how early to plan for private school admissions explains why timing matters so much.
The same is true in many cities with competitive admissions or limited international school places. The earlier the research begins, the more options the company and its families will have.
What Employees Will Ask, and When
Once the decisions are made, the move is presented to employees, and schooling is one of the first things they’ll ask about. Companies handle this in different ways: a relocation fair, a series of webinars, a written education overview or school guidebook, or a one-on-one conversation with an education consultant. We describe these options in Briefing Employees on Schools Before a Group Move.
Whatever the format, the answers will be better if the research behind them was done first.
How Bennett Helps With Group Moves
Bennett has advised HR and Global Mobility teams on group moves for more than 35 years. We typically start with an education landscape assessment: we ask who’s going, how many children, and what you already know about them, and then we research the schooling available for that group in the destination. From there, our support is shaped to the location, the nature of the move, the number of people and their level, from webinars and a report to a consultation for every family or full placement support. You can see how our group move education consulting works, stage by stage.
Planning a Group Move?
If a group move is on the horizon, even an early conversation can show which education questions need answers first.
Talk to us about planning a group move →
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.
