The 2016 Academy Awards show will be honoring its favorite artists and films of this past year on Sunday night (February 28th), amidst bright lights and fanfare. While there will always be some differing opinions about who is most deserving of the golden Oscar statue, one film that could not be more significant and timely today is Disney Pixar’s Inside Out which has been nominated for “Best Animated Film.”
           
The film expertly combines a beautifully-crafted script with some very imaginative animation to tell the story of Riley, a young girl whose parents have to relocate their family for her father’s new job in San Francisco. Told from the perspective of her various “emotions,” which are brilliantly portrayed as unique little people living inside of her head, Riley’s story is an all-too-common one this day and age with our increasingly mobile society. While the financial cost of moving an employee and his or her family in the name of a new job opportunity can certainly be high for both company and employee, many people do not take into account the emotional cost of uprooting children, in particular, from their familiar routines, surroundings and loved ones to reestablish them in a new environment with new people and routines to learn. Much of a child’s self-esteem development is dependent upon a sense of confidence, continuity, and security, all of which can be greatly disrupted in a big move. Concerns over fitting into a new neighborhood, making new friends, and doing well at a new school are overwhelming enough, but coupled with the sadness of losing old friends, routines, and activities, a child will naturally experience the transition very differently than an adult might.
 
Inside Out does a wonderful job of portraying how things that may seem insignificant to us now —the realization that your new room doesn’t look like you thought it would, or the disappointment when the local pizza place in your new town puts your least favorite vegetable on your pizza—can feel magnified under the giant lens of a big move.  Furthermore, since one or both parents will be incurring additional time and energy stresses at a new job, the support system at home can be less dependable for a child. The film depicts Riley’s heightened Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Anger, and Joy as individual characters all debating and troubleshooting to help her navigate her new challenges as she is faced with them.
 
In the movie, Riley and her parents all rely primarily on their own emotions to help them navigate the relocation waters. The reality, though, is that many people can greatly benefit from external guidance and encouragement during this time as well. Essential Engagement Services understands the emotional stressors that come along with a relocation both for adults and children, and we also know that it can be easier to transition successfully with a bit of outside help to prepare those who are relocating for what they might expect and how to best navigate the challenges that come with this new crossroads in their life. At Essential Engagement Services, we offer an assortment of care packages and coaching to help both children and adults through the mental and emotional challenges of moving.
 
We couldn’t be happier to see a film like Inside Out take on the critical subject matter of a family’s mental and emotional transitions throughout the relocation process! After all, it’s often too easy to forget that while moving for work can be an exciting opportunity for employees and their families, there are always many more wheels in motion than initially expected. When attended to thoughtfully and thoroughly, much like Riley’s hardworking “emotional team” in Inside Out does, these wheels can move a family gracefully towards a much more streamlined, successful transition and a hopeful, new beginning. 
 
Visit http://www.essentialengagementservices.com/ to learn more about the products Essential Engagement Services offers to children and adults undergoing a move. 

In the blink of an eye, we are now in the middle of February, and 2016 is well underway. The holiday season has passed, and even the biggest procrastinators among us have either settled into the routine of our New Year’s resolutions, or given up on them entirely. However, for many people, the winter months were spent navigating the added challenges of relocating their lives and families for a job.
 
For some, employee relocation is rarely a topic of discussion. The conversation often begins and ends there, as a fact of life for many, and as a service to be outsourced for hiring companies. However, with hundreds of thousands of prospective and current employees relocating every year in the U.S., billions of dollars are being spent moving valuable employees and their families around the country. In fact, according to the Worldwide ERC, $12.8 billion is spent annually on corporate relocation costs. A single company can spend upwards of $100,000 to transfer a single, existing employee to a new location.
 
Now that’s a pretty big price tag. . . but is that all there is to it? You pay for an employee to move, hire the right relocation service to manage the move, provide a great realtor in the new location, and sleep soundly at night knowing you have checked all the boxes necessary? Not quite.
 
Relocating an employee comes with a significant price tag both financially (for the company) and emotionally (for the employees and their families). These employees and their families are faced with the real emotional and societal challenges of not only adjusting to an entirely new environment, but also transitioning into a new community with new friends, new schools, new colleagues, etc. Without the adequate support and guidance needed to help them transition successfully, the employee risks dissatisfaction and the company risks lower employee engagement and even potentially losing the employee.
 
Beyond the initial one-time costs of moving logistics, moving can carry with it silent costs that are often over-looked:

1. Distractions in day-to-day tasks—mistakes can be made or solutions overlooked when the employee is pre-occupied with an unhappy teen or feeling like they are not forming friendships in their new location
2. Disengagement from both work and from the company—as employees work to deal with their adjustment without guidance, they may feel removed from their work life and lose their previous sense of loyalty to the job and the company
3. Unhappiness—dissatisfaction can be contagious and low morale can impact not just their work, but also their interactions with their team or direct reports
4. Turnover—the risk of quitting or asking for a transfer back to their previous location, leaving a hole to fill and adding to company’s recruiting costs

 
Equally as (if not more) impacted by a move are the families themselves – the husbands and wives, sons and daughters who must jump through many hoops along the way to reacclimatize themselves to their communities, schools and jobs. And yet there is much that can be done and provided to them to help make their transition successful. Even employers themselves, whose businesses stand to reap ample rewards from the success of an employee’s transition, do not always recognize the advancements going on in relocation assistance and how addressing the transition challenges head-on can be beneficial for both employee and employer alike.
 
The emotional toll of relocation is the real elephant in the relocation room. The happiness and general support for an employee and their family is often underestimated and therefore inadequately provided.
 
At Essential Engagement Services, we aim to mitigate these emotional and mental stressors by providing employees all the tools, support and services they and their families will need to relocate as easily and happily as possible. We understand that employees and their families are a package deal, and the emotional wellbeing of all the people who are making the move is the key to ensuring a successful transition. And with a successful transition, an employee will likely produce better work and a company will save (and likely gain) financially in the end.
 
To us, this is a no-brainer. To learn more about our products and the services EES provides, visit www.EssentialEngagementServices.com.