Essential Engagement Services: Our Story
In 2010 the New York Times published an article entitled "Does Moving a Child Create Adult Baggage?" detailing a class of people called 'serial relocators' and the impact that moving can have on children. In summary, moving can be very difficult for any child, especially when coupled with other challenging life events. While the article notes that the military does a good job of mitigating much of the negative impact through the support and resources it provides, it never mentioned what was (or was not) being done by corporate companies who also regularly relocate employees.
Having moved frequently as a child for her father's corporate job, including being in a different school every year from the 6th through the 10th grade, Sara Boehm, our CEO, was struck by this article. In her own words:
“I became frustrated for all those relocating for non-military jobs. Despite the importance of employees successfully transitioning to their new location, corporations (and other non-military organizations) often do very little to acknowledge and support the emotional challenges of their relocating employees. For all the very helpful services and resources provided to my family to take away the logistical headaches of moving (packers, movers, temporary housing, storage, a realtor), very little was ever done to provide us support for the emotional aspects of moving.”
In fact, very few companies even talk about this aspect. It’s not as if HR doesn’t recognize or understand the impact that moving an employee has and the upheaval that results from transitioning lives from one city to another. Rather, we don’t have an established system in place for acknowledging or addressing it in a helpful and supportive way. And this is especially true for domestic relocation. It can take up to 12 months to adapt to a major life change like a move. This part of the relocation is clearly a critical component in how successful a move is (both personally for the employee and productivity-wise for the company). If the military excels in helping this aspect along, part of the reason it does so is by admitting the challenges these personnel may inevitably face, and then pro-actively providing resources and information so that the feelings of isolation and discomfort go from feeling unusual to being expected and understood as passing elements of the move that can be helped by taking actions to acclimate.
At Essential Engagement Services (EES), our goal is to find a way for companies to support their relocating employees and their trailing families in an affordable and scalable manner. It all started with Boehm’s book, The Essential Moving Guide For Families, advising non-military families on healthy relocation and communication. The book is a blend of advice from interviews with a variety of people who had moved domestically and internationally: people who had moved as children, teens, and adults, elementary and high school teachers, school guidance counselors, therapists, and social workers. After then publishing a guided journal for teens (as this group is often one that both struggles the most and for whom there are the fewest resources available) we set out to create a set of products that organizations could provide to these relocators before their move so it could be with them at each step of the process, should they need it.
The idea of a “care package,” a gift to the relocating employee and family, customized for each member of the family, was born. The physical books are combined with 12 months access to a website, MyEssentialGuide.com, which gives practical advice for each stage of the move as well as encouragement and coping mechanisms to get them through the transition.
EES has expanded and grown into a company that focuses on the emotional and mental support for people who relocate (both for work and otherwise) and on helping companies incorporate these services into their relocation packages. We are continuing to build new products and services and hope to reduce the emotional strains of moving, one person at a time.
Having moved frequently as a child for her father's corporate job, including being in a different school every year from the 6th through the 10th grade, Sara Boehm, our CEO, was struck by this article. In her own words:
“I became frustrated for all those relocating for non-military jobs. Despite the importance of employees successfully transitioning to their new location, corporations (and other non-military organizations) often do very little to acknowledge and support the emotional challenges of their relocating employees. For all the very helpful services and resources provided to my family to take away the logistical headaches of moving (packers, movers, temporary housing, storage, a realtor), very little was ever done to provide us support for the emotional aspects of moving.”
In fact, very few companies even talk about this aspect. It’s not as if HR doesn’t recognize or understand the impact that moving an employee has and the upheaval that results from transitioning lives from one city to another. Rather, we don’t have an established system in place for acknowledging or addressing it in a helpful and supportive way. And this is especially true for domestic relocation. It can take up to 12 months to adapt to a major life change like a move. This part of the relocation is clearly a critical component in how successful a move is (both personally for the employee and productivity-wise for the company). If the military excels in helping this aspect along, part of the reason it does so is by admitting the challenges these personnel may inevitably face, and then pro-actively providing resources and information so that the feelings of isolation and discomfort go from feeling unusual to being expected and understood as passing elements of the move that can be helped by taking actions to acclimate.
At Essential Engagement Services (EES), our goal is to find a way for companies to support their relocating employees and their trailing families in an affordable and scalable manner. It all started with Boehm’s book, The Essential Moving Guide For Families, advising non-military families on healthy relocation and communication. The book is a blend of advice from interviews with a variety of people who had moved domestically and internationally: people who had moved as children, teens, and adults, elementary and high school teachers, school guidance counselors, therapists, and social workers. After then publishing a guided journal for teens (as this group is often one that both struggles the most and for whom there are the fewest resources available) we set out to create a set of products that organizations could provide to these relocators before their move so it could be with them at each step of the process, should they need it.
The idea of a “care package,” a gift to the relocating employee and family, customized for each member of the family, was born. The physical books are combined with 12 months access to a website, MyEssentialGuide.com, which gives practical advice for each stage of the move as well as encouragement and coping mechanisms to get them through the transition.
EES has expanded and grown into a company that focuses on the emotional and mental support for people who relocate (both for work and otherwise) and on helping companies incorporate these services into their relocation packages. We are continuing to build new products and services and hope to reduce the emotional strains of moving, one person at a time.
