Are You Really Hearing Your Relocation Candidates’ Needs?

Two-way communication is one of the most important components of working successfully with your relocation candidates. You want your relocation candidates to understand the benefits of an upcoming mobility opportunity. At the same time, you need to understand your relocation candidates’ needs, which will help ensure a transition that offers a profitable long-term investment. By understanding your relocation candidates’ needs, you can address concerns that might cause stress on the candidate or their family, alleviating or eliminating significant obstacles related to the relocation.

Determining Your Candidates’ Needs

The first step is to hear your relocation candidates’ specific needs. To do this, offer your candidate the opportunity to speak with you candidly. What is his or her take on a potential move? How does the candidate think this opportunity may affect their career and life as a whole?

Listen attentively as your candidate discusses their needs with you. In order to really hear what your candidate’s needs are, you need to work to understand those needs, a process which begins with careful listening. Through active listening, in particular, you move beyond simply hearing the words someone speaks: as a listener, you engage with what your candidates are saying in order to understand their needs more explicitly.

To evaluate how well you truly understand your relocation candidates’ needs, consider what you know about these employees beyond their job titles and geographic destinations. What do you know about Sarah or Jacob’s career goals that might be relevant to this relocation? Have you taken the time to get to know your candidates as individuals outside of the workplace, as well? What excites your candidate about a potential move, and what worries them? If you do not know what your candidates’ hopes and fears about relocation involve, then you may not be listening to their needs as well as you thought.

Understanding Your Candidates’ Needs

How well do you listen? Are you an active or passive listener? Do you have a hard time keeping track of things people tell you? The most effective communicators and successful listeners pay close attention to what people around them say, as well as their attitudes and body language (when possible). There are several useful techniques that can help you become an active listener who engages with relocation candidates effectively.

First, allow your relocation candidates ample space and time for speaking with you. Do not give the perception that you are in a hurry or do not have time. When people feel rushed, they can become flustered and forget the important points they want to communicate. In addition, when people feel rushed, it becomes easy for them to perceive that their viewpoint – their needs, in this case – are not important.

Next, respond appropriately. Take a moment to think and reflect on what your candidate has just said. You might also consider taking brief notes during your conversation, as long as note-taking does not distract your candidate or yourself too much. You want to demonstrate that you understand what your candidate has just told you. You might do this by briefly paraphrasing what your candidate has just said, then follow with an information-seeking question that can help you learn more. For example, you might say something like, “Okay, Sarah, it sounds like your primary concern about this relocation is how it might affect your husband’s job as a research scientist. Would a job search assistance benefit be something that could help with this transition?”

You may find it helpful to take notes about the conversation and your perspective of it. Such notes can be a useful resource for future conversations because they offer you a reminder of what you discussed, what seemed to be most important in the conversation, and above all, a way to keep track of your relocation candidates’ needs. Recalling such relevant information in subsequent conversations will help your candidate continue to feel that they are being heard, and that their needs in this process really do matter.