Another member of the family?
As a mobility specialist, you get all sorts of questions from assignees before starting an assignment. For some, it may be the first time on assignment and there are a lot of unknowns. Sometimes it is all about understanding the details and sometimes these questions may have an emotional impact on the assignee and the family. Housing is an important one but, if the assignee has a pet, the question about pet shipment may arise as well. How do you deal with these questions and where do you draw the line? What is competitive in the market?
Based on the AIRINC benchmarking data, 27% of companies do provide pet shipment for long-term assignments and 10% provide it in some cases. Whether you provide it or not as a company, may depend on several factors, such as the company’s culture and your current mobility policy. It surely requires some careful evaluation. Most companies do not include pet shipment as part of the package. However, if this is a critical assignment, you may want to make an exception and if you have a core-flex policy, you may want to offer this as one of the flexible benefits.
Most companies that would provide pet shipment would limit it by the number of pets or would provide it up to a certain amount. Most global companies that offer pet shipments would use a global pet shipment company.
Also, did you know that AIRINC has a Cost Estimator Tool (ACE) providing a fast and accurate estimate of costs which is critical when the business is planning for or approving an assignment or transfer? This tool is an online cost estimating tool, which allows you to run estimates instantly and brings together carefully researched income tax rates, taxability logic, relocation allowances and support costs into one tool.
The ACE tool empowers you to support the business on demand. This is important, knowing that cost predictability continues to be one of the top requests from the business. One of the features of this tool allows the user to enter the value for pet shipment – enroute and return cost – which allows you to get an accurate cost estimate that reflects the assignee's personal situation. Of course, we can also configure the ACE tool based on your specific needs and aligned with your mobility policy. Cost elements that you do not pay for as a company can be removed from the tool and different values / calculations can be programmed as needed.
Do you have questions about pet shipment and how to manage this as part of your policy? We are here for you to discuss this or any other topic. Likewise, if you would like to know more about ACE, we are more than happy to provide a demo of all the features of our ACE tool and show you how this tool can be an added value for you and the business.
