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Spotlight on Paragon’s Andrew Rees

Australian-born Andrew Rees recently relocated to Hong Kong, taking a new position as Director of Business Relations Asia Pacific for Paragon Relocation. We had a chance to speak with him about his recent move, including his experience participating in Aperian Global’s cross-cultural training course, Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Andrew is no stranger to the expat world. In addition to his home country, Andrew has lived in Switzerland, USA, Japan, Ireland and now adds Hong Kong to the list. He holds a business and marketing degree from the prestigious RMIT University in Melbourne and, prior to Paragon, worked in telecommunications and market research. Andrew began his career at Paragon three years ago in Dublin, Ireland where he served as Managing Consultant. His responsibilities primarily involved regional client development and program implementation. In his new role in Hong Kong, Andrew’s primary responsibilities include working with CAT and further developing Paragon’s presence within the region, with emphasis on China and other emerging markets.

As part of their transition to Hong Kong, Andrew and his spouse Chloe recently participated in Aperian Global’s cross-cultural training program we asked him for his feedback on the session. As the Rees’ have already been in Hong Kong for a couple of months, the agenda was tailored to meet their specific needs which were primarily business focused. Customization of programs is a standard practice at Aperian. Despite their vast international experience, they found the program to be of real benefit in understanding business-level interactions in Hong Kong. The training also helped them to articulate things that they had been thinking about and experiencing in their new culture. It was also beneficial in helping them to understand where they are at currently in the process of adjustment and to help plan for the future.

For Andrew’s spouse, who is starting a new position, the session helped her to understand the cultural differences she will experience when she begins working, and also gave her the opportunity to discuss the experiences she has already had during the search process.

Andrew’s personal interests include Travel, Sports (including rowing), and good food – which he notes has been particularly enjoyable in Hong Kong with all of its tasty cuisine.

“In his tenure with Paragon, Craig has become an invaluable member of our leadership team.  His vision for the company is exceptional and his dedication to the job unquestionable.  I believe Craig will take Paragon Relocation to new and exciting places,” said Joseph Morabito, president and CEO of Paragon Global Resources.

Selders has 30 years of industry experience and has been with Paragon for six years. Prior to that, he held various senior management positions at several major relocation companies.  Selders holds the senior certified relocation professional (SCRP) and senior global mobility specialist (SGMS) designations, and has earned a Distinguished Service Award as well as the Meritorious Service Award from Worldwide ERC^®.  He has served on numerous committees and panels for Worldwide ERC^® and other industry conferences. He has been published in various publications, such as Mobility and Energy World, and holds a Texas Real Estate Broker’s license. Selders has a bachelor’s degree in business, with an emphasis in real estate, from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Barrie is a proven and respected global sales executive with extensive experience in the relocation industry. Prior to joining Paragon Relocation, Barrie served as EMEA Sales Director for Cartus, where he proved instrumental in driving business growth in the region. Throughout his professional career, Barrie has developed and managed high yielding sales teams and lead global sales strategies at many organisations including Crown and the Meteorological Office.

In his new position, Barrie will be responsible for directing Paragon Relocation’s sales strategy within the EMEA region, building on Paragon Relocation’s growing reputation in Europe.

“Barrie’s significant experience and deep industry knowledge will bring immediate value to Paragon Relocation” says Liam Brennan, Managing Director of Paragon Relocation. “The addition of Barrie to our team will greatly enhance our global capabilities, scale and reputation. It is our pleasure to welcome Barrie to Paragon Relocation.”

Barrie will be based in Paragon Relocation’s London offices.

On behalf of Paragon Relocation Resources, Inc. and Worldwide ERC® we are excited to offer you a free registration to attend the Worldwide ERC® 2010 Global Workforce Symposium, which will be held at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle October 27-29, 2010. This free registration is available to any corporate HR professional who has not attended the Global Workforce Symposium in three years or more and who signs up to attend. If you are eligible to take advantage of this outstanding offer, simply complete the registration form, starting with the section for first-time corporate HR Attendees. And please feel free to extend this offer to your co-workers! There are a limited number of spaces, so your early response is critical.

If you are originally from the West, you might think moving to China is a little bit too exotic for you. But perhaps once you arrived to one of China’s major metropolises you might actually find that it has many of the things which you would find at home to make you feel comfortable, including an English speaking expatriate community to form a support system. However, this may not be the case for China Tier 2 or China Tier 3 cities as specified by the Chinese government which are determined by population size and economic growth potential.

Click here to continue reading.

As relocation volume stabilises and shows signs of a slow, but steady recovery, early indicators suggest 2010 will be a year of programme recalibration. The U.S. housing market continues to struggle. Many practices highlighted in 2009’s Trends and Best Practices report still apply. Strict Home Marketing parameters, use of buyer incentives, and formal loss on sale and negative equity provisions remain. While these benefits will underscore most U.S. domestic programmes, Paragon is choosing to focus on some new themes this year as the impact of “The New Normal” is poised to take center stage.

Pulse Point 1: Due Diligence
As companies and transferees become risk adverse in the “New Normal” environment, Paragon predicts a bias towards more focused due diligence as the initial step in domestic transfers and international assignments.

To continue reading this White Paper, please click here.

Is there a connection between Home Leave and employee attrition/retention? Home Leave was intended to helpminimise the effects of the culture shock of an international assignment. It allows assignees tomaintain family ties and stay current with home business contacts and associates; and keep connected with their community and culture. Still, attrition rates upon completion of assignments remain high. Is there a disconnect between the philosophy of the home leave provision and its actual impact to assignment satisfaction?

Click here to continue reading …

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The more things change, the more they stay the same…

If one word could be used to describe the outlook that corporate relocation professionals have for 2010 it would be stability. This is a marked difference over 2009 which saw employers decrease hiring budgets by 23%[1] and a housing market which saw decreases by 18% from the previous year [2]. 

Overwhelmingly the results from this month’s Paragon Pulse survey indicate that US Domestic relocation volume will either stay the same as last year or even increase over the previous year. Is it possible that the bottom of this down economy has been reached? Of the respondents to the survey, 62% indicated that there will neither be an increase or a decrease over the volume that they had last year. However, 19% of respondents indicated that there will be an increase of volume in 2010 as opposed to just 5% saying there will be a decrease in volume over the same period of time. This makes sense because since November of last year hiring has slowly been on the rise [3]. 

Another question on the survey asked how the respondents would like to improve their current relocation program in 2010, the highest amount chose to “Try to reduce the number of exceptions to policy” at 37%, while the second highest number of respondents chose “Create more relocation training for internal hiring managers and or recruiters” at 26%. To reduce the number of exceptions to policy Paragon recommends reassessing the current policies which are available to the transferring employees to see if current best practices could be aligned more effectively with the current needs of the employees moving. Often small changes to a relocation program can bring about a tremendous reduction of exceptions which saves money in the end. 

In conclusion, the stabilization of volume in 2010 is a welcome sign of relief that perhaps the economy will be better this year than last year. Hopefully these are early signs that companies will begin hiring again and that the housing market will begin to achieve some of the value that it has lost since 2007, which will make selling transferee’s homes a much smoother process for corporations and employees. 

Click here to see the complete survey results from the US Domestic Best Practices in Volume Trends 2010. 

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