Issue 4 2008 > One-on-One with Sarah Boyle
One-on-One with Sarah Boyle
Global Account Manager
Sarah Boyle
Global Account Manager
E-mail: sboyle@crownrelo.com
Sarah Boyle has been in the relocation industry for eight years. She joined Crown in Paris, France in 2000, relocated to Basel, Switzerland in 2004 and returned to London, UK in April, 2008 to serve as the Global Account Manager for the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) account. London is one of SCB’s four global service centers. Sarah was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She speaks English, French and Russian. Sarah shared her experiences and insights on the global mobility industry, and her recent relocation to London.
What changes have you seen in Europe in the past years?
Relocation-wise, my last four years were spent outside the European Union (EU) but I did see that there is a lot of “cross border” activity where people would like to keep their current country lifestyle (and often tax) while working in the new country. I suppose it’s perceived as less of an upheaval. It makes for a different experience for the transferee. To state the obvious, there’s greater freedom of movement for “new” EU member citizens.
Was this your first assignment? If not, tell us about the others.
With the exception of a six month assignment in Moscow (prior to working for Crown), I have only ever moved as a local hire. The move to Basel was the first time I had any professional assistance. The six month assignment in Moscow was as a graduate and you were expected to do everything on your own. Fortunately, I knew some people in Moscow already or it would have been hard to know where to start. Speaking the local language is very helpful and I did find out about the relocation industry while I was there, so it was important in that sense!
When you recently relocated back to the UK, what were your biggest challenges?
No huge challenges this time–moving “back” to the UK has been a bit different since I already know many people from Crown. It’s the first time I have lived in the UK in 10 years and London is new to me. That said I had been to the office before so it wasn’t as daunting as it could have been. Crown set me up with all the local tax, voting, utilities, etc., so the administrative aspect was zero compared to previous moves. I am very grateful for that support from Crown–you just don’t know where to start otherwise.
Sarah with her colleagues at the
2008 Account Manager Training session in Basel, Switzerland
I reckon you need at least six months in your new country before you know if you’re settled or not so it’s still a little early to tell about challenges personally. From a business perspective, it’s been interesting to have to balance national cultural traits against the company culture and personal preferences of clients and team members. The new aspect for me in this role is working with a virtual global team. At Crown we’re used to working from time to time with colleagues in other offices but this is truly a global team–both on Crown’s side and on SCB’s side. In my last role we sat onsite with the client so I would nip downstairs to discuss an issue. Now I first need to remember time differences, local holidays, etc.
What advice would you give to employees planning an assignment?
Use Crown!! Your manager needs to calculate how quickly they want you to hit the ground running. So either they give you two weeks off work (at least) or have Crown do the work for you. I would recommend visiting before hand if possible, to have an idea of what your professional and social life will be like. Work out what’s valuable to you now and how you’d be able to do that–or not–in your new location.
What would you describe as top priorities for your clients e.g., expense management, online tools (crownrelo.com)?
Top priorities for the human resources teams include customer satisfaction and reporting on how well Crown is doing, to show how they made the right decision in outsourcing to us. Adherence to policy is also very important, no exceptions, etc. Increased pressure on Crown to provide cost effective services does affect us–especially with “savvy’” assignees who have moved before and know what services they were provided with five or ten years previously. The human resources teams look for cost savings such as having assignees share temporary accommodations or looking into renting furniture instead of shipping. Being able to advise on the pros and cons of such schemes is an important value that Crown can add.
Left to right: Norah Franchetti, group vice president
of learning & development, Sarah Boyle and Carol-Anne
Schmid, account manager in Lausanne/Geneva
How are industry trends affecting Crown’s service delivery e.g., an increase in female expats, singles, short-term assignments?
The increase in single, female transferees (like me!) can be seen. For them, there are fewer issues like childcare but there are areas where we can provide other services, e.g., safety, help in the home after delivery (shifting boxes, handyman services), weekend services if there is no partner to wait home for vendors, etc.
Has the focus on intercultural training been helpful to incoming/outgoing employees?
The teams I have been on must have organised over 300 trainings! The vast majority of people I know who have taken the training have been very happy to take the training and were very happy with the results.
What changes do you foresee in the future?
I believe cost savings will continue to be a big influence. A trend in many corporations seems to be to have equity and parity for all assignees regardless of seniority. That said, most, if not all, allow exceptions in practice. We’ve already seen many features of our work go on line in real-time–Crown is a bit of a pioneer with this! I can see this trend increasing, especially for services such as expense management submissions, feedback systems, etc. When thinking about the future, I cannot forget Africa! This will, I think, become an area of activity for us more and more. Other than Crown, there are few industry players there. I think that along with a growth of investments into Africa, we will see more employees relocating into the region, and the need for relocation services will increase.