A few weeks ago I attended the 2006 Global Workforce Symposium in Dallas. At this august gathering, I had a chance to listen to the opinions of notable experts and industry leaders. I also spoke at length with many of my colleagues and it made me realize that I owe it to this industry to get a few things off my chest about the state of human resources in general and corporate relocation in particular.

The relocation industry has undergone a tremendous amount of change over the last ten years. As it has evolved and consolidated, it has, unfortunately, become more internally focused than ever before. Many relocation companies tended to make their services more complex in a futile attempt to show value to clients and prospects. In my opinion they focused on a lot of new organizational improvement initiatives and cost-cutting strategies rather than sticking to the only job that really matters -- delivering a “whole employee” to his or her new assignment.

The next ten years promise to bring more upheaval in both the makeup of the workforce and the relocation services industry. How will these changes affect the ability of organizations to hire, retain and deploy the best people? How can re-engineering the relocation function help organizations win the Talent Wars? How will traditional executive leadership deal with the prospect of creating truly “people-centric” companies?

Based on some of the animated discussions I had at the convention in Dallas, a lot of very smart people are at a loss to answer these questions. I challenge my friends (you know who you are) and peers in the Human Resources arena to start looking at the way they operate. Maybe it’s time to begin considering what steps you could take to transform the relocation process from a cost-and-headache issue into a strategic organizational advantage.

May I suggest step one?

It’s right here.