Intern Project – Young Professional Domestic Relocation

Intern Project – Young Professional Domestic Relocation

Through our relationship with relocation management companies (RMCs), Dwellworks provides relocation support services for corporate clients, such as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Genentech, and many other Fortune 500 and emerging industry companies. For the purpose of this assignment, we will focus on the US and Canada domestic, urban area to urban area relocation rental search support process for young professionals. The goal of every client’s relocation program is to have the relocating employee satisfied with their move, settled in quickly into their new environment and up and running as quickly as possible, at a well-managed cost for the relocation service.

Instructions

The relocation industry has seen a recent change in the ‘typical’ make-up of a ‘transferee”.  The change over the past several years is an influx of relocating ‘young professionals’ and fewer of the once traditional, mid-career transferee with spouse and children.  While that is still a critical population served by our customers, we believe Dwellworks and its clients have effective solutions for that portion of the market; what we are interested in pursuing is a broader, deeper understanding of the service needs and expectations of the emerging and potentially dominant new market. Merriam Webster defines a transferee as a person being transferred for business. For the context of this assignment, think of a transferee as an employee of Company ABC who works out of the headquarters in Seattle, WA and is being relocated to their other office in Chicago, IL.

Dwellworks provides a Destination Services Consultant (DSC) who is a subject matter expert to assist the transferee with their relocation. This person assists the transferee with the rental finding process. Generation Y and Millenials are known to be renters to a large extent by choice. They prefer to rent apartments or homes with the assumption and understanding that they may be relocated within a year or two, and they are open and excited about the opportunity.   They are not necessarily on an immediate homeowner track, even if they could afford a home.  A typical transferee in this customer segment is between the ages of 25-35, who holds a mid-level position within a company, is perceived as a contributor to company growth/new initiatives/new market development, and who may be an attractive target for the client’s competition due to their skillset. This employee is adverse to relocation to further their career and specifically, is open to new experiences as much for personal development as for career track.

Working as a team, use research such as surveys and/or focus groups to determine how a typical “young professional” transferee would like to be helped during a move from one urban area to another urban area.  More specifically, if they were given 10 hours of a consultant’s time, how would they want the time to be spent? For example, would they want to meet with the consultant and hear about the neighborhoods or would they want the consultant to schedule apartment viewings for them? What else?

We also would like to know what the customer service environment should look like; is it face-to-face interaction, Skype, Chat, Email, text, mobile app, etc. Also, how should the customer service interaction feel? Should it be warm and fuzzy or quick and simple? Based on your findings, draw conclusions and make recommendations for service delivery structure. 

The intern group will meet on a weekly basis for a 30-45 minute conference call. During the call, the group will focus on delegation of presentation topics as well as the piecing together of the information. John Fischer, VP, New Product Design will attend these meetings to provide guidance to the group. Each intern is required to set aside time during the week to complete their portion of the research project.

The length of the presentation should be approximately 25-30 minutes; allowing for an additional 15 minute question & answer period following the presentation. Every intern is required to present an equal segment of the project.

On Thursday, July 10^th we will have a ‘mock presentation’ day.  At this time, the HR team will meet with the group and will provide constructive feedback on the presentation. The intern group will then have two weeks to practice and make any necessary changes. The final presentation will be presented to senior leadership and is scheduled for Wednesday, August 6 at 10 AM ET. 

Purpose

The internship project will give you a chance to work with other interns on an assignment.  You will gain experience in webinars, conference calls and giving presentations. The purpose of this project is for you to gain experience working as a team on a project in a new and exciting industry. We want you to use your great teamwork and organization skills and create a presentation that will not only improve your resume, but also our entire team here at Dwellworks!