EuRA's First Best Practice Forum

The first EuRA Best Practice Forum took place in Brussels during July.

This project is the first step towards looking at standardisation of service delivery in Europe, and a way to open dialogue with the EU regarding a specific designation for relocation service providers. 

EuRA began talking with the EU as part of its involvement with the EARP, over three years ago, but at the start of this year, we were invited to speak with the European Federation of Consultancy Associations, an umbrella body for engineering consultancy across Europe.  Although EuRA and its’ members are not in the engineering industry (although at times it may seem like we are!), this body was the first to create a standardised best practice guide for its members, who are national and international engineering associations.   

EuRA is in a similar position as an umbrella body, representing members across Europe and the world, but also through the EARP, as part of a supra-national body, co-operating with other national associations. 

We are looking at ways to work with the EU to have relocation services and their providers, recognised as a separate profession, with definitions of their services and recognition of their place as professional consultants to the wider corporate world. 

The first steps in doing this are to ensure that all relocation providers seeking professional status, sign up to an industry agreed set of Rules of Conduct set down by the professional governing body.  EuRA is already equipped to undertake this.   

The second step is to develop a set of standard service delivery criteria, which can then be used to benchmark individual companies who wish to have EU recognition. 

Our first step on this path was taken in Brussels on the 9th, 10th and 11th of July, when a selected group of providers was brought together with the aim of establishing benchmarks in best practice within destination service provision. 

This was a fascinating exercise and confirmed what we had already suspected.  The level of service provision across Europe is incredibly high, with a standard of professionalism we can all be proud of.  Over the three days, no aspect of the relocation process was ignored, regional variations were thoroughly explored and fascinating anecdotes exchanged. 

This information will be collated and assembled into a set of EuRA Best Practice Guides.  These will then be taken back to the EU so we can begin the next stage of this process…… watch this space! 

Our profound thanks go to our 7 Forum members; 

Susana Bourne from Relocations Espana
Isabel Cudell from Lisbon Relocation Office
Jon Harmon from Move One
Eileen Lawlor from Irish Relocation
Anita Meyer from am&pm relocation services
Astrid Roheim from Oslo Relocation
Sylvie Schmit Verbruggen from European Relocation Associates