Relocation Service Intake Questions HR Should Ask

Relocation service intake questions are the facts an HR or mobility lead should confirm before a relocation file opens. They name who is eligible, which policy applies, who is moving, and when the employee must be on site. They also name who may approve an exception. Without those answers, a coordinator cannot start household goods, housing, or destination support. The employee then hears a different story from each person they call.

If you are still gathering facts and do not yet have a move to authorize, you can contact Relocation Center and ask what a first conversation covers. You do not need a finished move request to start that conversation.

Start Your Move

This guide stays on the intake. It does not list what belongs in a package, compare relocation companies, or explain how moving expenses are taxed. Those questions already have their own pages, and this one links to them when they come up.

What should relocation service intake questions settle first?

Start with the decision that makes every later question useful: is this person eligible to move under the policy you have today? Eligibility is not the same as a verbal job offer. It is the written rule that says which roles, locations, and employment types the company will support, and which it will not.

A hiring manager who says "we always help people move" is not an authorization. The intake should name the policy document and the tier that applies to this role. It should also name the date that version took effect. If two versions are in circulation, say which one governs this file. A coordinator who quotes an older tier will promise support the current policy does not fund.

Three facts belong in that first pass:

• The employee's name, role, current work location, and destination work location.
• The policy name and tier, plus whether the move is a new hire, a transfer, or an assignment with an end date.
• The name of the person who can approve an exception, and whether that approval must be in writing before work starts.

If any of those three is missing, pause the file. Guessing at the tier is how a shipment gets booked against a benefit the employee was never offered.

Write the answers in the employee's words where you can, then restate them in the file. A role title that differs from the offer letter is a common miss. So is a destination that names a city when the work site is a plant outside that city. Correcting either fact later means the coordinator has already started a search in the wrong market.

Keep a copy of the policy page you relied on, not a summary someone typed from memory. If the tier is a core benefit plus a flexible add-on, say which add-ons are already approved for this person. Also say which add-ons still need a signature. That distinction stops a coordinator from treating an optional item as a standard one.

Relocation Center coordinates the move once those facts are set. It is a relocation management company, not a moving carrier, and it does not operate the trucks. The corporate relocation services page describes that program-management role if you want the service map before you open a file.

Which household and timing facts does the coordinator need?

Eligibility tells you the move is allowed. The household and timing facts tell a coordinator what kind of move it is. These are not package contents. They are the inputs a file cannot open without.

Ask the employee these questions in one sitting, then write the answers into the file. A later call that changes the household size, after a shipment is booked, creates rework. The employee who thought the plan was set feels that rework first.

Timing deserves its own line on the form. Record the date the employee must be at the new work site, not the date they hope to leave the old one. Those two dates are often weeks apart when a home has not sold or a lease has not ended. Also note whether the old lease has a fixed end date. That date can force a storage or housing decision the tier may not cover.

Pets, a need for step-free housing, and a partner who works are constraints, not extras to collect later. Each one changes which destination options are realistic. If the employee has not decided yet, write "not yet known" rather than leaving the line blank. A blank line reads as "none," and a coordinator will plan that way.

Home-sale method is a later decision, not an intake guess. When a home sale is in scope, Relocation Center's named methods are Regular Inventory Sale, Buyer Value Option, and Amended Value. Do not add a method the policy does not name. The corporate real estate services page is the place to see how home sale and home finding are coordinated, once the file says a home sale is in scope.

Temporary housing is the same kind of decision. The intake should record whether the policy allows a short stay, who approves it, and the must-arrive date it has to cover. It should not describe how a stay is extended or what a housing vendor charges. The corporate temporary housing guide covers the housing stay itself. Link it, and keep this page on the question of whether a stay is even authorized.

Who may approve an exception before work starts?

Most files fit the tier. The ones that do not are where intake either protects the company or creates a dispute. An exception is any support the written tier does not include: an extra housing night. A shipment the tier does not cover, or a family member the tier does not name.

Name the approver before anyone asks for the exception. The policy may split that role. A mobility lead may approve housing, while finance approves anything outside the tier. Write both names on the file. A coordinator should not have to discover the approval path by emailing a distribution list.

Put the rule in one sentence the employee can read: requests outside the tier wait until the named approver says yes in writing. Verbal approval from a hiring manager is a note, not an authorization. HR teams that skip this step often learn about the exception when an invoice arrives.

This is also the moment to separate cost questions from intake questions. A household-goods relocation cost estimator can total a shipment from home size and distance. It cannot tell you whether the policy allows temporary housing. It also cannot say which home-sale method applies, or who signs an exception. Use the estimator when you need a shipment figure. Do not treat its output as approval to open the file.

Budget categories the estimator leaves out, such as duplicate housing or tax gross-up, belong in a budget review, not in this intake. If finance needs that picture, send them to the employer relocation budget line items guide rather than stretching this page into a cost article.

How should HR hand the file to a coordinator?

A clean handoff is a short record, not a long narrative. The coordinator needs the facts above, the policy document, and a single HR contact who can answer a same-day question. Everything else can wait until the file is open.

Use this order when you hand the file over:

1. Confirm eligibility, the policy version, and the tier in writing.
2. Record the household, the origin, the destination, and the must-arrive date.
3. Name the exception approver and attach any exception that is already approved.
4. Give the employee one HR contact and one coordinator contact, and tell both of them the file is open.

That sequence keeps the employee from becoming the messenger between HR and the coordinator. It also gives you a record if the move later slips, because the original dates and approvals are in one place.

Move coordination itself starts after this handoff. Shipment timing, carrier selection, and delivery windows are operating steps, not intake questions. The move management page describes how Relocation Center coordinates the household-goods move once the file is open. Send the reader there instead of restating those steps here.

Destination support is the same boundary. Area orientation, school information, and settling-in help matter after the household and timing facts are known. The orientation services page is the right next read for that support. The intake only needs to note whether the policy includes it and whether a partner or children are part of the move.

What should HR leave out of the first intake?

A first intake fails when it tries to answer every relocation question at once. Leave these topics to the pages that already own them, and link the employee or the hiring manager there.

Do not rebuild the package on this call. What a policy may include, and how a tier is designed, is covered in the employee relocation package guide. If the tier itself is unclear, the right next step is policy work, not a longer intake. Relocation Center's policy development consultation is the path for rewriting a tier. The intake only records which tier already applies.

Do not turn the intake into a vendor selection. How to compare relocation companies is a separate decision, and the guide to comparing corporate relocation companies already walks through it. Asking a coordinator to pitch services during intake mixes a sales conversation with a file that should be factual.

Do not explain tax treatment in the intake meeting. IRS Publication 15-B for 2026 covers this in its What's New section.

Public Law 119-21, commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, permanently eliminates the exclusion for qualified moving expense reimbursements from your employee's income.

The exclusion still applies in limited cases for Armed Forces members. It also applies to certain intelligence-community employees. Send tax questions to the relocation tax guide for employers and to IRS Publication 15-B. Do not invent a gross-up example on the call.

One more boundary: if the employee is hesitant about accepting the move, that is a retention conversation, not an intake gap. The guide to employees declining relocation covers the questions HR should ask in that case. Finish the intake only if the employee is proceeding.

FAQ: questions HR asks about the first relocation intake

What are relocation service intake questions?

They are the facts HR confirms before a relocation file opens. They cover eligibility, the policy tier, who is moving, the must-arrive date, and who may approve an exception. They are not a list of benefits and not a cost estimate.

Can a coordinator open a file before the policy tier is confirmed?

No. The tier decides what the coordinator is allowed to arrange. Opening a file against an unconfirmed tier risks booking support the employee was never offered. Confirm the policy version in writing first.

Who should approve an exception?

The person the written policy names, and the approval should be in writing before work starts. A hiring manager's verbal yes is not enough when the policy assigns that decision to mobility or finance.

Does the cost estimator replace the intake?

No. The estimator totals a household-goods shipment. It does not know the policy tier, whether temporary housing is allowed, or who signs an exception. Use it for a shipment figure, then finish the intake separately.

Where should tax questions go?

To your tax guide and to IRS Publication 15-B. The 2026 edition says the exclusion for qualified moving expense reimbursements is permanently eliminated for private-sector employees, with narrow exceptions for the Armed Forces and certain intelligence-community employees.

What HR should do after the intake is complete

When the five facts are written down, tell the employee the file is open and who their coordinator is. Then stop adding scope. New benefits, a different home-sale method, or a revised arrive date each need their own approval. They should not be folded quietly into the original intake.

If you want a person to look at a draft intake before you authorize a move, reach Relocation Center through the contact page. Share the policy tier and the must-arrive date if you have them. You do not need a completed shipment plan to ask whether the file is ready.

Request a Corporate Relocation Consultation

A coordinator can confirm whether the file has the facts it needs before any shipment is booked.