Relocation Blog

An author recently wrote that Sweden is a country where people are intensely preoccupied with learning NOT to trust one another. I can only agree, since the first time I heard the word Mängelliste from an Austrian transferee I've come a long way. For years I tried to say that a handshake is enough and answering questions on "Can we be sure?" with "Yes, of course he said so". To most nationals that isn't good enough so we have adapted, but in my heart a handshake is still a handshake and in most situations I still trust someone’s word. That being said I can sniff out a lier very quickly - so we simply don't get to the actual handshake. This is a skill you need when you live by the trust morale.

Fika – every workplace will come to a standstill twice a day. 10:15-10:30 and 3 to 3:15 is the mandatory coffee gathering. Swedes drink more coffee than everyone but the Finns. If you go to a meeting you MUST say yes please to coffee even if you are a tea drinker… if not you will be regarded with suspicion. It’s part of the protocol.

The Greater Copenhagen Area can also mean all of southern Sweden including Malmö/Lund if the Danes get their way. Some may find this offensive and some will attribute this to recent years thorn in the side given to the fellow Scandinavians by the Swedes calling Stockholm the Capital of Scandinavia.

1. Nature – you can be next to a cow 15 minutes after leaving the center of town.
2. Biking – it’s small so you get around nicely on a bike
3. Winter – you can ski several months per year
4. Personal safety – you can walk without fear and apart from your bike you are unlikely to be robbed
5. Cultural activities – you can get tickets to world performances that you can only dream of in other destinations
6. The midnight sun
7. You can get by well on English only – at least to start

We get the feedback from those that leave. What do they love the most?

We started keeping track of our client in the cloud in 2003, before that we were paper based. We hardly use paper these days, not for handouts, nor to print anything apart from home finding schedules, and we will move away from that too. Apart from not printing unnecessarily we keep track of everything in our tracking system, on our server and not least in our hearts. We get close to our transferees, but we also want to help our HR clients improve their processes and that can be done with big data. Local cost of living indexes are created. We know how much it costs to rent a place in Sweden and most importantly we know what it costs now, not three years ago. Well, we know that too, but it’s of little use to anyone. We also know what your expat population has paid in the last year, why is that important? It can be a tool to set salaries, to set expectations of cost of living, have the right focus for recruitment. Talk to us about tracking your data and how you can use other data to build your compensation packages.

1. Your taxes are high, but you pay nominal fees for day care AND you will get a child allowance from the government. Swedish benefits are amazing and they are available to residents.

The human touch is essential.

Many Swedish landlords expect tenants to have a relocation company assisting with the moving out. As a transferee, consider prepaying for the departure service on your upcoming summer move out.

Remember your first day on the job? Fun, confusing, nerve wrecking and being really tired at the end of the day? Imagine doing that in a new country that you’ve just moved to, with a language that is like Double Dutch and a tonne of uncertainty about how working and living in this foreign place will be. Greeting cross border employees really is an entirely different game!