From Destination to Integration

The definition of relocation success is changing.

For years, mobility leaders have known a truth that rarely appears in policy documents:

Relocation succeeds or struggles at home long before it shows up at the office. The data reinforces what experience has long shown.

Dual-career households now represent the majority of relocating employees, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Gallup research continues to link life stability and well-being to engagement and retention. And across global mobility studies, family adaptation remains one of the most frequently cited contributors to assignment hesitation or early return.

What is evolving is how mobility programs respond.

Corporate support structures were not built for today’s workforce realities. Destination services developed in one lane. Career support often operated in another. Community belonging, one of the strongest drivers of resilience, was rarely integrated at all.

Families, of course, do not experience relocation in service lanes.

They experience one transition.

Over the past two decades, we have seen a consistent pattern: when support is fragmented, the transition feels heavier. When it is aligned, stability comes faster.

That insight shaped DS3.

DS3: Destination + Partner Career + Community Integration, reflects a structural shift. It aligns the elements families already experience as interconnected.

In conversations with mobility leaders, several themes continue to surface.

Simplification matters. Organizations are looking to reduce friction, not manage more vendors.

Well-being is being addressed earlier in the move, particularly around partner readiness and community connection.

And leaders want insight that reflects the whole transition — not only logistical milestones, but the career and emotional dimensions that influence long-term stability.

DS3 exists to align those realities.

Destination services will always matter. Career continuity will always matter. Community belonging will always matter.

What is changing is the recognition that they work best when coordinated.

Source references: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Gallup Workplace Research; global mobility industry studies