Partner Spotlight: Dima, Lorenz – Dwellworks

Tell us a bit about your role at Dwellworks?

I am the VP of Account Management for Dwellworks in the APAC region and look after partnerships and general commercial interests for both our Destination Services and our Temp Living business in the region.

I am originally from Germany but have been calling APAC home for 25 years, living in Shanghai for 10, Hong Kong for 10 and now Perth for 5 years. I have been in the industry for over 20 years and had the pleasure of working with K2 since 2008, when they became our first-ever RMC partner for moves into China.

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What are the main challenges you’re seeing in the market at the moment?

There are obviously a lot of challenges to the mobility market at present, both on a macro-economic level as well as situational challenges in particular regions.

Some of these challenges include:

• Economic and political tension/global trade war. Tariffs redirecting economic activities and investments and with that redirecting mobility flow.
• Changes in geographical mobility hotspots in the APAC region, often at short notice.
• Reduced spend on mobility programs due to overall economic uncertainty.
• Increase of temporary assignments vs traditional long-term mobility plans.
• Increased difficulties obtaining visas and work permits in key APAC locations.
• Increased cost of delivering destination services due to general inflation and increased requirements in regards to compliance and data security.

Whilst many of these are outside our realm of control, there are also additional challenges that we are able to address or at least try to control the impact of:

• Responding to shorter scopes of work/lower supplier revenue by focusing on operational excellence and augmented AI service support.
• Responding to new product and support needs from clients by expanding our research, market insights, and digital/customer-accessed DS resources.
• Responding to an expanded client focus on talent mobility by coordinating our services and expertise with our clients’ supply chain to upgrade the CX and increase assignment success.

As an organisation, what are the two most important issues in your industry at this time, and how are they being addressed by your company?

1. The Need for Operational Excellence

Our solution to the challenge of delivering service excellence in an environment of more limited benefits is to transform our operations to be sustainable and scalable for new expectations.

We’ve simplified, standardised, and streamlined core service delivery tasks and communications across our global organisation to accelerate our team’s ability to complete tasks that are common to all destination services, enabling the local consultants who manage the employee experience to focus more attention on personalising responses to unique needs.

Our myDwellworks℠ content platform has been redesigned to interact with AI agents and create more intuitive and anticipatory content support for relocating employees, from learning about local leasing laws to familiarizing themselves with schools in their preferred neighborhoods. This AI supported communication is then enriched by our local experts.

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2. The Need for Adaptive Solutions for New Client and Customer Realities

Our awareness of shifting expectations in the customer experience, for example, led to the development of a suite of digital destination services, enabling more choice and control for the relocating employee, while delivering products and services in line with client contracts and KPI expectations.

Similarly, our investment in infrastructure and faster turn time in communications means that we can more ably coordinate individual service needs such as rescheduled arrival dates due to immigration delays, specific destination information requirements for unique needs, or expanded virtual property tours based on employee preference, property availability or rental market challenges.

These and more adaptable services are delivered in a broader environment of frequent client updates (quarterly rental market reports, bulletins on high profile events such the recent earthquake in Myanmar, changes in New York City rental laws, or local regulation of short-term housing), and compliance, governance and data security briefings.

Our service is designed and delivered forward from client and employee expectations, which positions us to be anticipatory and responsive to change.

What role does technology play in your service delivery?

Dwellworks champions an accelerated pace of change in product design, UX, and process management. We develop in sprints and continuously upgrade in alignment with client expectations.

Below are two additional examples of the significant enhancements this approach has generated:

• Walk Through App: Dwellworks has a purpose-built mobile app that simplifies and more professionally documents the property walk-through move-in and move-out process. Dwellworks consultants use the Dwellworks Walk Through App to document property condition with photographs and a sign off by tenant and landlord as standard operating procedure
• Operational Excellence: In 2024, Dwellworks invested in an Operational Excellence team made up of external consultants and internal stakeholders who are focused on incrementally reducing the time and effort spent by our operations teams, executing routine, administrative tasks. This realized time savings can then be redirected towards increasing customer engagement, enhancing the in-market experience of relocating employees, and proactively safeguarding against potential friction in the destination services journey. The objectives for this project are to standardize global processes and practices, optimize the time and effort of our operational resources and leverage tech automation to create scalable efficiencies and service quality in every facet of our business.

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As a service partner to K2, we look forward to continuing to aligning with K2’s priorities to calibrate our development and the reliability of our product releases.

Sustainability is one of the key pillars of K2’s current business plan – what are Dwellworks doing in this area?

Dwellworks was an early adopter and advocate of ESG and Sustainability in global mobility. We run a dedicated ESG strategy team and produce annual reports on our progress. Our next 2024-2025 report was published earlier this month.

Our core ESG goals are:

1. To achieve 50% reduction in core Scope 1 and Scope 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2030
2. To have our demonstrated performance in social responsibility identified as a key driver in being named an employer/partner of choice
3. To have the governance and compliance measures of our company in sustainability recognised as industry leading and drivers for selection and retention by our clients     We have been measuring our greenhouse gas emissions, where the data is available, since 2021

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Additionally:

• We just completed an updated ESG Materiality Assessment to guide our current investment and response strategy.

• We support the Coalition for Greener Mobility by participating in the design and use of calculators and standardising/simplifying sustainability evaluation criteria for clients.

• We are a foundational sponsor of the carbon calculator being launch by the Corporate Housing Providers Association (CHPA) to measure emissions consistently in temporary living.

• We are an educator and advocate for clients, customers, associates and supply chain on ‘green mobility practices’ from paper-free service support, to lowered vehicle carbon emissions, sustainability advice for new arrivals, and how to lower carbon impact in rental living – temporary and full time.

• We have a comprehensive governance alignment behind the principles of the UNSDG and UN Global Compact – with documented HR and business ethics policies and practices.