Meet our President's Award Winner Heather Filos

Each quarter we shine a spotlight on team members who exemplify our dedication to service and our core values. For the second quarter of 2023, we are pleased to honor Heather Filos, Expense Analyst, with our President’s Award.  

When a recruiter from LinkedIn reached out to Heather in 2022 about a job as an Expense Analyst, she was up for a career change. “I had an extensive background in customer service (before this position) and I was wanting to get out of that space,” says Heather. “This was the first recruiter who had reached out to me with a non-customer service role and I was like, why not? The worst that could happen is that I wouldn’t get hired.”

Fortunately for CRI, she WAS hired, and Heather dedicated herself to learning the intricacies of expense management in short order. Her finely tuned customer service skills also proved essential in her interactions with clients and transferees, helping her build a deep understanding of the relocation management industry.

“Relocation management is one of those things where you don’t realize it’s even there until you actually either #1 - have to relocate for a job yourself or #2 - you get a job in the industry,” says Heather. “I was aware of the concept of people moving for their job but I just didn’t realize there was a whole industry behind it.”

To put it simply, Heather’s responsibilities revolve around supervising the relocation transactions of transferees, ensuring they reflect the company's relocation policies. While this position might sound straightforward, it is remarkably intricate, positioning her in the middle of client and transferee activity. Thanks to her keen attention to detail, particularly when scrutinizing expenses across a diverse range of clients with varying policies, Heather has more than mastered her duties as Expense Analyst. Among her team, she is the go-to when a high level of expense oversight is required, and she appreciates the challenges this kind of work brings.

A native of the New Jersey shore, Heather graduated from Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, PA, and eventually ended up in the Atlanta, GA area, thanks to an unforeseen “extended visit” to her father just as the Covid quarantine went into effect. The Expense Analyst role at CRI ended up being based in Roswell, just north of Atlanta, and she now calls Georgia home.

Q & A

What components make up a good team? 

Cooperation, Resilience and Positivity 

What are three critical traits a client should look for in a prospective relocation management company? 

 Attentive, Reliable and Flexible

If you could go anywhere, where would you relocate to? 

I would have to say Ireland. I just think the vibe suits my personality. I haven’t been there but the scenery alone would sell me. Also, being in Ireland makes it easy and cheap to go anywhere else that I would want to go in Europe.

What’s either the best advice you’ve ever received or worst advice you’ve ever received? 

Worst Advice:

It’s really more of a phrase – “If they wanted to, they would.” I’m empathetic and I really do think of other’s feelings before my own. When people say, “if they wanted to, they would,” it’s like nails on a chalkboard for me because the people who say this aren’t really thinking about what someone else could be going through. Maybe a person is going through something and really wants to (engage with others) but just can’t at the moment.

Tell us something you’re excited about. 

My hobby outside of work is Dressage horse riding (where a trained horse performs exact moves guided by subtle signals from its rider) so every week I enjoy going out to the barn. I started riding when I was 14. I’m currently leasing a horse named Poet and he’s a spunky old man. I think he’s a little older than me. We’re just a little dynamic duo.