How do Global Mobility Professionals demonstrate more Value?
Guest Post by Kevin Castro
In a survey commissioned in 2019 by Santa Fe Relocation Services and conducted by Savanta, a critical view is revealed on how and why Global Mobility professionals need to take action to affect change.
The findings suggest again that even now, not all stakeholders are aware of the full roles performed by Global Mobility and that there is an opportunity here to educate both internal and external stakeholders on the true future potential that Global Mobility brings to an organisation and its development. This is further underpinned by John Rason, Group Head of Consulting, Santa Fe Relocation, who identifies that: “Those of us working in the Global Mobility industry will tell you that it can be frustrating, challenging, complex—sometimes even scary. However, when executed well it can also be exciting, fulfilling…”
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While Senior Leadership recognizes the role that GM professionals play in the organization, does it transcend to having real benefits for those supporting the company’s best talents i.e. not feeling under-resourced or undervalued?
Perhaps only for some. As GM professionals, how can we further demonstrate value in order to improve the team’s perception and thus influence how the organization provides support to the team? It is evident from the above quote that challenging, rewarding work is being done but not being recognized at all junctures. In fact, given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel and thus international assignments and GM in general, Global Mobility professionals have stepped up in a big way to manage and facilitate expats stranded in foreign countries, navigating complicated and unknown pathways to providing them essential support.
Such value should not go unappreciated. In light of that, I have listed four points, which I hope can help you and your teams increase your value in the organization:
1. Get a Seat at the Table
Do you have Joint-Business Planning with your HR & Business Leaders? If none yet, you should start engaging them in order to better understand their goals, focus, and how you can support Talent Strategy. This may lead to an easier path in demonstrating your value to the business as you will get to know how and where to play towards their goals. Does your company do assignee pre-screening, where you determine the suitable candidates for the international assignments? If not, this is something that you can explore and introduce. If done right, you avoid the pitfalls of selecting the wrong people.
2. Communicate Your Value, Regularly and Consistently
Do you consistently communicate what you have achieved, the projects you initiated? Ensure that you communicate the things that you do and how you have supported the business. A study by Cartus in 2016, a global relocation services provider, found out that 54% of companies lack focus on tracking and reporting on assignments. Hence, it is high time to gather that data (assignment success, costs, the return on investment, assignees feedback, etc.) and have a regular newsletter, blog post or presentation at your next strategy and planning meeting. As my clients always ask, how will I know if the expat assignment is successful? Presenting reports is useful to communicate such info.
3. Demonstrate Why Your Expertise Matters
You are the expert, and you should try to demonstrate this frequently. You can do this through sharing GM insights, trends, and how these contribute to business or talent strategy. If the opportunity is available to increase your Global Mobility expertise through having certification and further studies. GM organizations and consultancy organizations provide certifications/courses, where you can further deepen your mobility knowledge. For example, Global People Transitions offers the FlyMe! Program, a career coaching geared towards Global Mobility professionals.
An academic course to certify you as a “Global Mobility Advisor” is available with Expatise Academy in collaboration with Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
4. Be Flexible and Agile
In previous years, the goal was to ensure that you arrange logistics and meet compliance needs, which are more transactional. In today’s world, the role expands and you are now viewed by the business as a strategic partner not merely as administrators. You should always understand what is important to the business. Today, the focus may be costs, but it might be something else in three months’ time. Keep your eyes and ears open for this and be agile and flexible.
In addition, as practitioner (in-house or outsourced),tyou should also be aware of trends in terms of mobility practices and service delivery. You can start by looking at how technology affects the delivery. Do all assignees adapt to these changes, or do we provide omnichannel delivery? What do other companies do? Such questions might lead you to new service delivery models or enhancement.
I hope these four points will prove to be beneficial for you and will help your team to push more value to the organization. So, don’t forget to get a seat, market your value, be the expert and be agile and flexible.
I remember a conversation with my previous boss, where he shared with me that HR is a cost-generating function, so it might sometimes receive smaller budgets (e.g. hiring additional headcount, higher bonus, etc.). However, HR’s role has transformed itself from a back-office support function into a more strategic business partner. This principle should also apply on Global Mobility regardless of where it is structured in the company. In fact, as the Santa Fe survey points out, Global Mobility is now increasingly connecting more formally with broader HR and Centres of Excellence subjects such as: workforce planning, innovative policies and advisory services (to both executive management and employees).
To summarise, in today’s world, Global Mobility teams are and will continue to become more valuable than ever!
P.S Sign up for FlyMe! now. If you would like to become a Global Mobility Specialist or deepen your knowledge, improve your skill set and build your professional network at the same time, this program is for you. Read in details below.
Kevin Castro is a Filipino by birth, who lived in Singapore for almost 8 years and is now residing in Zurich. A Global Mobility professional, with experience in Mobility Operations, HR Services, Project & Supplier Management, and Customer Service. He is currently learning German and at the same time enjoying cooking & curating travel experiences.
Our Ten Commandments for the Global Mobility Manager
We have lived in a world dominated by political, economic, and environmental uncertainty for many years. However, the past three years have been exceptional and challenging for most of us. The global health crisis caused by Covid-19 has brought the planet to its knees. The pandemic impacted all aspects of life and radically changed the way we work. The world of Global Mobility will never be the same. We are beyond Global Mobility and ride into a new way of working.
Considering the impact caused by the pandemic, it does not take a fortune teller to foresee that Global Mobility Managers will have to deal with the blow of the crisis in the years to come. If you thought that one global crisis was enough, you were up for a shock in February of this year when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Geopolitical tension, including in and around China, seems more pervasive than ever. Insecurity around energy, food supplies, inflation, and other dystopian scenarios causes many anxieties and mental health issues. The Global Mobility Manager of 2022 is a crisis manager. All “crisis” cycles show that Global Mobility Managers remain incredibly resilient and constantly come up with immediate and creative solutions to face issues that arise overnight.
Imagine the difficulty of suddenly repatriating an Expat (or an Expat family) who was temporarily on holiday in a third country and remains stuck there without any other assistance. You might have to find a quick solution for someone about to go on assignment but had to postpone their departure. Their household goods are on their way to the host location. You book a serviced apartment for them in the home country.
Teams in war zones continue to work or relocate to a haven, refugees integrate into the workforce, and business travelers overstretch their stays in locations and create a tax liability.
Having handled many crises in the past, guarding the lives of Expat families has become our daily bread. We continue to bring the human touch back into Global Mobility. As I already mentioned in my book in 2019, it is more important for all of us to keep our sanity. Putting on our oxygen masks and working on our inner strength is more important than ever.
Let’s continue to build up our support gang and raise the next generation of Global Mobility Managers through an excellent education with the Global Mobility Master Course at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. I also favor a mentor system where experienced Global Mobility Jedis foster and guide a Padawan. (Yes, I draw much inspiration from movies, books, and music.)
When you need guidance, we all have our favorite book, and I turned to my religion for advice and found a fantastic guideline for the winter to come.
1) I am the EXPAT, your client: You shall not have strange people before me.
Our Expat population is changing. Nowadays, an ever more diverse population is embarking on international assignments. Expats vary in cultural background, family situation, age, gender, etc. Addressing these groups’ needs in a one-size-fits-all policy is impossible. A more diverse workforce equals various individual assignees’ expectations, resulting in a proposition that might be desirable for one employee while not appealing for another. The Expat is our main client. We need to take care of their interests before we consider other parties in the process. In case of doubt, focus on people over processes (see also: Agile Manifesto).
In the AIRINC Mobility Outlook Survey 2021, 65% of respondents expect that the demand for flexibility from the business will increase. Meanwhile, 52% of the companies surveyed expect that adding more flexibility to policies is the best response to this demand, followed by 28% who think using a wider variety of policy types is the better solution. According to the Mercer 2019 Flexible Mobility Policies Survey, the most popular policy elements for which the participants introduced flexibility are family-related: housing, spousal support, child education, and home leave tickets are all items that can help improve the Expat Experience while on assignment.
2) You shall not take the name of the POLICY, your bible, in vain.
There are reasons for quoting the policy, the law, or other regulatory insights. However, this should not be your go-to-wording for anything that “is not possible.” With the crisis, we all accepted that the duty of care belongs to our role. Policies should foster the well-being of employees.
Flexible policies have prepared some companies to deal more efficiently with urgent repatriations and unforeseen mobility scenarios. Other companies adopting flexible policies have found them inapplicable and inappropriate in the context of urgency. In my view, we will move away from policies altogether and design individual packages for expats that fit like bespoke, handmade business suits.
We mentioned last year that immigration is becoming more complex, and it could be that the host country’s legislation has not kept up with modern family constructs, for example. Communication about what is possible and how we can support it is critical here. Communicate openly about longer lead times and backlogs at authorities (for example, post-BREXIT, the UK immigration process currently takes much longer than we were used to).
3) Remember to keep holy the DIGITAL DETOX DAY
Keep a “digital detox day” because your work never ends. We have constantly worked across time zones, holiday schedules, and daily demands. For your sanity and energy maintenance, getting away from all media for at least 24 hours is essential. I practice DDD but have observed with my coaching clients that the pandemic has blurred the lines between work and personal time.
Many organizations have focused on digitization, which means moving to more digital formats. Digitalization, on the other hand, means strategically shifting to digital processes and activities. The terms are often used interchangeably.
One of the biggest challenges is incorporating technology into the business to add value to the company and its employees. One positive example of digitalization is reporting assignees through an intuitive HR system and tracking assignees through security apps such as the International SOS Assistance App.
Your level of digital engagement depends on how “digitally mature” your global mobility program is. You might be just ‘exploring digital,’ using robotics to carry out simple and repetitive tasks, while others might be already ‘becoming digital’ with a formal digital strategy. You are already experiencing success where automation performs tasks humans generally handle, such as periodic emails or copying and pasting information from public or private sources. Adopting and introducing those techniques into existing processes will focus on diminishing costs, increasing productivity by improving operational efficiency, and retaining talent.
Some of the latest HR systems, Success Factors or Workday, offer essential workflow functions for international assignments. Still, they cannot yet run the entire end-to-end process with all the external vendors involved. Data needs to shift from the HR System to the vendor platform, but an integrated solution, which I call “the Holy Grail,” has yet to be invented (it exists mainly in my fantasy brain). As I filled another Excel sheet with numbers and birth dates, I kept reminding myself that this was how I started in the field in 1999. Before that, we used to calculate on paper. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology is another exciting use of AI in the field. We speed up transactional processes in mobility functions. Equally important is that automation can also reveal itself as crucial in reducing hierarchical thinking. Read more about bringing the Human Touch back into Global Mobility.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) deals with more natural ways humans and computers can work together in the future. Watch this space as it could help us in Global Mobility and reduce our stress levels again. For example, instead of sitting at a desk for 12 hours, we could work by walking outside and taking the Expat Family with us on a virtual tour of the city. Or we can use voice commands to fill out a form instead of retyping the data.
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4) Honor the Expat’s Host and Home Manager (and Sponsors)
We have structured Global Mobility drivers and assignment types and integrated Global Mobility with the Talent function. We still need to bring back the Human Touch, and we especially need to align the home and host line manager’s interest in the Expat’s goals and performance criteria.
We also need to remember to nominate a sponsor so that the Expat has a home to return to and a guardian angel who watches out for their interests in the home company. You will have fewer headaches if you initially reduce the assignment length to a maximum of two years. It’s always easier to extend an assignment that works well than to “early repatriate” someone for whatever reason.
Since the 1990s, assignment types have evolved from only having long-term or short-term assignments. In the 2000s, new kinds of assignments emerged, such as the rotator, the international transfer, the globalist, and the commuter. Then, the 2010s saw the rise of business travelers, international new hires, and domestic relocations. In the present decade, we will see the assignment types evolve and diversify further with new possibilities like virtual roles, contingent workers, remote workers, and other future mobility options we have not thought about yet.
Depending on your situation, you might want to consider your primary use cases and create suitable assignment types around them. For example, we started the “Cross-Border Project Worker” type as someone who is employed in one location, lives in a second location, and might commute twice a week to a third location. European legislation now adopts the “Teleworker” as an assignment type. Be creative so you have a handle on managing or accepting our other reality of dealing with every case on a customized basis.
5) You shall not fire an EXPAT.
Have you solved the dilemma of succession planning and repatriation in your company yet? If so, I’d be interested in exchanging with you as it still seems that we are utilizing 1999 methods in recruiting and global resourcing. We should have understood that firing an Expat is never a good idea. It shows that we did not do our job well in the selection or assignment. Maybe we forgot to nominate a sponsor in the home company, or we assigned the Expats without a clear Global Mobility driver. We should make it our priority to retain our Expats in the organization.
6) You shall not solicit from your VENDORS.
As I mentioned in the Global Mobility Workbook, we need to collaborate better with all our vendors to enhance the Expat Experience (XX) further. One ground rule is that you cannot poach staff from your vendors. I would also suggest you build long-term relationships with everyone involved in the process.
You are one team at the end of the day, and the Expat and their family will feel it if you work together like a well-oiled machine instead of blaming each other when there is a break in the process. I would encourage you to search for the cracks in the “Process Porcelain” because most of the time, you can solve an issue best if you look at the process in every detail, handover, and sub-step.
7) You shall not reduce BENEFITS.
Now that companies diversify their compensation approaches, you need to dig deeper into base pay, benefits, and short-term and long-term incentives to have a more comprehensive financial understanding of the implications of an international move. It’s time to broaden your reward skills and ensure you understand compensation models, host-based compensation, and inflation rates by country. As a basic principle, try to maintain equity in the compensation approach. Balance out a lower salary than the host market by providing an additional market allowance or a benefit such as corporate housing.
8) You shall not bear false witness against your EXPAT.
Building a trusted relationship with your Expat and their Spouse will be a crucial success factor for any international assignment. Try to communicate openly and honestly and be transparent about your limitations. Let them know how you justify exceptions, make package decisions, offer specific benefits, and under what circumstances. Show them your “box of chocolates” and give them one to taste. We think it is too short-sighted to discuss employee experience only in the context of our work and want you to focus on enhancing the Expat Experience (XX).
9) You shall not Neglect the EXPAT SPOUSE.
The lack of Expat Spouse career opportunities is among the top five reasons assignments fail (AIRINC Mobility Outlook Survey 2021). I have written extensively about why that is and give you ideas on how you can support the Expat Spouse. Over the last ten years, I have seen no significant improvement in how we integrate and support the Expat Spouse. Only a few companies offer Expat Partner Career Support. Let’s also agree that we want to see an improvement on that front.
10) You shall not move your EXPAT’s goods.
The climate and energy crisis will force us to rethink Global Mobility altogether. Expats want to work from anywhere in the world, and at the same time, moving furniture from Hong Kong to Singapore to New York or flying home every week might not be the best and most sustainable solution for the future. If you are serious about reducing the carbon footprint, you must incentivize environmentally friendly solutions in favor of the “classical approach.” For example, you could pay for storage rather than moving household goods. You could support rental furniture instead of giving an allowance for buying new furniture. You could pay for train travel instead of flights within a certain distance.
We will need to give up our resistance to work from anywhere (WFA), workations, and other virtual assignments, which means that employees can also work in a third country of choice (not the home country or the location benefiting from the task performed). This possibility enables Expats to become digital nomads, no longer bound to a specific location. Implementing more Virtual Assignments also means acknowledging and accepting that working arrangements are changing fast in response to technology, generational changes, and sudden business disruptions.
Of course, there are limits to this as well. The most obvious is that not all jobs are remote, which is also one of the reasons why virtual Mobility will not replace traditional Mobility. Tax and compliance issues can pose a risk, too. The company having no existing operations and not wishing to have a permanent establishment where the employee would like to be based can be another possible barrier to Virtual Assignments. Some organizations are also concerned that Virtual Assignments could hinder company culture and teamwork, with the risk of the employee feeling like a perpetual outsider.
Five easy-to-forget critical topics to consider before moving to another country for work
Moving jobs to people instead of moving people to jobs will not substitute the traditional way of thinking about Global Mobility. Still, it is another tool companies can use in their global operations. We live in an era where recruitment should be location-independent.
As organizations gradually embrace best practices to manage a distributed international workforce, it will be essential for Global Mobility teams to adapt to a new way of thinking and learn to implement Virtual Assignments successfully. Also, the Global Employment Company adage will have a rebirth like the latest 80ies fashion.
I wish you, Global Mobility Managers, great success in implementing our decalogue and making it the cornerstone of your department’s policy for future years.
Kind regards
Angie Weinberger
PS: You can always contact me via all my platforms, such as LinkedIn and good old bottle posts, or you can read my weekly brain dump (The Global People Club Sandwich). If you wish to bulk order any of my publications, it’s also best to contact me directly.
References and Further Reading
AIRINC. (2021). Mobility Outlook Survey 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www.air-inc.com/library/2021-mobility-outlook-survey/
Baker McKenzie. (2019). ‘The Global Employer: Focus on Global Immigration and Mobility.’ Baker McKenzie. Retrieved May 27, 2020, from https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en-/media/files/insight/publications/2019/12/the-global-employer-focus-on-immigration-and-mobility_041219.pdf
Beck, P., Eisenhut, P. and Thomas, L. (2018). „Fokus Arbeitsmarkt: Fit für die Zukunft?”. Stiftung Zukunft.li. Retrieved 28 May, 2020, from https://www.stiftungzukunft.li/publikationen/fokus-arbeitsmart-fit-fuer-die-zukunft
Bertolino, M. (2020). ‘How Covid-19 Is Disrupting Immigration Policies and Worker Mobility: A Tracker’. Ernst and Young. Retrieved May 28, 2020, from https://www.ey.com/en_gl/tax/how-covid-19-is-disrupting-immigration-policies-and-worker-mobility-a-tracker
Crown. (2021). Five Standout Talent Mobility Trends for 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www.crownworldmobility.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/5-standout-talent-mobility-trends-for-2021_digital-CWM.pdf
Deloitte. (2019). ’Global Workforce Insight 2019.’ Deloitte. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ch/Documents/tax/deloitte-ch-Back-to-the-future-global-workforce.pdf
Deloitte. (2020). ‘2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Survey. Deloitte.’ Deloitte. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/us43244_human-capital-trends-2020/us43244_human-capital-trends-2020/di_hc-trends-2020.pdf
Dictionary.cambridge.org. (2021). multi-skilling. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/multi-skilling
FIDI. (2019). ‘2020 Vision: A Focus on Next Year’s Trends.’ FIDI Global Alliance. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www.fidi.org/blog/2020-vision-focus-next-years-trends
Hauri, D., Eisenhut, P., and Lorenz T. (2016). „Knacknuss Wachstum und Zuwanderung: Hintergründe und Zusammenhänge.” Stiftung Zukunft.li. Retrieved 28 May, 2020, from Knacknuss Wachstum und Zuwanderung
Hershbein, B. and Khan, L. B. (2018). ‘Do Recessions Accelerate Routine-Biased Technological Change? Evidence from Vacancy Postings.’ American Economic Review. Vol. 108, no. 7, pp. 1737-72. Retrieved May 27, 2020, from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161570
KPMG. (2020). Global Assignment Policies and Practices Survey. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2020/10/gapp-2020-survey-web.pdf
KPMG. (2021). Global Mobility Forecast: Trends in Risk, Talent and Digital. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2021/02/global-mobility-forecast-trends-in-risk-talent-and-digital.pdf
Mercer’s 2022 Flexible Mobility Policies Survey
Mercer, (2019). ‘Flexible Mobility Policies Survey.’ Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/solutions/data-solutions/policies-and-practices-surveys/flexible-mobility-policies-survey
Mercer. (2017). Worldwide Survey of International Assignment Policies and Practices. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www.imercer.com/products/WorldwideIAPP
Mercer. (2021a). Global mobility policy flexibility in practice. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/Insights/article/Global-mobility-policy-flexibility-in-practice
Mercer. (2021b).The rise of virtual assignments. (2021). Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/insights/article/the-rise-of-virtual-assignments
Mercer. (2021c). Upskilling the Mobility Function. (2021). Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/Insights/article/Upskilling-the-Mobility-Function
Mercer. (2021d). Talent mobility: looking ahead. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/Insights/article/Talent-mobility-looking-ahead
PWC. (2016). Women of the World: Aligning Gender Diversity and International Mobility in Financial Services. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/assets/women-of-the-world.pdf
Robb, A., Frewin, K. and Jagger, P. (2017a). ‘Global Workforce Trends: The Impact of the Digital Age on Global Mobility.’ Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/tax/deloitte-uk-global-mobility-trends-latest.PDF
Robb, A., Frewin, K. and Jagger, P. (2017b). ‘Global Workforce : Digital Innovation in Mobility.’ Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/fi/Documents/tax/deloitte-uk-digital-innovation-in-mobility.pd
Vialto https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6943208654061850624/
Weinberger, A. (2019). The Global Mobility Workbook (Third Edition). 978-3-9524284.
Working from anywhere: A differentiator in the war for talent? (2022). Mercer Mobility. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/insights/article/working-from-anywhere-a-differentiator-in-the-war-for-talent
2021 buzzwords and what they tell us about mobility. (n.d.). Mercer Mobility. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/insights/article/2021-buzzwords-and-what-they-tell-us-about-mobility
https://globalpeopletransitions.com/the-brexit-effect-how-global-mobility-is-being-impacted-in-europe-and-beyond/
Why Transform Global Mobility
Over the last twenty years in Human Resources, I noticed that a lot of Expats were frustrated in the process of moving to another country for work. It was not only because their companies paid them another package than what they expected. It was also because a lot of international assignees underestimated the challenge of moving to another country.
For example, expats moving to Switzerland often think it will be easier to find affordable childcare, high-quality apartments, and a job for their “trailing” spouse. Most expats believe it will be easy to learn the local language (or they even think we speak English). Most expats believe that they are going to have a great career step after their repatriation. I have seen a lot of anger when assignees went to another country and when they returned home and did not get that promotion or the role they were hoping for.
Regularly, I have clients break out in tears because they feel overwhelmed by the international assignment experience. When I worked in India and when I moved to Switzerland from Germany it was not always just “Cricket & Bollywood” or “Cheese & Chocolate”.
The Five Major Challenges
SELECTION and SUCCESSION PLANNING: Expats are often selected on an ad-hoc basis and intercultural competence is hardly ever taken into account in the selection process. Female Expats and Rainbow Talent are still greatly underrepresented. Our HR systems have reinforced systems of patriarchy. We need to come to a more data-driven selection process and talent selection with less bias.
CLARITY of the BUSINESS CASE and DRIVER: Expats need to take charge of their business case, clarify the assignment drivers, and develop measurable targets, expected gains, growth opportunities, and a repatriation plan with their line managers and sponsor before the #GlobalMobilityManager calculates and advises on the right package.
STANDING and BRANDING of Global Mobility: #GlobalMobilityManagers need to be considered strategic partners of the business line managers, not an extended arm of HR Business Partners. They are often just seen as administrators of the process while the decisions about who is going where are taken solely by the business. These professionals have a lot of insights into the complexities of the host locations and also understand the immigration process, timelines, and tax traps.
USE an INCLUSIVE APPROACH: The Expat Family is hardly considered in the Global Mobility policy and processes. Only a few forward-thinking companies offer spouse career support. I have not seen any company that helps with educational considerations and advice for the Expat Children. Parents need to be supported in their school choices as the child’s academic career could suffer immensely if the choice is wrong. Also, be inclusive in that you accept other family models, one expat might need to take their mother. Another might have a dog or adopted kids.
DATA and DASHBOARDS: If we want to be serious about change we need to get better at using data and build dashboards that show us if we are heading in the right direction. The number of assignments is a silly KPI. It does not say anything about the quality of the learning of the expats. Think about Expat Experience, their learning journey, the skills they develop on assignments or international projects and add that to the mix.
Global Mobility Budget Cuts
The financial impact of the global coronavirus pandemic has yet to be fully calculated, though McKinsey and the BBC have presented an analysis based on the available datasets and the outlook is bleak. Combine that with the fact that the world was still recovering from the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and you realize how deep the effects are. With both crises, it has been observed that travel and expat budgets get reduced to a minimum. The current pandemic, especially, has left Expats stranded, with their support system from the employer vanishing. The Expat Experience coming out of this COVID-19-driven financial crisis – will get worse.
Many Expats and Repatriates are finding themselves unemployed in their respective home countries. We also see that companies are struggling to sustain, with even large organizations filing for bankruptcy (like Virgin Australia). More are merging or getting acquired. Even those that have managed to transition to a work-from-home structure have had to downsize, with the working employees not guaranteed fixed working hours, which means that job security for all staff is non-existent. Especially in the EU, many countries are new to this kind of unstable job market and do not yet have the tools and systems in place to allow their workforce to work fluidly and flexibly from anywhere. Cherished and spoilt expats dwell on the verge of desperation because they have been made redundant, even if they may not be at the end of their contract.
Local Plus is the New Black
Other expats receive a local contract without really understanding what that means for their social security and long-term pension, and often they do not know that their work and residence permit depends on their employer too. Employers find “Local Plus” convenient but they do not consider all the risks these moves entail because many business decisions in the last ten years are driven by controllers.
The Talent Gap
We now lack the critically needed talent in important growth areas. Programmers and engineers are examples of professionals that are in high demand.- There is certainly a mismatch and gap between demand and supply. There are several reasons related to the sourcing process as well. Recruiting has become a science and needs to go through a transformation. Recruiters need to learn to cope with the demand and supply in a globalized market of talents. Language is still one of the main barriers to an influx of highly skilled migrants in Europe. Even though we launched the green card and blue card initiative we have not managed to attract the potential and talent needed within the EU for example in IT.
Health and Security Concerns Hinder Free Movement
Security concerns are growing in Global Mobility. Expats frequently face acts of terrorism, natural disasters, mugging, and burglary as well as health issues. While often the issues are normal in the local environment they can also be inflated disproportionately in our media. The images we have of countries such as Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan to name a few make it hard to convince families to work in these countries. Each terrorist act — in Istanbul, Jakarta, Tunis, Paris, or Beirut will reduce the willingness of expat families to move into these cities even though expats probably have the best security support you can have in these locations.
Global Migration Challenges
Look back to 2015, the year global migration became pop culture. The term “refugee crisis” was coined in Europe. Even though we have had proportionately more refugees coming to Europe since the Arab Spring started in 2011 in Tunisia, we all had more interaction with refugees since 2015. While I am personally concerned about right-wing propaganda, I do understand that the intercultural and societal challenges of integrating refugees at least temporarily are considerable. – I am concerned about discriminatory practices in Recruiting and Global Mobility. In 2020, global migration faces another challenge in the form of the travel restrictions that have been imposed on the entire world by the highly infectious COVID-19. Many countries are not letting in any people, especially those on temporary visas (such as temporary work visas). Delays in paperwork processing due to shutdowns, mandatory quarantine periods and more means that a highly qualified international workforce has been robbed of all mobility.
All of this has led to Global Mobility being flawed, expats not being able to go on international assignments anymore, and overwhelmed GM Professionals who feel the pressure from all ends as they are in the firing line of assignees, business line, talent, HR, and Finance managers. In addition to having been undervalued, overworked, and squeezed by their interest groups, classical Global Mobilitytasks have been outsourced to Third-Party Service Providers and Shared Service Centers, or put on indefinite hold for those organizations that have stood down their employees and halted operations.
Working in Global Mobility used to be a career dead-end and a Sisyphean task. We roll up the stone assignee by assignee only to see it roll down again. We run KPI report after KPI report only to be told that no one knows what we are doing or who we are. We are often managed by HR Directors who don’t get us. We are online 24/7, involved in GM improvement projects, listen to depressed spouses in our evenings and do not get the promotion or salary we deserve.
But there is hope. I am not willing to give up. Yet.
We see the change in Global Mobility.
The more complex our global markets become, the more we need to reevaluate our assumptions of how we run Global Mobility
We need global leadership competency in our international talents and if they do not have it yet we need to send them out on long-term assignments earlier in their career. We should force expats to learn the local language and coach them through the Expat Experience. Intercultural briefings are not enough anymore.
We need to ensure that there is a Global Mobility Business Case showing assignment drivers and targets, expected gains or opportunities, assignment costs, and a repatriation plan. I explain this at length in “The Global Mobility Workbook (2019)” and my lectures.
We need to implement succession plans and add our current assignees as potential successors. We need to ensure that the knowledge, skills, and network they gain while on assignment are appropriately reflected in their following role and repatriation plan. We also need to ensure better handovers to their successors in the host location.
We need to upgrade the GM Profession and the function needs to sit closer to business development and potentially move out of HR. We need to up-skill the case managers and train GM Professionals for a consultative approach where they can work as trusted partners with the business line managers.
We need to consider the Expat Family in the process more by providing spouse career support, elderly care, and educational advisory. We also should offer 24/7 support to our expat families in crises such as marital issues. A helpline to professional counselors is needed.
What I believe in and what makes me get up in the morning:
- I believe that Western managers of my generation and the baby boomer generation have to develop their relationship-building skills before becoming effective leaders of global teams. The performance of most global teams can only improve through higher global leadership competency following a holistic global competency model.
- I believe that a great Expat Experience is linked to assignment targets, an international assignment business case, a repatriation plan, and also to the Human Touch.
- I believe that companies will focus more on creating succession plans and ensure that roles are filled in a more structured manner, handovers improved and teams will function more self-managed going forward. Leadership itself will change significantly.
- I believe that GM Professionals have the potential to become critical players in the international growth of businesses post-crisis and are valued more as the subject matter experts that they are. They will move out of HR and be closer to business development.
- I believe that assignees and spouses need to have a valuable intercultural experience and both can further their career and life vision together. Expat children need support in moving from one culture to another and even though they might be multilingual at the end of their school life, they have to cope with identity loss and loss of their roots.
What is our Solution?
Here is more about our solution to those dilemmas and please reach out if you need a customized proposal.
The Global Mobility Academy
The Global Mobility Academy offers a high-quality standard, one-year program designed for Global Mobility Professionals. It is customizable to the client and geared towards a corporate Global Mobility function. The Global Mobility Academy fosters our mission to bring the Human Touch back into Global Mobility and to build a Global Guild of Professionals irrespective of their roles as vendors or in-house professionals.
This is a ten-day in-house talent development program to train your GM Team on the processes of Global Mobility. We also teach soft skills to become a better Global Mobility Specialist or Manager. The format, length, and content are adaptable to the client. Each training day consists of four modules that could also be delivered as 40 x 90-Minute sessions.
Module 1: Grasping “Global Mobility”
- Understand the History of Global Mobility
- Link megatrends to Global Mobility
- Understand the various definitions of Global Mobility
- Define how an international assignment is linked to career development
Module 2: Building up the Global Mobility Framework
- Understand the different framework components
- Explain how compensation approaches differ
- Be able to classify assignments beyond tax considerations
- Understand Global Mobility data and be able to explain in lay terms to expats
- Learn standard components of cost projections and how to plug in the data
Module 3: Initiating an Assignment
- Understand the difference between advising and managing an assignment
- Learn to develop a basic workflow checklist and work with it
- Go through a standard process for an LTA
- Understand the basics of immigration
- Communicate the Four C’s (Compliance, Cost, Care, and Career)
Module 4: Writing the Assignment Agreement
- Be able to draft an assignment agreement
- Be able to review assignment letter templates
- Understand how all legal components need to be clarified before drafting the agreement
- Gain insight into interdependencies of legal areas
- Go through a full assignment cycle from a Global Mobility perspective
Mid-Term Review with Leadership
Module 5: Enhancing the Expat Experience
- Go through a full assignment cycle from an Expat perspective
- Understand the selection and nomination of expats
- Name health and safety issues
- Develop metrics for success criteria
- Deal with emergencies
Module 6: Organizing the digital, global team
- Understand the impact of digitalization on how we work in Global Mobility
- Define Roles and Responsibilities in the processes
- Practice working with collaboration tools set up electronic assignment files
- Learn which tools make sense for which program size
- Recommend how to set up the Global Mobility Team
Module 7: Developing Your Global Competency
- Be able to recognize your gaps in global competency
- Understand basic intercultural dimensions and how they link to Global Mobility
- Understand the basics of intercultural communication and how to become more effective in Global Mobility
- Be able to develop an open attitude and basic etiquette and principles
Module 8: Collaborating with Vendors
- Be able to explain when a framework agreement is needed
- Conduct a vendor selection process based on good criteria
- Understand how all participants in the process need to share the same information
- Be able to define handover points to providers, lawyers, and specialists
- Create a value-based service delivery
Finalize career coaching goals and a learning plan End of Year Review with Leadership
Module 9 and 10: 2-day-Workshop “The Future of Global Mobility” Managing Global Mobility Projects
- Understand how to scope a project
- Develop deliverables in an agile environment
- Staying sane as a Global Mobility Manager
- Business Models for Teams or Barcamp
Coaching and Consulting Clients
- Learn more profound coaching and consulting techniques
- Be able to analyze real-life Global Mobility cases and consult peers on how to progress.
- Learn to build a deeper level of trust and handle difficult conversations
- Conduct a full expat and spouse briefing
At the end of the 2-day-Workshop
- Global Mobility Academy Certificates
- Global Competency Assessment
- Expatise Test (by request)
If you want to learn more about The Global Mobility Academy by Global People Transitions, please email angela@globalpeopletransitions.com or book a call via Calendly.
Digital Disruptors in Global Mobility
Rapid changes influence the traditional workforce in digital market trends, technology advancements, and connectivity. New attitudes toward work and careers evolve from the connected workforce generation. Disruptive technology already affects long-standing business models and established companies in all business areas.
“Disruptive technology,” coined by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen in 1995, is defined as “ when a new business model attracts an under-serviced market or revenue stream and grows until it supplants incumbent competitors. Technologies are not in themselves disruptive, but their application in a new business model can be” (Christensen subsequently refers to the same concept as “disruptive innovation”).
Have you recently faced increased pressure to adapt the way you work to the new digital market trends and the advancements in technology and connectivity?
Organizations focus exponentially on digitization (moving to more digital formats) and digitalization (strategically shifting to digital processes and activities) of the mobility function.
This article will explore a new set of emergent challenges your Global Mobility team will have to overcome if you want your company to remain competitive in the face of the digital disruptors that influence the sector.
As changes in the business ecosystem happen faster than ever, the most successful organizations in the future will be those that can keep up with the evolving business environment. So if you’re wondering HOW your company can achieve this, embracing digital know-how and creativity is the answer.
One of the biggest challenges of Global Mobility will be to bring digital innovation to the core of company business models, evaluating how the technology available today can augment the human workforce.
You should be particularly aware of digital innovation’s impact on Global Mobility. I picked the four areas that, according to Deloitte, are likely to have the most consequences in the short-term future.
Digital Innovation and Disruptors in Global Mobility
Global Mobility functions will undoubtedly face increased pressure to change how they work. As changes in the business ecosystem happen faster than ever, the most successful businesses in the future will be the ones that can adapt to the evolving business environment, embracing additional skills, including entrepreneurship, problem-solving, and especially digital know-how and creativity.
One of Global Mobility’s most significant challenges will be bringing digital innovation to the core of company business models and evaluating how today’s technology can augment their human workforce.
Analyzing the impact of digital innovation in the field, the six areas that will likely have more effect on Global Mobility in the short term are automation, the gig economy, workplace tools, and artificial intelligence. We will also need to challenge the way we work together and consider cutting out the middle person more to improve the Human Touch.
#1 Automation
Often considered the most prevalent and accessible disruptive technology (Robb et al., 2017a), robotics will be a key asset for mobility functions in the future. Mobility functions are already experiencing success where this technology is implemented to perform tasks that humans would normally be assigned to. Examples include sending routine emails or copying and pasting information from public or private sources. In turn, workers can be repurposed to high-value tasks to benefit the mobility function.
By adopting and introducing those techniques into existing processes, Global Mobility teams will be able to focus on diminishing costs, increase productivity by improving operational efficiency, and retain talent. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology is already being used to speed up administrative/transactional processes in mobility functions. Equally important is that automation can also reveal itself as crucial in reducing hierarchical thinking.
Teams will need to ensure that workers are allowed to learn and upskill as the ubiquity of technology increases.
While embracing this new way of thinking, Global Mobility teams must remember the importance of maintaining the human touch. This will allow mobility functions to make a genuine asset out of robotics and automation software shortly.
#2 Gig Economy
Several factors favor the growing popularity of the gig economy, among which an increased number of Millenials on the job market, a greater acceptance of technology, and advanced network infrastructures combined with the organizations’ growing demand for a more fluid talent pool. In an era in which technology continues to disrupt business models across sectors, the flexibility and agility typical of the gig workforce become very appealing features for businesses wanting to promote innovation and reduce costs.
The Great Resignation has also contributed to filling the gig workers’ pool, which doesn’t mean the talent shortage in certain industries is about to resorb. Indeed, the flexibility offered by independent work has become a critical advantage for many workers; for some, it is a determining factor when looking for a job. Since this liberty is not always possible in traditional work settings, employers who won’t or can’t offer this will have more difficulty filling their openings.
In the Global Mobility arena, crowdsourcing is gaining momentum. Also known as silent offshoring or workforce-on-demand, crowdsourcing is an evolution of outsourcing models and shared services. It is bound to play a fundamental role in the future of Global Mobility. There are always more employers who turn to that less conventional resource; Ernst & Young now has its GIG NOW platform for freelancers to apply to a myriad of projects.
In these times, for Global Mobility to perform successfully, it is essential to develop and implement a varied policy suite that meets the needs of a diverse workforce (e.g., gig workers, freelancers, business travelers) and their alternative working practices (Robb et al., 2017b).
#3 Workplace Tools and Apps
Core office technologies such as telephone, word processing, and email have already evolved to expand the possibilities of connected and collaborative working. Employees can now access the latest information, join video conferences, and share and work on the same documents or workspace at their convenience from a device and location of their choice.
The next generation of workplace tools and apps will allow more collaboration, training, and learning opportunities. It will also enable business leaders to deliver a better experience to their teams and assignees. Even more importantly, new ‘digital learning’ means that organizations will be able to transform what is tricky stuff in life into something fun. For instance, organizations could use augmented and Virtual Reality (AR and VR, respectively) to transform the employee’s onboarding experience or allow them to meet and collaborate with colleagues in other countries. Additionally, it can be used to virtually recreate cities to immerse oneself in the new environment before deciding to move there.
#4 IT Security vs. Collaboration
Companies have always needed to worry about security, privacy, and compliance, but digital disruption has significantly increased risk in all those areas; thus, risk management becomes constantly complex. To keep on top, one must be reactive and agile since everything evolves quickly in that domain. Resorting to outside help (i.e., gig workers) means more open access to your network. Collaboration means your network is more vulnerable. Businesses can’t wait for governments and other regulating bodies to legislate on ever-evolving risk and security conditions and keep a compliance-based security strategy: they must be proactive. Otherwise, they would always lag, which could potentially be a great danger for their employees, clients, and the company itself. User privacy and data protection must be upheld against cyber threats to protect your company, its reputation, and everyone involved. The human must remain at the forefront of security preoccupations.
#5 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
By using smart devices to predict, detect, and prevent risks in moving people around the globe, AI is already helping organizations go beyond traditional ways of managing the global workforce. With the massive increase in the data volume available to organizations, the emergence of advanced AI-based algorithms, and the growing availability of data scientists, systems are becoming increasingly self-managing and potentially self-defending against risks.
#6 Algorithms and the Machine
Algorithms and machine learning are being tested to improve and train existing tax research and Global Mobility deployment tools. These tools are complex, and the real-life cases of expats are even more so; we cannot rely solely on algorithms and machine learning to administer and manage processes that have a major impact on real human lives. Only by using them to execute tasks for efficiency’s sake and ensuring that they are well balanced with human checks and balances, the combination of AI and Humans may provide an appealing scenario for the future.
Many organizations have focused more than ever on both digitization (moving to more digital formats) and digitalization (strategically shifting to digital processes and activities) of the mobility function. As a result, companies’ engagement levels depend on how “digitally mature” their global mobility programs already are. Some might be just ‘exploring digital,’ while others might be already ‘becoming digital.’
#7 Boutiques
To deliver on the Expat Experience (XX) with enhanced technology and Human Touch you will need to work with smaller boutique providers as an Expat directly or as a Global Mobility Manager. Larger RMC in my view do not have the agility to adopt new trends fast and they will also have sub-optimal processes geared towards larger volumes. I recommend you work with companies such as the ones belonging to Relocate The Profit for example as they work more sustainably and prioritize Human Touch too.
Keep the HUMAN TOUCH in mind and ensure that the combination of technology and Human Global Mobility Managers is well balanced.
Work with Expat Coach Angie Weinberger: We are now offering unlimited expat coaching via RockMeApp to facilitate private communication with coaching clients and streamline certain aspects of the coaching process.
The Top Digital Disruptors in Global Mobility
1. Benivo
https://www.benivo.com/global-mobility-teams
2. IPM
3. INEO
4. ReloTalent
5. Topia
6. VendiumGlobal
7. Xpath Global
8. Global People Transitions
We have recently been mentioned here:
48 Best Zürich Human Resources Startups & Businesses – Revolutionising The Human Resources Industry
9. Relocate the Profit (an association of over 40 boutique firms)
If you want to nominate another disruptor please email angela@globalpeopletransitions.com and let us know who and why.
References
Deloitte. (2018). “Global Workforce Insight 2019: Assessing the predicted 2018 global mobility trends and their continued impact in 2019”. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ch/Documents/tax/deloitte-ch-Back-to-the-future-global-workforce.pdf
Deloitte. (2017). “Global Human Capital Trends: Rewriting the rules for the digital age.” Deloitte, University Press. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/central-europe/ce-global-human-capital-trends.pdf
Deloitte. Robb, A., Frewin, K. and Jagger, P. (2017a). (2017) “The Impact of the Digital Age on Global Mobility 2017 Global Workforce Trends.” https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/tax/deloitte-uk-global-mobility-trends-latest.PDF
MIT Technology Review
Robb, A., Frewin, K. and Jagger, P. (2017b). “Global Workforce: Digital Innovation in Mobility.” Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/tax/deloitte-uk-digital-innovation-in-mobility.pdf
TechTarget (Gavin Wright for), disruptive technology (disruptive innovation) entry, https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/disruptive-technology, accessed on 5 April 2023.
