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…”
You can request a copy of the report by clicking here.
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.
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
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 which will likely have more effect on Global Mobility in the short term are automation, the gig economy, workplace tools, and artificial intelligence.
#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. In fact, 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 crucial in reducing hierarchical thinking.
Teams will need to ensure that workers are given the opportunity 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 in the near future.
#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 own 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
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, 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 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. It is crucial that the human remains 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 Cognitive technologies
Algorithms, robotic process automation, machine learning and natural language processing are already being tested to improve and train existing tax research and GM deployment tools. These tools are complex, and the real-life cases of expats 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.’
But keep the HUMAN TOUCH in mind and ensure that the combination of AI and Human Global Mobility Managers are well balanced.
Be under no illusion; the digital mobility age is upon us. That doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of it, but we must be careful and rein it to ensure we all stay on the path to Human Touch.
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Further Reading:
https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-ai-will-never-rival-human-creativity
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
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.
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 entire 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 cause many anxieties and mental health issues. The Global Mobility Manager of 2022 is a crisis manager. All “crisis” cycles show that Global Mobility Managers continue to be incredibly resilient and are constantly coming 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 who was 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 life 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. It’s more important than ever to put on our oxygen masks and work on our inner strength.
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. It is impossible to address these various groups’ needs in a one-size-fits-all policy. A more diverse workforce equals a variety of 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 be moving away from policies altogether and designing individual packages for the Expat that fits like a bespoke, handmade business suit.
We mentioned last year that immigration gets 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, it is essential to get away from all media for 24 hours at least. I practice DDD but 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. While digitalization means strategically shifting to digital processes and activities. Often the term digitalization is used for both 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 like 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. If you want to read more about this topic, this article on our blog might interest you.
Core office technologies such as telephone, word processing platforms, and email have evolved to expand connected and collaborative working possibilities. Expats 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. It is an excellent aid tool for managing assignee package creation. It makes it possible for our teams to communicate closely with our Expats worldwide.
As for Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR and VR, respectively), they can transform the onboarding experience into the organization or allow them to meet and collaborate with colleagues in other countries. Additionally, you can virtually recreate cities to immerse oneself in the new environment before deciding to move there. Many serviced apartments use VR to show their apartments.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already helping organizations go beyond traditional ways of managing the global workforce by using intelligent devices to predict, detect, and prevent risks in moving people around the globe. 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 become increasingly self-managing and potentially self-defending against risks.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) deals with more natural ways humans and computers can work together in the future. Watch this space as it could again help us in Global Mobility and reduce our stress levels. 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.
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 they can 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 reasons.
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 any 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, how you make package decisions, how you can 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 the Expat Experience (XX) specifically.
9) You shall not Neglect the EXPAT SPOUSE.
The lack of Expat Spouse career opportunities is still among the top five reasons assignments fail (AIRINC Mobility Outlook Survey 2021). I have written extensively about why that is and given 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 will need to 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),” meaning 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 as they are no longer bound to a specific location. Implementing a more significant number of 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 in the location 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. The final point worth considering is that cost saving is not necessarily automatic. Sometimes, the assignee wants to live in a high-cost country where sending them will cost the company much more (Mercer, 2021b).
It is now easier to see how virtual Mobility’s popularity closely relates to increasing a more dispersed international workforce. As companies upgrade their technology and become more agile, they could decide to assign projects and tasks to mobile people rather than moving defined jobs as such. In other words, instead of trying to fit assignees into predefined boxes, the aim is to manage a diverse workforce more fluidly and coordinatedly (Mercer, 2021d).
Moving jobs to people instead of moving people to jobs will not substitute the traditional way of thinking about Global Mobility. Still, it is one more 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.
As every year, I wish you great success in all your endeavors. You know you can always contact me via LinkedIn or good old bottle post or show me your love by reading my weekly brain dump (The Global People Club Sandwich). If you wish to bulk order “The Global Mobility Workbook,” please contact our team here.
Kind regards
Angie Weinberger
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
EPIC BLOG POSTS
https://globalpeopletransitions.com/our-eight-commandments-global-mobility-trends-2021/
https://globalpeopletransitions.com/eight-major-barriers-to-expat-spouse-employment-2/
https://globalpeopletransitions.com/getting-projects-completed/
“We need to take a stance and stand up for minority and female talent now.” @angieweinberger
Are you a Senior Manager, often managing globally mobile talent in your company?
How many times have you had the realization that your company’s Global Mobility Program is not diverse enough? Are you concretely working to achieve your company’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) goals, and do you foster more inclusion within your team?
Let’s see how you can actively help fill the current gap in diversity common to so many organizations.
What Is a “Diverse and Inclusive Organization”?
An organization is diverse when it encompasses all aspects of the employees, from age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, family status, and background. However, an organization is only inclusive when minority groups are allowed and encouraged to participate in the decision-making process and to contribute to breaking the career glass ceiling. Besides being meaningless, diversity without inclusion does not drive team performance (Czerny and Steinkellner, 2009). To quote the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, “inclusive diversity is a strength.”
Why Isn’t There More Minority and Female Talent in Global Mobility?
A KPMG survey highlighted that most Global Mobility Programs do not have specific Diversity and Inclusion objectives as part of their department’s strategy. Why is that?
According to 59% of the respondents, the reason is that candidates for international assignments are chosen by you and not the Global Mobility Team. This is true. However, this does not explain why you are not being more inclusive of minority and female talent in your selection.
Could you not challenge your promotion and selection decisions more often?
Another 31% consider the movement of people to new countries and cultures as diverse and inclusive by its very nature and do not think that further DE&I goals are needed. We believe this is too short-sighted and a biased view of the world. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at this stage still need affirmative action (also called positive action in the U.-K.), that is to implement policies and guidelines to correct tendencies due to bias against women or any form of minority.
You and I need to push actively to integrate more minority and female talent into our expat populations.
What you consider a minority will depend strongly on your home base country, usually the country where your HQ is based. However, I recommend that you consider more second-generation immigrants, People of Color, and refugees.
Only 41% of the respondents say they have DE&I objectives as part of their Global Mobility strategy.
You indeed have acknowledged that meeting these goals is not easy. Here are the common challenges faced by most Global Mobility Programs.
1 – There’s a Data Gap on Most Aspects of Diversity
Apart from gender and gender identity, there is a scarcity of mobility-related data on most demographics (KPMG, 2018a). This makes it difficult for Global Mobility Teams to identify problem areas and find solutions related to disability status, religion, ethnicity, academic, professional, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
2 – There Are Still Too Many Biases and Stereotypes
As you can easily guess, this issue particularly affects how women are represented within the international mobile population. Currently, women only make up 20% to 25% of it (PwC, 2016; MacLachlan, 2018), which shows how much more work is needed to fill the gap.
The good news is that 88% of the women (PwC, 2016) feel that they need international experience to advance in their careers. The bad news is that there is a strong perception that women with children don’t want to work abroad. To make it worse, traditional mindsets still typically associate men with international assignments.
Interestingly, however, data shows that women don’t let that impede on their career plans: 66% of women would be happy to work abroad at any stage of their career (vs. 60% for men), and only 17% of women cited the well-being and education of their children as a concern preventing them from embarking on an international assignment (vs. 22% of men).
How many times have you consciously or unconsciously assumed that someone would not be able to perform their jobs effectively due to the situation in host locations? Or that they simply would not want to go on assignment due to family constraints, for example? Before assuming, just ask.
3 – There’s a Lack of Transparency Over Who Is Assigned and Why
Let’s look at gender again. The data speaks loud and clear, and it’s worrying.
According to 42% of women (PwC, 2016), organizations don’t have a clear view of what employees would be willing to be internationally mobile. This means that you may be choosing from a narrower pool than necessary.
What’s more, only 13% of women who have been on assignment said that their employer has a program that positions Global Mobility as a core part of an employee’s career plan.
4 – There’s a Lack of Flexibility in Assignment Choices
You might not know that shorter and more flexible short-term assignments are notably more popular among women than men (PwC, 2016). In particular, women tend to give favorable consideration to frequent business travel based in their home country, fly-in/fly-out commuter assignments, short (6-12 months), and short-term assignments. Therefore, if you expanded the list of available options, you could match a more comprehensive variety of business demands.
5 – There’s a Lack of Diversity Among the Pool of Candidates
In heavily male-dominated types of work, such as construction and mining, casting a wider demographic net may be impossible. Likewise, some candidates may not go after mobility opportunities because they feel out of place. This explains why, for example, women, older workers, and people with disabilities may not raise their hands for relocations to oil rigs or construction sites. At the same time, minority groups may feel discouraged because they lack role models. But why not ask those unlikely candidates? Maybe that is all it would take! So, like Sundae Bean advises in her podcast discussion with Cathy Heyne, managers should be mindful of their assumptions and simply chose the best candidates for the assignments (not the ones they think want to take the assignment).
6 – External Factors Pose Barriers Too
The definition of family has expanded to include same-sex couples for most mobility teams — rising from 17% in 1999 to 70% currently (KPMG, 2018a). However, attitudes and laws in many countries have not kept pace. Most countries still don’t allow same-sex marriage, and homosexual acts are illegal in at least 69 countries. According to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (2021), there are still seven countries where homosexual conduct is punishable by death. There are still ways you can support your LGBTQᐩ employees. Discuss potential assignment destinations with them and their partner, make sure you and the employee understand the legal situation in order to plan accordingly, and ensure having good support in the host country.
How Can You Benefit From Being More Inclusive?
Even though it may seem that the global business case for boosting Diversity and Inclusion is clear, the reality is still shockingly stuck in the last century. I have even observed that we have gone back three steps to supporting minority and female talent in the past 25 years.
If you want to expand your global competitiveness, you need to be a pioneer of equal opportunities, promote acceptance and understanding, and highlight the value of your employees. You need more than unconscious bias training for managers. You need to establish facts. And that can only be achieved with data. Here are the four main reasons to develop D&I goals for your Global Mobility Program.
1 – You Tap Into a Bigger Pool of Resources
Establish concrete goals for sending minority and female talent and persistently work towards achieving them. You will then automatically broaden the talent pool from which the mobile population is drawn. This way, you will also help ensure that the executive pipeline reflects your customer base, developing a more diverse group of future leaders. Finally, report the data regularly to your Senior Management. Without data, nothing will change.
2- You Have Access to a Broader Range of Perspectives
It should go without saying that a broader range of backgrounds (considering all possible factors, i.e., gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, culture, language, socio-economic classes, etc.) results in a team having a more comprehensive range of perspectives. That will successively reflect itself in better-stimulated creativity and innovation, and a team ready for all opportunities.
3 – Your Team Will Collaborate Better
It has been proven that women generally have better collaboration abilities. This heightened sense of collaboration is in part due to women’s better ability to read non-verbal cues. Better collaboration will allow improvement in many fields, among which many team processes. Researchers have observed that groups with more women tend to respect speaking turns better and are better at leveraging each team member’s knowledge and competencies.
4 – You Control Costs Better
One of the leading mobility cost drivers is not related to pay packages and policies per se but because companies often have a limited choice of candidates for assignments. A broader talent pool facilitates assignment success and indirectly helps control costs. You depend less on one candidate and can negotiate better packages if you have a broader pool. You probably also have better candidates if you have more than one in the pipeline. Another way hiring minorities and women will benefit you financially is that happy and respected employees tend to be more loyal and easy to retain; that, in turn, saves you time, money and energy in the hiring and training process. Do bear in mind that hiring them is a good starting point, but not sufficient in itself: you have to treat them well and not be afraid to admonish sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism, etc. in the office or anywhere, for that matter!
5 – You Improve Your Brand and Reputation as an Employer of Choice
Nowadays, having international experience is a precondition to reaching top managerial levels within many multinational companies. Employees develop essential skills and build a network that boosts their careers immensely. It’s therefore crucial that you promote mobility as part of your talent brand. If you do that, you will also be advantaged when competing for minority and female talent. Offering international opportunities to minority and female talent will put you ahead of the competition by showing in your reviews. You will become renowned as an “Employer of Choice.”
If you feel you belong to one of the mentioned groups and you might need more support in order to have a breakthrough in your career you can always contact me for individual coaching. We offer several programs and free workshops as well.
The annual RockMeRetreat is for all senior-level professionals who need a boost to overcome challenges in there professional and personal lives. I am really determined to help minorities (of any kind) and women overcome the obstacles they face in their careers and better their journey. The RockMeRetreat will also help you if you need a “pitstop” to think about your current situation, improve your relationships and want to re-energize yourself.
We are offering the RockMeRetreat this year at the Haus der Begegnung, Ilanz, Grisons, from 17 to 23 November 2022. Sign up here to be updated and informed.
Resources and further reading
121: Why Only 25% Of International Assignees Are Women
https://www-srf-ch.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.srf.ch/article/18661443/amp
Murchie, F. (2020). Women on the front line. Relocate Global, Summer Issue 2020, p.13 https://content.yudu.com/web/fiqy/0A3p9yp/Summer-2020/html/index.html?page=12&origin=reader
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2020/06/three-degrees-racism-america/613333/
References
Czerny, E. J. & Steinkellner, P. S. (2009). Diversität als Basis erfolgreicher Teams. Eine ressourcenorientierte Betrachtung. Unpublished Working Paper, Vienna: PEF Privatuniversität für Management.
Human Rights Campaign Foundation. (2019, Sep. 23). World Report 2019: Human Rights Watch Country Profiles: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2019/02/28/human-rights-watch-country-profiles-sexual-orientation-and
Human Rights Campaign Foundation. (2021, April. 23). World Report 2021: Human Rights Watch Country Profiles: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved June 04, 2021, from
https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2021/04/23/country-profiles-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity
KPMG. (2018a). Inclusion and Diversity: How Global Mobility can help move the Needle. KPMG. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://assets.kpmg//content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2018/06/global-mobility-inclusion-and-diversity-how-gms-can-help-move-the-needle-FINAL.pdf
KPMG. (2018b). Inclusion and Diversity in Global Mobility. KPMG. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://assets.kpmg//content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2018/06/global-mobility-inclusion-and-diversity-how-gms-can-help-move-the-needle.pdf.
KPMG. (2021). Inclusion and Diversity in Global Mobility. 2021 U.S. DEI report. KPMG. Retrieved 7 June 2022. , from https://www.kpmg.us/content/dam/global/pdfs/2021/kpmg-us-2021-dei-report.pdf.
Maclachlan, M. (2018; Mar.). Why Female Talent Are the Future of Global Mobility. Learnlight. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://insights.learnlight.com/en/articles/female-talent-future-global-mobility/
PwC. (2016). Women of the world: Aligning gender diversity and international mobility in financial services. PwC. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/assets/women-of-the-world.pdf
We talked about how family challenges and marital issues greatly impact the outcome of international assignments. We also saw that a large number of companies list the Expat Spouse’s unhappiness as the primary cause of “Expatriate Failure”, highlighting the importance of the Expat Spouse and Partner career support programs.
This week, we will talk more extensively about the kind of support you can give to Dual-Career Expat Couples and why that matters if you work in HR and Global Mobility.
I have always advocated for Global Mobility Managers to be more proactive about involving Expat Spouses. Sometimes I sound like a broken record though. Anyway, it’s 2021 so I reiterate what I’ve been repeating for years.
We want to be proactive!
The days of the passive “trailing spouse”, when they were marginally involved in any decision of moving abroad, are definitely gone. Today, according to the 2018 Relocating Partner Survey, 97% of mobile employees actively involve their partners in the discussion before accepting an assignment, so why shouldn’t you?
We want to be inclusive!
Employers cite a variety of reasons for supporting Dual-Career Expat Couples via policy and practice. The primary reason is to increase staff mobility. Some employers also do it to reduce the costs of assignment refusal or early return and promote family-friendly policies. Others want to support diversity or gender initiatives.
One figure, in particular, stands out in the latest KPMG report: 39%. This indicates the percentage of surveyed companies pointing out that sexual orientation is the main demographic reason leading an employee to refuse an assignment. But 39% is also the percentage of companies indicating that the employees’ dependents impact their decisions to accept an assignment. Perhaps, in your career as GMM, you too have witnessed these scenarios and you aim now at broadening the pool of talent by making it more diverse and inclusive.
Here is how you can still help your company achieve its Diversity and Inclusion goals, improving brand, reputation, and global market competitiveness.
- Review the demographics of your global mobility team based on diversity and change policies accordingly.
- Diversify international assignment terms.
- Adjust policies for selecting candidates.
- Broaden communication about opportunities.
- Offer training to reduce unconscious bias.
We want to bring back the Human Touch!
What you can do to help Expats and Expat Spouses is to ease the external stressors to their relationship caused by the international assignment. Most importantly, take the Expat Spouse seriously!
Here are seven provisions you can take up in your guidelines.
1 – Review all your Global Mobility Guidelines
Today’s mobile employees are no longer interested exclusively in the financial aspect of their international assignment package. They are also very concerned about the impact of the move on their spouses’ careers while abroad. This is a consequence of the increased levels of equality within the couple: 77% of Expat Spouses work before the assignment and 82% of them secure a bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D. degree (2018 Relocating Partner Survey). In short, the current mobile population won’t accept being treated like their predecessors.
Even if 62% of employers wish to encourage employee acceptance of an assignment by offering support to Expat Spouses, most employees are still frustrated by what employers are offering today.
An increasing number of Dual-Career Expat Couples depend on the income of their spouses during international transfers. Today, dividing Expat Spouses into the “working” and the “non-working” categories is too simplified.
Employers should therefore ensure that their partner policies support these choices equally for working and non-working partners to avoid any form of discrimination.
According to a report published by Permits Foundations in 2012, only 33% of the companies surveyed provided career support to Expat Spouses under a formal written policy. Another 11% had informal guidelines, while 27% of them assisted on a case-by-case basis. 29% provided no support at all.
With an Expat Spouse and Partner Support Guideline in place, you will more easily become a more attractive employer.
2 – Involve the Expat Spouse and Partner in the Pre-Assignment Phase
During this phase, there are probably lots of questions going on in the Expat Spouse’s head, and feelings of euphoria and anxiety often alternate with each other. They might be wondering what impact the move will have on their children and whether they will be able to find employment in the new country. It is part of your role as Global Mobility Manager to offer early career assessment for the Expat Spouse as well as information on international schooling options. Additionally, since Expat Spouses are often in charge of the logistics behind the move, you must be able to connect them with relocation services and immigration providers ahead of the move.
3 – Help with the Work Permit
Nowadays, Expat Spouses are allowed to work on a dependent work permit in the vast majority of the top host locations accounting for 80% of today’s global mobility (2018 Relocating Partner Survey). This huge achievement is the fruit of the Permits Foundation, which fights for the rights of relocating partners to be able to work on their dependent permit.
However, some countries present exceptions and subtleties linked to marital status. Non-married partners from opposite sexes, as well as same-sex couples, face more challenges accessing work permits. In countries that do not allow Expat Spouses to work, securing a work permit is almost impossible.
It is therefore your duty to help Expat Spouses navigate the world of bureaucracy specific to each assignment.
4 – Research Work Opportunities for Expat Spouses
Career stagnation is a major stressor to any relationship. Therefore, as one way to avoid putting the success of assignments in jeopardy, your employer could provide work opportunities to the Expat Spouse if they work in a similar field or area. What I’m also doing is to check with other companies if they have availability for the Expat Spouse especially when they work in a related field.
In this initial exploratory phase, it is also important to verify that the Expat Spouse’s degree is in line with what recruiters expect to see in the host country: qualifications obtained in one country are not necessarily recognized in another.
The 2018 Relocating Partner surveys highlight how career and job search support is now offered by 71% of employers, a sharp increase in comparison to previous data.
5 – Provide Transition Coaching For The Expat Couple
Coaching for the Expat Couple is also an option. In my experience, it is also helpful if one person of the couple is going through a coaching program. Your company should take over the cost within the Global Mobility guidelines. Companies offer Expat Spouse Career and Life Support programs to assist Expat Spouses. Most Swiss-based companies provide up to 7’000 CHF in services. This is a lot of money!
Transition coaching for Expats and Expat Spouses is becoming a more and more prominent concept in companies around the world. As a Global Mobility Manager, you already probably know that supporting Expats and Expat Spouses through each different adjustment stage they experience leads to a higher satisfaction rate with the assignment and the service of Global Mobility in general.
The sad part is that Expat Couples often don’t claim support as they haven’t seen the GM policy and have not been involved in the decision-making process.
6 – Offer Host Language Course
The most common forms of assistance already in place addressing spouse career concerns are language training, provided by almost two-thirds of employers (Permits Foundation, 2012). If there is a business need, companies generally pay for a 60-hour course.
7 – Pay for Support for Children and Teenagers
Not only Expats and Expat Spouses, but their children too, need support during the assignment. After all, children are the most critical asset in the expatriation process. One of the tools you can offer them is intercultural training, especially if the children are in local schools. Giving training to Expat Children has a lot of value, and you will see that once you make the children happy, you will have a higher ROI, higher retention rate, and a better satisfaction rate in your KPIs.
When Family Separation is the Best Option
Sometimes, things just don’t work out and the result of that international assignment is family separation. There are also instances where the Expat Spouse and potential children should stay in the home country. One reason could be schooling, another reason health and safety. Consult with me if you have any questions about how can bring the #HumanTouch back into your Global Mobility Program and Team.
Kind Regards,
Angie.
PS: We open HireMeExpress for Sale
We developed the HireMeExpress program to support more Expat Spouses and Partners to find a job in a new country. All of the twelve modules and more than 36 worksheets can be used for other expat hubs from Berlin to Bombay. However, our best network is in Zurich, Zug, and Basel, Switzerland. Hence, we can help best here. If you need help in other locations, contact us anyway, as we have contacts globally.
References:
KPMG. (2018a). „Inclusion and Diversity: How Global Mobility can help move the Needle”, KPMG. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://assets.kpmg//content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2018/06/global-mobility-inclusion-and-diversity-how-gms-can-help-move-the-needle-FINAL.pdf
KPMG. (2018b). „Inclusion and Diversity in Global Mobility”, KPMG. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://assets.kpmg//content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2018/06/global-mobility-inclusion-and-diversity-how-gms-can-help-move-the-needle.pdf.
NetExpat & EY. (2018). Relocating Partner Survey Report. https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ey-2018-relocating-partner-survey-final-report/$File/ey-2018-relocating-partner-survey-final-report.pdf
Permits Foundation. (2012). International Mobility and Dual-Career Survey of International Employers. https://www.permitsfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Permits+Global+Survey+2012nw.pdf
