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.
I feel that the era of treating people as numbers on a spreadsheet needs to change, don’t you?
Steps in the right direction are already being taken and I believe that Global Mobility professionals and their increasing value in businesses is the example to rally behind. For the uninitiated, let’s talk today about how you as Human Resources or Global Mobility Professionals can demonstrate and amplify the value they bring to organizations. We had our guest blogger Kevin Castro tackle this very topic last year and it remains highly relevant today, so we are re-sharing the main ideas.
Agile is Fragile
First and foremost, Global Mobility professionals need to be agile. The goal posts are shifting all the time – organizations are reevaluating what is critical to business needs rapidly and adjusting the focus of their teams accordingly. Not only do you need to be aware of these changes as they happen, but you also need to be ready to adapt at a moment’s notice. Agility is the name of the game the most successful professionals in the industry right now are those on top of these trends.
That said, we have yet to test the boundaries of agility and how quickly we can adapt in the face of great change, for instance, how we can use integrated vendor platforms such as TOPIA with all the data protection regulations within Europe. There’s also the issue of adoption of agile technologies. For instance, I find that sometimes, even using a shared document on Google Drive or OneDrive already seems to be considered innovative for many companies I work with. (Some often still have paper files!)
Business Acumen and Language
Second, and this one is for those who interact with business leaders, start engaging with them on matters that concern the business directly. By conversing with the various team leaders, you will gain a better understanding of business goals and targets – this understanding will help you make the right suggestions that help the business get closer to those goals! In addition, this sort of engagement will put you in a better position to demonstrate your value – more on that in the next section. A great example would be to understand the growth markets of the company you work for and gaining deeper insights into their legislation. For example, if your growth potential is in India, try to at least understand an Indian payroll slip. (I know that this is almost impossible, but hey we love challenges.)
Communication
An important but often ignored part of demonstrating one’s value is the simplest: communication. Communication is key to a successful personal life but it’s equally important to the well-being of your professional one! It’s a well-known secret that many organizations slip up when it keeps to assignment tracking, so why not remind them, regularly? It’s for your good, after all. A presentation, an email, a newsletter, highlighting key successes and listing all that you’ve accomplished will go a long way in ensuring that senior leadership is aware of the value you bring the company. When was the last time you mentioned a successful expatriation of key talent to the C-Suite? When did you create a report that showed the company the cost-saving you achieved by creating a more effective compensation and operating model?
Expertise
Finally, it is critical for any GM professional to know how to flaunt their expertise. This sounds like common sense but in my experience, I’ve found it surprising just how many people express hesitation or reluctance when it comes to the subject of selling one’s skills. It’s important for all professionals, doubly so for GM professionals! You are the expert of your field, that’s why you were hired after all – you should demonstrate this expertise more often.
Our domain is a rapidly evolving playing field of ever-shifting requirements, technologies, and expectations. This is in addition to the language, cultural and geographical integration requirements. You – are expected to have a multitude of knowledge, attitude, skills and you need to learn to constantly reflect your experiences and integrate body learning into your attributes.
Develop and Grow Global Competency
I tackled this topic in detail on last week’s “Club Sandwich”, you can catch up with the post here.
One way to build your knowledge base is to join the Global Mobility courses at the Expatise Academy in Rotterdam, Holland. I’m currently teaching several courses, which are all now available to YOU, online. My courses deal with Global Mobility Competencies, while also focusing on intercultural competency, building solid international assignment business cases and most importantly, bringing the human touch back into our processes. There are all sorts of other technical courses available as well, by experts in the fields of immigration, taxation, social security, and employment law.
PRO TIP
Check out the new and shiny “Educate Yourself Platform” by Expatise Academy now.
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Let’s keep our momentum going and aim to be even better at what we do. I believe in the “Future of Global Mobility” (#FoGM) and that we will grow in scope and influence.
You could be a #GlobalMobility rockstar with a few tricks of the trade.
I held a talk at the Forum for Expatriate Management event in Rotterdam a few years back. Every word is true today. I am nowadays more involved in operational global mobility topics than I ever was and while the constant filling of payroll instructions, hypo tax calculations, and balance sheet updates reminds me of the Sysiphus tasks I mentioned in the talk, I have learned a great deal over the last few years and I don’t mind the operational work so much anymore as long as I can still coach expats and their families.
I am contemplating that even expatriate payroll is so much more interesting than normal payroll and that we need professionals with intercultural competence to ensure that the expats get paid correctly. You would think this is easy but believe me with all the technology, processes sometimes seem more complicated than in 1999. At that time we used to calculate net payments on paper.
In the last few weeks, I used a calculator every day and excel became my second best friend. On a few occasions, we don’t seem to get it right in the first attempt. The bonus is wrong, the expat unhappy and we get a new calculation. Then we start again. The third time it’s easier.
In a case from the UK, I notice that the pension contribution has changed from the previous year. In one from Madagascar, a figure was not transferred automatically into the next record of the assignee. A lot of checking and cross-checking is needed.
Once you think that you finally have created the right balance sheet you send it to the assignee and they tell you that it is a joke. They challenge your figures and you need to go back to the provider and explain why the tax system in the UK reduces your personal allowance once your salary reaches 100k GBP so that your bonus is taxed at an unimaginable tax rate. Or why the INR has devalued against the EUR and how that is reflected in the Cost of Living Adjustment. Then they ask why the COLA is calculated on spendable income only and how we came up with that figure.
You need to see every step along the way as learning towards what you can contribute to the world. If you don’t enjoy this process, tell yourself that it is only once a year and it pays your rent. I see exciting challenges for the GM Professionals but even if you are in a different field you might relate to these topics too. Here are seven current issues that seem to be examples for GM Professionals around the world
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We solve issues with manual workarounds that we cannot seem to handle with technology.
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We need good working relationships with our colleagues and the expats around the world to solve those dilemmas.
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We need superior technical skills in tax, social security and immigration and other subject matter areas so we don’t lose oversight of the full process.
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Without the experience of at least 200 cases, it is really hard to see patterns in your problem-solving approach as every case poses a different country combination and needs to be tackled individually.
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We need high levels of focus and productivity to deliver excellent solutions.
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We work too many hours and it is hard for us to keep healthy.
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Many of us are women and at a career and pay level that is way below our background, competence, and qualification.
One of the reasons why I started my company Global People Transitions was to help Global Mobility Professionals develop further. I would like to encourage you and support you with advice on how to get your develop your global competency further.
You can buy “The Global Mobility Workbook” (2019) for further explanations, apply to become a tester of our RockMeApp and you can book 1:1 coaching sessions with Angie Weinberger.
Do you want to start a career in Global Mobility? Do you want to become an even sharper and wittier consultant on top of GM Trends and well networked?
Globalization, Digitalization, Urbanization, Outsourcing, and generational preferences are disrupting Global Mobility.
Automation, business transformation, and the gig economy challenge our approaches to global talent management, leadership development, and life planning.
What we assumed about pensions, family structures, migration, health and security in mobility policies is deconstructed by our realities.
These fundamental changes do not only have an impact on our policies and expats. They also shape our role, our profession and how we define our work.
I used to believe that someday Global Mobility Leaders will have a seat at the table. The time is now.
The Global Mobility Profession is ready for take-off. Are you ready to join our Cabin Crew?
Are you a Global Mobility Specialist or Manager? Do you feel it’s time for you to move on?
Do you feel you have all the capabilities, knowledge, skills to be successful in Mobility and international Human Resources for the next 20 years?
Do you have the necessary professional network and reputation to thrive?
- Improve your knowledge and skills in Global Mobility and international HR.
- Become a better listener and consultant.
- Raise your professional standing.
- Develop and maintain a professional network and support group in our community.
- Become more effective in (intercultural) communication.
Are you confronted with these challenges?
- Moving from being a transactional busy bee to being a recognized consultant,
- Suffering from imposter syndrome, fear of failure, perfectionism and other symptoms of fear (especially common among female professionals),
- Building effective professional relationships,
- Balancing work and personal life and staying healthy in a 24/7 environment,
- Negotiating across cultures and for promotions, talent programs, and other incentives,
- Knowing when to move on and finding a new role in this niche market,
- Deciding on a role in another country,
- Losing a job due to outsourcing and general industry trends.
Email angela@globalpeopletransitions.com to discuss your career development in Global Mobility.
“It is Rocket Science!”
Inge Nitsche (referring to Global Mobility)
Global Mobility Professionals,
Since 1999 I have worked in the Global Mobility and international HR space and there is not one day where I do not learn anything new! In the year 2000, I sat in the last row of a very expensive Global Mobility seminar in Berlin. I was about three months into a role that was at least one shoe size too big for my experience but I must have made a big impression in the interview (and my future boss was probably desperate) so I landed my dream job which was to be the “HR International Advisor for the Asia Pacific responsible for around 80 assignees and representatives of a large global bank.
The seminar was a waste of money on me. It was far too specific and detailed. The cases were more the exceptions than the general rule and I am happy that at least I remembered when to apply the “183-day-rule* in a case of double taxation and when not even to bother.
We are NOT relocation professionals even though we often engage them. Later in my Human Resources career, I noticed that there is really not a lot of good advice out there for international HR professionals PLUS if you say you work in Global Mobility a lot of people think you are doing the relocation only.
When talking to other HR Professionals and senior managers they often underestimate the complexity of Global Mobility and one of the remarks that still makes me angry is when Global Mobility Professionals are called “ADMIN” because what we do requires an enormous knowledge and skill set.
If you are one of my colleagues you probably share my view that Global Mobility Professional have to be
- Highly analytical (you are a comp and cost expert).
- Highly technical (you are an expert on tax, social security, immigration, employment law).
- Highly experiential (you have to have moved 200 expats to know your job).
- Highly sensitive (you work with talents and their families in a phase of high stress).
- Highly intercultural (you speak at least four languages and deal with numerous cultures).
One of our challenges globally is that there is no formal Global Mobility education. As mentioned in my recent article in the International HR Adviser, Spring 2018, we need to build up our own professional standards while we need to learn to work more in line with the businesses and clients we serve.
We need to step up and become real consultants. We have come a long way already and I wish to guide you further.
Sign up for the free upgrade of The Global Mobility Workbook, 3rd Edition (2018). You’ll also be the first to know when the book will be published.
Kind regards
Angela Weinberger
