Unpacking the Shortcomings of Lifestyle Expats and Other Migrants I have been a strong proponent of Global Mobility for years now and most readers and clients will know my general optimism towards it. I will be taking a critical look at the trend towards more Lifestyle Expats and various shortcomings that need to be addressed by Global Mobility Managers, Recruiters, and HR Directors if we want to hire qualified professionals from other countries into the German-speaking regions without annoying them in the process. Another trend we have to take into consideration here is that our populations are a lot more diverse than they used to be ten years ago (Weinberger, 2019). We especially see a rise in female expats such […]

According to Brookfield (2016) 95% of companies do not measure their Global Mobility Return on Investment. “Given the inordinate amount of cost pressure on mobility today, it is somewhat surprising that more companies do not seem to have basic cost management practices in place. Only 62% of respondents indicated that they track costs during an assignment, and even fewer noted that a cost-benefit analysis is required at the outset of an assignment. With barely two-thirds of companies actually tracking the basic and most transparent part of their investment in assignments – their cost, it is not surprising that 95% of companies do not measure international assignment ROI.”  This research is from 2016 and I bet if we had an updated version we […]

Expat Selection in Global Mobility – Moving from Ad-hoc Hiring to a Global Sourcing Approach Expat Selection is a myth and if you would like to select expats in a structured manner you better start with a few basic adjustments in your global sourcing process. Succession Planning as a Basis for Expat Selection Succession Planning should guide the individual development plan, the international assignment business case, and the transition plan. I advise thinking about the international assignment from the end. Start to think about the next role before you discuss the international assignment business case with the assignment targets and cost projection. In other words, find a position the assignee could fill after the assignment in your succession plan. Most […]

Supporting the Global Mobility Manager We are supporting Global Mobility Managers to become a rockstar with a few tricks of the trade. 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 […]

Do you know Darth Vader, the dark force in many of the Star Wars movies? Did you know that we all have a bit of Darth Vader in us? We are driven by our fears. The Star Wars movies are full of allusions to deep psychology and how our attachments and fears form our behaviors and life. With this post, I would like to give you an understanding of how we are influenced by our fears and how you can change to become a Jedi.        Fritz Riemann, a deep psychologist established a theory based on four basic forms of fear (“Grundformen der Angst”). The four basic forms of angst are formed in our early childhood and determine to […]