Why Transform Global Mobility

As we become more aware of #GlobalMobility as a corporate function, body of research, and whole industry, compared to thinking it was a global taxi service when I used this hashtag on Twitter in 2009, I thought it would be great to refresh the main issues that we still face in many organizations. I still see five major challenges in Global Mobility across industries and countries:
1 – SELECTION and SUCCESSION PLANNING: Expats are often selected on an ad-hoc basis, and intercultural competence is hardly ever considered 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.
2 – 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.
3 – STANDING and BRANDING of the FUNCTION: Global Mobility Managers 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 business decides who is going where. These professionals have a lot of insights into the complexities of the host locations and also understand the immigration process, timelines, and tax traps.
4 – GLOBAL MOBILITY INCLUSION: 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 option is wrong. Also, be inclusive in accepting other family models; one expat might need to take their mother. Another might have a dog or adopted kids. (We have a lot more posts on this topic.)
5 – HOLY GRAIL, AUTOMATING DATA, and ENHANCING DASHBOARDS: If we want to be serious about change, we need to improve our use of 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 expat education. Consider the Expat Experience, their learning journey, and the skills they develop on assignments or international projects.
Over the last thirty years in Human Resources, I have noticed that many international talents are frustrated by the prospect of moving to another country for work. This is not only because their companies paid them a package other than what they expected, but also because many international assignees underestimate the challenge of moving to another country.
For example, expats moving to Switzerland often think finding affordable childcare, high-quality apartments, and a job for their “trailing” spouse will be easier. Most expats believe it will be easy to learn the local language (or they even think we speak English). Most expats believe they will have a great career step after their repatriation. I have seen a lot of anger when assignees went to another country, returned home, and did not get that promotion or the role they were hoping for.
I regularly have clients break out in tears because they feel overwhelmed by the international assignment experience. When I worked in India and moved to Switzerland from Germany, it was not always just “Cricket & Bollywood” or “Cheese & Chocolate.”
Local Plus and International Transfers are 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 depend on their employer, too. Employers find “Local Plus” convenient but do not consider all the risks these moves entail because controllers have driven many business decisions in the last ten years.
The Talent Gap
We now lack the critically needed talent in critical 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 must learn to cope with the demand and supply in a globalized talent market. 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 initiatives, we have not managed to attract the potential and talent needed within the EU, for example, in IT. (We have more articles on this topic too).
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 problems are standard 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
Looking 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 have 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 worried about discriminatory practices in Recruiting and Global Mobility.
Global migration faces another challenge in the form of the travel restrictions that have been imposed on the entire world during and in the aftermath of the worldwide pandemic, social unrest and wars.
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 being undervalued, overworked and squeezed by their interest groups, classical Global Mobility tasks 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.
However, in many companies and organizations, global mobility also saved the day and established crisis support when needed, so now companies are thinking more about expanding the scope of global mobility and global recruiting functions.
Threats to Career Choices
Working in Global Mobility was 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 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.
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 must ensure a sustainable business case showing assignment drivers and targets, expected gains or opportunities, assignment costs, and a repatriation plan. I explain this in “The Global Mobility Workbook (2019)” and my lectures.
We must 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 is appropriately reflected in their following role and repatriation plan. We must also ensure better handovers to their successors in the host location.
We need to upgrade the 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 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 counsellors is needed.
What I believe in and what makes me get up in the morning:
- Western Generation X managers must still 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.
- A humane and sustainable Expat Experience Design (XXD) is linked to assignment targets, an international assignment business case, a repatriation plan, and the Human Touch. We must approach this with the same concepts we apply to customer experience and user experience design.
- Companies will focus more on creating succession plans and ensuring that roles are filled more structured, handovers improved, and teams will function more self-managed in the future. Leadership itself will change significantly.
- Global mobility in-house professionals can potentially become critical players in the post-crisis international growth of businesses. They are valued more as the subject matter experts that they are. They will move out of HR and be closer to business development.
- Expats and their spouses (life partners) need a valuable intercultural experience to 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.
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