AIRINC recently hosted a group of EMEA Global Mobility Leaders in June to discuss how the function is moving from Mobility to Mobilisation, moderated by Michael Joyce, Mike Wincott, and Bruno Lagasse. The conversation looked at the short- and medium-term challenges that companies are facing as Global Mobility is being asked to shift the focus from physical mobility to effective talent mobilisation.
Current Challenges - Compliance
Compliance has always been important for Global Mobility. Employees’ new requests for international remote working arrangements during the pandemic has renewed the spotlight on cross-border compliance, requiring the business to reassess their appetite for risk with regards to compliance. To ensure ongoing compliance, Global Mobility needs to be involved in each request and support a risk assessment to guide the business’ decision regarding which arrangements are feasible and which ones are not.
Increasingly Important Initiatives - Talent
The use of developmental policies to support growth opportunities for talent is gaining importance amongst the roundtable participants. Some participants are trying to better balance the number of assignees sent for business needs vs. for talent development. Since international assignments provide a lot of experiential learning that cannot be replicated elsewhere, participants want to be ready with solutions to offer the business for when offices reopen. During the pandemic, some participants have been developing alternative short-term virtual global mobility options to support talent development initiatives.
Increasingly Important Initiatives - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I)
We at AIRINC are hearing more and more conversations around the importance of DE&I and how the mobility function can support it. However, Global Mobility alone cannot carry DE&I: it must be supported and carried across the whole organisation. Global Mobility can be creative in how international assignments can support the initiative.
Increasingly Important Initiatives - Virtual Assignments and Remote Work
There is more and more demand that Global Mobility have off-the-shelf solutions using virtual and remote working arrangements. In addition to bridging the current gap left by canceled or stalled in-person assignments, virtual assignments can provide international opportunities for individuals who previously couldn’t go on assignment due to personal / logistical complications. They remove the barriers presented by physical relocations and enable the option of talent development and supporting DE&I through international (remote) working experiences.
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