Nobody said it would be easy

Moving talent globally is not easy.

The title of this article gets straight to the point: "Fifty-eight percent of UK businesses find hiring and onboarding overseas staff challenging." Brexit may (or may not yet) be making it even more difficult for moving people from abroad into the UK, but the challenges were already there to make things difficult, no matter where people are being moved. Global payroll requirements, benefit programs and provisions, compensation structure and delivery, cultural and language challenges, dependent schooling needs and of course, the ever-present immigration requirements will usually provide a few puzzled looks, deep sighs, possibly headaches...and some good old stress. However, what about the other 42%? They must have figured it out?  

It's no secret that moving talent globally is critical for a successful talent strategy.

Per Deloitte, nearly 70% of companies agreed that a mobile workforce is an enabler of business and talent strategies, but only 3% of the respondents rated their companies as “world-class” in global deployments. Is it any wonder? There are a host (no pun intended) of things to complete when sending staff abroad on assignments, no matter what the duration. And, there is risk involved too. Compliance on tax and immigration is a must to be dealt with for any well-run mobility program. Additionally, with more focus on enhancing employee experience, supporting expats properly with benefits and services is no longer a "nice to have," it is an area of serious focus.   

Moving talent globally needs to be an asset.

Is there any question whether a well-run global mobility program is a valuable asset to a company? Straight out of our recent white paper, Get Ready For The Great Talent Face-Off:

"Amid changing workforce demographics and global economies, nothing may be as important to future corporate success as attracting, developing and retaining top talent. To support this, CEOs have expressed their top concern today is attracting and retaining talent, according to the C-Suite Challenge™ 2018 Survey. In today’s business environment, talent has the advantage, making it essential to understand the talent you need, what they want and how to engage them."

In a recent interview, Peggy Smith, CEO and president of Worldwide ERC® said “Global mobility gives companies a strategic advantage to hire whoever they want, wherever they reside, or to strategically relocate talent in order to pursue new market opportunities. This results in greater business agility and improved innovation that creates a competitive advantage.”  If something provides a company with a strategic advantage, let's call that an asset.

Make sure your mobility program is an asset as well.

In our "Defining Global Mobility Challenges" paper we laid out six critical capabilities of world-class global mobility programs ranging from program compliance and efficiency to alignment with the business - especially talent management. But to truly take it up another notch, we added two additional capabilities. Capabilities seven and eight, come on dooooooown! *hushed applause*

Capability #7: Innovate by strategically identifying, evaluating and addressing upcoming changes with the goal of continuous improvement.

Capability #8: Define your own best practices, rather than utilizing those defined by others.

Now, it is up to you. Dive in deep and make your mobility program a valued asset.