The 5 biggest global mobility myths

There is a reason that it takes a village to run a quality talent mobility program. This ShieldGeo article lays out five widely held, but false beliefs within the global mobility industry. If your global mobility programs have been trekking along one of these myth paths, you might find a heap of compliancy issues at the end of it. 

To avoid trouble, consider:

Myth One: Deployment is the hardest part. Umm, while deployment might be challenging in some cases, the fact is that compliance is actually the number one challenge for international assignments (depending on whose survey you are looking at).

Myth Two: Global mobility is about assigning employees from the home (HQ) country. These days, talent can start and end anywhere, and people are needed to be found in more locations and moved to even more places. There are an ever-increasing number of policy options for different needs and circumstances for supporting the needed movement.

Myth Three: You don't need a plan. You'll send the employee there and then sort everything out later. Hold up...bad idea! Failing to plan is planning to fail (Ben Franklin?). Have policies ready, spend the time on cost projections, have partners at the ready, assess what is needed to enhance the ROI of an assignment.  

Myth Four: As long as you’re paying tax in the home country, you’re okay in the host country. WRONG. The host country absolutely must get looked at and will have its own requirements that must be met, at least at a certain point. Occasionally, local payroll setup will also be needed.

Myth Five: You can use a business visa to work in another country. Because things are always changing from country to country, you should have a go to resource to confirm what is true. It can be about what specifically an employee is doing on day one and it can also be about how long they will be doing certain activities in country. Stealth assignments are uncovered more often when employees doing activities in other countries are not covered by their current visas. Don't assume! Or do but understand that the practice does not just result in deportation, as there are often potential civil and criminal penalties in some countries.