Is it time to recession-proof your global mobility program?

Are we currently in a recession? Are we about to be in a recession? Will we have a soft landing where the Fed succeeds at cooling the economy enough to bring down prices without causing a full recession? According to this CNN Business article, "Forget a soft landing. The market’s best hope is a ‘growth’ recession". If you're confused at this point, you're probably not alone, but bear with us a while longer.

"The new aim appears to be for a so-called growth recession: A prolonged period of meager growth and rising unemployment. The pain is sharper and lasts longer than that of a soft landing, but a “growth” recession doesn’t pull the entire economy into contraction the way a proper recession would. It looks like a recession, and feels like a recession, but it isn’t a recession — at least not officially."

"Growth recession" might be a new term, created just to describe these strange economic times. However, the word "recession" is still a part of the phrase, and most economists expect things for individuals and companies to be painful over the next year. With the war in Ukraine and the pandemic complicating things, there are those that expect a full fledged recession, given that 13 of the last 16 monetary tightening cycles have ended in a recession. Add in some major market downturns and the stage seems set for a real global recession.

So as you look out at the future, what should your global mobility program be doing right now? How can you recession-proof your program and set up your team and your relocating employees for success?  

1. Stay connected with your company and its needs. Some say that part of what got us to a potential recession was not making a change to monetary policy sooner. Maybe the lesson for all of us is to adjust more quickly. Mobility teams need to pay attention to what their companies are doing in response to change. For mobility to matter, you need to be focused on what problems you need to solve. Be sure that you are in sync with leadership so that you can properly prepare and adjust to changing needs. Recessions tend to bring hiring freezes, reduced new hire volumes, employee cutbacks and layoffs, and initiatives for all departments to consider cost cutting measures. At the same time, some industries are either already resistant to recessions, or they are finding opportunities for investment and growth despite the downturn. It could be a ripe market for your firm to be acquired or acquire another company, which often leads to the need for mobility support with group moves or high level employee relocations. In other words, your future could actually be quite busy despite the economy being in a recession, but it is essential to maintain lines of communication to know how you can help. If your company is going to see contraction in the recession, staying connected across your organization will help to keep you on top of talent mobility needs. (Side note: share your intelligence with your partners so that they too can be prepared for properly supporting you and your program!)
2. Consider remodeling your mobility program. While benchmarking shows you what others have been doing, it does not tell you what others want to do or will be doing going forward, especially those that are trying something new. I actually heard one corporate mobility leader ask, "How relevant is benchmarking from the last 2 years? If we want to re-imagine our program, how much does that benchmarking actually help? We are looking for something different." History can teach some lessons, but what do your employees and stakeholders really want? Create solutions only after an evaluation of your mobile employee experience, building solutions to solve for what matters most to them. Be willing to do user testing, qualitative interviews or unique surveys to gather the data you need for making great changes. A better and more efficient experience is the goal, so get your internal stakeholders together and encourage disruptive thinking! 
3. Use technology to make a difference. A recession can be scary, but you have the power of technology on your side - if you're willing to be innovative! Consider how you can use technology to create a mobility program that does more on its own, a program that really meets the needs of your team and your relocating employees. According to this Harvard Business Review article, companies are best positioned to invest in technology solutions during recessions because their opportunity cost is lower. Depending on your goals, technology can even be the foundation of recession-proofing your entire program. Technology solutions can support cost maximization and make teams more efficient. The key goals here are to do more with less, have greater control over costs, and maintain or even improve the employee experience...all at the same time. If these goals sound unrealistic, they're not. You just might not know what solution to look for that can help you with all of them. To start, you might be interested in this whitepaper on how Plus's Point C platform can help build recession-resistant processes into the foundation of a mobility program. 

These three suggestions will keep you and your mobility program informed and relevant, cost effective and current, and well prepared for a "growth recession". Talent mobility is not going to come to a complete halt, but if you see a future of reduced volume where cost and employee experience need to be addressed, now might be the right time to focus on building for what is coming.