Cost cutting...let us count the ways!

Our latest Global Mobility Trends Report revealed that despite slightly increased positivity, there are still concerns about the overall outlook for global mobility, especially related to the economy. Almost all participants are worrying about the U.S. and global economies being in or heading toward a recession, with 96% of respondents expressing some level of concern.

Participants anticipate that a recession would impact their mobility programs in several ways, from elevating costs per move to reducing employee satisfaction scores. Only 6% of participants felt that a recession would not impact their programs. However, 21% of participants expressed concern that a recession would result in reduced activity, pushing back against the otherwise optimistic outlook.

Of the top 5 biggest priorities for global mobility programs this year, coming in at number 4 is "containing costs" with 53% of companies indicating this is a top priority for 2023. Companies are looking to implement innovative ways to reduce spend through money and time saving technologies that add to the customer experience. That said, this article ("20 ways to reduce the cost of your global mobility programme") from ECA is perfect for those with this as a primary consideration and that are exploring ways for more effective cost management.   

Not surprisingly, a number of the areas of focus are policy related. Re-evaluating and benchmarking policies is "extremely popular" right now. For those programs trying to reduce spend, they are often at odds with also trying not to negatively impact the employee experience. By the way, improving the employee experience was #3 on the Top 5 priority list in our survey. A number of these activities suggested by ECA (like improving process for managing exceptions, reviewing how you deliver benefits, and making sure you are compliant) also tie back to what we found was global mobility's #1 top priority this year, "Streamlining efficiencies: which aims to restructure processes and create more efficient practices for managing mobility, including adding technology improvements"!

Per ECA, "Controlling costs is a perennial challenge for GM teams, but global inflation pressures have increased cost pressures on mobility programmes. More than half of the companies who participated in our Managing Mobility Survey said this issue was challenging, or indeed very challenging, for them." 

Have a look at their list and let us know which of these are you going to tap into as we move towards the midway point of 2023?