Infusing "care flex" into your mobility program

At Plus, we talk a lot about how mobility programs can incorporate “the three Cs” of Choice, Control, and Care into everything they do. It means thinking differently, but by adding greater flexibility companies can create mobility programs that both increase experience and also keep costs down. So when I saw this article from Mercer, “A practical path to care flex approaches, part 2”, I was obviously very curious about how they would connect care and flexibility, and wanted to learn more about their term “care flex”.

In Part 1 of their series, Mercer discussed the limits of traditional relocation models, explored some newer approaches, and established how care flex is different from core-flex. Olivier Meier (Mercer), Alain Verstandig (NetExpat), and Des McKell (NetExpat) spend Part 2 exploring how to build care flex approaches into mobility policy, with some practical examples. Anything compliance or duty of care related is still a core element, but they stress that the family experience is a central pillar of an employee’s overall assignment experience. We know that it has become more important due to the rise in dual incomes and new types of assignments. They share then that there are some things however that can be added to the policy to shift from just “core” to “care”, those being:

• Spouse support — working and non-working assistance options (inclusivity)
• Social support group
• Mental health benefits
• Health — prevention measures
• Minimum living wages and financial well-being education

Their claim ultimately is that the new program led to increased usage of the available benefits, higher employee satisfaction and a 35% overall reduction the cost of the program. “A better partner-support system has increased the number of potential female international talent candidates willing to move abroad, which has a direct impact on DEI objectives. It has also helped talent attraction teams offer more appealing benefits in their hunt for international local hires.” 

As we explained recently, there are ways to add “rizz” to your program. Considering this idea of "care flex" is worth a minute. We agree that adding “cool and unique benefits, increased choice, and giving relocating employees more control over their moves can also lead to the always alluring and much appreciated outcome of eliminating exceptions.”

Here are a few posts to keep you thinking about how to add care to any of your current mobility policies and programs:

Would "true flex" in your mobility program help to attract and retain talent?

Pondering relocation policy? Think differently.

Don't these HR priorities all point to the need for a great mobility program?