What's the outlook on mobility?

Mobility professionals use a lot of sources for research and managing global talent. One of the key, trusted sources of interesting and informative data is AIRINC. Each year, they host a Mobility Outlook Survey (MOS) and share the results through a report and multiple webinars. With this year's MOS on the books, we want to share some of the key highlights with you. 

Here are the top 5 key take-aways from AIRINC's MOS report:

1. Mobility’s scope is wider than ever and harder to define. Mobility is getting involved in other areas of business management. Mobility teams are now supporting immigration only cases, international remote working, plus being a part of planning return to office initiatives which lead to increased relocation and mobility activities. For many companies, mobility is also responsible for processing digital nomad requests, handraiser move requests, business travelers, and intern program support. Mobility is finding itself in more places, helping to address skills shortages and helping guide company talent goals. 
    
2. Doing more, but with less. While some companies are growing, most are focused on streamlining and managing cost even more effectively. Many companies are even reducing their spend with cost cutting initiatives, but only 11% of companies expect a decrease in relocation activity for 2024. That means mobility teams are moving more people on tighter budgets. 
    
3. Move type rebalancing? Mobility teams expect greater increases in short-term assignments, international one-way transfers, and international new hires! At the same time, they expect the smallest decreases with interns, business travelers, developmental assignments, commuters, and international remote work.
    
4. Flexibility, tailoring, and accommodating will remain a focus. Only 3% of companies stated that flexibility was not important, while 75% felt that flexibility was either extremely, very, or moderately important. Companies want to make better use of their mobility budgets, focusing on what creates the best experience. That's what flexibile policies are designed to support. However, more than half of respondants (53%) explain that they are using exception requests to “flex” for employees, which is taking more time and resources to manage. It's also interesting that only 28% of companies claim to use their RMC as a primary source of creating flexibility. 
   
   Shameless plug - If you're in the 72% of companies that don't use your RMC as a partner in flexibility, you need to take a look at Point C! 
    
5. Mobility wants to be more strategic. What mobility leaders say they want to do is often very different from what mobility programs are actually doing. Mobility teams still feel that they are considered “operators" and "enablers” (both considered quite tactical), as opposed to “advisors” and "planners" (both considered more strategic). Mobility leaders want to spend more time advising the business on talent deployment and supporting company talent strategies. Many also want AI and technology platforms that allow them to be more strategic.

If you're interested in seeing more, the entire MOS is worth the read. Look it over and see where your program might fit in the data!