A Conversation on the Future of Mobility

With WERC's annual Global Workforce Symposium kicking off this week in Washington DC, we want to take a look into the future. Here's a conversation between two of our closest friends in the mobility industry - Envoy Global's CEO, Dick Burke, and WERC's President and CEO, Anupam Singhal. 

These two leaders have teamed up on this latest episode of the “Immigration & Mobility Decoded” podcast. In this discussion, they talk about the current state of global mobility, explore what corporate HR teams are doing to navigate various situations, and explain the value of WERC's upcoming conference. Coming in at just under an hour, it's a fun and engaging talk that's worth paying attention to. 

Why? 

Because global mobility teams are now knee deep in many activities that they were not involved with 5-10 years ago. Relocation managers are now supporting things like business travel, where employees are at risk of triggering compliance issues. Anupam describes his own expat experience of triggering a compliance problem, which created an expensive and painful concern that really could have been avoided with expert guidance up front. One of the things Anupam stated in the discussion (around 18:20 into the conversation) was that he really feels for corporate mobility managers, who are being asked to take on more responsibilities with no additional resources.  

Mobility is about getting the right people to the right place at the right time. However, there is also a need to do it in the right way. That means being compliant, avoiding risk issues with cross-border moves, and recognizing mobility “landmines” like criminal immigration violations, permanent establishment, and tax penalties. 

Another key topic is convergence of support systems. This is mentioned as a sizeable fundamental trend playing out in the mobility world. Relocation professionals are now wanting a singular solution for immigration, business visas, and mobility tax. Relocating employees are now navigating responsibilities to be in multiple places doing business while also living as an expatriate in a single location. This involves different experts across a company (HR/Travel/Mobility), who are often siloed in their communication and processes. 

This conversation touches on a lot of future trends for mobility. There are a lot of challenges right now, and these two experts are aligned in their concern for where mobility needs to go. Relocation is complicated, and it takes a lot of experts with specialized knowledge to make mobility work. These experts are often separated in their own areas of expertise, when the reality is that companies are now needing all of that knowledge in one place. Even with recent advancements in technology, there's still an essential need for consistent, holistic support for the human experience of relocating, which makes responding to individual needs complicated. Companies don't want to get trapped in a “lethargy stasis” of services that don't work together seamlessly.

By the way, if you're attending the Global Workforce Symposium, join this session where Plus CEO Susan Benevides will be a panelist, talking about “U.S. Buyer Broker Compensation: Adapting Policies and Program Practices”.