Is Talent Mobility Your Competitive Advantage in 2025?

For the last few years, most companies have either predicted or actually seen fewer relocations and assignments. Are we now poised for a year with more activity?

Shake your magic 8 ball and see what the answer is. There are a few signs that point to companies preparing for higher move volumes this year. We're seeing this data from our 2025 Insights and Trends Survey, which we'll have a full report released soon. What we're seeing is an encouraging perspective on mobility in 2025 versus 2024 (50% said they were more optimistic about this year compared to 44% last year), but this is also paired with an increase in pessimism from other companies. (23% are less optimistic as compared to 21% last year). In other words, companies are either positive or negative, versus expecting things to stay the same.

When it comes to volume predictions for 2025, here is a quick glance at the data: 

More companies predict volume increases for both U.S. domestic and international cross-border relocations. On the flip side, anticipated international assignment volume is overwhelmingly expected to stay the same or decrease. 

We also asked how overall mobility activity in 2025 will compare to pre-pandemic volume from 2019. Nearly 75% of companies are now saying they will be back or above those pre-pandemic volumes. 

Our final report from the survey will provide a full breakdown on mobility volume predictions, insights into what mobility programs will be focused on in 2025, and where they see the biggest potential impediments and opportunities for mobility management. 

We believe that internal talent mobility will continue to be a huge competitive advantage for organizational growth. It will allow companies to leverage existing skills and talent within their workforce, foster employee engagement, and create adaptability to changing market needs. The result is an improvement in innovation and performance across different departments. 

In a recent webinar from Josh Bersin on “the superworker”, he shared that “HR must promote dynamic career paths and reward technical experts as managerial roles shrink. Leaders should embrace AI, focus on job redesign, and balance innovation with execution. In the new war for talent, employee engagement, retention, and career growth will be more important than ever.” Ultimately, he suggests that talent mobility needs to invert the previous mentality of "Hire to Grow" and look to “Grow to Hire” where internal mobility (virtually and physically) will provide a competitive advantage!

Here are a few key reasons why talent mobility leads to growth:

• Better utilization of talent: By enabling employees to move across roles and functions based on their skills, companies can utilize their talent pool more efficiently, filling critical gaps without constantly hiring from outside. 
• Employee engagement and retention: When employees see opportunities for career development and growth within the company, they are more likely to feel valued and stay with the organization. 
• Skill development and upskilling: Talent mobility encourages continuous learning and development as employees are exposed to new challenges and required to acquire new skills to succeed in different roles. 
• Innovation and cross-functional collaboration: Moving employees across teams can facilitate the sharing of ideas and knowledge, leading to more creative solutions and improved collaboration. 
• Improved agility and adaptability: With a flexible workforce that can readily move to areas of high demand, companies can quickly respond to changing market conditions and customer needs. 

Important aspects of talent mobility to consider for growth:

• Clear career pathways: Providing employees with a transparent view of potential career paths within the organization. 
• Training and development programs: Investing in programs to equip employees with the necessary skills for new roles. 
• Leadership support: Encouraging managers to identify and support high-potential employees within their teams. 
• Open communication: Communicating opportunities for internal mobility and career advancement clearly to all employees. 

Global mobility will become more complex, but also more essential to companies’ operations as they look to grow their market presence. This is the prediction for 2025 from The State of Global Mobility 2025 by Localyze, which also suggests people teams will be looking for external support and more sophisticated technology to handle the workload. 

If you are still wondering how to make the case that talent mobility could be an amazing and valuable element for developing, engaging and retaining your key talent, then consider revisiting this post: “Some Stats on Global Mobility's ROI”.