From Movement to Momentum: Why Mobility Must Be More Than a Function

We’ve crossed the halfway point of 2025, and mobility is gaining traction again. While COVID’s shadow continues to linger (I was just exposed again last week while traveling), the real headwinds now are economic: unstable tariffs, geopolitical tensions, and inflationary pressure are keeping companies cautious about investing in talent mobility.

But today’s mobility programs are not just about moving people; they’re about enabling business continuity, building workforce resilience, and enhancing employee experience in a world that doesn’t sit still.

According to ECA International's 2025 Managing Mobility Survey, global organizations are doubling down on international assignments—not because they’re easy, but because they’re essential. With 95% outsourcing at least one mobility function and rising costs threatening ROI, the question isn’t whether mobility matters, it’s whether your program is ready to matter more. 

And that requires transformation. One client put it perfectly during a recent conversation: 

Mobility done well is about more than movement - it's about helping the company create momentum.

That’s the heart of it. While tactical execution is still critical, future-ready mobility requires strategic alignment—what I call "Stracticle Mobility." It ensures relocations don’t just happen efficiently, but also drive meaningful outcomes within broader talent strategies, like:

• Workforce planning
• Leadership pipeline development
• Skills-based deployments
• Retention initiatives

And yet, 70–80% of mobility programs fail to align with talent strategies—a costly oversight that limits impact. 

What the Data Says: Insights from ECA & EY 

Let’s break down what the research is really telling us about the evolving expectations for mobility leaders.

ECA International 2025 Survey:

1. Assignments are increasing in strategic value, not just frequency.
2. Top barriers to success? Family challenges and cost inflation.
3. Only 3% of companies are satisfied with their mobility tech—indicating a major gap between goals and capabilities.

EY “Mobility Reimagined”:

1. 75% report it takes over a year to fill senior roles, and mobility is central to fixing that.
2. “Evolved” mobility functions are: 
   1. 3.7x more likely to mitigate talent shortages 
   2. 1.8x more likely to drive business growth
3. Common traits of “evolved” programs:
   1. Strategic alignment
   2. Talent integration
   3. Digital fluency
   4. Policy flexibility
   5. Use of external expertise

These programs aren’t just relocating people. They’re supporting global expansion, enabling skills mobility, and fostering agility with increased flexibility and improved employee experience to match.

Where Mobility Goes Wrong

Surveys offer great insight, but closing the gap between theory and execution takes more than data. It takes experience. That’s where our Stracticle Mobility model provides a practical lens to evaluate whether your program is balancing execution with strategic impact.

Here are five missteps that hold programs back: 

1. Confusing Perks with Purpose: Start with strategy, not benefits.
2. Obsessing Over “Yes”: Consider the whole lifecycle, especially re-entry.
3. Blind Benchmarking: Know your people and mission first, and then benchmark. Or, better yet, blow up the standard playbook and let employees shape policies that actually matter to them. 
4. Missing the Talent Connection: If mobility doesn't visibly support talent priorities, it won't get buy-in. 
5. Tracking What's Easy, Not What Matters: Shift from tracking costs and satisfaction to measuring retention, growth, and business impact. 

What Modern Mobility Must Deliver

Today’s programs can’t afford to be static. To stay competitive, mobility must be:

• Strategically integrated with workforce plans
• Digitally enabled and data-informed
• Flexible enough to pivot with market shifts and meet employee needs
• Efficiently outsourced to improve scale and control cost
• Risk-savvy, especially around tax, immigration, and cybersecurity

This isn’t about abandoning operations—it’s about powering them with purpose and flexibility.

Elevate or Be Left Behind

Programs that evolve—that become stracticle—don’t just get compliance right. They create advantage by:

• Filling critical roles faster
• Enabling agile, global teams
• Elevating employee experiences
• Strengthening leadership pipelines

Still treating mobility like a logistics function? Then it’s time to ask yourself: is your program truly enabling your business or just moving people around?

Read the Relocate Magazine article
Explore “Stracticle Mobility”