Companies are now boosting their talent mobility strategies to retain and upskill top talent like never before. But it’s not all smooth sailing – the waters are getting rougher as the challenges intensify. Before, we experienced reluctance among employees to relocate, and now managers are contending with resistance to going into an office. Meanwhile, travel is skyrocketing back to pre-pandemic levels with no slowing down in sight!
Navigating the maze of complex immigration legislation, cross-border compliance, and multiple platforms while maintaining employee engagement requires a new set of mobility skills, and not necessarily all technical either. Sure, the tools and standards of even ten years ago are being transformed by technological breakthroughs, including AI. It’s like swapping out your old flip phone for the latest smartphone – the difference is mind-blowing!
The break-neck pace of these developments calls for a forward-thinking, agile approach to global mobility, focusing on adaptability and long-term vision. Mobility managers must evolve to meet the demands of a fluid landscape and an increasingly skills-based workforce.
Traditional relocation and expatriate roles have yielded to new pathways that enable companies to access a wider range of talent. Future talent wants autonomy and companies are responding with experience-centric, global employment strategies. This evolution emphasizes not only meeting employee desires but also navigating multiple layers of stakeholders – both internal and external – including senior leadership, to enhance organizational nimbleness to withstand economic shifts.
The Changing Role of Mobility
The role of mobility has become more visible within organizations as program owners respond to the more complex needs of stakeholders and a changing workforce. Mobility responsibilities have also expanded to include:
- Domestic
- Global Business Travel
- Interns
- Commuters
- Remote Work
- Immigration
- Compliance
- Business Tax
- Return to Office
CERC’s 2023 Employee Relocation Policy Survey revealed that a significant portion of mobility managers’ time is currently dedicated to operational activities.
Looking ahead, 78% of mobility managers anticipate shifting their focus towards enhancing the overall program and providing strategic support to business units.
In another survey, 43% of companies report that their top initiative is to align their mobility program with their talent strategy (AIRINC 2023 Mobility Outlook Survey). Companies are transforming policies and programs to address various talent categories and enhance service delivery.
Our Advisory Services team is seeing this in our projects with clients. For example, we work with clients who are strategically tapping into global talent pools to meet specific skill requirements that requires an understanding of regional labor markets and cultural considerations; meanwhile, they must align their recruitment strategy with immigration policies. This level of complexity crosses various groups of stakeholders and skillsets, from data collection, cost estimating, to a considerable amount of communication in multiple formats.
The following visual illustrates the various needs of each stakeholder in the rapidly evolving global mobility ecosystem, further driven by the advent of generative AI. At the center are the essential skills and attributes that mobility professionals should possess to succeed. These qualities often require years of experience to develop (unlike technical skills), and sometimes can’t ever be fully trained or coached.
Essential Skills Needed for the Future of Global Mobility
The following chart explains each of the skills with an example:
| Skill | Definition | Example in Global Mobility |
| Effective Interpersonal Skills | Communicating effectively and fostering team cooperation. | A GM manager needs to coordinate with various departments, such as HR, finance, and legal, to ensure smooth processes for employees. |
| Emotional Intelligence | Understanding and empathizing with human emotions. | A mobility professional must be sensitive to the challenges faced by employees and their families as they transition to the new location and provide appropriate support. |
| Adaptability | Being open to change and adapting to different scenarios. | A specialist must quickly adapt to new immigration laws and regulations in different countries to ensure compliance. |
| Problem-Solving Abilities | Using creativity and critical thinking to solve complex problems. | Weichert’s team uses Go and AI-driven tools to analyze relocation data and trends to identify patterns that forecast challenges and opportunities with the company’s program and talent needs in new areas. |
| Collaboration and Communication | Working alongside AI requires effective collaboration and clear communication. | A global mobility team may require clear communication between team members and AI systems to make informed decisions. |
As for technical skills, employers are assessing the AI skills of their workforce and are rightfully concerned about a lack of technical expertise among employees as the expectation is for AI to be adopted at impressive rates.
As of now, only 47% of respondents in one report say their organization is “sufficiently educating employees on the capabilities, benefits, and value of generative AI.”
Much of the AI-powered progress has been in the realm of efficiency and productivity. More skilling is needed to really see how the tech could upend the workplace (source: Deloitte, The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise, 2024).
As we look to the future, developing the right skills will be crucial for driving success in the evolving landscape of global mobility. What skills do you think will be most important for professionals in this industry over the next five years? Are your current recruitment and training strategies reflective of these needs?
Need help figuring this out? There’s an Advisory Studio for that! Our latest offering, “Designing the Mobility Function Studio,” is designed to help create a new organizational structure that drives cost efficiencies, enables regions to share talent and leverage individual skill sets to support a growing culture of talent mobility. Want to learn more? Talk to me!
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