Blog

Eventually, the three teams with the highest votes will present their case competitions at the FEM Americas meeting and a crowd of global mobility professionals, but hey no pressure, right?  Fear not, these students are way ahead of the game with endless curiosity, ample confidence, and contagious enthusiasm.  They asked great questions (including a stumper), and we covered a lot of ground.  Here are a few of the key takeaways:

• Remote and hybrid work arrangements are here to stay. The pandemic accelerated these trends and impacted everything from housing costs and availability to business travel.  A confluence of factors are increasing reluctance to relocation and ushering in new priorities — like DEI and Sustainability, Cost Control and Flexibility — for global mobility professionals.
• Technology is already having a dramatic impact on workforce mobility. With GoBe (our technology mascot) looking on, we took a spin around the Weichert Go dashboards to illustrate how information that used to take months to aggregate and analyze, is now just a click away!    We also test-drove an Amazon-like “employee choice” program to demonstrate how the employee experience is evolving.  Employees no longer have to beg for exceptions to meet their unique needs…. they can select the benefits that matter most to them, while better supporting a more diverse and inclusive workforce and greener mobility.
• Advancements in AI are enhancing mobility self-service delivery models and changing our business in many ways. This will only increase the value of empathy, trust, and judgment in the future; qualities that these students seem to possess in abundance.
• Mobility is fueling life-changing innovations. While advances in technology will propel exciting new roles for GM, perhaps the real reason to pursue a career in mobility is to make a difference in the lives of others.  When you can help organizations recruit top talent to fill a critical need, they can meet their full potential and bring life to game-changing innovations. We recently helped a client formulate their future workforce strategy, and they praised the value of our solution: “Ultimately all our efforts collectively make such a difference to the lives of patients, and you should be really proud of the difference you have made as part of that.”
• Another great example of how “life changing” mobility can be, is reflected in the work of our partners, Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB).  This non-profit organization is devoted to matching displaced workers with employment opportunities, so they can safely migrate and resettle. This initiative not only broadens a company’s talent pool and supports their DEI strategy but allows refugees to leverage their skills and rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose.

With the bright young minds of the UTD Global Mobility Club at the helm, I have great confidence that the future of our industry is in good hands. They are being led by some incredible industry leaders like Kerwin Guillermo, Global Head of Mobility at HPE, and Director of the Global Business program at UT Dallas, Hubert Zydorek . I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my perspectives with them.

What was the one question in the session that had me stumped? — “What are some of the new roles and titles that have been created by the AI evolution?”  At least in the Global Mobility space I haven’t seen any yet, but mirroring other talent management sectors, I suspect we’ll be seeing some soon. In the meantime, I suppose we’ll have to ask Bard!

Interested in learning more about GMC-UTD’s upcoming sessions? Click here!