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So, when we center our conversations largely around The Great Resignation, we’re missing the other half of the story: The Great Re-Engagement! More than ever before, the current environment is ripe for re-assessing how effectively your organization is retaining and attracting the talent you want and need.

Mobility is vying for a starring role in The Great Re-Engagement story! Magnetic Mobility Policies are proving to be highly effective tools in helping to develop existing talent – offering the training and up-skilling opportunities that they want to level up in their careers – and winning over top talent in a highly competitive marketplace.

But let’s be clear: you can’t transform the Great Resignation into a Great Re-Engagement through policies alone. Employees are quick to see through the smoke and mirrors; a robust and flexible mobility policy will need to be backed by action that proves your commitment to a company that is intentional, purpose-driven, and people-first.

Many within our roundtable sessions speculated that the talent exodus is driven by shifting personal priorities, opportunities to do more meaningful work, and become part of an organization whose values align with their own. Remote work requests may fall under the need for work-life balance and general mental wellness which became a priority during the pandemic. Moving forward, companies will need to “re-engage” their workforce with these values in mind.

Mark Bennett Executive Vice President, Global Client Services

Here are a few ways that mobility will be helping to fuel the Great Re-Engagement over 2022, taken from our recent 2022 Trends Webinar:

Career-Mapping:

Organizations are leveraging Developmental Assignments to engage and meet the needs of employees hungry for experience and up-skilling opportunities. International experience is even mandated by some companies for their Senior Leadership, so having mobility promoted internally as a benefit to career progression helps build loyalty and retain talent.

Re-Focus Upon Repatriates:

So, remember those Developmental Assignments we just mentioned? They’ll quickly lose their value if you’re not monitoring the development of these assignees upon their return! Too often, once employees have completed their relocation or assignment – or have been on assignment for two or three years – and are no longer under mobility’s microscope, they’re…forgotten. If you keep leaving repatriated employees in the dark, you run the risk of losing those newly acquired skills, and your talent. Repatriation re-engagement is incredibly important to ensure that these talents are used, shared, and that the career path of the returning employee is clearly mapped out.

Mentorship Programs are a great workable solution to engage repatriated employees and infuse the necessary talent management component. When employees get back from being away for a couple of years, they find that not many people are that interested in what they were doing in another country. But suppose you've got someone from the mobility team who's checking in to find out how their experiences have shaped their future development; that's such good use of information, particularly if those check-ins continue throughout their careers to see what experiences and opportunities arose from that assignment. That information can then be used to structure and get buy-in for future assignments, and to tell the mobility story.

Shân Norman Regional Vice President, EMEA

Leveraging Storytelling:

Many organizations are tapping into the importance of storytelling in selling their products or services to prospects, but many neglect to leverage the value of storytelling internally. Business leaders need to understand more than the dollars and cents of the mobility story; they need to see the picture of how mobility can solve problems and what the employee went through to support the long-term business strategy. They need to know the outcomes, the benefits, and what didn’t work so that changes can be made to produce even better outcomes. And it’s up to mobility leaders to be those storytellers: to influence stakeholders, propel your mobility program forward, and increase engagement opportunities for new and existing talent!

In our recent webinar on projected trends for 2022, we polled a group of 180 corporate attendees: 84% of respondents agreed that the top skill needed to align mobility with talent management is influencing stakeholders. This confirms that the need for storytelling savvy will be vital this year.

 

Re-framing your organization as a fresh, forward-thinking, purpose-driven organization will take more than a pool table in the break room and a weekly hump-day happy hour. Re-engagement requires listening to the changing priorities of your employees and giving them access to opportunities that meet their needs for meaningful work, balance, and development.