Making the Case for a Centralised Global Mobility Function

With businesses operating in an increasingly multinational environment, the challenges of global mobility can be a catalyst for changing how the function is currently managed within global businesses. According to the Deloitte Strategic Moves Survey 2012 that surveyed 200 multinational companies engaged in global business, the top areas of concern for these organisations were new, emerging geographical markets, rapidly increasing globalisation, a widening skills gap and increased competition.

Deloitte researchers found that effective management of the global mobility function is critical to solving these issues. This was because business leaders expected global mobility to address these top four issues, but in most cases, it is failing to do so. In fact, in a separate research by Ernst & Young, several loopholes in the global mobility function were found. This includes a lack of management in tax, payroll and immigration compliance, as well as a measurement for return on investment (evaluation of whether the expatriate assignment is a cost-effective decision).

These findings highlighted a critical gap between the strategic direction of businesses, and the ability of global mobility to help execute this strategy. What then, are some ‘symptoms’ of this gap and how can organisations address these through a centralised global mobility function?

Before we go further, we first need to understand why organisations have set up a centralised global mobility function. They do so mainly to address the following business pain points:

• Inconsistent mobility practices (usually around relocation packages) across geographies
• Insufficient mobility expertise to support business operations holistically
• Frequent employee moves.

Now that we know the ‘why’, here is the ‘how’ - in a form of a three-step checklist successful companies can follow when setting up a function dedicated to ensure a consistent, cost-efficient global mobility experience across the organisation.

#1: Take the time to plan the objectives, desired outcomes and priorities of the global mobility function

Rather than just slotting a global mobility role with the organisation’s current HR structure, companies that get it right take the time to plan the structure of a new global mobility function and secure leadership buy-in by asking these critical questions:

• What is the degree of the organisation’s business operations that are dependent on global mobility? Asking this helps the organisation decide on the budgeting and prioritisation of moves as well as the number of specialist roles required by the function.

• What are the common pain points around key issues such as compliance, compensation, benefits and payroll that the global mobility function should address?

• What are the key organisational motivations driving the need for a global mobility function? For instance, consider if there has been an increase in international assignments, employees’ prevailing attitudes towards global assignments, as well as the projected number of employees that will need to move internationally every year.

#2: Set up the global mobility function with employees with the right expertise to achieve the function’s objectives from the start

According to organisations with dedicated global mobility functions, staffing the team with the right number of employees equipped with the functional expertise to administer HR elements across various locations is critical as any errors may inflate costs considerably. Some critical roles within the function include:

• Global Mobility Manager

Main role: Direct global mobility policies and processes, develops best practices and proactively engage key business stakeholders to ensure commitment to consistent practices across the whole organisation; and manage the centralised global mobility function.

• Compensations & Benefits Specialist

Main role: Ensure the centralised global mobility package and budget are well managed and subscribed to; challenge the cost-effectiveness of all international assignments by requiring sponsoring businesses to develop justification and cost estimates for proposed assignments.

• International Tax Specialist

Main role: Oversee all international tax issues related to global mobility.

• International Mobility Specialist

Main role: Support the logistics and administration of international moves to ensure qualified employees are placed in proper international locations in a compliant, timely and cost-efficient way.

#3: Establish clear, informative measures of success

For most new functions, the constant challenge is to be a contributing stakeholder relevant to the organisation’s overall growth strategy. Establishing clear metrics from the onset to measure success, even if it is for the long run, helps to build a case for management to commit to the consistent and proactive enforcement of global mobility practices driven by the global mobility function.

For instance, track the cost savings to the business from the function’s ability to satisfy all compliance obligations related to global mobility or longer term cost savings through globally consistent practices to make moves more efficient instead of wasting resources reinventing the wheel for each move. The function’s return on investment can also be tracked in its ability to attract and retain global talent through competitive and fair mobility practices.