Mrs. Fabiana Neves, Senior HR Manager at Kimberly-Clark

We have had the chance to talk to Mrs. Fabiana Neves, Senior HR Manager at Kimberly-Clark, a $18 billion multinational corporation with over 40,000 employees worldwide. Mrs. Neves is an experienced HR veteran who have dealt with the full range of HR functions such as Talent Management, Leadership Development, Compensation & Benefits, HRIS, Organisation Design & Workforce Planning, and Global Mobility. She is currently working in Brazil after international assignments in Latin America, USA and Asia.

In the interview below, Mrs. Neves gave her thoughts on what are the ingredients to a successful placement and effective mobility policies. She also brought us through Kimberly-Clark’s philosophy in developing talents and ways of drafting expat packages.

Q: You have spent over a decade at Kimberly-Clark. Tell us more about your career, and what make you fall in love with both the job and the company.

A: I first started in K-C Brazil in 2004, and two years later, I moved to Atlanta, USA where I worked as a Regional HR Business Partner and Compensation Leader. In 2012, I was offered an APAC Talent Management Lead role based in Shanghai, China and moved again with my family. In 2014, my husband took over a CFO role for the Central America & Caribbean business and I was offered a Global Mobility Lead role, so we moved again this time to Costa Rica, with two little girls.

I have been exposed to Global Mobility as an expat myself, a trailing spouse, a HRBP who needs to expatriate talent and, lastly, as a Global Mobility expert, so this 360 view of the expat world helped me to fall in love with the job and its complexities.

K-C knows that the best way to grow the business is to help its employees develop their careers. K-C has a very clear talent development strategy, where 70% is learning through experience, and they really make that happen in the most effective ways possible. It is hard not to fall in love with a place that offers you what you want while giving you what you need.  

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Q: Having experienced first-hand as an expat employee, what are some matters you feel strongly about that HR should always prioritise?

A: To bring about an excellent customer experience, awareness, and adaptation, both employee and family should be the priority when moving people abroad. Getting to know the culture that you will live in and strategies to adapt are fundamental to ensuring the success of the assignment. On the other hand, to ensure the effectiveness of Global Mobility, having a lean process and a thorough stakeholder management strategy is critical.

Q: What is the size of Kimberly-Clark’s mobile workforce on average?

A: We move around 400 people around the globe. 

Q: What are the common types of assignments and policies that you deal with?

A: We have the following policies:

• Cross Border Development: up to 90 days abroad
• Short -Term: from 3 to 12 months abroad
• Long-Term: from 1 to 3 years abroad
• Local Plus: from 1 to 3 years abroad and global career track
• Permanent Transfers
  

Q: What approach does Kimberly-Clark take to draft a sound expat compensation and benefits package? 

A: K-C follows the average market of its peer group to define any expat compensation or benefit that needs to be addressed outside the global compensation guidelines.

Q: What advice would you give to someone looking to build a career in global mobility?

A: Global Mobility is one of the most complex subjects under the Human Resources function. You will need skills like learning agility, analytic thinking and stakeholder management in this job.

If you look around, you probably don’t know many people who work in Global Mobility, so it makes it a very interesting field to be in right now. The only challenge you might have: Global Mobility is addictive, and you might spend more time than you really need in this arena.