With the growth in business and competition, companies need more and more of their assignees to travel abroad wherein the role of technology tools and global mobility software become a vital component for a successful relocation program.
As the global assignee population is increasing constantly it is important to understand how technology is utilized in managing mobility programs. Global Mobility Managers must adopt make use of an array of practical, insightful and value added services, software or programs covering areas such as programme, vendor and cost management; global tax and social security services; immigration compliance; business traveller services; and incentive tracking and withholding. If they already have the software in place, they must gage whether it being used consistently and if it is meeting the company's need.
Certain Factors affecting Technology Adoption by Global Mobility Managers
Global Workforce size: Workforce size being the obvious factor – a multinational company with only a small percentage of employees working outside their home country would have different needs from an employer with thousands of expatriate assignees to manage.
Attitude towards Outsourcing: If a company tends to manage all aspects of HR management internally, then more reliability is placed on data, metrics, software and processes managed in-house. But if this aspect is already outsourced a company may be more likely favourable for a relocation agency to manage foreign moves and payroll compliance, attorneys to facilitate visas and work permits and consultants to monitor expatriate workforce attitude.
HR Staffing: Most companies believe that if they have a dedicated team of HR management, they can substitute it for a robust, technology based strategy for managing human resource movement.
Technology sophistication and ease of use: Simple, modular programmes and software are accepted more quickly than complex, fully integrated ones that require customization before use. From a company's perspective, the risk of adopting a new technology increases with that technology's difficulty and cost.
Industry: The use of technology to support global mobility varies from industry to industry. Tracking simple to more complex patterns may require more technical tools than just an excel spreadsheet.
Compliance
Compliance continues to be crucial, adding another layer of complexity for mobility. As regulatory pressures increase and governments around the world are stepping up enforcement of laws and regulations, mobility leaders must be increasingly vigilant about ensuring their programs are compliant.
Playing a vital role in a company's talent management strategy and maintaining cost effective, successful global programs while meeting the challenges brought on by forging into difficult markets will require a fresh approach to mobility management.
Conclusion
The challenge for mobility will be to continue to innovate while bringing an upskilled level of business intelligence to discussions of mobility program effectiveness that will enable them to articulate a powerful value proposition not necessarily focused on cost alone. It will be up to global mobility leaders to offer solutions and develop innovative approaches to mobility practices that bring demonstrable value to the business.
Mobility must be aware about the challenges inherent in international assignments, work to attract the right candidates, and look at cost reduction as a strategy. In other words, global mobility managers must bring a newer, more mindful approach to their practice. In this way, they may ultimately be much more successful in harmonizing these often competing objectives in this changing and complex business environment.
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