From compliance to employee experience, there are several considerations during periods of international expansion. In a globalised world, if businesses are going to succeed, they must work seamlessly across borders. Per EY’s 2023 Mobility Reimagined Survey – 90% of employers believe aligning their mobility strategy to organisational goals drives business growth.
So, how can you ensure your expansion into new markets is a success? By having a successful mobility strategy in place to ensure the smooth operation of your international workforce.
With that in mind, Alistair Sim, Head of Global Mobility at activpayroll reveals the five steps to a successful global mobility programme.
1. Global Compliance
The global mobility ecosystem is subject to changing tax and immigration legislation and regulatory requirements. Continuous monitoring of, and quick responses to, global legislative and regulatory developments is essential. This monitoring is most easily achieved by engaging an external global mobility provider.
Compliance with data privacy law is critical. Companies need to invest in cyber security systems that protect sensitive information and mitigate legal risks. This is challenging enough in one territory, but there are many different international standards to adhere to.
2. Policy
The increased importance of global mobility to organisations calls for ever more flexible Short Term Business Visitor / Remote work / Assignment / Permanent Transfer policies that are truly global in nature. The policies must be agile enough to adapt to changes in tax / immigration / labour law.
The war on talent has repositioned mobility as a strategic function, rather than simply a compliance requirement. Collaborative global mobility strategies (which then drive policy decisions), informed by HR and talent acquisition objectives and supported by expert global mobility providers, create robust, agile frameworks from which global businesses are more likely to grow.
Businesses are now competing for talent on a global stage. There is no longer a requirement for the employee to be within an hour’s commute of an office, so with the wrong mobility policies, organisations can lose a potential hire to a competitor on the other side of the world.
3. Employee Experience
Even pre-COVID, a McKinsey report in 2018 found that organisations with a positive employee experience were 1.3 times more likely to report organisation outperformance, and 2.7 times more likely to report effective talent management.
An international relocation, whether remote work, an assignment or a permanent transfer is a challenging time, both emotionally and physically for your employees. To achieve true global mobility, you need to take care of the people experiencing it.
Be it training on cultural adjustments, navigating logistical difficulties, or simply helping your employee find a school for their children, this cannot be overlooked. This helps illustrate, to the employee, their employer’s commitment to their wellbeing and experience.
4. Technology
Businesses are experiencing a revolution in their respective industries because of Generative A.I. Repetitive tasks are being automated, promoting innovation and turbo-charging operational performance. Leadership will expect to see this incorporated into the execution of global mobility programmes, too.
Digital tools are modernising global mobility management. They offer boosted accuracy, real-time tracking of assignments, and leaner administrative procedures. This hugely reduces the intricacy of, and time involved in, managing global relocations.
Businesses who do not integrate the use of technology into the day-to-day management of their global mobility programs will be left behind. They will not be able to redeploy specialised talent to priority locations at the rate of competitors, which will suffocate any growth ambitions.
5. Engaging a Global Mobility provider
Economic uncertainty creates cost pressure. Resources must be allocated effectively without compromising the quality of a global mobility programme. The internal global mobility budget must be optimised to ensure financially sustainable operations.
This is where an external global mobility provider can help. As experts they can help with all above mentioned considerations. They can guide you through compliance (non-compliance with local laws and deadlines can result in penalties and even legal action), help design your assignment policies, contribute to the employee experience, assist with the implementation of technology and, most importantly, save your business money.
Prioritising your global mobility programme
Providing the correct answer is a baseline requirement, regardless of which area of tax it’s addressing. Finding a company that can help with what has been discussed in the sections above is crucial, but there are also two points that set MCP providers apart:
- Having a payment service line. Not only to cover global mobility requirements but to also run payroll and pay employees in multiple global locations.
- Acting as a partner, not an adviser in order to ask questions to improve operations. This means signposting future considerations and answering not just the question that has been asked, but also the questions that haven’t.
