On Mobility - 1

We live in a world where, economy, knowledge, service, production, trade have become one. There are no barriers anymore. Cash moves from one way to another, people do also. The marketplace is one, and the employees in it are global. We are entering in an era of globally mobile workforce.

According to PWC estimation, international assignee levels have increased by 25% over the last decade, and will be increasing further by 50% till 2020. Considering the cost concerns of the Organizations, the types of assignments will not be limited to long-term but also, the number of extended business travels, commuters, short-term assignments will stick out. Localization will be one of the most used type of assignment.

Thus brings up the necessity for HR professionals, to adapt their international HR management strategies according to the new realities of the upcoming future. It is the best time to overview the expatriate assignment policies and strategies, to make these more sophisticated and more complex in order to meet the needs of the business. Not only the strategies, but also the methodology of calculating expatriate costs will also need a differentiation between the types of assignments.

On the other hand, according to the PWC Talent Mobility 2020 research, the ongoing war for talent and changing business needs will put pressure on the HR function to evolve its talent mobility strategy. Leaders clearly state that the economic crisis has highlighted flaws with existing people management practices and are looking to make changes as a result.

For further assessment of global mobility outlook, I would like to point out some key findings from 2010 Global Relocation Survey that Brookfield conducted. The survey covers 120 participants representing an expat population of nearly 6 million:

1. Assignment policies to be considered in the near future: 
• 36% commuter, 35% localization, 28% extended business travel, 21% short-term assignments. Long-term assignments preference rate was 16%.
2. 46% of responding companies required a cost-benefit analysis to provide justification for an assignment.
3. Although 75% of companies prepared cost estimates before initiating all assignments, only 64% actually tracked costs.
4. ROI of expat assignment is only measured by 8% of the respondents via;
• expat compensation package
• cost of relocation support
• business revenue generated
• completion of objectives
5. Assignment objectives;
• filling skills gap, 43%
• build management expertise, 17%
• technology transfer, 16%
• transfer corporate culture, 5%
6. 65% of participants use a home-country approach for compensation.
7. Top destinations are US and China
8. The most challenging destinations are China, India and Russia.

For further details on the survey, please take a look at http://www.brookfieldgrs.com/insights_ideas/grts/