Future of Global Mobility - Things to keep in mind!

We tend to compare locals and expatriates, foreign assignments and localization, and balance sheet approaches with local plus approaches when discussing mobility. The temptation is to adopt the same mindset and believe that the emergence of millennials and new technologies will merely replace outdated methods and facilitate mobility, or that new assignment types, such as short-term and permanent moves, will gradually replace conventional long-term assignments, despite the fact that the global mobility landscape is rapidly evolving.

This oversimplification often underestimates how complicated the changes are becoming and downplays some of the new ethical conundrums that will complicate current mobility management procedures in the years to come.

Expectation Mismatch among the Mobile Millennials - The inclination of younger generations to go overseas is growing, as are their expectations of lifestyle, employment prospects, and flexibility. Global hubs and trendy cities like London, Dubai, Singapore, or Shanghai are among the vacation spots that millennials like, but they may not include low-cost hardship locations where businesses need them. The negotiation will place more emphasis on experience, work-life balance, and professional growth than on the amount of the remuneration package. Companies might need to go beyond simply providing cash or hazy assurances about future employment opportunities. Although they won't necessarily make life tougher or easier, millennials will change the way that mobility is experienced. By adjusting their mobility strategies to meet the expectations of the younger generations, businesses will be better able to retain personnel and create synergies.

Job Mobility Versus Employee Mobility - Companies are re-evaluating the idea of mobility as a result of shifting employee expectations. Companies have always relocated employees to their employment, but they are now increasingly exploring doing the opposite. In other words, they are giving assignees more control over the environment in which they will operate. This suggests more commuter assignments, more flexible working hours, and improved use of frequent flyers and virtual tasks. The advancement of technology makes this shift simpler. Not all professions need mobility, but highly mobile expatriate gig workers are replacing the notion of the conventional expat who travels from their country of origin to a location to assist the local operation and brings their knowledge when and where needed.

Extended Business Trips and Commuters - Not many businesses had reliable short-term assignment monitoring ten years ago. The emphasis is shifting to long business trips, commuting, and regular passengers as more businesses have gotten better at it. Companies face a variety of difficulties as a result of these changes, including problems with compliance, taxes, emigration, security, and costs. The effectiveness of the tracking procedures is being hampered by coordination problems (across teams and geographical boundaries), technological constraints (no system is available or there is a lack of system integration), and siloed teams (tax, immigration, and HR).

Contractors and Self-employed Assignees - There is more to the intricacy of global mobility than merely the increase in commuting or short-term assignments. It's possible that some of your future assignees won't even be employed by you. Since contractors and freelancers are frequently utilised in the engineering, oil, and gas sectors, this tendency has been around for a while. Many more industries and job categories are now being affected by the trend. As opposed to being employed at their home location and transferred to the assignment site by the employer, we are noticing an increase in the number of highly trained individuals who are willing to advertise themselves directly in the host region (also known as "locally hired foreigners"). These highly qualified specialists are occasionally employed as independent contractors rather than as full-time workers. The future of employment includes the emergence of gig workers, who work on various projects for various companies. This new method of working may have significant effects on models for foreign assignments and global mobility.

Flexible Policies - The demand for more flexibility in policies is being driven by millennials' inclination for more adaptability and the necessity of adjusting host-based strategies (like local plus) to particular country circumstances. Some businesses are thinking about dividing their worldwide policy into two sections: one addressing universal principles and the other, which is more flexible, reflecting local situations. In general, people are becoming more interested in cafeteria-style rules that are similar to the flexible perks offered to local employees.

The duty of care that businesses must exercise puts a cap on this flexible approach; in difficult environments, businesses may need to restrict the latitude granted to assignees in order to reduce risks. From a tax standpoint, the absence of tax equalisation does not entitle a corporation to fully disregard the tax obligations of an assignee. For compliance purposes as well as to prevent situations where assignees might make costly errors and turn against the firm, tax help and guidance are still required.

In a broader sense, decisions on exchange rates, insurance, and pensions can all be included in the discussion of duty of care and minimal support. Therefore, increased flexibility implies that educating mobile employees on financial and benefit decisions will become increasingly crucial.

?Older Expatriates - While millennials make the news, the workforce and population are ageing quickly in numerous emerging economies in addition to developed nations. In addition to straining pensions, this has an impact on how people work. In addition to the overall population's ageing, additional reasons are contributing to the rise in older assignees. For example, workers in their 50s may be more mobile than younger workers with families and may be persuaded to take on one last assignment before retiring.

They could even be persuaded to freelance their skills overseas. A few professional fields have begun using older personnel and even bringing back retirees. While investments in the oil sector have more recently decreased, the trend of bringing back or extending the career of highly skilled individuals with critical skills for the business is likely to continue. That was the case a few years ago in the oil and gas sector where companies had to bring engineering back from retirement to bridge talent gap.

The Challenges of Diversity - Fostering assignee diversity enables businesses to access new talent pools and is emerging as a key competitive advantage in the global talent battle. However, it can be difficult to manage a diverse assignee talent pool while conducting business in places where diversity might not be valued. The hazards and possible obstacles to mobility are diverse, ranging from practical concerns about sending unmarried couples to places where such couples are not accepted to grave worries about the assignees' race, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation. Although workers may occasionally be ready "to take a chance," employers have a duty of care and cannot permit this. Facilitation, cultural training, and careful preparation can occasionally be beneficial, but problems must always be expected and openly acknowledged.

Source : Mercer