Part 1 of 3 - Top Tips for a 'One-Team' Global Mobility-RMC Partnership

Introducing this special 3-Part series

It’s my pleasure to welcome Christian Ter-Nedden as a guest-author in my Courageous Chronicles newsletter series (please see end of article for Christian's details). Christian has a wealth of experience working in an RMC and understands how important it is to have a human-centered and partnering approach when it comes to cultivating a healthy functioning relationship between RMC and Global Mobility teams. Now he is a service-provider partnering directly with Global Mobility teams to provide consulting services, advising on policy and guidelines.

This 3-Part special series was borne out of an alignment between myself and Christian: both caring about people and the individual humans behind what is a really tough job on both sides of this relationship. Global Mobility teams with their octopus tentacles are managing multiple stakeholders and fulfilling needs across the business; and, then their partner within the RMC, Relocation Consultants, striving to deliver a high quality customer experience. We were chatting one day about the high pressured environment experienced by both parties every day. Yet somehow it's come to light that too often the Relocation Consultant, or RMC as a whole, can be used as the scapegoat when things go wrong. Indeed more often than not, the Relocation Consultant is the ‘bad messenger’ responsible for delivering bad news to the end-client, the employee and their family.

What’s the common thread between these two sets of humans??

Fear and pressure.

Both sides of this unique relationship are dealing with the unknown and both are battling with pressure to deliver a customer experience, that is to some extent, outside of their control. Doing your daily job in a state of fear and pressure is not fun, and it's absolutely exhausting. Not to mention it being a bad combination for your nervous system and longer-term wellbeing. No wonder we are seeing more cases of burnout in RMCs as well as within Global Mobility teams.

So, if we are all-in-this-together; could we be stronger together?

When this relationship is good, what does that feel like?

It’s built on Courage to partner together as experts coming together as One-Team. The balance of power is equal and the culture is one of collective responsibility.

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So coming back to this special 3-Part series; why have Christian and I come together?

Because we want to share with our RMC teams that we see you. Christian is aware of my close partnering with global mobility professionals and anyone reading my content can see I am the Voice for the Global Mobility Voice.

Now we are providing another Voice that needs space to be heard - RMCs.

We see you and we can hear how tough this can be for you. We understand that it can feel like an uphill battle every day – high case load, upset clients, upset GM teams and an incredible amount of pressure carried on your shoulders.

Our mission in this Series is to show our care to RMC Consultants and Global Mobility teams whilst also illustrating what a healthy, strong and 'One-Team' partnership could look and feel like.

In each part of this special series, Christian is providing 3 Top Tips (in total 9) for GM teams to consider for a One-Team Partnership approach, whilst also sharing some helpful Red Flags to watch out for. Then I'll be sharing my human-centred #allinthistogether approach to support the values, resilient mindset and courage needed to work within a huge amount of uncertainty and discomfort.

It takes a strong and resilient mindset to practice courage, take a positive outlook and work in solution-mode. What can be really helpful is to focus on controlling the controllables. Both Christian and I are aligned in the view that this unique partnership between Global Mobility and RMCs is a controllable.

Let's take back control and cultivate a strong, healthy and dynamic relationship, partnering shoulder-to-shoulder to deliver the best customer experience we can. Ultimately everyone is working toward the same result: a successful assignee experience.

Over to Christian.

The Scenario

Global Mobility is outsourcing to relocation management companies for their supplier network and expertise in execution.

GM, the RMC, and tax and immigration service providers form both the strategic and practical resources behind your company’s mobility programme (which is a strategic talent management function in itself). In other words, they think through relocation projects AND they make stuff happen for relocating employees.

Calling GM, a question for you: Which of these issues are you seeing in your own organisation?

3 Top-Tips for Global Mobility Consideration

1. Funding to align with talent management strategies

• The programme must be adequately funded - to support the company’s talent management strategies and objectives. Opportunities for cost savings are constantly being evaluated and considered.

Red flag: if the programme is notoriously underfunded employees could end up paying a significant part of the relocation cost, creating angst for them and their family. For example, what if the spouse of a dual-income couple can no longer provide half or more of the couple’s usual income, which makes the relocation a tough financial decision for them?

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• The goal of your programme - is to ensure that it is attractive enough for existing talent and new hires to relocate successfully to fulfill your business objectives in the first place.

Red flag: ?There are many reasons why someone agrees to relocate for work. However, if it’s not worth it to move because there are other suitable options, you might lose the talent altogether, or at least delay the outcome of your business plan.

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• Focusing on the business need - at this point, we are not even addressing the employee’s experience; only whether the move is feasible.

Red flag: One of the tasks Global Mobility is faced with is to balance business need with the appetite for necessary investment to make the relocation a reality. In many instances, you get what you pay for.

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2. Understanding of the direction, intention, and scope of the mobility programme

• Focus on the direction and scope of the mobility programme - even with funding in place, a deep understanding at the executive and HR leadership levels is necessary. What is the programme’s purpose and what should it accomplish?

Red Flag / Risk: The mobility programme lacks direction, or only provides a general outline of its intention. Policy benefits are vague, confusing, or contradictory.

• The devil is in the details - even if the mobility strategy is well-defined and widely advertised, the details within the policy benefit descriptions may have been skipped.

Red Flag: When this happens, recruiters and hiring managers have an incomplete understanding of the intentions, scope, and policy benefits of the mobility program. They may use benefits as an incentive instead. Promises are made to talent that the RMC consultants cannot keep.

• Consistency is key - the policy framework needs to be consistent and equitable, and relocation spend must be kept in line.

Red Flag: Allowing for too many exceptions to an existing policy creates precedent, is not fair, and the cost of the programme would spiral out of control.

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3. Training of the RMC

Sharing the programme yourself - ?the RMC needs to receive detailed training from the source on strategy and policy. The consultants counselling to the policy are encouraged to ask probing questions to ensure there is complete alignment.

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Red flag: Even after implementation, there must be time for thorough discussions with the RMC client managers and the consultants. In this way, the knowledge base around your programme is protected, yet there is room for growth and further development. Confusion and loss of information about the programme can be kept at a minimum and corrected timely as it is being applied in practice.

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Thank you Christian!

So, now it's my turn; supporting us to take a human-centred approach and build a One-Team partnership between the global mobility team and the RMC.

Being a Leadership and Mindset Coach, it’s helpful to reflect on how values can help us to define the behaviours we want to see in a healthy supplier-client relationship - especially where everyone is working toward the same goal to deliver a high quality client experience! If we want RMCs to operate like an extension of the global mobility team – then both parties need to align on ?meaningful values.

My Top 5 Values to support a One-Team Partnership approach:

1.????? Equity:

In healthy functioning RMC-GM relationships, no side is ‘more powerful’ than the other. Even when we consider a relationship based on client-supplier, there has to be a level playing field for both parties to operate in a place of safety.

Working from a place of fear is not only cultivating a toxic-working culture, it also leads to hiding errors, delaying communication and ultimately taking the focus away from delivering a great employee/ assignee experience.

If you’re on the same team with the same intention to deliver a high-quality experience, that means partnering together shoulder-to-shoulder.

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2.????? Trust:

In this particular relationship, trust is the key to openness and transparency within a culture where no-one points fingers or is scape-goated when things don’t quite go right.

Trusting each other means aligning roles and responsibilities, acknowledging that each party is doing their best to deliver against expectations. When things go wrong, or when dealing with an unhappy employee – this is the moment to stand together to problem-solve and understand the feasible steps and how to communicate appropriately to the employee.

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3.????? Collaboration:

If there is a one-team approach, this means that both the RMC and Global Mobility teams are working together to achieve a common goal, acknowledging each other’s strengths and expertise. It’s easier when you can brainstorm together and align on the limits of adaptability to stay aligned to the same goal.

The key is making the time with high levels of energy in a safe and trusted to initiate collaboration. Looking how you're collaborating now, does it reflect feelings of safety and trust or fear and anxiousness?

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4.????? Communication

The value of communication is paramount within this relationship to stay aligned to the same goal, and, to avoid misunderstandings and get ahead of any challenges that come up.

Communication is upheld by a tone of respect and curiosity. With curiosity comes a greater desire to understand what is happening for each party within their complex working environments. If teams are seeking to understand each other, then you can cultivate more empathy for what each party has to deal with.

It’s not easy working in a pressure cooker – so, healthy communication supports to alleviate the pressure that the RMC consultant has to carry as the ‘face’ of the overall experience with the employee.

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5.????? Compassion

Showing curiosity for one another and cultivating more understanding and empathy is an act of compassion. We are all human. So taking the time to acknowledge that?we are all doing our best in highly pressured situations is shaping a more open, transparent and healthy relationship.

We aknowledge the 'uncontrollables' and focus on what we can control. Nothing is perfect and inevitably there will be extensions on timelines, something that didn’t quite go right, or a feeling of not meeting expectations.

Being compassionate to one another means supporting each other within this high level of uncertainty when it matters the most i.e. when stuff just doesn't quite go as planned.

All of these values make up a more helpful, supportive and healthy One-Team philosophy. If we want to deliver the best, high quality experience we can for employees and their family, then we need to understand and accept that this is made up of multiple mindsets that are working together. Every person counts. Everyone's mindset counts.

If we cultivate resilient, strong and healthy mindsets in the humans driving the quality of the assignment experience, then this will undoubtedly create a more supportive and healthy impact on the employee's mindset also.

My key message?

A One-Team philosophy starts with cultivating a healthy mindset, one human at a time. That's the power of trusted relationships. Courage is contagious. Take the Power of Courage to be one-half a relationship you would feel proud of.

#allinthistogether

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 IN SEPTEMBER!

Thank you to Christian Ter-Nedden!

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Introducing Christian:

I was born in Marburg, Germany, and moved to the Zurich, Switzerland, area at age 9. Not a great experience, as the culture shock was significant.

I obtained a M.A. in Linguistics and English at the University of Zurich, with a year abroad at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK.

Without knowing there was such a thing, I started in the relocation industry while still in college. As a Business German teacher to Zurich expats, I enhanced their dry German lessons with trips to the nearest supermarket. Destination services!

In California, I worked for a German-American cultural center with artists-in-residence who wanted to walk around Los Angeles and couldn’t drive. (More destination services required.)

My mobility career began in earnest with a five-year role at Cartus as an international mobility consultant. I later served as an operations manager and trainer for domestic and international mobility at Sterling Lexicon (Lexicon Relocation).

Currently, I'm looking for a new strategic and consultative role in mobility/relocation.

We have talked about a tough situation in this article. Working in fear, under pressure, tired and demotivated is exhausting.

You don't need to feel like this, and your journey to the best version of you and your energy is in your control.

>>> Book a free Discovery Call and start your journey today!<<<

https://tr.ee/2vMyse4AB6

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