The background
Our client came to us with a familiar challenge: as part of the global mobility team, their role is to enable international moves while keeping the business informed of cost implications early on.
In practice, however, full cost details are rarely available at the outset. Moves often progress before the true cost is understood — and when those figures finally appear, they can come as a shock. Even employee-driven moves can generate unexpected host country tax and social security obligations, as well as the need for tax return filings. These unplanned costs can disrupt budgets and create frustration, particularly where cost centres were unaware they’d be charged. This dynamic often puts global mobility teams in a difficult position. They’re seen as “gatekeepers” rather than enablers — simply because they’re trying to prevent financial surprises.
The challenge
Our advice
We were keen to help our client work out how to get the balance right between being seen to enable moves as well as making the business aware of the potential costs. We worked with them to develop a presentation to key business leaders, acknowledging the critical role of mobility as well as highlighting the risks, and the importance of managing these. In addition, we worked with them to implement streamlined and clear processes. As part of this we recommended that our client have the ability to give the business an overview of the potential costs at an early stage, in addition to a more detailed cost estimate requirement as part of the authorisation process.
Why they chose Workia
They decided to use the cost estimate and planning functionality in Workia to enable them to assess the costs and use this to have an informed dialogue with the business. Workia enables them to run multiple versions of cost estimates that give a level of visibility at an early stage of the process of planning moves. Through the Planner, they can create a high-level cost estimate based on the length of the move, the individual’s base salary and family size. Importantly, the planner also gives an indication of the other elements of a move that need to be considered, such as immigration.
How they used Workia
Our client told us what happened. "I used the cost estimate feature in Workia to produce a cost estimate. The individual’s base salary was £75,000 and the total cost of the assignment came out at over $1 million for the 5-year period. The business was shocked – they simply couldn’t believe it. I was able to show them the breakdown over the total assignment period and of course a breakdown of the costs involved." "The beauty of Workia is that we could then edit and rerun the estimates, changing the allowances to bring down the overall cost. We also made the assignment shorter. In the past this would have caused a big issue – I recall on more than one occasion being involved in some difficult discussions where an invoice had hit someone’s cost centre, and they had not budgeted for it. "The cost estimates can be a make or break for us – and having the evidence to hand makes my job so much easier."
What might this mean for you?
Do you struggle to understand cost implications when in the early stages of planning of a move? Do you end up having unpleasant conversations with the business about unbudgeted or unexpected costs? Using the cost estimate and planner tool in Workia gives you an early indication of cost – and this might be the difference between a move going ahead or not. T
Find out how Fathers & Lavan can help invigorate your global mobility program.
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