A global mobility strategy is a roadmap for how your organisation manages the movement of people between countries.
It sets out why mobility is important, how it supports wider business objectives, and what processes, policies, and responsibilities are in place to make it happen.
A good strategy will:
A well-defined mobility strategy benefits both the business and employees:
While each organisation’s strategy will reflect its own culture, priorities, and values, common components include:
Firstly, ensure there is clarity and agreement on the reasons the business has for relocating individuals. This might be to develop leaders, to enhance employee experience, to knowledge share in new markets, or to support market growth, or a combination of these. Ask – how will the business and employees benefit? What problems does global mobility solve? What elements of the wider business strategy does it complement? Are some moves and some locations business critical – which are these?
Ensure that you have identified all relevant stakeholders – it is easy to underestimate how many different parts of the business will have a view. It is then important to consult with these stakeholders to make sure that your understanding aligns with theirs – do not assume you know everything or that the other stakeholders know what you are doing! At a minimum this will be the leadership team and potentially also HR, finance, pensions and department heads.
Even if you only move a few people each year, this is a process worth going through. The issues for moving one person are the same as for multiple moves and if you don’t move that many people, it can be tempting to take short cuts that may inadvertently become embedded in your approach.
Having a strategy means that you will not have to reinvent the wheel each time you want to move someone (or an employee wants to move) and with a robust strategy, moves can happen in a cost effective and compliant manner, actively supporting business objectives as well as enhancing the experience of your people.