“If you were to look for one region that gives you all challenges in all aspects of workforce mobility, EMEA is the one,” said Anita Blanchett, global vendor manager, BP, Warrenville, IL. “From the current turbulence in the UK property market, to the range of regulations in mainland Europe, to the different cultures and housing issues in every country, those of us who manage assignments must also continue to build a broad portfolio of skills. Take, for example, the Middle East, where business is growing so quickly. There is very little infrastructure in many parts of that region to allow us to provide services at the level that people are used to–yet at the same time, the lifestyle in some areas is very lavish, so depending on where employees are housed, the disparity of their accommodations and lifestyle could be quite extreme. And Africa presents another challenge--certain parts of the country have health care and security concerns. EMEA is definitely the most complex area facing workforce professionals today.”
Navigating what one observer called EMEA’s “single-market concentration and multimarket fragmentation” presents a management challenge that can be baffling to workforce mobility veterans and newcomers. Unlike North America, where managing in-country moves is more straightforward, the variety of issues, cultures, governments, and regulations that must be understood to navigate mobility in the range of EMEA regions is voluminous. To make the situation even more complex, managers who generate assignments often ‘don’t know what they don’t know,’ and sometimes are unaware of actions that require caution or that have a statutory aspect that must be addressed. So experts note that the need for more education, partnership, and training inside a company is more critical now than ever, to avoid some of the pitfalls that might come from a flexible approach to mobility, like the incidence of stealth expats. One Worldwide ERC® member remarked, “Because a worker traveling easily to another region is facilitated in Europe by the proximity of the countries, there is a greater likelihood of unwittingly having a stealth expat in the ranks. And if you’re running a business with a staff of hundreds, you need to know when these people are leaving, when they’re coming in, and if they stay long enough, you may get into compliance issues–and in some countries, the situation may be immediately taxable.”
The “unevenness” of talent acquisition and mobility in EMEA is another worry, and is particularly challenging to the oil and energy industry. John Pfeiffer, GMS, senior global HR consultant, Mustang Engineering, LP, Houston, TX, said “If we view EMEA as one region, we see that the talent is not necessarily where employers need it to be. And the wide variance of culture, language, quality of life, security, and sheer distance make it extremely difficult to move people from one part of the region to another. Another challenge we are keenly aware of is the need to train and retain talent in certain countries. It is very difficult to pour time, money, and effort into training young people, only to see them accept jobs with other companies in 'more desirable' locations. Too often, this leaves oil-producing countries in a perpetual talent drought. Governments and private industry need to work together to find a way to train and retain home-grown talent. Today, the best and brightest often have to leave their home country to get top-flight training.” In order to successfully navigate the complexities of their work, Pfeiffer noted that “In a sense, all HR professionals in the EMEA region need to be international HR professionals. From the factory in Switzerland whose employees may live in France or Germany and cross an international border every day to get to work to a site manager in Angola with a multi-national team, HR professionals in EMEA are confronted with varying expectations and requirements on a daily basis. Trying to make the 'square peg' of today's international reality fit into the 'round hole' of our home country training is a recipe for disaster. We need to keep learning, keep growing, and keep asking questions.”
—Karen Reid
Interim Executive Director
Worldwide ERC®