Mobility Leaders: We Need to be Faster for the Future

It’s imperative to think, plan, act and implement more quickly. This theme clearly emerged in interviews with mobility thought leaders across the globe.

Here’s 10 insightful illustrations of this imperative at work – and you can learn more about the future of mobility in Worldwide ERC®’s recent report, The Perfect Storm: Talent Mobility Leaders Decode the Future.

Ed Hannibal GMS, Principal/Partner at Deloitte Tax LLP, sees that employees are being asked to complete roles more quickly in this world of extended and frequent business travel. This makes employee readiness an issue “because it’s a completely different ask of your employees to travel for business to essentially complete roles that may be consolidated down from a three-year assignment.”

He also points out that there is a potential for family strain that must be considered in this speedier environment.

Robert Sanford CRP, GMS-T, Director of Outbound Immigration and Global Mobility at New York University, sees that it may be more effective to provide faster and more compact information to the younger generation. The traditional mode of the service provider delivering comprehensive details at the front end of an assignment may be better served by “chunking up” information so employees can reference it as needed. Otherwise, it’s an overload of information at one time.

Greg Morley, VP of HR Asia Pacific for Hasbro, observes that skill shortages in emerging markets are putting pressure on mobility as “the company’s expectation of ramp-up time in markets, going from nothing to fully operational, is so much shorter.”

Selina Jones-May SCRP, SGMS-T, Group Director of Global Mobility and Global People Projects for Worley Parsons notes:

“There’s the power of data, the collection, then determining how we will use it to make decisions more quickly.”

Anupam Singhal, Co-founder and CEO of Monaeo points out: “Once you start measuring something, you can see the implications of it, which in turn affects action and behavior.”

The result: With technology generating more data points and measurements, and then enabling the analysis of those very large and ever-growing data sets, behavior is going to change even more rapidly.

Laura Rodriguez, Global Director of Talent Mobility for Johnson & Johnson,observes:

“Fifteen years ago, management was approaching current employees about global assignments. Now we haven’t even hired someone and they’re asking if they have that opportunity.”

Jacquie Davidson, Head of Global Mobility and the APAC Employee Resource Center at Adobe, states: “Mobility needs to understand the business and then be able to determine very quickly how we can assist. We need to have answers and solutions faster.”

Sarah Hunt, Associate Director of Global Mobility at Mondelēz International,suggests: “The more flexibility we can build into what we’re doing, the easier it is to move on a dime when we have to change to meet business needs.” She adds: “If you can’t be agile enough to meet the business needs, business units will go around you, and that’s where you end up with issues and problems.”

Daniela Lima SGMS-T, Managing Director for LATAM at Newland Chase/CIBT, notes that HR mobility professionals need to have the power to make decisions quickly in this fast-paced world, streamlining bureaucratic elements with fewer levels of approval.

Susan Schneider SCRP, GMS, Chief Executive Officer at Plus Relocation, advises that the younger generation is highly focused on their development path and need quick opportunities:

“When we bring on new hires, we very quickly identify if we think they’re going to be high potentials, because we know we have to move fast to give them opportunities to retain them.”

Gain Insight on the Future of Mobility

We understand your challenges. So do our expert contributors. Together, we explored these challenges and offer examples of how industry leaders are starting to meet them.

Access Worldwide ERC®’s report, The Perfect Storm: Talent Mobility Leaders Decode the Future, to learn about the four key forces transforming talent mobility as we move from a primarily operational function to a strategic partnership between talent management and business leaders.