A report by business advisory firm Deloitte has suggested that although businesses are conscious of both the requirements and limitations of their global mobility programmes, they are not converting that awareness into improvements.
The online survey of 1,195 senior HR professionals discovered that 12% carry out assessments of their mobility practices and make notes on the improvements that they need to make.
In addition to this, 70% of business and HR stakeholders say global mobility in their organisation is underachieving or needs upgrading.
The report, Strategic Moves, claims that organisations recognise global mobility as a way of supporting the business in addressing the top three strategy issues: emerging geographical markets, increasing globalisation and increasing competition. However, it then shows that less than 30% are using mobility to fully address those matters.
Will Gosling, a Human Capital Partner at Deloitte, said:
“There are opportunities for the business and global mobility teams to deepen ties with each other and a large number of organisations are taking proactive steps to do this.
“A third of the organisations say they are planning on reviewing their global mobility strategies in the next 12 months, including alignment with business issues and goals.
“Alignment requires global mobility to be involved at strategy table discussions, so they can then explain the value that assignments can bring to developing talent. They also need to keep abreast of changing business drivers that may affect the way they structure their programmes and deliver services.”
The report goes onto suggests that if companies are to align global mobility strategies with a business’s issues and goals for the future, then global mobility will need to support a business more effectively. It claims this can be done by providing global workforce management, where they manage an organisation’s global supply and demand of skills and talent.
This it says will require the mobility function to acquire skills and capabilities that will lead to improvements across the entire organisation.
Gosling added:
“If positioned appropriately, by adding global workforce management capabilities to its suite of services, global mobility can be the key player in solving an organisation’s long-term skill supply-and-demand talent gaps. This will create value for an organisation but will require the departure from the current model and a strong vision of the future.”
