Improving Global Talent Mobility

Staying in compliance and safeguarding the employee experience

 

The war for talent is higher than ever. The “Great Resignation” and “Great Reshuffle” have pushed people to quit their jobs and move to greener pastures. These dynamics changed the way people think about what it means to “work.” Instead of relocating to a different urban center for a new promotion, workers expect flexibility, with remote or hybrid work environments.

Workers expectations about the ways they interact with employers are also changing. From interviewing, hiring, onboarding, or moving from Indianapolis to India, they expect firms to present quick, easy, and intuitive processes. They expect consumer-grade experiences and self-service tools that give them fast answers and resolutions. They don’t want to play phone tag with the HR scheduler, but instead need online access to dynamic calendars that coordinate schedules among all the parties.

This expectation for flexibility also comes with freedom from geographic constraints, both in terms of where employees chose to live in relation to their job’s location, and where geographically employers look for qualified workers. These employee expectations don’t always match with employers who struggle to retain employees who desire internal mobility across borders.

According to a report from Deloitte, more than 50 percent of surveyed respondents said it was easier for their employees to get a job outside of their organization than from within. This is a missed opportunity for firms that want to improve their internal talent mobility on a global scale. To improve their internal talent efforts, firms need to understand the complexities of multi-country workforces and adopt technology tools that help them stay within compliance and exceed workers’ needs.

Many firms eager to access global talent pools, who want flexible remote work, adopted a “work from anywhere” philosophy. It’s a strategy that can pay off in terms of developing a diverse workforce that brings multiple perspectives to the table. However, the rapid shift to remote working left HR teams scrambling to stay ahead of various compliance and tax issues. A 20-person software firm in Los Angeles that previously had all workers operating on-site might now operate without a corporate headquarters. They have an address for tax reasons, but they can leverage global talent for skilled engineers, marketing professionals, coders, and everything in between. The problems come when these firms don’t consider the compliance issues when the company, subsidiary, or a worker violates the employment or business activities rules within the worker’s country.

There’s a considerable amount of variation between each countries’ regulations. And the penalties for non-compliance can be stiff, and include steep fines, potential criminal charges, and a damaged brand reputation. The penalties can even include blacklisting from a country’s labor department. For example, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) operating in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia suspended working with hundreds of recruiting agencies and blacklisted to best protect the interests of Filipinos looking to work in Saudi Arabia.

Jurisdictions tasked with keeping employers within compliance use people tracking and recognition tools to monitor employee movements. For example, Delta Airlines is leveraging facial recognition for a touchless “curb-to-gate” travel experience. While it’s positioned as a tool for a smooth consumer experience, customs agents can utilize this facial recognition to monitor worker movements among different jurisdictions.

Global mobility is complex, but companies will only continue to employ on a global scale due to the many benefits. To balance the gains from global teams with the risk of non-compliance, companies need agility and instant data access.

With a mobility platform, firms can gain visibility into their workforces, so they can remain in compliance with regulations such as the Posted Worker Directive which governs workers within the EU. Managing Posted Workers properly requires meeting multiple documentation deadlines and understanding the various country-specific local agency requirements. A mobility platform can keep track of posted workers’ locations, securely store documents, and perform complex payroll and tax complications to prevent audits and fines. Advanced platforms will also integrate easily into payroll and HRMS systems, giving firms complete visibility into their global workforce.

The global economy, the pandemic, and digital change have shifted what mobility means for workforces. It’s no longer just a case of vertical mobility, where a sales manager in Des Moines moves to Miami to cover a new sales territory. It involves lateral mobility where employees shift to different jobs, which can be especially useful for keeping top international performers within the firm. It also means external mobility where workers might provide services to another firm on a contract basis to develop their skills while retaining them for the company in the long term. There’s a confluence of factors at play, and firms need to focus their efforts and resources on employee mobility if they expect to beat competitors on a global stage.