The Call for Stronger International Mobility Planning

Strategic organizations are slowly seeing the dire need for complete international mobility programs and are adjusting their policies accordingly. Their success absolutely depends on it.

Additions like up-front assessment and complete assignment acclimation and support are, ultimately, equating into gains for the organization – getting the first-choice candidate to accept the offer, avoiding failed assignments, retaining talent, and achieving strategic organizational results.

Here are three important reasons why every organization should be putting forth the extra effort and resources to strengthen international mobility plans:

1. ROI Matters Now More Than Ever

Today, the costs associated with relocation are getting attention at the board-room level and, for the first time since the 1970s, the return on investment (ROI) of relocation is being given serious consideration. And rightly so! A global relocation can cost a company upwards of one million dollars in hard costs – and that’s not taking into account the “hidden” costs of questions like:

• Did the job get done?
• Did the company retain the talent?
• Has the organization met business objectives with this assignment?
• If the organization didn’t accomplish objective, what did that cost?

Currently, if a company has 30, 50, 100 people on international assignment, that’s a lot of money on the table that no one’s paying all that much attention to. In fact, only 8% of companies report some form of tracking of relocation ROI.

Companies, however, are beginning to realize that this is a major issue and are putting plans in place to assess, measure, and monitor their investment.

2. International Assignments Are Getting More Diverse

In the past, moves were a complete 360 – meaning that the employee was outbound to some other English-speaking country, then back to the U.S. in 2-3 years. Today, we’re seeing more of what we call the 180 move. The employee relocates to a new country, spends 2-3 years, then relocates to another country, and on to another after that, rather than coming directly home. These changes highlight the important need for program additions like cultural awareness training and repatriation support.

On the other hand, there is also a rise in long-term commutation, where the employee does not permanently relocate and the family stays behind. These assignments are typically 8-12 months in nature. The addition of pre-decision assessments can be extremely helpful in this situation to identify, upfront, if the candidate is right for this type of assignment.

3. Choosing the Right Candidate is Critical

It’s no longer good enough for a company to assume that the best person for the job will go on assignment. In fact, reluctance to relocate is at an all-time high as demographics, priorities, and motivations shift rapidly within the talent pool. Nor can organizations assume that their transferee will be successful in the new location and see the assignment to completion.

Companies are recognizing these trends. This calls for up-front assessment as to whether the high potentials – those they can count on to accomplish critical assignments for the organization – have the right characteristics to acclimate to the new location with a new culture and language, and be retained by the company.