There’s not a single business department that has changed more than HR in the past few years.
Ten years ago, the majority of HR tasks focused on record-keeping, complying with regulations, and creating and managing overall compensation packages.
Nowadays, many of these time-consuming and repetitive tasks can be handled with tech, allowing many HR departments to focus more on people and culture. This shift is positively impacting the bottom line for companies.
According to research from McLean & Company, companies that invest in developing a good employee experience outperform their competitors in almost every single business category, seeing a 1.8x increase in workforce productivity, 1.4x increase in overall performance, and a 1.9x increase in innovation rate.
Along with this shift, many questions are now top of mind with HR:
- How do we provide an excellent employee experience?
- How do we create sustainable leadership development in your organization?
- How can we ensure learning and development opportunities for all roles within the company?
- How can we increase average employee tenure?
The solution to these questions and more lies with global mobility.
Global mobility helps achieve the top 5 HR priorities
Recruiting
A lot has been made of labor shortages around the world. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the percentage of open jobs in almost all industries is staggering:
- Manufacturing 65%
- Retail 85%
- Financial activities 60%
- Business services 40%
- Leisure and hospitality 40%
Clearly, the use of local and regional talent pools is not solving the labor shortage. Instead, innovative companies are expanding their search for talent globally in order to not only increase the number of applicants but also find the best candidate for their specific needs. Once a viable candidate has been identified, companies can then decide if allowing the new employee to work remotely from their current location or if relocating them to another location works best for the company.
Great employee experience
One study found that only 24% of companies believe they are”excellent” at aligning employee and personal goals with corporate purpose. Additionally, a study from SHRM found that 80% of Gen Z and 74% of Millennials want to work abroad at some point in their career. And another found that employees who are satisfied with their employers’ supportive culture are 1.5x more likely to stay.
Creating an inclusive and flexible global mobility policy allows companies to combat all of these statistics at once, creating a stronger employee experience.
Additionally, Ann Deugo, vice president and head of MetLife Worldwide Benefits, says that employees who work outside their home countries “lean on strong relationships with their employers to navigate work and life in a foreign country. When the employer can make this a positive experience, these employees will reward their employer with increased loyalty, enthusiasm and commitment.”
By creating impactful global mobility policies, companies can better gain and retain valuable employees who are loyal, enthusiastic, and committed to the organizational goals and objectives.
Leadership development
There is a strong connection between culture and leadership. In fact, companies with effective leaders who can show they understand what is being asked of their employees are five times more likely to positively improve company culture.
The stronger the leadership base in the company, the better the company culture and overall business results.
One way to develop effective leaders is to encourage them to participate in international work assignments, trainings, or business trips. According to an article from Forbes, working abroad makes for better leaders in multiple ways - including being forced out of their comfort zone, learning about different cultures, and being open to new ways of thinking.
All these skills are transferable into the business world and this experience can help your company both develop new leaders and increase the effectiveness of current ones.
Learning & Development
Many employees are looking for ways to grow their career within a company. HR teams have responded by creating learning and development programs that encourage employees to invest in personal and professional growth.
To get the most out of learning and development, HR departments should encourage all employees to take advantage of remote assignments or create a mobility policy that allows for workcations. International business trips, relocations and workcations all allow space to develop valuable new skills.
This is something that strong leaders already know - one study found that 95% of private-sector leaders see the value of working with global talent; however, only 5% of them do so in a consistent manner that yields financial impact, showing there is a lot of room for improvement.
Additionally, globally diverse teams are often more creative when solving complex innovation challenges and 40% of expatriates are among the top performers at their current companies.
DE&I
A hot topic for the last few years, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) has been proven to provide multiple benefits to your entire organization, including:
- A study by McKinsey showed that companies that are in the top quartile for diversity are more likely to have better financial returns than their competitors who aren’t.
- A Glassdoor survey indicated that 60% of the workforce gave higher ratings to their employers if they had strong DE&I initiatives.
- A Monster report stated that Gen Z candidates prefer employers that are committed to diversity and inclusion.
- A BCG analysis of more than 3,000 publicly listed companies found that companies with greater global diversity generate 2.2 percentage-point higher profits and are 75% more likely to be world-class innovators.
For reasons mentioned above, global mobility can have a positive impact on your DE&I goals. Sending employees on international assignments, hiring people from diverse backgrounds from around the world, opening business units in multiple countries and more all create more diverse teams.
Utilizing global mobility to achieve your DE&I goals will help lower the impact of unconscious biases in the workplace, improve innovation and creativity, and solve problems faster.
Global mobility for business needs
Having strong global mobility policies in place allows you to create a more effective company culture while driving returns for the bottom line. Almost every HR goal can be improved in some way through global mobility. If you’d like help getting started, Localyze is here to guide your company and employees through the visa process. Book a demo today to learn more.