Global Talent Mobility: From expense to strategic investment

When talent mobility is discussed as a cost center, that’s how executives will view it. Instead, align conversations with corporate strategy and present talent mobility as an investment toward achieving growth and profitability goals.

Have you been asked to make the same exception for multiple relocations? Show how much money the organization could save by making a policy change. Have you noticed early assignment terminations or attrition patterns related to a specific group of people or origin-destination combinations? Share — or start tracking — the data related to your observations and share them with leadership. Presenting yourself as a strategic thinker will encourage leadership to view you as one.

To assess the true impacts of a success story — or point out opportunities for improvement – you first have to be able to track the kinds of metrics that correspond with organizational goals. For instance, if your company wants to balance cost control with providing a positive employee experience, and mobile employees need intercultural training to thrive in their new culture, just tracking the number of employees who utilize this training won’t be impactful. Conversely, tracking employee satisfaction, adaptation speed, and retention rates post-relocation (in this fictitious example) could show that employees who utilized cultural training adapted 30% faster and were 20% less likely to leave the company within the first year. A proof point could also be made that the faster adaptation period led to increased productivity, which saved the organization $200,000 annually over the prior year’s lost productivity and recruitment expenses.

• Hard and Soft Costs: In addition to tracking cost and employee metrics, don’t forget to track any additional administrative hours your teams are forced to spend when a failure to invest in mobile employees, process changes, or benefits leads to costly exceptions, trouble-shooting or problem-solving needs to be navigated.

Highlight your team’s success stories to illustrate your team’s and talent mobility’s value to leadership. To show accumulated value, combine results from multiple relocations and share the findings. Whenever possible, showcase the broader business impact of talent mobility by sharing metrics, savings, and employee/client satisfaction proof points.

Collaborate closely with service providers such as intercultural trainers, expat support providers, and destination service providers. Leverage their expertise, data, and thought leadership to strengthen your business case. Their reports, research, insights and years of expertise can further demonstrate the value of investing in global talent mobility and the long-term benefits of providing a positive employee experience.

Changing perceptions takes time and requires ongoing communication. Make ongoing efforts to provide insights on trends you’re noticing, wins your team is experiencing, and opportunities for aligning mobility with organizational goals. Regular updates and detailed reports to leadership help demonstrate the value of your talent mobility team and program, ensuring it’s seen as a strategic investment rather than a cost center. This continuous feedback loop also allows for timely adjustments to keep your program aligned with business objectives.