Global Mobility Dispatches with Ray Rackham
Date: 27 October
Ask a Global Mobility team how many people it moved internationally last year, and you’ll get a very precise answer. Ask about cost, speed to deploy, or compliance, and the response will more than likely be as precise. For at least the last decade, we’ve become exceptionally good at measuring the efficiency of international movement: processing times, approval rates, relocation expenditure, and tax liabilities.
But, when we ask what those moves actually achieved for the business, the answer takes longer to produce and is sometimes impossible to articulate. In short, we spend so much time determining how well we managed the move, we sometimes forget to ask whether the move was worth making.
For every assignee, the visas, flights, housing and tax arrangements have identifiable costs. But what value did they create, and have we got any good at measuring any of it? Of course, Mobility cannot claim sole credit for business outcomes, but can certainly do better at articulating its contribution to them. But not every contribution can be reduced to that illusive return-on-investment figure.
Imagine reporting that asked whether an assignment met its original commercial objective. Be it improved capability, retained critical talent or the delivery something that couldn’t have been achieved another way; it would be marvellously powerful!
This would mean agreeing what success looks like with HR, Finance and business leaders before an assignment begins, not just explaining its cost afterwards. And, we might just conclude that the best mobility decision is not to move anyone at all. We could be accused of becoming turkeys voting for Christmas, but if we’re brave, immigration is a particularly revealing place to start. Too often, work authorisation is treated as a necessary transaction once the business has decided where someone must go.
But, immigration strategy could help shape that decision? Which markets offer practical access to the skills required? How quickly can talent be deployed? What does a delayed start cost the project? Could a different visa route, destination or workforce model achieve the same result?
These questions replace application with commerciality; and are conversations immigration advisers and Global Mobility teams should be having much earlier. They’re the conversations we want to have with clients at Newland Chase. Global Mobility must be recognised as a strategic investment, and we all need to demonstrate more than how efficiently we spend money; we need to help explain what the business gets in return.
In asking what might be the globally smartest way to deploy talent to achieve a business objective, the value of immigration isn’t simply measured by visas secured; it’s measured by the opportunities those visas make possible.
