Industry Articles

At a March, 2010 talent management conference, the presenter shared results from a survey of corporate leaders. For more than 80% of respondents, the statistics told a story of ineffectiveness and struggle in recruiting and retaining top talent. Even worse, one out of ten respondents feels that their talent management struggles are leading to the actual demise of their companies. Fast forward to 2017 and it would appear that the narrative is continuing. According to the 2016 National Study of Employers, companies have reported increasing difficulty in recruiting candidates for highly-skilled jobs, from 2005 to 2016.

A confluence of business, social and people management trends is giving global mobility a ‘golden moment’ to align more closely with talent. Business transformation presents mobility with the chance to align more fully with the talent function and, by extension, play a bigger role in talent attraction and recruitment. Doing so will deliver competitive advantage and commercial success through an organization’s most important assets – its people. All this comes at a time when disruptive events – such as the UK’s and US’s renegotiation of global trade alliances and fast-evolving immigration scenarios – are hampering employers’ ability to attract and recruit skilled workers from overseas. US-led mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Europe are also at their highest levels since 2012. This is likely to mean that more senior and mid-level leaders will be moving on assignment into Europe to smooth transitions, with implications for organizational talent pipelines.

Buying your first or next home is one of the most important decisions in your life. The quality of the decision you make will affect you far into the future and may have a positive or negative impact on your life and financial situation. Extensive research and due diligence should go into the process to ensure making the best decision possible. While there are many guides available for buying a new construction home, experience can be the best teacher. This article is written based on firsthand experience and experience helping others while working in the relocation industry.

The benefits of a more diverse workgroup have been substantiated in a number of studies. Sangeeta Bharadwaj-Badal, lead scientist for Gallup’s Entrepreneurship and Job Creation initiative, notes that a Gallup study of more than 800 business units from two companies representing two different industries found that gender-diverse business units have better financial outcomes by an average of 57 percent over those dominated by one gender. Gender-diverse work groups achieve better financial performance because different viewpoints of men and women lead to better problem-solving, allowing the company to serve an increasingly diverse customer base, and gender diversity also helps companies attract and retain talented women.

Forbes Magazine introduced contributor Josh Bersin’s article, “Culture: Why It’s The Hottest Topic in Business Today” with the statement that “Culture is the New Black.” The statement summed up the fact that culture, and the way to promote it, change it and retain it, is a top issue at most companies today. Shawn Parr of the consulting firm Bulldog Drummond further states that, “Corporate culture is a hot topic among businesses that want to attract the best talent, translate their values to products and services, and show customers what they’re all about.” A company with a positive corporate culture is a hard won achievement. It should be tended to and nurtured to ensure its continual renewal.

Why did I choose to write about recruiting millennials? As of 2015, millennials, those born between 1980 and 2000, represent the largest single demographic in the U.S. workforce. According to the Pew Research Center, the rapid growth of this segment is partly attributable to an increase of college educated foreign nationals immigrating to the U.S. early in their careers. Between 2010 and 2015, almost 50% of new immigrant workers were millennials. The bottom line is your recruiting strategy has to target millennials, just due to their sheer numbers.

Balancing the competing initiatives of developing and maintaining competitive relocation or assignment benefits and containing costs is difficult. With an increase in global economic volatility, most notably the economic crisis in South America, Brexit and the price of crude oil, many CFOs continue to look for ways to cut or contain costs. Human resource leaders will be evaluating their relocation service offerings, attempting to save money without negatively impacting recruiting and talent management initiatives. Policy Design is the first place to look when assessing cost saving opportunities for relocation and mobility programs.

The global transformation of business continues to alter workforce mobility patterns with many organizations revising their approach to long-term overseas assignments and shorter-term commuter arrangements, based on geopolitical, macroeconomic, and even demographic factors. As organizations seek advice and assistance to tackle this evolving paradigm of workforce mobility, it is breeding a range of new services. Chief among them is consulting services, data analytics, and benchmarking. Other trends include more boots on the ground in foreign locales, as well on-site personnel at the client facility as virtual extensions of its HR staff.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the term globalization was used to describe the tearing down of national and organizational borders to create truly global enterprises. Today, this sea change in business is evident in many large companies, with their multicultural workforces stretching across the globe, traveling constantly, and increasingly spending more of their time in far-off outposts on key assignments. In this environment, talent relocation has become strategic-the organization that best deploys the right talent in the right place over the right period of time gains a competitive edge. This strategic imperative is resulting in several key trends that are reshaping the services provided by global talent mobility firms.