An employee can now become “stranded” without ever being caught at an airport. Visa backlogs, sudden immigration-rule changes, conflict, natural disasters, expired travel documents, closed airspace, or an inability to enter either a host or home country can leave internationally mobile employees working—or waiting—in unexpected locations. For...
For companies competing for specialized talent, immigration has traditionally been treated as a pathway into the United States. Increasingly, however, it is also influencing decisions about where talent ultimately works. That distinction is becoming more important as employers navigate higher costs, processing uncertainty, visa limitations and...
For years, global mobility had relatively concrete ways to judge whether a relocation worked. Did the employee reach the destination on time? Was immigration completed correctly? Did the move remain within budget? Was housing secured, payroll coordinated and tax compliance handled properly? Those measures still...
Companies facing talent shortages have an increasingly large world in which to look for workers. But one of the biggest workforce challenges emerging in 2026 may not be solved simply by searching farther. Artificial intelligence is changing the skills employers need faster than labor markets can...
Global mobility is becoming too important—and too complex—to operate as a standalone function. Labor shortages, demographic change, skills mismatches and increasingly international talent markets are pushing organizations to think differently about where talent comes from and how it moves. At the same time, governments and...
Global mobility has spent decades solving the problem of moving people across borders. But another problem has proved surprisingly difficult: moving their qualifications with them. A technician may have years of experience in one country but struggle to prove that experience to an employer somewhere else....
For decades, global mobility has been built around a straightforward premise: when talent and opportunity are in different places, move the talent. A company needs an engineer in California, a finance executive in Singapore or a project leader in London, so the employee relocates. Global mobility...
A regional conflict closes airspace overnight. Employees traveling on business cannot return home. An international assignee suddenly needs to leave a country with family members in tow. A new government restriction complicates immigration status just as the company is trying to move employees somewhere safer. None...
The clean-energy transition is usually discussed in terms of technology: solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric vehicles and new transmission lines. But every new project creates a less visible requirement. People have to build it. And increasingly, the workers with the right skills are not...
Lump-sum relocation policies have become an appealing answer to rising costs and administrative complexity. Employers receive a predictable expense, mobility teams manage fewer service providers, and employees gain freedom to decide how their relocation funds are spent. But simplicity for the company can create complexity for...