global mobility specialist

What Global Mobility Specialists Need to Do with Limited Recruitment Budgets

 

Global mobility specialists, as well as their superiors, tend to think of themselves as very flexible professionals who adapt to a constantly changing environment. Cultural differences, sudden swings in foreign governments’ policies, and economic catalysts that witness the closure of many companies – all these the global mobility specialist has to take stock of and make the necessary recommendations and actions.

At any given time, he might have to recruit other assignees or shift the new hire to another department should the occasion warrants it. He is also networking with diplomats, industry leaders, relocators, and corporate housing companies to  keep himself abreast of the latest trends that can impact his company, the projects he is handling, and the people under his care.

However, one thing that 2016 has shown is that the occurrence of the unexpected can become not just more frequent, but can also escalate in terms of the rules it changes and the environments it impacts. The withdrawal of the Great Britain from the European Union still has global mobility specialists studying its long-term consequences on foreign employment and corporate taxes. The surprising win by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump similarly has many of them devising ways to adapt to his upcoming policies on technology, the environment, immigration, and again, taxation.

In one Caritas survey in 2016, 75 percent of the 175 mobility managers admitted that mobility and flexibility have to become integral aspects of their programs. These managers handle about 10 million assignees all over the world.

Global mobility specialists are further challenged to become more adaptable because of the changes that upper management is making to their budgets. According to MVP Recruiters, many recruitment budgets in 2017 will remain flat. Executives will find it difficult to justify an increase in spending given the whole uncertain atmosphere that is surrounding the era. At the same time, competition for talent will remain stiff. Global mobility specialists then will have to pull out all stops to hire the cream of the crop while coping with budget constraints.

Adaptability and flexibility would be the keys in winning this campaign. Traditional methods such as job boards, recruiting agencies, and referral programs may no longer be enough. Global mobility recruiting managers have to find other ways.

Finally, global mobility specialists do have to be flexible because their emerging demographic of employees, the millennials, are very flexible.

Relocation Magazine says that 80 percent of millennials will want a chance to work outside their immediate cities or countries. These twentysomething assignees will ask for room to make their own decisions, change the rules a little, and explore other options not available to their predecessors.

As an earlier blog studying millennials and their mobility habits published in California Corporate Housing points out, this new generation will gladly take a lower-paying, short-term assignment in exchange for skill training and travel opportunities.

Flexibility is the future trend of global mobility. It is also a highly valued trait that industry specialists would want to appropriate and build on, in themselves and their organizations.