25 May Does Global Mobility Need a Productivity Reset?

When the COO of a performance coaching firm casually asked people, “How are you?” they discovered a revealing truth: nearly 8 in 10 responded with just one word—busy. For global mobility leaders, that word is more than small talk. It signals an urgent challenge in today’s work culture: a system-wide overload that threatens cross-border performance and strategic workforce planning. The question now is: how do we reduce the noise so mobility teams—and the talent they support—can focus on what really matters? 

Global talent, local friction

In Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report, nearly half of employees report being “time poor”—overwhelmed by tasks that don’t align with their core responsibilities. This resonates in global mobility settings where multinational teams face even greater complexity: different time zones, tax regimes, compliance frameworks, and cultural expectations.

And yet, 41% of workers say the tasks that fill their day don’t contribute meaningfully to organizational goals. In mobility, this might look like hours spent resolving benefits discrepancies, chasing expat documentation, or managing legacy systems—all critical, but rarely strategic.

CNBC’s coverage of Asana’s Anatomy of Work Index puts a number on it: 58% of the average workday is spent on “work about work”—updates, emails, meetings, and platform switching. For globally distributed teams, this inefficiency is compounded by the difficulty of aligning remote efforts across borders.

Redefining productivity across borders

As roles grow increasingly global, the definition of productivity must evolve. Deloitte reports that 71% of workers are now performing tasks beyond their core job description—an inevitable trend in global mobility, where professionals often juggle HR, tax, legal, and relocation issues simultaneously.

Prodoscore supports this shift. Its research shows that AI tools are increasingly automating repetitive tasks, giving workers more time for creative and strategic work. But this transformation requires a new approach to measuring performance—one that values collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking over hours logged.

The cost of busy work in global programs

Deloitte warns that outdated processes and low-impact tasks are eating into organizational capacity. Only 22% of leaders say they’re effective at simplifying work. For global mobility teams, this could manifest in fractured vendor communications, manual reporting, or rework due to compliance errors.

The burden isn’t just operational. It erodes innovation, damages morale, and delays business decisions—particularly risky for companies managing fast-changing immigration policies or new-market expansions.

Slack is not slacking off

Deloitte offers a bold recommendation: create slack. Not the platform—real, deliberate unscheduled time. This “buffer” can fuel strategy, policy review, training, and innovation. In mobility teams, it could be used to reimagine relocation benefits, scenario-plan for global disruption, or analyze workforce trends in emerging markets.

Global companies like DPG Media have adopted this philosophy by only scheduling 80% of employee capacity. The remaining 20% is left open to accommodate surprises and reduce burnout.

Burnout is borderless

Burnout is on the rise across sectors. In the CNBC–Asana report, 40% of workers said they believe burnout is inevitable. Younger generations—especially Gen Z—report that they don’t have a clear beginning or end to their workday, a challenge amplified in remote and global teams.

It’s not just a personal wellbeing issue. Burnout undercuts mobility performance: a disengaged expat or overwhelmed HR lead can derail an entire program. Global mobility professionals, who serve as both strategic enablers and logistical coordinators, are especially vulnerable if organizational expectations lack structure or realism.

Both Deloitte and Prodoscore call for rethinking performance metrics. Instead of measuring effort alone, organizations must look at outcomes: business results and human satisfaction.

In the mobility context, that means not just tracking how many assignments were completed, but whether those assignments supported talent development, regional growth, or long-term retention.

Prodoscore, an AI-powered data intelligence solution dedicated to making teams more successful, offers a transparent, non-invasive way to monitor collaboration, app usage, and engagement—data points that matter more than static KPIs. Employees even have access to their own dashboards to self-manage performance.

What mobility leaders can do now

To build resilient, high-performing global mobility programs, leaders must shift from reactive execution to proactive strategy:

• Redesign work to reduce noise: Streamline compliance, vendor communications, and data entry across platforms.
• Build for capacity, not just coverage: Don’t fill 100% of team bandwidth. Make room for training and strategic initiatives.
• Track smarter metrics: Move beyond volume KPIs to focus on satisfaction, retention, and cultural integration.
• Leverage AI tools: Automate admin tasks to create more time for high-value, human-centered work.
• Guard against burnout: Set clear expectations for global teams—especially around time zones and availability.
  

Global mobility sits at the intersection of talent strategy, international business, and human well-being. But if its practitioners are buried in busywork, they can’t operate at their full potential.

As Peter Drucker famously said, “There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.”

It’s time to rethink what productivity looks like—not just for the global workforce, but for the people responsible for moving it forward.