Will There Be a New Job Title for Global Mobility Professionals?

Global mobility professionals are pushing to become more involved in the strategic arena of talent management and development. Sure, compliance is a big part of the job, but mobility professionals must also evaluate and redesign policies to support mobility, communicate these to stakeholders, and develop predictive analytics to better advise on mobility decisions. These are clearly more strategic issues and require more coordination with talent acquisition and management. Perhaps it’s time for a job title equivalent to the aspirations of the role.

In an article in Relocate Magazine, the author Sue Shortland, discusses the changing workplace and a new role for the global mobility professional. Shortland says, "There is considerable evidence from survey research that people in the global mobility function are keen to take on new responsibilities from those that have traditionally comprised its role, including vendor management, relocation policy design and assignee cost projections. Global mobility professionals are pushing to become more involved in the strategic arena of talent management and development.

The conundrum is what if the desired job role does not reflect an actual job role? Over the past several years there has been an increasing emphasis in organisations on ensuring compliance for globally mobile personnel. Authorities worldwide have seen lucrative mileage in pursuing compliance from the twin perspectives of a revenue stream from visa issuance, tax collection and so on as well as from the potential levy of fines when businesses get these issues wrong. For businesses, the penalties go way beyond this to include highly expensive reputational damage, duty of care implications for their employees and family members, inability to base operations in certain locations and/or to move people into jurisdictions where they have transgressed compliance requirements.

With expertise in the compliance arena, global mobility professionals are finding themselves taking on more of these duties, becoming increasingly involved in immigration, tax, social security and other compliance issues. And, as expertise has increased, so organisations have moved yet more compliance management on to the function."

Read the full article here.