Global Mobility Is It Here To Stay

One might guess that during this recent recession, there can be an inclination to restrict overseas assignments for budgetary reasons. Overseas assignments can be costly, especially when there are households involved there s the charge of the move (ie tickets, family removals), school fees, rent + utilities, home-leaves, and tax equalisations.





On the other side of the spectrum, one must consider the value of the experience. For the worker, a distant mission will be seen as a vital part of their occupational development plan plus it could open doors for promotion. The experience and achievements during a foreign job could be advantageous to the organisation as well as the particular person (both during the assignment, and additionally after).





Learning, training, briefings or meetings can't replace the daily experience of working in a far off environment, with local staff, suppliers, clients as well as officials.





Let s take a step back. Global Mobility or Expatriate Management could be traced back to the early days of mankind. Our forefathers, way back to biblical times (ie exodus from Egypt) had well documented commerce as well as migration routes. Many civilisations deserted their homelands to seek land and opportunities for themselves along with their families. In more contemporary times, civilisations were influenced by the expatriate activities of the Vikings, Christopher Columbus, Captain Cook as well as the Pilgrim Fathers.





Expatriate Assignments





Expatriate Assignments became a big factor during the colonisation of Africa and also during the spread of the British Empire in Asia. How many Europeans went to Africa, and the way many British expatriates ended up different nations of the British Empire the West Indies, India, Singapore, Malaysia or HongKong? Overseas assignments have been additionally abundant for Americans during the Korean along with Vietnam clashes with hundreds of thousands of army personnel (as well as households) stationed in South East Asia.





In the late 1990 s a remote assignment frequently took the form of a lesser-regarded worker being assigned to some remote outpost; far from the high-flyers at the Head office. Today s assignments are diverse the expatriates are the most senior along with well-respected executives of the organisation.





That is evidenced by the statistic that in the UK more than 30% of all CEOs of the FTSE 50 companies are non-UK nationals.





Changes within the expatriate profile and assignment type.





The profile of the typical assignee and assignment kind is changing. There are 2 reasons for this: -





1. Cost. the more youthful, unaccompanied assignees on brief-time period or prolonged company-journey-style mobility are less costly than the accompanied, long-term family mobility





2. Company needs there is a growing need for brief assignment and technical-capabilities-transfer driven assignments. These don't need a 2-three year long-term stay by the assignee. But, long-term assignments are nevertheless employed for management as well as leadership roles.





Since 2007, long-term assignments have declined plus more and more brief-term options are presenting themselves. These shorter and more flexible assignments include extended enterprise travel and the assignees are identified as Short-term Company visitors. The assignments are often for specific tasks and last one yr or less.





Yet another form of short-term job is the Commuter Assignee , where the employee works abroad during the week and then returns home every weekend or fortnight. For obvious reasons, these are more plentiful intra-regional (London-Brussels), however a number of trans-regional ones (New York- London) have lately introduced themselves.





The profile of the assignee is also changing. During the past, the typical expatriate family was a mature family; now the trend is to use young and single people. Since 2007, the under-30 age group has elevated from 19% to 29%, while singles have increased from 29% to 42%. The 50+ age group s expatriate participation has remained unchanged.





The assignee gender profile is additionally changing. Women comprised 21% of the expatriate inhabitants in 2007; this has now declined to 19%. The household profile has additionally altered; the number of married and accompanied expatriates has decreased from 53% to 38%.



The current recession has seen adjustments within the quantity, kinds and profiles of overseas assignments. However, the on-going trends of corporations with respect to globalisation, follow-the-sun initiatives, outsourcing, and technical tasks will ensure that Global Mobility experience is needed more than ever. The challenge for global mobility professionals and service suppliers shall be to keep up with the changes and developments which can evolve during the rest of these recessional times, and once more prosperous times return.