International HR Adviser Autumn 2021 by International HR Adviser

AUTUMN 2021

ISSUE 86 FREE SUBSCRIPTION OFFER INSIDE

International HR Adviser The Leading Magazine For International HR Professionals Worldwide

FEATURES INCLUDE: Five Steps To Get Your Workforce More Active Addressing Barriers To Global Mobile Talent Brokering Why Technology Is The Key To Restarting Corporate Travel The Strategic Future Of Global Mobility • Global Tax Update 10/10 Global Mobility Survey • Global Mobility Recovery Checklist ADVISORY PANEL FOR THIS ISSUE:

CONTENTS

In This Issue 3

The Key Ingredients For The Ideal Expatriate Payroll Recipe Andrew Headley & Melanie North, Global Employer Services, Deloitte LLP

Five Steps To Get Your Workforce More Active Dr Shoba Subramania, UnitedHealthcare Global

The Strategic Future Of Global Mobility Andrew Bailey, BDO LLP

Achieving Cost-Effectiveness Through The External Workforce Tony Harris, SAP Ariba

Global Tax Update Andrew Bailey, BDO LLP

Why Technology Is The Key To Restarting Corporate Travel Lee Curtis, Reside Worldwide Inc.

The 4 Key Points For You To Follow To Be A Leader, Not A Manager Lucy Desai, Impact

Addressing Barriers To Global Mobile Talent Brokering Olivier Meier, Mercer

Global Mobility Recovery Checklist Natalie Chapman, Bournes

10/10 Global Mobility Survey: 10th Anniversary Edition John Rason & Selina Jones-May, Santa Fe Relocation

International Remote Working - Strength, Weakness, Opportunity Or Threat David Enser, The RES Forum

Inclusivity, Purpose And Managing Remote Teams Rita Trehan, Dare Wordwide

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Helen Elliott • Publisher • T: +44 (0) 20 8661 0186 • E: helen@internationalhradviser.com Ben Everson • T: +44 (0) 7921 694823 • E: ben@internationalhradviser.com International HR Adviser, PO Box 921, Sutton, SM1 2WB, UK Cover Design by Chris Duggan In Loving Memory of Assunta Mondello While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of information contained in this issue of “International HR Adviser”, the publishers and Directors of Inkspell Ltd cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither the publishers of “International HR Adviser” nor any third parties who provide information for “Expatriate Adviser” magazine, shall have any responsibility for or be liable in respect of the content or the accuracy of the information so provided, or for any errors or omissions therein. “International HR Adviser” does not endorse any products, services or company listings featured in this issue.

INTERNATIONAL HR STRATEGY

The Key Ingredients For The Ideal Expatriate Payroll Recipe “Expat payroll”. Two words to make many a Payroll Manager shudder. When a person temporarily moves to another country for work reasons (for example, an assignee, a commuter or business traveller), their compensation package is commonly adjusted to incentivise the move and with this, complexities in tax and social security treatment, regardless of the location, arise. Throw in tax equalisation policies, the need to gross-up some compensation elements and cross-reporting and the payroll cycle can become a real challenge for payroll teams. Some of these challenges can often be put in the ‘too difficult box’ and can take up a disproportionate amount of time and energy, even where there is a relatively small population of assignees, compared with the wider domestic population. None of this is a negative reflection on your payroll team or outsourced payroll provider. But the reality is, if you don’t have your house in order and provide the right data to them in a timely manner, and instruct in a clear, practical way, then the probability of meeting compliance requirements reduces significantly. Even the most experienced expatriate payroll teams need the key ingredients to deliver to expectations.

What Are The Key Ingredients?

How can you set up your expatriate payroll model for success? Based on our experience of working with organisations, we have identified ten key areas that should be considered: 1) Tracking. As a starting point, you need to be able to know which employees are where and what type of compensation policy underpins how their income is delivered (for example, home, host or split payroll delivery). You also need to know when certain payments need to start and stop or change. This is one of the key foundations of an efficient expat payroll programme and often gets neglected. You can’t capture payroll for an assignee that the business is simply not aware of. 2) Data Sources. You need to know who earns what, what benefits they receive

and where you can obtain that information in a timely manner. Is it the home payroll team? The host Accounts Payable team who approve the accommodation and car costs? The Reward and Benefits team who sign them up to the international medical plan? Map it out and identify the individuals that you need to talk to first and get them onboard (this links to point 4 below). Equally you will need to understand each of the data sources; for example, what currency are payments in, what earnings period do they cover, how have they been calculated? You don’t want to unwittingly gather incomplete or incorrect data.

How can you set up your expatriate payroll model for success? 3) Calendar And Deadlines. You need to know when data will become available and when the payroll teams need it (recognising that this may differ from location to location), providing them enough time to comfortably review, process and check it before the payroll cycle cut-off. Consider holidays and annual leave, what accelerations need to take place? What payroll cycles are involved (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly?) and are there timing mismatches? Do you need to operate a month in arrears? 4) Roles And Responsibilities. Good old ‘R&R’. If no-one knows who is responsible for specific critical tasks (the ‘what and how’), such as transferring files - and is not engaged in the process of doing so - then the process may fall apart. Invest time in clarifying roles, responsibilities and equipping and engaging stakeholders at the outset and this will help solidify your process.

5) Clear Process And Escalation. Once you have clarified roles and responsibilities, you need everyone to understand the process and what your route of escalation will be should something go awry. Who doesn’t love a good process map for clarity? An email notification can work just as well for a simple setup. The key is to ensure that there is no ambiguity on who is doing what. 6) System Of Record. Ideally you need a common system of recording data, particularly if you want to then use the data at a later time for data analysis and global management reporting. This has the bonus of being able to provide the tax team with all that they need for the tax return process too. 7) Secure Data Sharing. Compensation data, coupled with employee names and social security numbers, is one of the more sensitive categories of personal information. Therefore, it is critical that such data is transferred securely. Time pressure inevitably places teams under strain, and this may lead to a temptation for those individuals to share data in a less secure way. Accordingly, implementing clear protocols for data transfer will help mitigate this risk. 8) Controls. Fail-safes. Checks. Whatever you want to call them, you need process controls in place to validate that you are compliant and identify that errors are trapped and flagged. A seemingly small glitch can roll-up into a huge year-end challenge that can become difficult to unravel and fix in a short timeframe. In identifying a problem, it is always a good place to start with “What has gone wrong before?”. You should also consider contingency plans if things do go wrong, and perform a root cause analysis if you experience gaps or errors in the data and explore if there are alternative data sources that you can use? 9) Flexibility To Change. The pandemic has taught us the importance of being able to quickly adapt to new environments, and an organisation's expatriate payroll model is no exception. Policy changes, legislation changes, staff turnover, system changes - you need to be able to flex your approach as required without impacting your overarching process. 10)And finally - Training. Once you have designed and implemented each of these

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areas, a crucial ongoing focus should be ensuring that your team receives the necessary technical training to enable them to deliver a market leading expatriate payroll function.

The ingredients are all there, they just require the focus and desire to bring everything together. The results of your efforts will be appreciated throughout the organisation! Getting The Balance Right

The ten elements above will help you define your expat payroll model. The degree to which you need to refine approach and process depends on your programme, the level of complexity of the various policies that you have in place, and the tax/social security jurisdictions that your assignees travel to and from. You may need to focus on a risk basis, if your payroll teams have flagged that a payroll audit has occurred or is overdue. Finally, it might be that you have Senior Executives/VIPs in your programme where it can be particularly important that the process works smoothly to avoid any internal reputational risk. Smaller programmes of less than 50 mobile employees may find that their model is entirely manageable in-house with very little need for specialist technology or outside assistance, but you still need to consider the above factors to maximise the success of a smooth process for your home and host payroll teams. For medium-sized programmes of between 50-100 mobile employees you will need to implement some level of structure

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within your model, albeit not always necessarily needing a full technology suite. This might mean using external specialists or knowledgeable in-house team members, and then taken forward into a ‘businessas-usual’ state by your global mobility and payroll teams. For larger, more complex programmes you will need to use specialist mobility technology to track your assignees, record data within one single global database, check for gaps and errors, and instruct your data between the home and host payroll locations. We have found that any programme above 100 mobile employees means a simple spreadsheet is no longer going to be sufficient and would recommend

ANDREW HENDLEY

Director, Global Employer Services, Deloitte LLP D: +44 118 322 2576 E: ahendley@deloitte.co.uk www.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/ tax/articles/payroll-and-workforcemanagement.html. Andrew is a Director within Deloitte’s Payroll and Workforce Management practice and has over 20 years’ experience advising clients on expatriate tax and global payroll solutions. During his career he has helped clients implement a wide variety of solutions across their payroll landscape, driving compliance and improving performance.

DELOITTE GLOBAL

that for programmes of this size and beyond, those in leadership in this area look for suitable technology, and associated subject matter expertise, to serve their needs to deliver efficiency via automation.

Enjoy The Fruits Of Your Labour

We hope that the above has inspired you to take a fresh look at your expatriate payroll processes and consider if and how you may be able to refine and improve your approach. The ingredients are all there, they just require the focus and desire to bring everything together. The results of your efforts will be appreciated throughout the organisation!

MELANIE NORTH

Associate Director, Global Employer Services, Deloitte LLP D: +44 118 322 2305 E: mnorth@deloitte.co.uk www.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/ tax/articles/payroll-and-workforcemanagement.html. Melanie is an Associate Director in Deloitte’s Payroll and Workforce Management practice. She began her career focusing on expatriate taxation and social security working closely with client payroll teams. Melanie specialises in process enhancements, technological automation and expatriate payroll consulting.

This communication contains general information only, and none of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (“DTTL”), its global network of member firms or their related entities (collectively, the “Deloitte organization”) is, by means of this communication, rendering professional advice or services. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your finances or your business, you should consult a qualified professional adviser. No representations, warranties or undertakings (express or implied) are given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information in this communication, and none of DTTL, its member firms, related entities, employees or agents shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage whatsoever arising directly or indirectly in connection with any person relying on this communication. DTTL and each of its member firms, and their related entities, are legally separate and independent entities. © 2021. For information, contact Deloitte Global.

INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER AUTUMN

Five Steps To Get Your Workforce More Active Since the pandemic began, are you exercising more or less each week? Some may find that they have been more physically active since the outbreak of COVID-19, with lockdowns giving many people a little more time for themselves. However, some people have struggled to motivate themselves to be active outside of work, with 4 out of 5 employees unable to ‘shut off’ from work in the evenings(1) suggesting that working from home doesn’t necessarily mean more time for exercise. Although many employees’ commutes still consist of a handful of steps to the kitchen or home office, research suggests that people spend on average 5 hours a day sitting down,(2) making us inactive for most of the working day. Being active has both physical and mental benefits. It can improve your fitness, elevate your mood, make you stronger and help you manage health conditions. The great thing about physical exercise is that everyone, regardless of ability level, can take part and begin to receive benefits from activity. These include reduced anxiety and better sleep, as well as weight loss and the reduced risk of certain diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers.(3) There are several ways employers can encourage their employees to be more active. Below are five ways staff increase their activity levels, all of which can be easily adapted for use at home or in the office.

1. Technology

Technology has been a great resource to connect to physical exercise during the pandemic. From home workout videos to fitness tracking apps, it can help facilitate a more active lifestyle. There are a range of exercise videos available for every fitness level. Employers could assist their employees by listing these resources through a periodic roundup of all the best content. Why not send out a weekly newsletter with the latest accessible health and wellness resources to access from home?

There are numerous personal trainers and exercise class companies who lead classes via video (or come into the office when appropriate). These can easily be dialled into, wherever your employees are working. The ‘live’ events could also help inject a sense of community, especially if attendees join on video. Make sure your employees know where to find these tools and how to sign up. If you are a global business, you can also create social networks, linking colleagues from across the world who share an interest in a particular activity. Our Optum My Wellbeing app allows colleagues to share inspirational content and motivate one another along their exercise journey. It’s also a great way for employees to socialise outside of working hours. When employees are back in the office, those who have connected virtually over a shared love of sport, could establish running clubs or sports teams in person.

If you are a global business, you can also create social networks, linking colleagues from across the world who share an interest in a particular activity

2. Group Classes

Employers can use technology in a variety of ways to encourage employees to work out remotely by setting up classes or blocking set times for employees to complete the same workout video, perhaps during an internal call once a week.

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3. Walk And Talk

Employers should encourage employees to get out-and-about during calls, particularly if they’re internal ones. A top-down approach will help encourage more employees to take

a walking meeting. Research has shown there are several benefits to walking. It can boost creative thinking, improve focus and increase productivity.(4) Walking calls are a timeefficient way of getting some exercise whilst also improving work performance. If it isn’t practical to go for walk, then encourage standing meetings or standing desks for a more permanent alternative to a traditional seated desk. This can help to build more movement into workers’ days. It’s suggested that people burn more calories, reduce back pain and are more productive when standing up.(5) Mixing up your work pattern is extremely important, particularly when you’re working from home and not getting out of the house as much as you would when commuting.

4. Challenges

Employer-led challenges can really help with motivation, especially if there is a reward involved. Challenges can work in a variety of ways. It could be that you’re setting employees personal challenges, for example, to hit 10,000 steps a day for 30 days and you’ll receive a prize of some sort, whether it be a voucher or a half day of annual leave. Either way, exercise with some form of reward is a great way of encouraging uptake, and sets a clear message that your business is committed to investing in employees’ physical health. If employers truly want to foster a culture of healthy living and exercise, then it’s worth encouraging workers to connect with other colleagues through fitness apps. For example, our Optum My Wellbeing app provides users with a space to engage and stay connected with colleagues, friends and family regardless of location. The app encourages users to participate in various fitness challenges, such as step counts, where they can track their progress against others worldwide. This is a great way to ensure employees feel connected and help build a sense of community. The app also monitors a person’s mood to ensure their mental wellbeing is being tracked, so the necessary measures can be taken to address any problems that may occur during this time.

5. Discounted Equipment

Many workers find they don’t have the correct equipment to participate in certain

PHYSICAL HEALTH sports, which can be disheartening. Luckily, many employers offer employee discount schemes which have discounts for gyms, sportswear, technology and bikes for cycling to work. Employees may not always be aware of these, so it’s worth ensuring these are clearly signposted and employees are consistently informed about new offers and discounts. Whatever your employee strategy is to encourage and facilitate increased physical activity, communication is key. Not only will it help navigate employees to the right resources, but it could also boost engagement and nurture a sense of community. An ongoing strategy will help drive repeat behaviours. If you promote regular exercise, it will hopefully continue beyond the pandemic. For more advice and tips on how to get more active consult your local primary care physician or family doctor. References: 1) www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/ 2020/10/08/mental-health-leadershipsurvey-reveals-80-of-remoteworkers-would-quit-their-jobs-forthis/?sh=5855e893a0f7. 2) www.sedentarybehaviour.org /2020/ 09/11/which-countries-have-data-onhow-long-people-sit-per-day/

3) www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/ pa-health/index.htm 4) www.apa.org /pubs/journals/releases/

xlm-a0036577.pdf 5) www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/ standing-desks-help-beat-inactivity#1

DR. SHOBA SUBRAMANIA

Medical Director, Europe DR SHOBA SUBRAMANIAN is one of the Medical Directors at UnitedHealthcare Global and a general practitioner by background. She has worked in the assistance industry for many years coordinating hundreds of medical evacuations internationally and escorting patients as a flight doctor herself. Her work has taken her around the globe to various countries including India, UAE, South Africa, Romania, Germany and Cambodia. She has considerable knowledge of global healthcare systems along with expertise in travel health, aviation medicine, occupational health and she recently attained the Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is an ALS certified VHS doctor with many years experience providing acute care remotely and conducting telehealth assessments for remote and offshore workers. Shoba is responsible for delivering safe medical transportation to our assistance and insurance members and leads our clinical teams in the UK, Europe and USA to achieve this. Her work has gained recognition across the business and she won the Sages of Clinical Excellence Award in 2019.

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The Strategic Future Of Global Mobility As we come towards what we hope is at least the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems a good time to reflect on what the future holds for global mobility. Arguably the pandemic has already resulted in a revolution for flexible/ remote employee working, although it remains to be seen whether this will be truly transformational in the longterm or if old habits will die hard. What is clear, though, is the critical function that many Global Mobility teams have performed during a time of great disruption and uncertainty for employers and employees. We consider in this article some of the opportunities and challenges that this could present. Many organisations have been forced to very quickly adopt remote and virtual working arrangements, not just for the immediate but also possibly longer-term. This has not been easy to navigate and requires careful planning. Arguably Global Mobility teams are one of the most experienced in-house functions to assist in dealing with this, given their experience working in a fast-paced and often unpredictable environment, familiarity with the potential implications of employees working in alternative locations and awareness of the key risks and concerns that will arise. It has also become a matter of interest at the highest levels of companies as to what the future of work will look like, both domestically and internationally. Many recent surveys show that employers expect business travel to increase significantly (reaching pre-pandemic levels by 2025) and a number of high-profile companies have announced ‘work from anywhere’ policies for their employees. Flexibility in ways of working has pros and cons – it is both good and bad news in the war for talent, it is potentially a good thing for environmental and diversity agendas, and represents many significant compliance and tax risks for employers. This presents a real opportunity to Global Mobility teams to secure the ‘seat at the table’ that many have been striving to achieve, some with more success than others, for many years.

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Recent times have shown that alignment of business functions with key business priorities has resulted in a significant profile boost, and a recognition of value and contribution. So, what are some other areas where Global Mobility could contribute to a broader agenda?

So, what are some other areas where Global Mobility could contribute to a broader agenda? Global Mobility And The ESG Agenda

The ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) or ‘sustainability’ agenda has rocketed up the priority list of many businesses in recent years, driven by a mixture of internal and external pressures from employees, shareholders and wider public perceptions. Increasingly, businesses are expected to move ESG to the core of their business purpose and strategy, to ‘do the right thing’ without compromising on employee or shareholder returns. Global Mobility can (and should) play a part in supporting this agenda. The ‘E’ for Environmental: Clearly, international mobility is a factor in environmental concerns for businesses, with business travel inevitably contributing significantly to their overall carbon footprint. One argument suggests that in this new world of home-working and video calls, business travel is no longer necessary. However many surveys have indicated that businesses do expect international mobility to continue to play a key role in the way that their employees perform their jobs, and there is genuine value associated with employees being ‘on the ground’ on location

for their visits. Indeed some jobs require physical presence such as building a new data centre or port. The pandemic has also shown us that people inherently like mixing with people and this was what most have missed! Instead of simply cutting business travel, what are some alternatives that could be considered to mitigate the environmental impact of international mobility? : • Alternative modes of transport that are more carbon efficient (e.g. trains rather than planes) • Consider short-term assignments or permanent transfers rather than frequent business travel or commuting arrangements • Keep some virtual meetings and supplement with fewer physical short term business visits • Mitigate carbon impact of shipping goods etc., by utilising shared containers for multiple moves – and hire or buy goods locally to minimise shipping • Utilise data analytics to monitor travel data and carbon ‘costs’ to understand key sources and consider possible mitigations • Empower employees to make sustainable choices based on information made available to them, e.g. the carbon emissions associated with different travel options • Carbon offsets. The ‘S’ for Social: Another key element of the ESG agenda is diversity, equality and inclusion (‘DE&I’), falling under the ‘social’ aspect. There have been many recent articles published extolling the virtues of DE&I in Global Mobility programmes, although our conversations with ‘real’ businesses tell us that many are not as far along in this journey as these articles might suggest. Mobility teams should not be discouraged by the challenge that this presents, and instead see each action as a step in the right direction. Some thoughts on how to get started: • Ensure Global Mobility team members have received DE&I training • Consider how organisational DE&I initiatives could be formally integrated into Mobility programmes (e.g. targets for representation) • Tracking data on demographics in mobility • Review your candidate pools for mobility – are they diverse, and in what ways? Do you understand who in your business would be willing to take on international assignments – are they asked, or are they profiled? • Consider options for increasing flexibility

TAXATION in mobility policies to make them more attractive to different groups (e.g. additional childcare support for families, live-in partners receiving the same benefits as married couples, sustainable transport options etc.) • Introduce requirements for diverse candidate lists for international roles (e.g. 50/50 gender split) • Do your homework – certain locations are (unfortunately) simply not always suitable for some individuals and they would not thank you later for sending them. If you have not reviewed the profile of your internationally mobile employee population, that would be a good place to start. Talk to your employees – if they feel that they don’t want to go on an assignment, why not? Are there barriers there that you could help to lower? Are these consistent within different demographics of employees, and could flexing your policy unlock a new group of international talent? The ‘G’ for Governance: businesses are increasingly adopting and articulating clear tax principles, aligned to their broader ESG agenda. This is a critical element in providing them with their ‘social licence’ to operate, which is ever more important to shareholders, investors and wider communities. In the UK, for financial years starting from September 2016, businesses with a turnover above £200m or a balance sheet above £2 billion have had to publish their tax strategy. Tax is a key ESG metric: external stakeholders are interested in a business’s tax behaviours and evidence of the level of tax responsibility it adopts in terms of aggressive tax strategies as well as the level of economic contribution the business makes to society. In response, many businesses are signing up to increasing transparency standards and, more importantly in most cases, following them. The financial turmoil arising from the COVID-19 pandemic is the latest catalyst which is driving a heightened level of government and public attention. Paying the ‘right amount of tax’ and ‘doing the right thing financially’ is very much headline news once more. Boards of Directors are increasingly seeking to implement a culture of no surprises within their organisations when it comes to tax risk, and many multinationals are reporting concerns about meeting increased tax regulatory requirements. Not being aware if adverse media attention is around the corner is an increasing risk, one that is only heightened in the wake of the pandemic. Global Mobility plays an important role in international tax compliance, ensuring that assignments are planned in a tax compliant manner whilst remaining as tax efficient as possible utilising suitable domestic tax reliefs and regimes. Consideration must also be given to transfer pricing requirements

for potential cost recharges in relation to business travel, recognising the value of services performed by an overseas employee to the host country business where appropriate. In turn this may create local income tax obligations for the employee (and employer, for withholding tax purposes) due to relief under a Double Taxation Agreement no longer being available where there is a recharge of costs to the host country entity. There is rarely a justification for no taxes at all to be paid in a host location, unless the duties performed are merely incidental in nature. Where the duties are more substantive, there are two possible interpretations, either (i) the employee is performing their role on behalf of the home country entity whilst in the host country, in which case they may present a Permanent Establishment risk in the host location but income tax exemption may be available under a treaty, or (ii) the employee is performing their role on behalf of the host country entity whilst in the host country, in which case transfer pricing rules may dictate that there should be a cost recharge from the home to the host location and while this is likely to mitigate Permanent Establishment risks it may, as noted above, result in an Income Tax liability due to treaty exemption not being available.

Similar country specific rules, coupled with the bad publicity associated with failing to pay taxes, can significantly affect a company’s reputation and their share price The introduction of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) regime requires that Country by Country Reporting (CbCR) is filed annually, collecting standardised data on where profit, tax, and economic activity

is occurring at a global level. In addition to corporate tax and transfer pricing data, CbCR also requires that the Company declares the number of employees on a full-time equivalent basis in all locations around the world. This therefore requires coordination between HR and Mobility functions with internal Corporate Tax and Transfer Pricing teams to ensure proper reporting, and related points for internationally mobile employees may impact the reporting of revenues and functions in the template. Central teams will need to ensure that they have consistent data available mapping the locations of their international employees, and their functions/ roles, and a centralised approach to determine the appropriate reporting location for fulltime domestic employees versus short and long-term assignees and business travellers. The reporting should usually be based on whether employees are economically employed rather than where they are legally employed. HR and Global Mobility teams should review the processes that they have in place to track groups of employees. Again, legislation has been introduced to encourage compliance with tax rules. For example in the UK, Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) rules were introduced in 2009 and these seek to ensure that the nominated SAO official in a large company takes reasonable steps to ensure the company establishes and maintains appropriate tax accounting arrangements. Personal penalties can apply for failures. Additionally, the Criminal Corporate Offences (CCO) Act was introduced in 2017. It created two corporate offences, one relating to the evasion of UK tax and one relating to the evasion of foreign tax. The legislation is very widely drawn and can apply to the evasion of any tax, including indirect and employment taxes, anywhere in the world. Any UK business, be it a UK corporate or a foreign corporate doing business in the UK, will be within the scope of both offences. The corporate or partnership will have a strict liability under criminal law for failing to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion by one of its associates (employee, contractor or any other person providing services for or on behalf of the corporate). A defence exists of having ‘reasonable prevention procedures’ in place. Similar country specific rules, coupled with the bad publicity associated with failing to pay taxes, can significantly affect a company’s reputation and their share price. The real cost to a business or individual of failing to comply can be significantly more than the tax in question. HR and Global Mobility teams should be well placed to assist companies with all international employees and cross border working arrangements/processes that they have in place to track groups of employees and ensure that any applicable taxes are being properly calculated and paid in all relevant locations.

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Measuring Success In Global Mobility

Another important way that GM teams can increase their profile and transform their role from that of a support function to a more strategic influencer in the business is to be able to articulate and demonstrate the value that they bring to the business. We often hear references to ‘Return on Investment’ meaning a measurement of the efficiency of an investment; in simple terms, what are the benefits relative to the costs involved? This is an area where Global Mobility can struggle, because while the costs (which are not insignificant) are relatively straightforward to determine, the benefits are frequently less tangible and much longer-term than immediate financial measures, such as the stock price. An alternative phrase to consider what the business is really looking for, rather than a return on investment, is a ‘return on expectation’. What is the business hoping to achieve through the move? What does the individual want to get from the experience and what comes afterwards? Were the financial costs broadly at the level anticipated? We still see that a surprising number of companies do not budget comprehensively in advance for the costs associated with international moves, including relocation costs, assignment benefits and tax and social security costs. In that circumstance separate business units can be surprised at the scale of costs associated with the moves after the event which, rightly or wrongly, can tarnish their view of the value of global mobility to them. However, with upfront planning and clear expectations for all stakeholders involved, this issue can be easily averted. Cost projections can be prepared for various different scenarios, whether rough and ready estimates or more detailed calculations, factoring in home and host tax and social security costs and benefits depending on the policy applying, and facilitating comparisons between different options (e.g. assignment versus local transfers, or different possible host locations). As already noted, the benefits of global mobility and international assignments are often difficult to quantify and will not necessarily become entirely clear in the couple of months (or even years!) after the end of the assignment. Although there may be some people or organisations out there who claim to have a magic formula to calculate a numerical return on investment for global mobility, this may simply be an unrealistic aim. In speaking to many different clients and organisations over many years, what becomes clear is that no one yet (despite potential claims to the contrary) has the perfect answer to this very difficult question. Rather than letting that put you

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off altogether, we would suggest that you consider focusing on some areas that are relatively easy to track but that should still give you some valuable insights. For example, do you currently track or record: • The attrition rate of your employees who have been on international assignments versus your business average – and for how long do you track after an assignment has ended? • Do HR leavers’ meetings capture issues specific to mobile employees, for example, any concerns about re-integration, postassignment career expectations etc? • The proportion of your leadership team who have undertaken international assignments during their career? • The rate of career progression of employees who have been on international assignments; does this track above or below the rate of your domestic employees, or is there no difference? • The number of ‘failed’ assignments (e.g. those that might be terminated earlier than expected) and the reasons why? • Actual costs versus budgeted costs, why they varied and how to spend/invest more efficiently for future moves.

want, or would be willing, to accept an international assignment? These are all important questions that you can start to ask in your organisation to start moving your global mobility efforts in a more strategic direction.

Summary

Global mobility is often almost overwhelmed dealing with operational issues and is pulled in many different directions by various stakeholders, within the business and with external vendors. This is unlikely to change overnight. However, it is our view that GM teams can start or should continue to take steps towards building their profile within their organisations and present themselves as strategic partners who can use their extensive skills to help meet the business’s wider objectives, through deploying the right talent at the right times, actively supporting the organisation in its efforts to put ESG at the centre of its corporate agenda, and using data to tell a story about the value they bring to the business.

Aligning Global Mobility With Talent Management

Talent management is a huge focus of HR teams in companies around the world – how do they best plan and deploy their workforce to deliver on business aims; how do they attract, retain and develop the best talent in the market? International HR professionals will recognise how these aims overlap with global mobility, but there is still a lot more that could be achieved through closer alignment of GM and broader Talent Management teams. We often hear now about a ‘war for talent’ in many different industries on both a local and global level. International HR and GM teams are well-placed to understand considerations of local and international talent and the potential to deploy resources from around the world to supplement or fill gaps in local capabilities. The mapping of your international talent and experience is a challenging but potentially important step to take. Linking in to the above point about career progression and whether international assignments are seen as an almost critical part of employee development to reach the most senior levels of the organisation, is this a planned part of talent management and is this coordinated with the GM team? Does the business identify talented employees and start planning early for potential assignment opportunities? Do you maintain a candidate pool for possible international assignments and, even more fundamentally, do you know which employees would

ANDREW BAILEY

Andrew Bailey is head of Global Employer Services at BDO LLP. He has over 30 years’ experience in the field of expatriate taxation. Andrew is indebted to Steph Carr for her major contribution to this article. BDO is able to provide global assistance for all your international assignments. If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article or any other expatriate matters, please do not hesitate to contact Andrew Bailey on +44 (0) 20 7893 2946, email Andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER AUTUMN

Achieving Cost-Effectiveness Through The External Workforce While businesses have long acknowledged the importance of the external workforce, COVID-19 placed a spotlight on the workforce’s remarkable capacity to lend flexibility in times of profound disruption. External workers (often referred to as “contingent workers,” “gig workers,” “freelancers,” “contractors” and “temporary staff”) are a growing portion of the workforce. Recent economic trends suggest that contingent workers are critical for ensuring business continuity and enabling organisations to take steps toward recovery. When a business is planning an investment in its workforce, managing costs is a key consideration: How much would it cost to hire contingent workers? What would the return on investment (ROI) be? How much can we save and how soon can we achieve our goals aided by their talents? Research shows that 42% of a company’s workforce spend is on external talent. Yet, many executives lack visibility into this large and critical spend category, and do not manage it effectively. With a share of spend so sizable, attaining cost-effiency is imperative for both Procurement and Human Resources functions within any organisation. Here are four tactics to ensure the financial investment in the external workforce is cost-effective – to not only save money but generate value for the long run.

Planning Ahead

The costs of a wrong hire can be steep. Determining which jobs and tasks require which type of skills and talent in advance allows a business to speed up the hiring process. When workforce planning takes a back seat, businesses end up scrambling for talent at the last minute, sometimes sacrificing quality and skills in favour of speed. Strategic planning and working with workforce vendors on identifying and procuring the appropriate talent can conserve a lot of money, time, risk and effort. Talent must be readily available to meet projected demand whenever and wherever it arises.

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Cutting Costs Isn’t Always The Ideal Solution

Cost-cutting is one of the key tactics businesses adopt to manage the bottom line, especially in difficult economic times. However, often, it’s only a short-term solution for a persistent business problem. Any financial investment made on external workers should be made by considering them a long-term investment versus a short-term cost-cutting measure. For instance, training and development, access to tools and technology, performance feedback - all should be provided for every external worker, with an eye toward increased engagement and productivity. Upskilling prepares a worker to fill a critical role immediately and drives better results from workers; precluding the need for the business to seek out new talent and the costs associated with it.

Cost-cutting is one of the key tactics businesses adopt to manage the bottom line, especially in difficult economic times Leveraging MSPs

Managing routine activities like monitoring the day-to-day responsibilities, maintenance and IT support can be time-consuming and not necessarily cost-effective. A Managed Service Provider (MSP) can provide expertise and industry knowledge for these standardised tasks, rather than managing such programmes in-house. MSPs also provide

consultation and offer expertise on the best tools and technologies to implement. MSPs are typically compliant with regulations and industry standards and can drastically reduce overhead costs.

Gaining Visibility Into The External Workforce

It’s always easier to manage what can be seen. What cannot be seen ends up in decisions based on speculation. Research shows that many organisations lack visibility into even the basics of their external workforce such as contract terms, who is doing the work, where they are located and what they are doing. Obtaining access to performance data enables business leaders to make more informed decisions that help to deliver value. With greater visibility into their contingent workforce, a leader can make quick decisions even in disruptive times, with agility, eliminating some of the invisible costs such as compliance, risk and productivity – without the long-term costs of hiring the wrong candidate! Managing an external workforce may seem easier said than done. To get the most value out of a contingent workforce programme and to ensure its cost-effectiveness, processes must be streamlined, time spent on trivial tasks has to be decreased, and digital tools must be implemented to get deeper insights into the programme. Cloud-based platforms can help business leaders make impactful decisions in service of productivity and enduring value.

VISH BALIGA

Chief Technology Officer at SAP Fieldglass Vish Baliga is the Chief Technology Officer and has been with the company almost since its inception. He plays an integral role in SAP Fieldglass' award-winning solutions, establishing product strategy and managing the application's design, development, testing, and delivery. He oversees several departments including technology operations, product management, information technology, quality assurance and security. Vish brings over 30 years of IT experience and nine years of consulting experience to the organisation. Before joining SAP Fieldglass, he worked for companies including Ernst & Young, IBM, and Syntel. He holds a master's degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, and a bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of Mysore, India.

GLOBAL TAXATION

Global Tax Update AUSTRALIA

Residency & source of income – impact of COVID-19 Overview The Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’) has updated its commentary on the impact of COVID-19 (and, in particular, the travel restrictions in place and safety concerns in other countries) on residency and the source of income for individuals who have been working remotely in Australia during the pandemic. The updated guidance seeks to differentiate between an individual who is unable to depart Australia, and an individual who is able to leave Australia but who chooses to remain there and work remotely for various reasons. The ATO’s view suggests an individual who chooses to remain in Australia is more likely to be considered a tax resident of Australia and, further, their employment income will be taken to have an Australian source. Detailed Guidance Generally you are considered an Australian resident for tax purposes if you: • Reside in Australia according to ordinary concepts • If your domicile is in Australia, unless the Commissioner is satisfied your permanent place of abode is outside of Australia • You are physically present in Australia, continuously or intermittently for 183 days or more or • You are a member of a Commonwealth superannuation fund. Based on the updates by the ATO on 10 August 2021, it is the ATO’s view that the longer an individual chooses to remain in Australia, the greater the likelihood the individual will be considered an Australian tax resident. In response to ongoing travel restrictions and health and safety concerns around the world as a result of COVID-19, the ATO’s guidance states the following in relation to a person’s choice about leaving Australia: Choosing to stay in Australia when you have been able to leave is a factor that will point towards you being a resident. This includes if you have been able to leave Australia but did not do so, because of conditions or restrictions that apply, or may apply. For example, quarantine requirements or restrictions on re-entering Australia. Factors to consider in determining whether you have been able to leave Australia include: • Government restrictions preventing you from leaving Australia and entering your

usual country of residency • A lack of commercial flights available to enable you to return to your country of residency. Further, the ATO has acknowledged that it is sometimes difficult to determine when an individual’s tax residency status has changed. In this regard, it is necessary to consider all the facts and circumstances of the individual including: • Intention and purpose of coming to Australia • Living arrangements in Australia; and • Family and employment ties in Australia. From previous ATO correspondence, COVID19 was considered to present a special set of circumstances and the ATO have determined that employment income will not be considered to have an Australian source if the remote working arrangement lasts for a period of three months or less. However, difficulty arises where the

The impact of Covid and subsequent remote working will continue to challenge tax authorities and taxpayers alike for the foreseeable future working arrangement extends beyond the three month period, and as mentioned above, all facts and circumstances of the individual needs to be taken into consideration to determine if the employment is connected to Australia. The ATO has now added that employment

income is likely to have an Australian source where an employee chooses to remain in Australia and has agreed with their employer that Australia can be their place of work. Individual And Employer Considerations Factors preventing an individual from departing Australia which are beyond the control of the individual, such as travel restrictions or flight availability, will provide a stronger argument for non-resident status. However, an individual will not be able to rely on a non-resident status in the event they decide to remain in Australia. Those individuals affected by COVID-19 will need to have consideration for the updated ATO guidance when completing their tax return for the year ended 30 June 2021. In addition, employers should also be aware of the update and the impact to their employment tax obligations, such as PAYG withholding and reporting, amongst others. BDO Comment The impact of Covid and subsequent remote working will continue to challenge tax authorities and taxpayers alike for the foreseeable future. Do expect frequent changes to existing rules and relaxations in all countries. Do not assume relaxed rules will continue indefinitely. Speak to your local BDO representative for latest updates.

CANADA

New Employee Stock Option Rules Summary The federal government’s Bill C-30 received Royal Assent on 29 June 2021 and is now law. Bill C-30 includes several measures proposed in the 19 April 2021 budget, including changes to employee stock options announced in their 2019 federal budget. The new federal rules apply to stock options granted on or after 1 July 2021. The intention is to limit the scope of the current stock option tax regime considering the public policy rationale for preferential tax regime is to support younger and growing Canadian businesses. Old Rules Under the old rules, when an employee exercises a stock option, a taxable employment benefit will arise equal to the difference between the exercise price and the fair market value of the shares on the date of acquisition. If certain conditions are met, employees are entitled to a 50 percent deduction against the taxable employment benefit. If the employee exercises a stock

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option of a Canadian-controlled private corporation, the taxable employment benefit is deferred until the employee disposes of the shares. New Rules Under the new rules, the preferential tax treatment on employee stock options issued by certain employers would be subject to an annual vesting limit of CA$200,000 per employee, in each year in which options becomes exercisable and based on the fair market value of the underlying shares at the time the options are granted. When an employee exercised stock options that exceed the CA$200,000 cap (“non-qualifying security”), the stock option benefit will be taxed at ordinary tax rates without the benefit of the 50 percent deduction against the taxable employment benefit. The amounts that exceed this limit will be eligible, if certain conditions are met, to a new employer deduction equal to the value of the taxable benefit that will be included in the employee’s taxable income for that year. In addition, employers will be able to designate options that would otherwise fall within the annual limit, and hence qualify for the stock option preferential tax treatment as ineligible, entitling them to the tax deduction when employees exercise the stock options. Employers would also be subject to new reporting requirements. For example, they must file a prescribed form with their annual corporate income tax return to notify the Canada Revenue Agency of any granted options that are non-qualified stocks. They must also notify the employees of any options exceeding the annual limit of CA$200,000 or of the options that will be designated as non-qualified securities. Exceptions These new rules do not apply to stock options granted by the following employers: Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs) and non CCPCs or mutual fund trusts with gross revenue determined based on the last prepared financial statements of $500 million or less determined on a consolidated basis where applicable. Quebec The government of Quebec has recently announced that it will amend their legislation to incorporate, with adaptations on the basis of its general principles, the New Rules. Such changes will apply on the same date as the one retained for the application of the relevant provisions of the Federal Income Tax Act. BDO Comment The new rules will have impact on both employees and employers.

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Among many implications, the new rules will increase employers’ administrative burden, as they will have to implement new processes to keep track of non-qualified securities and report them to the tax authorities. In light of the new rules, employers will need to: • Decide whether and when to designate option grants as non-qualifying options • Ensure that the proper payroll withholding, remitting, and reporting requirements are met; and • Review existing and new stock option plans and other documentation for any revised employer and employee tax implications based on the new rules and take appropriate action (such as adjusting the timing and quantity of grants, considering alternate compensation plans, etc.) as needed, to meet stakeholders’ objectives.

Ensure that the proper payroll withholding, remitting, and reporting requirements are met GERMANY

Taxation of Benefits in Kind Generally the provision of shares by the employer to an employee for free or a lower price than the market price leads to a benefit in kind that is taxable at the date the employee receives the shares in their bank account. Thus, wage tax and social security contributions are due in the respective month. From 1 July 2021, a new regulation regarding the date of taxation is applicable for transactions taking place after 30 June 2021. This regulation is only applicable for privileged companies. Privileged companies in this regard are those that were founded a maximum of twelve years ago and that qualify as small or medium-sized enterprises (according to the EU Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003, concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) at the time of the transfer or in the preceding

calendar year. For this purpose, the following thresholds may not be exceeded: • Small or medium-sized enterprise: less than 250 employees, annual sales not exceeding 50 million EUR or annual balance sheet total not exceeding 43 million EUR • Small enterprise: less than 50 employees, annual sales and annual balance sheet total not exceeding 10 million EUR • Microenterprise: less than 10 employees, annual sales and annual balance sheet total not exceeding 2 million EUR. If the employer fulfills the requirements above it is now possible not to tax the benefit in kind at the date the employee receives shares but at a later date (see below). This means that at the transaction date no wage tax is due and thus a temporary tax exemption occurs. Please be aware that non-taxation through payroll is only possible with the consent of the employee who can therefore choose between immediate or later taxation of the benefit in kind. Please be informed that a retrospective application of non-taxation within the annual income tax return of the employee is excluded, thus it is only possible to apply for it within the payroll. If the employee decides to apply for the regulation and the later taxation then the benefit in kind for the shares shall only be subject to taxation and wage tax is due if: 1. The shares are transferred by the employee in whole or partly (for payment or free of charge) to a third party or in the case of a contribution to business assets, 2. Twelve years have elapsed since the transfer of the shareholding, or 3. The employment relationship with the previous employer is terminated. If the employer bears the wage tax in this case, this amount will not be part of the taxable wages. After the transfer of shares to the employee, the employer can ask the responsible tax office of the company for a confirmation of the amount of the benefit not taxed by the employer. The tax office is obliged to provide a confirmation. This shall avoid discussions with the tax office in later years regarding the amount of the taxable benefit in kind at the date of transferring the shares. In the case that the benefit in kind (FMV minus payment of the employee) at the later date of taxation will be lower than the benefit in kind that was not taxed at the date the employee receives the shares, then only the lower amount will be taxable. This does not apply, however, if the impairment is not caused by business operations or if it is based on a measure under company law, in particular a distribution or return of capital contributions. Please note that this regulation only has effect for taxation purposes. Contributions to social security are still due (if the income ceilings are not already exceeded) in the month the employee receives the shares in their bank account.

GLOBAL TAXATION BDO Comment Employers will need to be aware as to whether or not taxation is to be deferred and alert to the different tax and social security treatment.

BDO Comment Employers should consider this new judgment by the Court when working to recruit agency workers to be posted in EU/ EEA countries going forward.

Substantial Activities in EU/EEA countries A recent case involving a Bulgarian temporary work agency on which the Court of Justice of the European Union gave judgement, has brought into question the concept of ‘substantial activities’. More specifically what work is determined as ‘substantial activities’ when it comes to obtaining A1 certificates and maintaining an employee’s social security in their home country while on a temporary assignment in an EU/EEA country. In this case, the temporary work agency was recruiting employees in Bulgaria for work that would be carried out in Germany. The employees were agency workers and were therefore not direct employees of the agency. The Court determined, in this case, that the work carried out by the temporary work agency in Bulgaria did not, in regards to the recruitment process, constitute ‘substantial activities’ however sending the employees on assignment did as this is what generated turnover for the company.

Article on New York crackdown on refund claims New York state tax officials have been taking a closer look at refund claims filed in respect of the 2020 tax year for out-of-state filers, with particular reference to those that have claimed refunds on the basis that they were working outside of the state at a home office during the pandemic. The issue is that of whether the decision to work from home is one of ‘convenience’. New York state taxes the income of non-resident workers if drawn from in-state sources, including income that commuters make when choosing to work from home. There have been challenges to this rule on the basis that commuters were forced to work from home by the pandemic and did not elect to do this (i.e. remote work was by necessity and not convenience) but the state authorities do not consider this to be sufficient. In October 2020, the state Department of Taxation and Finance confirmed that non-residents whose primary office is in New York should consider dates of remote

work as in-state work. The only exception to this would be if the employer had established a bona fide employer office in an out-of-state location. The requirements for an employee’s home office to be considered a ‘bona fide employer office’ are complex and unlikely to be met in the majority of cases. The guidance for this position comes from Technical Services Division Memorandum TSB-M-06(5) I, and under these guidelines it will be difficult for employers to conclude that employees working from home outside of the state due to COVID-19 are exempt from New York non-resident income tax and withholding, or for taxpayers to successfully argue a position that exempts remote working income from New York state taxation. BDO Comment New York state‘s guidance above, illustrates the tax challenges remote working brings and the different potential interpretations that may apply for those who work remotely whether within a specific country or across borders. Prepared by BDO LLP. For further information please contact Andrew Bailey on 0207 893 2946 or at andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk

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Why Technology Is The Key To Restarting Corporate Travel As borders reopen and offices start to welcome back their employees, corporate travel and global mobility have kicked into gear once again. But that’s not to say that the pandemic experience of the sector has been one of eerie quietness as we sat back and waited for companies to press the restart button. During 2020, demand shifted as we still serviced a mission-critical layer of people needing to move around the world. We are now seeing pent-up demand building as companies put into action delayed relocation plans, team restructuring, face-to-face meetings and global recruitment drives. A poll conducted in June among members of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) showed that domestic business travel is well on its way to recovery. 40% of respondents said that business travel within the country where their firm is based has already resumed, while a third said that their company has either decided on a start date or is working toward a date. So the demand is there, but the question remains, how best can travel procurement and HR teams keep their customers and employees happy? Corporate relocation has long been an industry slow to innovate and reinvent itself. Think of life before Concur as a comparison, manually inputting your expenses into a spreadsheet. The automation of this daily administrative process has been invaluable. In a similar vein, tech is the key to delivering corporate travel in a more efficient way but also in a way that improves the overall customer experience. Because ultimately, people deserve to feel at home, even when they’re not.

Business Travel Trends

The state of corporate travel right now is intrinsically tied to how employees, employers and corporations view the future of work. The corporate landscape has changed irreversibly and how it all shakes out is still unclear. Learning the new rules of engagement and navigating the current choppy waters of how to balance face-to-face with virtual meetings, team relocations during Covid and restructuring staff, will all be essential to companies’ future economic outlook.

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The state of corporate travel right now is intrinsically tied to how employees, employers and corporations view the future of work However, certain trends are beginning to emerge and here I’ve listed my top five. All of these shifts are tied to the demographic change currently happening in corporate travel - millennials will make up more than half of the global workforce this year (according to Amex). Millennial habits and preferences will undeniably shape the adoption of change and technology in business travel going forward:

1. The Rise In Remote Working: Be that as a digital nomad or as part of a larger organisation is a trend which is here to stay post pandemic. McKinsey concludes that “more than 20% of the workforce could work remotely three to five days a week as effectively as they could if working from an office”. This massively depends on the type of work, of course, but “the virus has broken through cultural and technological barriers that prevented remote work in the past, setting in motion a structural shift in where work takes place, at least for some people”. Tech has played a huge part as the great enabler of this shift (more on this later). 2. Bleisure: Business travellers are almost always mixing work with pleasure nowadays. Travellers are extending their stays to bolt on vacation time or time with family. 3. Mixed Accommodation Types: Younger business travellers are more open to staying in alternative lodging options from boutique hotels to vacation rentals and business travel has responded with a wider portfolio of options. 4. Compliance, Safety And Due Diligence: Even more importance attached to these 3 core values in corporate relocation during uncertain times. Companies are looking for trusted booking partners to take them through the relocation process from start to finish. We vet the supply chain through

TECHNOLOGY global databases - ensuring a provider in EMEA or APAC meets the stress tests applied here in the US. Only tech makes this possible. 5. Digital Native Travel Habits: Tech-centric travellers expect technology to be a part of their business travel experience as they use their devices for every other life action. Corporate travel is playing catch-up with leisure travel in terms of digital booking and that’s why it’s a sector ripe for tech enhancement.

The corporate travel procurement process is a complex beast, with many moving parts, particularly at this time with border challenges and variants still in action. I believe corporate travel procurement can be simplified and enhanced through tech. Here’s how: 1. For Individuals: Tech by nature enables global connectivity as many workers switch to remote or hybrid models and choose to work and live more flexibly. Since the

pandemic, workers have adopted new ways of travelling and scheduling: all enabled by tech. When remote workers are staying away, tech steps in to improve the customer experience. Automation allows more control for accommodation providers. For example, surveying guest satisfaction (reviews are like gold dust for repeat bookings) for instant, valuable communication with guests or programming and automating the communication flow to ensure a consistent experience, wherever a guest is staying. 2. For Companies: Tech innovations are making travel safer and more seamless for employees that need to do business again. For example, geotracking can track a company team all around the globe, whether employees are relocated or travelling short-term. Virtual concierge solutions reduce touchpoints in accommodation and trusted tech platforms find safe, comfortable accommodations worldwide. These innovations are needed in order to service the pent-up corporate demand for global mobility we identified earlier. Tech is the natural way for corporations to streamline operations and undoubtedly increases the overall efficiency of corporate travel. Programmed and automated process flows are built into corporate travel booking platforms to meet specific employee needs and these can be revised and adapted to respond to ever changing requirements. Perhaps an employee needs to relocate with their family to a specific zip code for school district purposes or it’s important that the apartment is located on a ground floor for accessibility reasons.

you can have the same consistent customer experience. What this means is a comfortable stay - a vetted and reliable place to call home, a great bed, excellent WIFI connection, connected to a support team 24/7, etc. Tech streamlines processes, enhances the corporate travel sector and above all keeps delivering a fantastic hospitality experience.

Tech streamlines processes, enhances the corporate travel sector and above all keeps delivering a fantastic hospitality experience

Enhancement Not Revolution

Tech is integral to the way corporate travel will operate in the future. However, there’s a caveat. The hospitality touch is still equally important - and it’s imperative we don’t lose sight of that value as we go forward and innovate. The traveller experience is everything. Some companies, such as ourselves, curate longer stays - 30, 60, 90 or more days at a time - for project or mobility relocations. When you go away from home, friends and family for this length of time, there’s a higher emotional connection for the people involved. It can be stressful and worrying. Tech enhances the whole experience from booking your corporate travel, to the type of accommodation you choose, to ensuring your safety. Our curation is connected to the machine but it’s hybrid - you can’t be hands off so we always, always deliver a consistent experience. Of course, you won’t have the same experience travelling for a Fortune 500 company to London or Paris or Dubai, but

LEE CURTIS

Lee Curtis, CCHP, co-founded Reside Worldwide, Inc. in November 2017 having previously been President of ABODA Global Housing Management (now ABODA by RESIDE). Lee is also active in the corporate housing industry, serving as the exiting Chairman of the Corporate Housing Providers Association (CHPA) board of directors. www.staywithreside.com

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The 4 Key Points For You To Follow To Be A Leader, Not A Manager Managing a team of people comes with a new level of responsibilities. But have you ever considered the vast difference between being a manager and a leader? Harvard Business Review reports 30 is the average age of a first-time manager, whilst 40 is the age where people first embark on leadership training. This is a decade of lost years of building leadership skills – this can lead to ingraining bad habits and not practising to improve your style. Being a manager doesn’t automatically make you a leader. The main difference between a manager and a leader is that managers delegate tasks to those who work for them, whereas leaders have people follow them and believe in what they're setting out for the company. The best part of the last year has demonstrated that leaders need to be prepared and agile to respond to protect their business and employees. Here, we will determine the four ways that managers can transform themselves into leaders.

Respect Goes Two Ways

Firstly, and most importantly, be respectable. Respect should be earned, not expected – no employee is going to consider a manager their leader if they don’t respect them. There are a number of things you should consider in order to gain your employees’ respect. After all, if they respect you, they’re likely to work harder for you, cooperate more with others, be more creative, resilient, and likely to take direction. These include: • Leading By Example - Be prepared to pick up tasks big and small, for example making your own cup of coffee or printing copies out to hand out to the workforce • Listen To Your Team - Open the floor for others to speak and allow them to voice their opinions on how to improve things. Holding steady team meetings opens up a dialogue of feedback and ideas

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• Follow Through On Deadlines And Agreements - If you can’t meet your own deadlines, why should your team? If you offer to help someone on a particular project, honour that promise

By involving your team and keeping them engaged, this will also allow successful executions and a happy, motivated team - you can't expect a strategy to work if it isn’t understood and nobody is committed.

Shape Company Culture

By involving your team and keeping them engaged, this will also allow successful executions and a happy, motivated team • Accept Responsibility If Things Don’t Work Out.

Communication Is Key

Never underestimate the power of communication. Managers with poor communication skills often alienate their workers, leaving the team confused and with little faith that things are being run properly. Take time to communicate your ideas, expectations, strategies, and everything in between, making everyone else feel involved in what’s going on. You can do this by thinking of any strategy the same as telling a story to someone who knows nothing about it. You can focus on things you don’t know or what you need to understand yourself in order to relay it others.

Leaders should contribute to an active company culture. If workers' characteristics don't fit into the culture, this could influence their decision to leave. By defining a culture early on and recruiting those who fit into the talent pool, employees will feel comfortable which will have a positive effect on their performance. Harvard Business carried out research to find out which qualities are most important in leaders. 700 workers were asked which qualities they value the most – 70 percent agreed that creating a culture of engagement is a very important attribute and results in lower turnover rates, more productivity, and more profitability. This reiterates what was mentioned in the first section – leaders must lead by example. They can determine how valued traits are within the business, for example, communication, integrity, and commitment. Employees who work in an engaging culture with their leader will have positive opinions about the company and will be strong advocates.

Leadership Training Programmes

Go over and beyond for your team and consider enrolling on leadership training programmes which are designed to guide leaders through key issues and how to effectively adopt forward-thinking strategies. Organisations are constantly evolving in the modern world, therefore so does the nature of leading. Building on agile and reactive skills can help you become a capable and inspiring leader. Leaders certainly have a big responsibility to inspire and encourage their workers – so it is important to do it properly.

LUCY DESAI

On behalf of Impact. For further information please contact: owen.marshall@mediaworks.co.uk

ADDRESSING BARRIERS TO GLOBAL MOBILE TALENT BROKERING

Addressing Barriers To Global Mobile Talent Brokering As the traditional form of expatriate management gives ways to a more integrated, globally distributed workforce model, mobility teams are increasingly switching their focus from relocation activities to a broader talent brokering role. Talent brokering is an exercise performed within companies to help match talent between business units and functions across geographies. In practice, this means that a talent owner (a business unit) can temporarily lend or permanently transfer talent to another business unit needing more resources or having skill gaps. However, this vision of an integrated mobile workforce will become a reality only if mobility - and especially geographic mobility - is better connected to talent management. We have heard for years that mobility teams need to talk to talent management teams and build bridges with other parts

of HR and management. The traditional divisions between HR functions and teams operating in silos partly explains the slow progress. However, beyond organisational issues, the barriers to global talent brokering are related to pending mobility questions. It starts with mobility drivers and strategy. How strategic does mobility management need to be?

Opportunistic Versus Strategic Mobility

International talent management is about ensuring your business has the international talent it needs to be successful by predicting the future demand (quantity, quality, and location) and planning to match this with supply (internal and external). The mobility function is, however, often relegated to the administration of relocations, with only limited links to the broader business context. The sum of these individual moves does not always constitute a consistent strategy. Should mobility be just a response to ad-hoc business needs - an opportunistic way to address talent shortage - or is it a long-term approach to build an international talent pool? The answer to the question will inform you of the degree of implication of talent management.

A comprehensive talent mobility strategy should clarify career development opportunities - e.g. “Mobility is a condition to reach top management”. However, such an explicit talent mobility strategy comes with the risk of making empty promises. Mobility is supposed to be beneficial for employees, but sometimes assignees fail to see any career value (no evidence of faster progression) or even fear losing their business network at home by moving abroad - out of sight, out of mind, a major risk in organisations where office politics plays a big role. Strategic talent mobility implies providing clear career paths for mobile talent, but also that the agreed talent decisions are actioned. A reflection on mobility should also include other elements: • Selectivity: are mobility programmes designed for a broad talent pool or more focused on selected high potential individuals? • Flexibility: in this context, the willingness to accommodate requests from employees to foster attraction and retention. • Cost management and how the value is generated. Different paths are possible depending on the priorities of the organisation. They do not have the same priorities in terms of talent management.

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Action Points

Clarify the talent mobility drivers and map priorities for the organisation. In practice, all mobility programmes include a degree of reactivity, selectivity, flexibility and integration - but not in equal proportion. It is also tempting to strive for the most advanced forms of talent mobility - the word “strategic” itself sounds more appealing than “reactive”. Yet, a well-designed and highly reactive mobility programme might sometimes be more appropriate than a cumbersome and poorly implemented integrated strategic programme. Like with many things mobility, the main danger is the disconnection between the official goals and the realities of the mobility programme. The perception of the mobility team is not enough. Are all stakeholders in agreement with the mobility approach? Are they telling the same story to line management and assignees? The elements of language used might reveal misunderstandings. The mobility team needs to master the narrative.

A Talent Management View On The Value Of Mobility

If mobility are about managing a series moves without overarching framework, it could create a frustrating experience for the employees and limit business benefits over the long-term. We are used to measure the success of assignments in terms direct costs and short-terms effects (assignment completion). Organisations need to integrate the talent management aspects of mobility. Talent mobility is a source of opportunities for both employees and the organisation but also potentially a disruptive exercise. It deserves more than superficial judgment about mobility being a great opportunity for all, or on the contrary, an unnecessary source of costs.

Examples Of Talent Management Value Creation

• Developing talent pipeline/skill development • Flexibility to respond to urgent business needs • Ability to attract international talent • Employee retention/motivation • Skills allocation/efficiencies.

Examples Of Talent Management Issues

• Potential disruption in team of origin • Business continuity disruption (e.g. client networks) • Assignment career disruption (e.g. upon repatriation) • Succession planning issues • Performance issues due to poor adaptation • Uncertain long-term value for receiving teams.

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A cost-effective move to solve short-term business issues could have detrimental effect over the long-term from a talent management perspective. Integrating this talent management angle could share a new light on the value of mobility. The question of career value is essential for assignees. What do they get out of the assignments? A first step to answer this question is to identify the factors driving career progression and understand how they relate to mobility.

Action Points

Clarify what can accelerate a career - i.e. is there a preferred path to the top in your organisation? This path can be cross-functional (candidates need experience in different departments) or siloed within one function, internal (building up talent) or external (buying talent), and linked to specific geographies (being in the right place). A career progression analysis can be performed to monitor the progression of mobile and non-mobile employee. This will help identify possible discrepancies between the official message (mobility is good for you) and the reality (it depends). Performing more detailed comparisons of assignees groups (personas) can uncover gaps and point at diversity & inclusion issues: mobility may generally boost the careers of employees but not all employees, benefit from the same assignment opportunities. The question of value is not limited to geographical mobility.

The question of value is not limited to geographical mobility Connecting The Different Forms Of Mobility

In a global distributing workforce model, mobility is a wider resourcing exercise that cannot always be synonymous with traditional expatriation. The solution to a given talent resourcing issues can be about: • Internal moves (between business units) or external (gig workers, talent exchange, peer talent pool) • It can involve cross-border moves (traditional long-term expatriate

assignments, rotator and commuter assignments, and short-term assignments) or not (locally-hired foreigners) • It can be about moving across functions (lateral moves) or constitute a promotion within the same business (vertical moves) • Finally, talent brokering can also be about moving jobs to people in the form of remote working. Not all forms of mobility fall under the traditional purview of mobility teams and that limits their influence in the decision process. Yet, without weighing in on all forms of a mobility, mobility teams cannot realistically perform their talent brokering role. The pandemic and the rise of international remote working requests has forced many mobility teams to move out of their comfort zone and provide input for new forms of assignments.

Action Points

Expand your mobility decision trees and processes. Traditionally decision trees have been used to differentiate between type of long-term assignments and type of compensation approach. They need to encompass the wider range of choices available for the organisation. Even if the mobility team is not managing some form of mobility, identify the touch points where it could add value. These touch points might be related to feasibility, practical set up and compliance in an international setting - that’s where the mobility teams can complement the work of talent management and other parts of HR.

Fixing The Internal Market Place

Are organisations really tapping into the wider talent pool or just fishing in a small candidate pond? Numerous inefficiencies can lead to an imperfect internal market place for mobile talent. We should not assume that all employees are aware of all mobility opportunities and that all potential candidates feel concerned by assignment offers (lack of diversity and inclusion support or role models often lead candidates to dismiss themselves). The existence of informal recruitment short circuit can defeat official talent selection processes and increase diversity gaps. We should not underestimate the asymmetry of the information flow about internal jobs and opportunities: employers lack full information about labour availability and quality and employees lack full information about job availability and quality. Mobility teams are often not involved in the assignee selection process, but the impact of a flawed selection reverberate on many aspects of mobility. Relying on just a few candidates could lead to higher costs, lack of diversity, and even performance issues.

ADDRESSING BARRIERS TO GLOBAL MOBILE TALENT BROKERING Actions Points

Mobility teams do not control the full recruitment process but they can rely on a mix of push and pull approaches. A “push” approach is about promoting existing mobility opportunities, amplify the communication about international jobs initiated by local HR teams, and specifically targeting groups who might be interested in a job abroad. The “pull” approaches would be about communicating success stories and promoting role models (essential to promote diversity and attach underrepresented employee groups) as well as making sure that mobility is integrated in the employee value proposition and overall employer branding. Organisations with integrated mobility strategies usually rely on a “pull” approach and make mobility an important part of their employer branding. Organisations with reactive mobility may be reluctant to create excessive expectations and focus on more targeted “push” approaches for selected jobs/categories of employees.

Developing A New Mindset

Mobility managers often ask themselves how to be strategic and have a seat at the decision table. This reflection is valid, but it relies very much on the fragile assumption of the idea that top management will finally open their eyes to the many virtues of traditional mobility.

Global mobility, in the narrow sense of expatriate management, has been traditionally a fractured exercise - i.e. managing a series of individual moves with only limited alignment with talent management practices and the broader longer-term business strategy. The focus has been on addressing practical issues linked to expatriate moves already decided on by management, as opposed on reflecting on the wider talent mobility and staffing options. This tactical focus has reduced opportunities

for mobility teams to participate in strategic business discussions. Top management is above all interested in allocating talent to the right place and addressing skill gaps. Contributing to the global brokering exercise is a way for mobility teams to position themselves at the heart of the talent process as opposed to try to elevate mobility relocation issues that are bound to remain purely tactical in the eyes of top management.

OLIVIER MEIER

Olivier Meier is a principal in Mercer's Mobility practice and has 20 years of experience in Global Mobility and international talent management. He is currently working on the development of tools and solutions to compensate internationally mobile employees and international remote workers. The focus of some of his recent projects was on identifying mobility megatrends/ new management dilemmas, developing mobility analytics, fostering mobile talent diversity, developing international talent pools as well as on practical issues related to alternative assignee compensation models. Olivier is also involved the organisation of several mobility events and is a prolific blogger on talent mobility issues. Articles from Olivier and other Mercer experts can be found at: mobilityexchange.mercer.com T: +49 1727 434696 E: olivier.meier@mercer.com

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER AUTUMN

Global Mobility Recovery Checklist As many companies are starting to see some shoots of optimism we believe now is a great time to be reviewing and adjusting Global Mobility programmes, policies and mindset to complement some of the changes and opportunities that have arisen in the past 12 months. Global Mobility teams are currently facing many challenges: from ongoing Covid19 restrictions and navigating the impact of Brexit to log jams around the world for shipping containers and significant delays for visa’s (we won’t go on!). The good news is that we are also seeing benefits arising for global mobility from some of the changes of the least year - for example, governments making changes to their systems to encourage relocation to their country for work in a bid to kick start the economy, such as the recently announced unsponsored visa's to attract highly skilled workers to the UK. With new opportunities and the ability to re-start plans that may have been placed on hold the important question is ‘how do you support those relocations that will be going ahead in 2021 and beyond, so Global Mobility can emerge better and brighter than ever before?’.

Global Mobility Recovery Checklist

Here are some of the important activities to complete in reviewing and adjusting your Global Mobility programme:

1. Determine Your 'New Normal'

Understanding what has changed in your internal and external environment will help you review the impact on your global mobility programmes, resolve any potential issues, and take advantage of any new opportunities. Think about what has fundamentally changed: • Within your company's global mobility function? • Across your organisation as a whole? • For the employees that will be relocating? • For your clients or in your industry? Are there any lessons learned from the Covid-19 crisis or other changes that have created new priorities for you?

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For example, a need for better tracking, data and software systems? Can certain administrative tasks now be automated or be shifted online? Can your vendor help you with any of these?

This is important to roadmap because there are significant changes impacting global mobility in the ‘new normal’ which must be taken into account to make sure expectations from the business and assignee perspective are managed 2. Review Which Types Of Assignment Need To Go Ahead In The Next 12 Months

Are you expecting the same types of assignment as before? Are you likely to see only Business Critical assignments initially? When are you expecting other assignments to return (if at all?). This is important to roadmap because there are significant changes impacting

global mobility in the ‘new normal’ which must be taken into account to make sure expectations from the business and assignee perspective are managed. For example: • Delays and backlogs in visa applications which in some cases are taking over 12 months to be processed • Delays and log jams at container ports as well as changes in household goods delivery schedules for multiple reasons such as Covid-19 testing, positioning issues and capacity constraints • Digital services - many in-person services have innovated in the past 12 months and can now be complimented by online platforms in line with local social distancing restrictions • Service cost alterations - for many services costs agreed prior to the pandemic, political changes, and economic volatility may need to be reviewed with vendors to ensure realistic understanding of current cost • Our customers have reported real excitement within their employee populations to relocate – consider how you are supporting your talent to minimise risk of attrition.

3. Evaluate If Your Relocation Policies Are Still Fit For Purpose

Now is the time to review, ring fence and roll out. • Are there any services that are no longer valued? Have you been tracking any exceptions that should be bought into policy? • Are there any longer-term adjustments that need to be made in terms of supporting assignee wellness/mental health and higher level touch points to ensure ongoing assignment success? • What impact will restrictions such as social distancing have on the ability for families and spouses to settle into their new country ensuring familiarity with local healthcare systems and support

GLOBAL MOBILITY RECOVERY CHECKLIST

network? Do your current policies have sufficient settling-in and spousal support services? Recent research by NetExpat & EY has highlighted that the pandemic has magnified the importance of maintaining a dual income. The talent market in the Post Covid-19 world is tough, providing professional managed support services for the spouse and family is an important consideration for assignment success.

4. Collaborate With Your Relocation Vendors For Short And Long-Term Planning

There's nothing like a crisis to highlight the importance of being able to rely on our vendors. Now is a good time to be working closely with them for short and long-term planning. • What short-term workarounds can they support with to help get people where they need to be to fulfil business need.

Now is a good time to be working closely with them for short and longterm planning (For example, virtual or online services, or quarantine accommodation). Lean on your vendors as they will be the most up-todate on the ground knowledge in their respective industry • What long-term workarounds can they help you to develop? Audit your programmes with your vendors and consider consolidation of international and domestic relocations to one specialist vendor • Consider what you might need to share with them to set expectations, and ensure that they too are ready to support you when you need them.

These planning activities are likely to require continuous review and update as the global situation remains fluid, so open conversation is more important than ever.

NATALIE CHAPMAN

Bournes, Business Development Manager Email: nataliec@bournesmoves.com Telephone: 07764 225437 www.bournesmoves.com

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER AUTUMN

10/10 Global Mobility Survey: 10th Anniversary Edition Between 2011-2020 a total of 10,226 Global Mobility professionals and 296 business leaders participated in Santa Fe Relocation’s annual Global Mobility Survey (GMS), and here are the ten key trends from the last ten years. In 2011, in response to consistent client feedback for more mobility industry insights and trends across sectors and geographic regions, we commissioned the Global Mobility Survey with an independent research company, now part of Savanta. The questions covered a range of themes, including mobility team structures, policies, compliance and risks, demographics, and technology. The findings were developed into a report and independent subject matter specialists provided their insights. The Annual GMS Report maintains a core of year-on-year questions, for example, activities of Global Mobility teams (what they think they should be doing versus what they are actually doing). Additionally, other questions evolved each year as we listened to what industry professionals felt were hot topics or areas of generic interest. Mid-decade, a truly significant addition saw the inclusion of Business Leaders, responding to a shorter set of the same questions asked in the main survey. As with 360-degree feedback in human resources performance and development activities the contrasting responses proved to be very useful for mobility professionals, using the in-depth data when discussing change (policies, structures, and technology) with their own leadership teams. In this article we provide the salient findings. The full graphs and narrative can be downloaded in the full version of the10th Anniversary edition: https://www. santaferelo.com/en/mobility-insights/ global-mobility-survey/global-mobilitysurvey-10th-anniversary-edition/.

Global Mobility And The Pandemic

Organisations have undergone a reset due to the pandemic and leaders are more aware of the data and potential contribution of Global Mobility. The growing influence of digitalisation is also likely to enable Global Mobility advisory teams to create more insightful contributions as they flourish to become an extension of business teams rather than a purely transactional

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support function. Between 2016 to 2020, 80% of Global Mobility professionals consistently agreed or strongly agreed that employees who have undertaken international assignments achieve greater career progression than employees who have remained in their home organisation or headquarters. Leadership has high expectations of Global Mobility to deliver a world-class mobility programme, in the capacity of both a strategic business partner and technical advisor, navigating highly complex technical issues. Over the past decade uncertainty and disruption have strongly influenced the evolution and transformation of workforce and mobility programmes. Thought leadership indicates that they will play a pivotal role in how the events of the next decade will unfold too. To succeed, we must continue to evolve our Global Mobility functions at pace, futureproofing them in the context of globalisation, digital innovation, and new, more fluid hybrid ways of working.

The Top Ten Global Mobility Trends Across The Decade, Focusing On Three Themes – Transformation, Talent And Compliance And Covers:

1. A regional approach to Global Mobility service delivery. Intra-regional trade and workforce movement heightened the desire for in-region presence for operational and inter-cultural reasons. 2. Change in skillsets and shift towards a more strategic/advisory contribution. Mobility's role morphs into unchartered troubleshooting and moves away from the traditional approach of only managing those on long-term assignments, expanding to the entire mobile population. 3. The growing importance of technology and data analytics as an enabler of Global Mobility functions. Securing the buy-in and investment from key stakeholders to embrace the new digital era continues to prove problematic for some Global Mobility functions. 4. Increased diversity of Global Mobility policies and change in assignment types. We observe a broad range of Global Mobility policies across multinational organisations, reflecting both the change

in working patterns and the increasing diversity of mobility opportunities. 5. Growth of remote and hybrid working arrangements. An increasing proportion of Global Mobility teams have seen virtual assignments as a significant change and challenge. 6. Shift from employer to employee-driven programmes (including core/flex). With new generations entering the workplace, employee and employer expectations of international experience and the Global Mobility programme have evolved. 7. Integration of equality, diversity and inclusion programmes (ED&I) policies, procedures and programmes. ED&I policies drive progressive organisations to ensure that their people, process and policies attract both internal and external talent to undertake international career development initiatives. 8. Compliance complexity of new assignment destinations. Organisations have consistently reported venturing into new locations (40% in 2020). Many of their jurisdictions have complicated laws and regulations which pose barriers to mobility. 9. Impact of geopolitical and protectionist climates on immigration and safety issues. The utilisation of experts to navigate these issues will be imperative for organisations to mitigate risk and achieve a successful deployment. 10. Importance of duty of care. Duty of care is a top priority for Business Leaders increasing from 26% in 2019 to 38% in 2020.

Predictions For The Next Decade

Projecting forward another ten years, we anticipate continued transformation for Global Mobility to be agile in adapting to changing priorities. At a macro-level, possibly doing more with less, especially as overhead costs and the fixed costs of permanent headcount erode. Overlapping this agenda is the evolving role that artificial intelligence (AI) will play in the future workplace.

Transformation

• Global Mobility remains a standalone function or is absorbed into another department such as a people focussed business, talent or analytics team

10/10 GLOBAL MOBILITY SURVEY: 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION • Global Mobility is required to provide bespoke personalised solutions to mobility scenarios as the workforce demographics and expectations evolve • Skillset in Global Mobility will include AI delivering all core Global Mobility operational tasks

Compliance

• A continuation of globalisation and mobilisation of talent from developing markets to more traditional developed markets in order to support the continued high growth trajectory in the world’s fastest growing economies. • Some global multinationals have expanded so significantly that they have outgrown individual countries’ economies: - Treated as a single entity by international tax and immigration authorities, e.g., liable to a global corporate tax rate and in possession of global visas/work permits. - Easing the compliance surrounding the deployment of talent worldwide and boosting jurisdictions’ revenues. • ESG is at the core of Global Mobility’s strategy and programme. • Sustainable assignments are a fundamental expectation of the mobile talent pool and a mandatory requirement of clients and investors.

Talent

• Evolution from segmented policies to personalised assignment packages to meet the demands of tomorrow’s workforce. • A higher proportion of contingent workers fulfilling contracts for work and international gigs (not contracts of employment or assignment). • An internal and external marketplace exists, representing a transition from the concept of a workforce to a skills/talent pool. • Blind selection integrated into the recruitment and selection processes to support achievement of ED&I targets. • An increase in part-time/flexible a s s i g n m e n t s a n d wo r kcat i o n s , incorporating supplemental learning and development and/or corporate social responsibility elements. • A widening of the assignee pool, improved duty of care, health, and wellbeing.

Conclusion

We shall be publishing the findings of the 2021/22 Global Mobility Survey later this year and we expect there to be a continuation of many of the themes raised in this 10th Anniversary edition. Transformation, agile working, seeking the best global talent, remaining compliant and leveraging digital innovation will all be part of the emerging Global Mobility world. Boundaries are blurred – global working is no

longer ring-fenced to a discrete international talent programme. It has widened with the rapid change in hybrid, remote and virtual workstyles. Keeping abreast of the compliance legislation to protect the organisation and the employee have also become more challenging. As environmental, societal and governance agendas become more visible and critical at corporation level, so too will the impact on mobilising talent – working either physically or remotely across borders. Education and advisory support to key internal stakeholders will becoming increasingly important for Global Mobility leaders and to help them with this mission, a sharper set of data tools will help their case to be seen as a business leader specialising in Global Mobility rather than a specialist in Global Mobility who supports the business.

Keeping talent healthy, safe, and secure in the progressively diverse, challenging assignment locations will be imperative. For more details on how we can make Global Mobility easy for you and your relocating employees, email consulting@santaferelo.com or visit www.santaferelo.com. References: All data is from Santa Fe Relocation’s Global Mobility Survey reports from 2010 to 2021 unless otherwise stated. 1. GMS awards: 2021, Winner, Relocate Global, Best research contribution, thought leadership or book. 2020, Winner, Relocate Global, Best research contribution, thought leadership or book. 2018, Winner, FEM EMMA, Best thought leadership. 2017, Winner, FEM EMMA, Best thought leadership.

JOHN RASON

Group Head of Consulting, Santa Fe Relocation Recognised as a thought leader and speaker on strategic international HR, talent management and Global Mobility, John has 15 years of global consultancy experience. Having previously held senior HR leadership roles in global businesses across a range of industry sectors, John now works with global organisations to create value and improve the structure of Global Mobility programmes, focusing on aligning strategic objectives with operational delivery. John is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development. Contact John via email john.rason@santaferelo.com.

SELINA JONES-MAY

Freelance Consultant/Global Specialist HR Leader Embarking on her journey as a Big 4 expat tax consultant, Selina undertook client secondments which ignited her passion for global mobility and her desire to move in-house. During the tenure of her most recent in-house position as Group Director she progressed through a variety of hybrid senior HR leadership roles, including global ownership for Mobility, Benefits, Expatriate Compliance and Strategic HR projects. Selina is currently self-employed as a Freelance Consultant and has also been appointed as an External Advisor to a leading management consulting firm. Selina is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development and a Chartered Tax Adviser. About Santa Fe Relocation: Santa Fe Relocation is a Global Mobility company specialising in managing and delivering high-quality relocation services worldwide. Our core competence is providing services that help corporations, their employees and their families to relocate and settle in new places. These services are delivered to a consistently high standard, locally and globally, through our own operations and approved partners. Visit www.santaferelo.com

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER AUTUMN

International Remote Working Strength, Weakness, Opportunity Or Threat? In my view, International Remote Working (IRW) presents all these things to an organisation. Back in 2014, in my capacity as head of GM, I was approached by a junior HR manager keen to discuss the idea of the Digital Nomad. They believed it was a great way to build employer brand strength. I loved it! Senior leadership didn’t. In 2016, with the same employer, I worked on a project to develop a flexible working toolkit. Again, I loved it. As did many others. And again, senior leadership didn’t. In 2020, in complete contrast, we saw a rush towards remote working by organisations around the world. This time it wasn’t out of choice. Ironically, for my former employer, it was the groundwork from 2014-16 that helped them leap to a remote first approach. Now, almost 18 months later, organisations are coming to terms with the realities of remote working. They’re busily examining what they’ve lost, what they’ve gained and what they’ve learned over this period. Huge numbers of employees are working remotely by choice, many others through consequence – either stranded in a third location or simply unable to be where the organisation needs them. Some governments are seeking ‘digital nomads’ to generate new tax revenue streams. Others are obliged to revisit social security application frameworks – HMRC’s updated guidance of July 2021, for example. In addition, intergovernmental organisations such as the OECD are forced to legislate on the right to taxation in relation to remote working. We’ve seen organisations backtrack on early pandemic promises of ‘work remotely forever’, particularly in the tech and financial services sectors. Whilst others have embraced remote working as a permanent fixture of their EVP. We’ve even seen ‘unicorn’ organisations emerge – such as Hopin – proudly lauding their remote first approach to work. With such conflict, we must explore the major issues of IRW. After all, it’s clear that every organisation should carry out a SWOT analysis to determine what works for them, their shareholders, their culture, and their business reality.

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Hot Topics

In recent discussions, the topics brought up by CHRO’s, executive teams, and GM and Reward leaders include: • Culture – How can you build and maintain a cohesive and coherent people culture if the office has moved from a place of work to a place of collaboration? Goldman Sachs don’t believe it’s possible, yet many organisations see this less as a risk and more as an opportunity, willingly evolving their culture accordingly • Compensation – How can you design compensation programmes for a distributed workforce? Is it possible to build equity and consistency into compensation planning when employees are living in increasingly diverse locations with varying costs of living? It seemed that one digital music streaming service cracked this nut early in the pandemic. However, it soon became clear that their programme differed substantially to that explained in a famous and oft-cited Business Insider article • Benefits – Perks and benefits must evolve to fit a distributed workforce. Examples include a focus on mental health, wellbeing and employee care related programmes, as well as home office equipment and home fitness subscriptions. Even paid travel TO the office is sometimes given as an example of a benefit!

Not all companies, nor all roles, are suited to remote working Duty of care is, undoubtedly, a tougher nut to crack. Employee location transparency is a new focus as corporate travel becomes more complex. After all, knowing where your people are is a clear corporate requirement, whether for compliance or legal reasons or simple out of a Duty of Care for employees.

And across all this is the impact on Enterprise Structure and Legal Entities. Who is doing what and where and for the benefit of whom presents a clear compliance challenge for many organisations?

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

I appreciate the view that IRW can be leveraged as a strength, a differentiator, and a benefit with clear appeal. I recognise the concern that IRW risks weakening an organisation, its culture, and its ability to collaborate. I see the opportunities inherent within IRW to reduce costs and to stand out. And I understand that the threats - or at least the challenging questions - are myriad.

So How Best To Approach The Topic?

Start by reading our research paper on International Remote Working, completing the exercise, and considering the hard and soft factors at play. The best Remote Working policies I’ve seen are those that seek to set simple principles and guardrails that reference team cohesion; stress the importance of presence and belonging amongst teams (even remote ones); and don’t overlook the risks. Every organisation is different – what works for one may not work for another. Not all companies, nor all roles, are suited to remote working. Define your policy and your framework for applying it, and make sure you listen to your people and gauge their sentiment. After all, it pays to keep your finger on their pulse as the next normal emerges.

DAVID ENSER

Partner, The RES Forum Contact: David.Enser@theresforum.com RES Forum Research This piece originally appeared in the RES Forum’s Research Paper I – International Remote Working, the emergence of a new paradigm – from August 2021 (theresforum. com/annual-report) Written by Professor Michael Dickmann and Dr. Benjamin Bader, this paper investigates the rise in international remote working as a direct consequence of the pandemic. As well as charting the changes in working patterns, it explores what they mean for global organisations and explains how companies can adapt in the most effective and efficient way possible.

INCLUSIVITY, PURPOSE AND MANAGING REMOTE TEAMS

Inclusivity, Purpose And Managing Remote Teams At the heart of all good work is purpose, connection and collaboration. These three core concepts are crucial in business. And yet, as we come out of the pandemic, businesses are struggling to adapt to change as they fail to recognise these assets in their employees. If leaders are to tackle the ongoing crises of low retention and employee dissatisfaction, they must get back to the core principles of what makes work worth doing.

The Meaning Of Work

In a survey of 1,000 managers, our research identified that leaders will consistently rate purpose, connection and collaboration as those most lacking at their place of work. At the same time, employee turnover is reaching new highs as demand for workers grows and adaptive businesses are able to offer workers the autonomy and responsibility they need. Above all, companies are failing because the performance indicators they do focus on are entirely distinct from the incentives needed to keep a workforce happy, productive and good at what they do. The trench between perceived success and actual success at work is becoming wider. Company leaders told us that 85% of true performance indicators have no bearing on perceived company performance. This is to say, what strategists think is important feels worlds away from the reality of the shop floor. This is by all measures a tragedy. At the heart of work in the day-to-day sense is the employee experience. By 2030, low staff retention rates are forecast to cost the US economy $430bn annually as managers rush to fill in for employees walking in and out without seeing the point. Our data shows that improving how a company carries out its purpose will have the biggest impact on perceived company performance and employee experience. That is, by clarifying and agreeing on what it is that we want to build, we can be reassured that our input is worthwhile. Despite this, over a third of respondents feel their company is not doing this well.

A relationship evolves gradually over a lifetime. But a successful business may take on many forms and owners over generations. The figures show that larger companies with more than 500 staff struggle to reign in a consistent shared idea of identity and purpose. Ultimately, this translates to poor communication with stakeholders, mixed-messages with employees and stagnant growth. The challenge is how to articulate a clear sense of direction when the finish line keeps moving. Our second point - connection - is vital here. It is not only in the long-term that we see the effects of our work, but also between days. Especially as many of us transition to remote working, leaders must work with their team to develop authentic and dynamic relationships.

Leaders fundamentally fail to understand the incentives that motivate people to come into work day-in, day-out Leaders fundamentally fail to understand the incentives that motivate people to come into work day-in, day-out. Nine in ten business owners wrongly believe that workers will leave a job for more money. Only 12% will. A vast majority say that they would, in fact, be willing to accept a pay cut if it meant working a better job. Nobody who has worked a job they did not enjoy before can be surprised by these figures. It should be obvious that connecting to our work and colleagues is not achieved

over a Teams meeting or a Friday afternoon early finish. True inclusivity and engagement will require managers to move beyond the whole and to get to know their organisation’s working parts. Those core fears of alienation find new meaning in the post-coronavirus world as employees return to a workplace that does not reflect the most human of needs for purpose and connection. As we rethink our approach to office work in particular, there is an opportunity to reflect on what really matters in our working lives. The lean, minimalist model flexible hours, remote working, increased outsourcing - is perfectly viable, but will need to build up and out of employee experience if it is to be sustainable. Leading into our third point, collaboration and consultation will be key in creating jobs and work that is built to last. As it stands, there is a gap between communication at the strategic level and at the operational level. Where leaders are focused on traditional expediency - 50% expect subordinates to have the same understanding of their business identity as they do, - employees are struggling to see how they fit into the bigger picture. The key is to flatten hierarchies, to adjust to the challenges of modern business in making the way we work transparent and inclusive of a workforce that is getting better at articulating what it needs to perform well. Businesses growing too fast to function optimally - ‘diseconomies of scale’ - must learn to reign in the ropes, setting the pace and direction from the front. As it stands, the areas employees feel their companies do best in have no bearing on their outlook for overall performance and rarely do they map onto positive employee experience. Research shows that it is trust, engagement and communication that drives the positive employee experience, ensures staff retention, and ties the intentions of leadership to the praxis of the workforce. These are crucial to rebuilding the bridges between purpose, connection and collaboration in work.

Building Back Better

There is an idea that the human brain is capable of maintaining up to 150 meaningful relationships at any one time. The challenge for business, then, is how to ensure that teams of over 500 people can synchronise,

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER AUTUMN

especially as the traditional reinforcements of a shared workspace and common working hours et cetera lose importance. As employees take jobs for people they have never met in person, how can businesses ensure that their workforce buys into that grounding identity that keeps it all ticking over?

This brave new world is redefining how we think about work, offering a once in a generation shot to remedy and improve upon the traditional practices of business This brave new world is redefining how we think about work, offering a once in a generation shot to remedy and improve upon the traditional practices of business. In a practical sense, leaders must make use of data-driven transformation to push their companies into the 2020s. Businesses are not necessarily becoming more democratic. Rather, the age-old frustrations of work have been exposed by changing practices and a sudden spike in demand for workers, prompting many to uproot. To utilise - and not suffer from - this changing climate, businesses must now embrace radical inclusivity, a holistic picture of what makes up a strong and adaptive business, letting employee perception influence decision making and allowing feedback to evolve and reconsider the fundamental question of purpose. To understand if your business is inclusive and has purpose, it’s helpful to carry out an analysis using a diagnostic tool, but ongoing self assessment is also valid. This kind of active listening goes beyond

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staff surveys and focus groups. Fears that employers are not committed to developing talent are prompted by irrelevant and outdated training sessions. Perks offered for new hires are evidently not hitting the mark as companies fail to keep up with changing social, professional and economic climates. In Australia, we are seeing working practices change dramatically as employers respond to employee needs with remote and hybrid models of working. In one survey, nearly 80% of respondents said that they would prefer a hybrid approach, balancing time spent in office with independent working from home. This is not a strictly new phenomenon; in October 2019, research elsewhere found similar results. Instead, this heightened focus on remote working only shows the perceived need for change following the demonstration that hybrid working is both viable and effective. Traditionalists are struggling to find arguments to cling on to the old manner of doing things. Australian insurer Medibank recently announced a vision which would include a hybrid model of working, supporting employees to develop their autonomy and work at times that optimise productivity. The aim - in their words - is to make the office “a place of purpose; to collaborate, connect, and if needed concentrate”. Again, prior to the pandemic, start-ups and medium sized businesses started to combat the hollow trends of the modern workplace, reporting increasingly that purpose is not a pool table; businesses that lure employees in with material incentives cannot win the hearts and lives of their workforce without something more binding. Cheap gimmicks may buy temporary brownie points but fail to make the impact of substance needed in sustainable business. Those looking towards a modern system of remote working would do well to heed the lessons of Zapier, a three-hundred strong workflow automation company that has moved entirely online since the pandemic: remote work is not made impossible by design but by stagnant company culture. Managing remote teams requires not only the adoption of new tools, but a total re-think of how we leaders approach trust and transparency. Attitudes must be flexible if our businesses are to be. If the first year of the new decade taught us anything, it is the importance of flexibility in adjusting to and profiting from sudden and forced change. In many cases, businesses who struggled to resurface in the last year did so because they were unable to unshackle themselves from entrenched processes. Businesses who have managed to ride the wave did so by using change to prompt growth, putting faith in the strengths and knowledge of employees to keep things moving forwards.

The aim - in their words - is to make the office “a place of purpose; to collaborate, connect, and if needed concentrate"

RITA TREHAN

CEO of Dare Worldwide Rita Trehan is founder and CEO of DareWorldwide, an international business transformation consultancy. A TOP 100 Human Resources Officer (ranked by ExecRank) and Gold Stevie Award Winner, Rita raises the bar for business leadership. With experience in the US and the UK, Rita challenges C-Suites to rethink leadership, and redesign work to elevate business performance and enable industry to make a positive contribution to society. Rita believes in tough-love, telling a company what works and what doesn’t, supplying the practical tools and strategies to lead a business forward in 2021. Author of Unleashing Capacity, Stake in the Game, and Too Proud to Lead, Rita has led business transformation as a Chief People Officer at AGL Energy and the AES Corporation. Contact: info@dareworldwide.com

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