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It’s the key to driving innovation, improving efficiency and retaining top talent in the modern business landscape
Achieving business-wide alignment
Global mobility’s true integration with other functions is an important priority. The global mobility function has made great progress in becoming a truly strategic and highly valued contributor to an organization’s growth. And yet, there’s an important element of that trajectory that remains stubbornly elusive: achieving stronger integration and alignment with other areas of the business. In a recent survey conducted by Sterling Lexicon and Deloitte, in fact, respondents named that objective as one of their top three priorities for 2025.
Why it matters
Cross-Silo Leadership, an article published in the Harvard Business Review, explains that functional silos are common and natural, as people tend to prioritize the work that gets done with their immediate colleagues, or what it called vertical relationships. But it also points out that it’s the horizontal collaboration – or the interfaces between functions, offices, organizations and geographies – that tend to drive the greatest innovation and value.
Breaking silos down seems to be a pretty universal challenge.
On the flip side, silos create nothing but problems for businesses – like blocking innovation, risking missed opportunities, hampering efficiencies and growth, driving up costs, or negatively impacting the customer and employee experiences. Nobody wants any of those things, and yet, breaking silos down seems to be a pretty universal challenge.
- 2025 is expected to see a peak in the number of employees reaching traditional retirement age in several parts of the world –with insufficient numbers to replace them.
- The pace of technological advancements continues to grow exponentially, quickly and substantially reshaping work and necessitating the development of entirely new skillsets.
Business leaders will need to evaluate their risk of losing top expertise and talent, while also ensuring that there is a sufficient pipeline to support critical knowledge transfer, and career development and growth opportunities for the emerging workforce. Mobility teams can help get the right people into the right roles to achieve these goals – through both internal and external candidate sourcing. Their early and ongoing involvement in these talent decisions is essential.
How we get there
Some actionable steps that can go a long way toward helping achieve business-wide alignment include:
Setting clear – and integrated – objectives. Directly tie global mobility goals and measurable performance indicators to the business’ overall objectives, and in particular, the talent strategies that will help meet them.
Fostering greater cross-department communication and collaboration. Bring teams together from talent acquisition, compensation, legal, training and development and mobility on a regular basis to discuss shared goals and priorities. The earlier mobility is involved in global talent decision making, the more likely they are to be able to help streamline the processes and timelines for acquiring and building the right skills.
Better alignment between recruitment and relocation policies also helps all candidates considering cross-border roles know what to expect, setting them up for greater likelihood of success.
Leveraging technology. Access to a centralized system that integrates key employee data creates a single source of truth for all teams. The right level of shared data also facilitates better predictions on talent trends, cost management and visibility into process inefficiencies or bottlenecks, as well as identifying needed skill opportunities and gaps.
Prioritizing the employee experience. When all business units are truly working together with a common goal, with the employees’ needs as their core focus, it’s a win-win. Better understanding helps companies arrive at more personalized support. Communication is naturally more consistent. The risk of duplicate information requests is significantly lowered. And employees have greater trust and confidence in the process – all helping to reduce anxiety and result in positive journeys. Particularly for those moves that are employees’ first introductions to the company culture, a positive experience can help secure future brand champions and foster greater retention.
Reinforcing the value of mobility. A clear understanding – and regular reminders – of the impact mobility teams have on the overall success of the business will help cement internal buy-in for greater collaboration. Successes like speed to fill critical roles, improved retention rates or strengthened leadership pipelines though the mobility process, for example, speak volumes.
Staying agile and adaptive. Business environments are constantly changing – whether due to new regulations, market shifts, or global crises. An agile global mobility strategy, with strong connections across departments and regions, ensures that the organization can rapidly adapt to fluctuating conditions.
For mobility teams, achieving deeper alignment with talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, legal, and other areas of the business isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must. The organizations that get this right will not only operate more efficiently, but will also retain top talent, better manage their risks and gain a critical edge in the global marketplace.
Do you need some help achieving stronger integration with and better demonstration of the value of mobility to your key stakeholders? Let’s connect.
