zzGlobal Workforce

Business travel assessment process design – the horse designed by a committee.

2020-10-30T11:45:53+00:00

By Sahil Shah, Consultant, Deloitte

Technology solutions that assess cross border risk often enable organisations to tackle multiple problems at once. However, without initial alignment amongst business travel program stakeholders, organisations run the risk of deploying impractical solutions. Incentivising all stakeholders to align at the outset can avoid problems before they occur.

Asking business travellers what activities they intend to undertake during their business trip is a typical question in most technology based pre-travel risk assessments. This helps identify obligations relating to several compliance regimes including Posted Worker Directive (PWD), Immigration and Permanent Establishment (PE).

Consider the scenario where someone working in the UK undertakes a business trip to the United States. Depending on their nationality and the nature of their work duties, they might require a work permit. If the work permit is sponsored by the US host entity they work for then there could be income tax implications for the employee. In turn, the income tax position may impact the permanent establishment position of the home entity in the host country which brings with it payroll withholding implications.

If, in this scenario, different stakeholders are responsible for PWD, Immigration and PE in isolation, then each may want to apply their own unique lens to the journey in order to maximise assessment accuracy. However, this approach would force employees to answer multiple questions before they travel creating a large administrative task in advance of the trip.

Now imagine that it’s not just one traveller, but hundreds and perhaps thousands, many of who are making multiple trips each year. Where thousands of employees are burdened by the distinct needs of separate stakeholders, several rounds of questioning can quickly cause disengagement from the process and diminish the value of the assessment process.

We understand that each stakeholder needs to resolve the nuances in the intended activities to varying levels of granularity. Corporate tax specialists might be interested in knowing whether the employee participated in contract concluding activities whereas that distinction will be less important for a PWD specialist.

Where stakeholders are left to make decisions like a committee, the assessment process could end up looking like the proverbial camel which everyone had intended to be a racing horse.

How do you come up with a single set of questions which adequately distinguishes between subtle differences for each compliance regime whilst balancing the user experience to maintain a healthy level of engagement?

This question set may ultimately look different for each business depending on the nature of their industry. However, the starting point is very likely to be one where all stakeholders are brought together and encouraged to understand the problem both from their own perspective and the perspective of their colleagues.

If you are interested in discussing business traveller experience and how to erase potential tensions in data gathering and use, please get in touch. We would be delighted to help you design a robust and long term solution that tackles multiple challenges simultaneously using a tested methodology which facilitates collaboration between stakeholders right from the beginning.

Sahil, Shah, Deloitte

I am a Consultant in Deloitte’s Global Workforce team and lead implementations of technology solutions for large organisations to manage their short term business traveller populations. I have 9 years of experience working across a span of disciplines ranging from expatriate tax advisory to data analytics and visualisation. In my free time I enjoy watching stand-up comedy shows and solving maths riddles…

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Artificial Intelligence: to use or not to use?

2020-08-31T22:55:20+01:00

By Laura Burton, Associate Director, Deloitte

Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by how things work. “Why does custard powder get thicker when I stir it, but my bottle of ketchup gets runnier when I shake it?”, “How does putting petrol in the car make the wheels turn”, and “Just how does an aeroplane actually fly?”. I recall being described as ‘an inquisitive child’. With hindsight, this was probably a polite way of referring to the annoying kid who never stopped asking questions!

I now have a lot of sympathy for my parents after producing my very own ultra-inquisitive 6-year-old son…

Finding solutions to problems

However, I think it is this innate desire to understand how things work, and the inherent logic behind the mechanics, that has led me to the role I currently hold at Deloitte.

I started my career back in 2005 working in global mobility tax, helping employers ensure their mobile workforce were tax compliant, and working through the many challenges they faced day-to-day in that and other related areas. After learning first-hand about some of those issues, I moved into our Data Analytics & Digital Products team to help clients find digital solutions to their business problems. Faced with new, emerging technologies, I find myself once again asking ‘how does it work?’

The role of AI

Unsurprisingly, given its increasing popularity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and more specifically, machine learning, is playing a bigger role in the technology organisations use; certainly at Deloitte we have a keen focus on it - whether helping clients categorise vast datasets for tax reporting purposes, or building algorithms that can more accurately predict the cost of an international assignment.

Whilst I have often asked myself “how does machine learning work?”, without having a PhD in Mathematics, I have come to accept it as another one of those things what will remain a mystery, like end-to-end encryption; ‘it just works’. However, not being able to explain the maths behind machine learning is not an excuse for refusing to exercise caution in our use of it. For example, we should not ignore the risk of bias where historical data shows patterns that are clearly less than ideal. So the question I now find myself asking in my role, instead of ‘how does this work?’ is ‘what is the impact of this? And how do we use it appropriately?’

What is AI bias?

Take predicting the cost of an assignment as an example. Some of the key features that will impact overall costs are the assignment length, the seniority of the individual, and whether or not they will be accompanied by dependants. If we take the last two elements, a natural assumption may be to consider if someone’s age is linked to their level of seniority, and whether or not they have already started a family. But would it be right for the algorithm to assume that because you are in your early twenties that you are (a) not already high on the income scale, or (b) don’t have any dependent children… if we attempted to predict the cost of a ‘social media influencer’s’ international assignment our algorithm would most likely be misfiring. Admittedly, an extreme example, but it makes the point.

Should AI be used?

AI bias is receiving a lot of attention in the media at the moment, given its wider societal implications; various top end tech companies have setup teams specifically to look at the adverse effects of machine learning that can encode implicit bias in training data. And it is these complexities that are leading many thinkers to question the value and morality of using AI for anything more complex than music or movie recommendations.

But AI should definitely not been seen as the ‘bad guy’. Consider the tremendously positive impacts it is having on the fight against climate change and the incredible steps it is making in improving patient outcomes in the healthcare industry.

AI therefore, like an inquisitive child, just needs to be taught correctly, and raised to not have inherent biases. A lesson we could all learn, perhaps.

Laura Burton, Deloitte

Laura has worked for Deloitte since 2005 in Global Mobility Tax supporting companies with their globally mobile workforce including the digital transformation of processes within this field.

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An assignment story – without the rulebook!

2020-07-08T10:00:05+01:00

By Vijay Bharech, Senior Manager, Deloitte

I had taken part in my maiden client tax briefing as a global mobility professional at the advent of the last decade. So, it was a thrilling moment in autumn 2019 when I had the opportunity at last to take on the role of an assignee myself.

My assignment to London was to commence after the Christmas break, so I tried to get up to speed quickly on my new domain. Being a tax professional, throughout my career, I have followed the so-called ‘rulebook’; understanding the dynamics of global relocation from the ‘inside’ was going to be a true learning experience. I was both nervous and excited in anticipation of this invaluable opportunity.

Coming into my new environment, I had to adjust as quickly and as smoothly as possible, given my tenure was for six months only. Two months into the assignment, I started to gain real insight by working on live client transformation projects, as well as networking and cross-pollinating with my new colleagues. It was very satisfying that I was heading towards meeting the objectives of my assignment, for personal and professional growth. My wife had plans to visit me during the summer too. Everything was playing by the rulebook, my own personal rulebook!

Then came the ‘black swan moment’. A pandemic, which changed the world forever.

An assignment to London had conjured up visions of trips to the Royal parks, gallery and museum visits, and walks along the banks of the Thames. Alas, I ended up in a cosy serviced-apartment listening to the chimes of the cathedral, a few hundred yards away! At the outset of the lockdown, I was hoping that this too would pass quickly. This did not happen of course. My rulebook had to be kept aside. Travel plans turned into dietary plans; navigating online cooking recipes replaced city exploration guided by online maps!

I may be on a flight back home when you read this. While I will be excited to be back with my family, I had never imagined six months ago that I would end up a ‘virtual assignee’ for the greater part of my assignment!

A disrupted world order for global mobility has arrived. We are already experiencing the future of mobility. Virtual assignments and remote work considerations are new hashtags in the world of global mobility. Being both an assignee and a mobility professional, I reflect on my experience through two different lenses. As an assignee, ‘employee experience’ remains my key mobility driver during these challenging times. I looked forward to catch up calls with my boss in UK, and daily virtual calls with the team, which helped me to keep my mental wellbeing intact.

The global mobility professional side of me feels that the provision of structured employee support, physical and emotional, must find a permanent place within global mobility policies. While ‘employee experience’ may not remain the uppermost mobility driver all of the time, mobility policies should have inbuilt flex so that they can be amended during times of crisis. Organisations have started examining remote work consideration not only for their domestic employees but also for cross-border employees. As an assignee, I would look for growth, flexibility and minimal disruption to personal life from virtual work assignments, but global mobility personnel will have to consider various other aspects such as compliance and risk management.

Embarking on my first assignment will remain a milestone in my career. This has been a challenging time however, and on reflection, I have learnt that with support and strong conviction you can be more resilient than you had ever imagined. Organisations are also building resilience into their global mobility programmes.

Although my assignment did not quite pan out the way I had imagined, it was certainly a rewarding experience. And of course, I now realise that you don’t always need a rulebook!

Vijay Bharech, Deloitte

I am a chartered accountant with 9 years of experience in expatriate tax and global mobility. I am a Senior Manager in Deloitte’s Bangalore office. My clientele include prominent Indian and global information technology and manufacturing companies. I have contributed various articles on individual tax related topics.

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Business Travel: Is it here to stay?

2020-06-09T10:05:19+01:00

By Priyanka Patel, Consultant, Deloitte

As I write this blog post, I am starkly reminded of how the lives of my sister and I will continue to be wildly different during the coming months. You see, one of us is a doctor working in the first UK hospital to announce a critical incident due to COVID-19, the other is a business travel consultant at Deloitte. I'll let you guess who's who...

I wave goodbye to my sister (she is about to attend intensive care training on one of her days off), whilst I continue to type on my laptop. And I remember. The only real disruption to my life has been accessing my work files from home, and the fact that I no longer have to travel into the city for work. I can't quite help but feel, perhaps selfishly, that I have pulled the better straw here.

Whilst my own work life has had minimal disruption, what does spring to mind is how the area in which I specialise has come to an abrupt halt. Across the globe, business travel has virtually ceased over the last month, and we, the Deloitte business travel team, have pondered the affect this will have on business travel in the mid to long term.

Many travel-related industries - travel management companies, airlines etc. - will be significantly impacted due to business and other travel taking this massive dip. Reuters recently published an article stating that the cost of COVID-19 to the business travel industry was estimated at $820 billion.

Michael Skapinker wrote a great blog for the Financial Times, challenging whether business travel would bounce back from coronavirus. He came to the conclusion that it will. In fact, once travel restrictions are fully lifted, and some semblance of ‘regular life’ is restored, it may well bounce back with a vengeance, at least in the short term.

The key points Michael makes are valid; it will always be the case that it is easier to establish and build a business relationship in person. Senior leadership will always need to keep abreast of what is happening globally across the organisation, and sometimes, regardless of how good the internet connection is, virtual platforms just aren't quite sufficient. The last point Michael makes particularly resonated with me. I happily undertake business travel abroad because I love visiting new places, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures - even if it is just for an hour or two after a meeting.

I make a serious point though. Whilst the most travel-weary of employees may not have as much enthusiasm for travelling for work as I do, it is possible that those individuals are the very people unlikely to stop travelling during their careers; typically senior leadership, or those with specialist skill-sets, who often simply need to be on the ground. We know that business travel can be expensive. Nevertheless, companies still need to ensure they budget appropriately, including the cost of potential compliance actions arising from cross-border trips.

What we will have learnt from COVID-19, is the importance of being able to monitor the location of business travellers, not only for the sake of compliance obligations, but also as an employer, and the duty of care for your staff that entails. Before COVID-19, would your organisation been able to know exactly where your business travellers had been, or indeed, where they were planning to go? Would you have been able to blacklist certain destinations from having travel booked in a matter of hours? Would you have been able to ensure your people were not going into locations where travel bans had been implemented, meaning that they may be denied entry? If not, whilst business travel has ceased temporarily, now might be the perfect time to prepare for the ‘next normal’ world we all face.

So, whilst the lives of my sister and I continue to vary, we’re both hoping for some return to work normality soon – her to return to regular ward rounds, and me to get back to office routine, see my friends and to finally get a decent cup of coffee!

If you have any further thoughts about the future of business travel which you would like to share, please feel free to get in touch with me at priyanpatel@deloitte.co.uk or, if you would like to know more about the issues arising from business travel and the services that Deloitte can provide, please click here.

Priyanka Patel, Deloitte

I am a Consultant within Deloitte’s Business Travel team and have five years of experience in both business travel and the wider data analytics space. I spend my working week delivering client solutions to track and manage their business travel population, and to proactively identify any potential compliance obligations. I am based in London, and in my free time I enjoy pottery throwing, and archery on the weekends.

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COVID-19 and the acceleration of the Future of Work

2020-05-28T23:15:47+01:00

By Danny Taggart, Director, Deloitte

A few months ago, I co-wrote an article for an HR publication on the opportunities that the Future of Work afforded those leading global mobility teams. At the time of writing the article, although COVID-19 was clearly a major issue for many parts of the world, particularly Asia, the impact and resulting country lockdowns across Europe, the Americas and Africa had yet to take full effect.

How long ago those early months of 2020 now feel! Due to the pandemic, many of us have adapted to a life of remote-working, virtual collaboration and distanced business relationships. Over the course of a few short weeks we altered our working lives, and effectively realigned working practices in line with many of the facets associated with the Future of Work. I think we can state with greater conviction than ever that the Future of Work is now!

In the article, we discussed the three dimensions of the Future of Work – the work we do, the workforce and the workplace.

Other than those who have been furloughed or taken similar Government-supported temporary leave from their jobs, the workforce has remained intact, although the work they do may involve slightly different duties from their pre-COVID-19 roles, and how they approach it has certainly changed markedly.

The workplace has of course been the major change as we battle for the best Wi-Fi spots in our homes; contend with children, pets, the allure of the fridge (!) and a myriad of other distractions, to keep our focus on the job at hand.

As we reflect on how quickly we have normalised our new work locations and practices, it is apparent that changes that might have taken us many months, even years, to assimilate in ‘normal times’, have been significantly accelerated due to COVID-19.

At Deloitte, we are helping clients navigate the challenges of managing their HR and global mobility programmes in the COVID-19 world using the following three-phased framework:

Respond - Prepare/Manage Continuity
Recover - Learn and Emerge Stronger
Thrive - Prepare for the Next Normal

I am sure these phases will resonate with you. We initially reacted to the situation, ensuring the safety and ongoing wellbeing of our people, putting in place working practices to keep our newly remote workforce on track, feeling supported, and able to work as effectively as possible.

As time goes on, and we emerge from the respond phase, we are able to reflect on the lessons from that period, develop a more agile and digital mind-set, and better understand how the experience will help shape our approach as we move forward.

Ultimately, we will emerge from the COVID-19 experience. The emphasis will turn to the future, and armed with enhanced resilience and confidence, born out of this experience, we will emerge fully equipped to embrace a new future in which we can evolve and thrive.

Although you may not openly acknowledge it now, throughout your experience of the pandemic you have been equipping yourself with the skills and capabilities required to be a true champion of the Future of Work.

Important as it is, this isn’t a result of simply adopting new digital capabilities - through virtual collaboration and learning, and remote service delivery - but in developing true resilience from facing the multiple challenges thrown at you daily, and navigating them in an agile and focused manner.

Those working in global mobility are used to managing challenges across multiple geographies and stakeholders as ‘business as usual’, whilst always keeping your cohort of employees as your central focus. Doing so during a pandemic has undoubtedly tested your abilities to the max, but also magnified your skills, enhanced your capabilities, and proved your ability to adapt quickly to swiftly changing circumstances.

Through this experience you have not only equipped yourself for what comes next, but have also created the foundation from which to develop the future of mobility.

Accept the challenge and thrive.

Read our article in International HR Adviser on the opportunities for global mobility in the Future of Work here: IHRA - The Future of Work - A Perfect Opportunity For Global Mobility

Read Deloitte’s COVID-19 related global insights here: Deloitte - Combating COVID-19 with Resilience

Danny Taggart, Deloitte

I am a Director in Deloitte’s Global Employer Services team, focusing on global mobility technology. I have 30 years’ experience under my belt in the global mobility technology and analytics area, and have worked with clients across all market sectors advising, developing and delivering innovative technology solutions and data analytics services. I have written and presented on various global mobility related topics, and as a former international assignee and a (once!) frequent business traveller I am well versed in the practicalities of this area!

I am based at the Deloitte London office, work across the EMEA region, and live on the south coast with my wife, our two teenage children and various pets!

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Is business travel compliance still fighting for a seat at the (data) table?

2020-02-20T14:52:46+00:00

By Sahil Shah, Consultant, Deloitte

While eating goose on Christmas day, my aunt informed me that goose fat has other uses. Roasting potatoes is the most obvious alternative use case but did you know it is sometimes used to protect swimmers in cold water?

I asked “Wouldn’t the potatoes taste odd if they were roasted in fat that had already been used on someone’s skin?” and then immediately realised the flaws in my thought process as someone politely challenged me “that’s probably not the sequence to use it in!”

Competing use cases for resources and the relative prioritisation can bring about different outcomes.

Business travel data is one of those resources in large organisations and its use case in ensuring regulatory compliance (for tax, immigration and social security) needs to be thought through.

In over 4 years’ worth of working in the business travel compliance space, a new client’s first question to me is always “How do we keep track of where our employees are travelling to and from?” The answer is almost invariably “What is the best source of travel data your organisation has?”

At this point most clients go silent and rummage through their organisation’s network directories to get hold of the procurement team’s Travel Management Company (TMC) relationship manager. The TMC relationship manager would often provide a spreadsheet with historic travel data in it, but without a full understanding of the ultimate use case for the data provided.

This sometimes presents a challenge. To simplify tech-speak, travel data used by procurement teams is often aggregated to analyse monetary spend, while travel data used for business travel compliance is often disaggregated to identify daily physical whereabouts. Data granularity for each use case is quite different, which means that shoe-horning the same dataset for each purpose might lead to sub-optimal results in at least one of them.

If one used goose fat from a swimmer’s body to roast potatoes, then I suspect the potatoes would end up absorbing a rather unpalatable flavour! Similarly, if one used goose fat from the potato baking tray to coat a swimmer’s body, then salt from the roasting process may well create discomfort for the swimmer.

The analogy here is that certain data formats might give you accurate monetary spending analysis but may omit interim locations visited by employees on multi-leg journeys. Other data formats might give you better accuracy on time spent in each location but can sometimes lead to double counting of ticket fares between locations. The sequence in which the use cases for data are presented can affect the overall outcome of the analysis.

The business travel compliance space is often forced to be the secondary use case for pre-existing data to avoid requesting data again. If you want to avoid the problems associated with this then it is worth asking the following questions.

How prominent is regulatory compliance when you tender for, negotiate with and engage with your Travel Management Company?
Is data reporting and transmission for this use case something you would stipulate in an RfP for a new Travel Management Company?
Or would you prefer to navigate the issue perhaps by doing something more bold – tracking employees using GPS data from corporate mobile devices?

If business travel compliance is on your 2020 agenda then consider discussing the data required to support this use, rather than relying on repurposing existing travel data sets. It can improve efficiency and drive more focussed business travel compliance.

If you’d like to know more on how to work with your TMC to ensure more accurate and useful data - or to debate the value of goose fat! - please feel free to contact me at sahilxshah@deloitte.co.uk. If you would like to know more about the issues arising from business travel and the services that Deloitte can provide, please click here.

Sahil Shah, Deloitte

I am a Consultant in Deloitte’s Global Workforce team and lead implementations of technology solutions for large organisations to manage their short term business traveller populations. I have 8 years of experience working across a span of disciplines ranging from expatriate tax advisory to data analytics and visualisation.

In my free time I enjoy watching stand-up comedy shows and solving maths riddles…

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My ‘future of work’

2020-01-09T15:52:17+00:00

By Danny Taggart, Director, Deloitte

The close of one year, and the page turn to the next is often a time for reflection. The advent of a new decade even more so.

December 2019 saw a rail strike in the UK which became the catalyst to make me ponder how much the way in which I work has changed over the last ten years. In years’ past, a rail strike might have severely hampered my ability to do my job. This one however hardly saw me miss a beat as my home office has become a regular work hub. To be brutally honest, avoiding a four hour round-trip commute and the Christmas crowds during the strike was something of a relief!

Being part of an organisation who actively support agile working is a huge benefit - particularly with two teenage children frequently requiring ferrying to/from evening sporting events. Being able to work from home allows me the flexibility to share the taxi-servicing and other parental duties. In fact, during my daughter’s football training I typically take my laptop with me and work from the training centre, and I’m not the only ‘soccer-parent’ doing this. Remote working and work-life balance in perfect harmony!

Agile working enables me to manage my diary appropriately. Home days are focused on conference calls, typically with clients and colleagues across Europe and beyond, as well as solo review work, where the peace and solitude enables me to really focus. Days in the office are for client meetings, face-to-face internal meetings and team-working.

My current role is EMEA-wide and requires a fair amount of travel - typically at least one business trip a month. So lest you are thinking this all sounds a little too ‘cushy’, I am no stranger to a 4.00am workday start to get to Heathrow, and my family are used to me arriving back from a trip at gone ten o’clock at night. I see this as quid-pro-quo however for the wider flexibility I have, as I do the later evening or early morning calls I sometimes need to take.

So my ‘workplace’ has certainly evolved. What about the actual work I do, and how I go about it?

My role has morphed many times over the last decade, and is currently most easily described as ‘consultancy’. As I tell my clients, “I have the best job in the world” - I get to talk to them about their challenges, ambitions and objectives, and discuss how Deloitte can partner with them - using digital and data analytic capabilities as appropriate - to meet those challenges. In years past I’d have been talking about specific technologies, today the discussion is all about ‘the challenge’ and how we can deploy our services to support. Just as my workplace has become more agile, so have my client interactions; more collaborative, more fluid, more interesting for all!

The other key change is the technology I use to undertake my work. Yes, I still use a laptop at home and in the office (and in the airport lounge and on the train!), and I am writing this blog on my tablet device, but, like those reading, the device that has really revolutionised my life is my phone.

Ten years ago it would have been impossible to imagine just how critical these little packages of silicon, indium and lithium would become to every aspect of our lives. It tells me when to go to bed, wakes me up, and reports how ‘good’ my sleep was. It enables me to connect and converse with my friends, business contacts, and sports/school groups. I book, manage and track my travel and oversee my financial affairs on it. I listen to audio-books and podcasts on the walk to/from the station, and watch films and TV on the train (when I’m not reading and sending emails!). I make purchases - coffee, a sandwich, last minute gifts, a family holiday! Occasionally I even use it to talk to someone...

The phone has become central to our lives. So much of my communication and interaction is now carried out through this little device that we often take for granted, supporting our ‘work on the go’ world.

Perhaps the most visual indicator that we’re already in this ‘future of work’ era are the sartorial choices of the workers of the day. Ten years ago I wore a suit and tie to the office every day, but gone are the days of the workforce being dressed in the finest that Saville Row, Austin Reed or M&S could offer. Simply standing in line for your morning coffee fully illustrates the melting pot of cultures and generational influences that now make up the modern workforce. Traditional “suits” rub shoulders with those in conformist business casual attire, as well as those in urban t-shirts, jeans and trainers. Likewise, many clients with a dress-down culture will be aghast if you rock up ‘suited & booted’. In my experience, moving away from the traditional ‘uniforms’ of yore can often result in more relaxed, honest and personal interactions. The reality though is that what you wear, or what you look or sound like, is irrelevant. It’s the quality and value that you can offer as a human being, and as a business advisor, that is of paramount importance.

And that’s not a bad note upon which to start the new decade... here’s to the next one, and wherever it takes us!

We’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on how your work-life has changed over the last ten years. Is your organisation already feeling the impact of the Future of Work? (Changing employment models, agile work patterns etc.). Please leave any comments below… If you’d like to know more about the Future of Work check out the Deloitte Future of Work website or drop me a line at dtaggart@deloitte.co.uk

Danny Taggart, Deloitte

I am a Director in Deloitte’s Global Employer Services team, focusing on global mobility technology consulting spanning mobility technology strategy, data analytics and innovation. I have 30 years’ experience under my belt in the global mobility technology and analytics area, and have worked with clients across all market sectors advising, developing and delivering innovative technology solutions and data analytics services. I have written and presented on various global mobility related topics, and as a former international assignee and a frequent business traveller I am well versed in the practicalities of this area!

I am based at the Deloitte London office, work across the EMEA region, and live on the south coast with my wife, our two teenage children and various pets!

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Does Global Mobility transformation always have to be Digital?

2019-11-05T09:20:11+00:00

By Demetra Karacosta, Associate Director, Deloitte

Having come back to work after a year out of the business, everyone is still talking about ‘digital’. Nothing new there, after all digital is an ongoing conversation and articles on digital have been in the media for many years now.

So, why are we still talking about digital and are we really doing anything about it in global mobility?

Let’s focus on the first part of that question first – why are we still talking about digital?

The requirement to be digital is becoming more and more critical. External forces are changing the way we work, where we work and who we work with - and technology is accelerating the pace of these changes. If organisations are to survive and prosper in this complex and continuously evolving environment, they must set themselves up to be able to keep up with the pace of change.

For me, this sentence defines what digital is:

Digital is the ability to respond to the rapidly changing external environment and adapt to meet the evolving needs of employees and customers.

Every organisation’s strategy needs to be digital at its core to drive the continual business transformation required to be successful in the digital age.

Just like the rest of the organisation, the team that manages Global Mobility is no different in its need to be agile and put its stakeholders at the heart of its day-to-day operations. Global Mobility functions have often struggled to demonstrate the value they add to the organisation and now more than ever need to position themselves as an essential strategic partner to the business.

To enable this objective, there is an increasing need for Global Mobility teams to re-evaluate their priorities and longer term goals with a truly digital focus: Global Mobility transformation should always be digital in today’s world.

Going back to the question of what organisations are doing about digital, they will generally be at a specific point along the digital maturity spectrum, often ‘exploring’ and ‘doing’ rather than ‘becoming’ or ‘being’ digital.

The majority of Global Mobility teams we speak to with a digital agenda are focused on specific operational aspects of being digital. These usually involve implementing some kind of technology, for example, to automate a manual process or create a virtual assistant to respond to employee queries. These technologies, when implemented effectively, increase operational efficiency and are a great step towards being more digital. This is just one piece of the bigger digi-puzzle however.

Are global mobility teams thinking strategically about being digital, i.e. actually planning and implementing a digital strategy? This involves thinking longer term about how to develop a global mobility programme which is agile and thus able to adapt to the external environment as well as the changing needs of the business. Of course different organisations will have different long-term priorities, but ultimately every organisation must work towards the goal of ‘being digital’ to enable them to keep up with the rapid pace of change.

Let’s be realistic too – typically many Global Mobility teams may not be quite ready for a full-on, technology-enabled digital transformation. A digital strategy is not finite however - it is continuous and iterates and evolves over time as needs change. In the short term, the focus may be on building and developing a Global Mobility programme at a more foundational level, or focusing on really developing one or two key areas of the programme, however this should always be done with the longer term digital vision in mind.

To stay ahead in this ever-digital world, global mobility teams should reassess their longer term vision, and work backwards from their desired outcomes to understand the smaller steps on the journey they need to take.

Nobody ever said digital nirvana would be easy…

Are you thinking about digital transformation in a global mobility context? Let us know how!

Demetra Karacosta, Deloitte

Demetra has worked in the Digital Transformation team for over 10 years, supporting companies to develop and evolve their global mobility strategies and operations. Demetra currently spends most of her free time at the zoo with her daughter whose favourite animal is a ‘woof woof’.

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How to develop global mobility Business Partnering skills

2019-09-06T09:27:02+01:00

By Clare Allen, Consultant, Deloitte

A global mobility business partner by our definition is ‘a global mobility professional who supports the business to meet their overall organisational goals through collaboration on global workforce and skillset requirements’. A successful business/global mobility relationship is one where ‘the business and the global mobility teams’ have a relationship built on trust’.

So how does this all look in practice and how can you develop business partnering skills?

Align your goals

Firstly, during conversations with the business, overall organisational goals need to be at the forefront of the discussion. For a global mobility professional this means you need to understand your business; to see things from the perspective of the business area you are aligned to, or even the business as a whole. Your conversations will go a lot more smoothly if you have common understanding and objectives; you are after all on the same team with the same goals! This goes some way in mitigating the sometimes ‘operations only’ perception of global mobility as it broadens the conversation from pure policy and process advice to overall organisational goals.

Our top tips:

Learn the language of the business so you can express your ideas in a similar fashion
Understand their strategy / vision and think about how mobility can play an enabling role
Incorporate business strategy and language into your day-to-day communication

Obtain a seat at the table

With the make-up of cross border travel diversifying across move types and locations¹, we are also seeing the scope and approach of global mobility teams expanding. You do not need to look too far into the past to recall a time when global mobility was focused mainly on the governance of policies. Now 45% of mobility teams are involved in attracting and attaining top talent, and 25% are involved in overseas expansion².

For global mobility teams to successfully manage this expanded scope they will need to use their subject matter expertise to contribute to strategic workforce planning conversations. To avoid potential cross-border compliance issues emerging after strategic decisions are made (e.g. country expansion, increased resource requirements, impact of acquisitions), it would be beneficial if global mobility were part of these conversations as early as possible. To ensure that mobile workforce issues are identified and, if necessary, addressed, global mobility requires a seat at the table!

Our top tips:

Keep an eye out for communications on business changes, e.g. winning a new client, business expansions etc., and get engaged to present the mobility perspective
Where possible get yourself invited to key stakeholder business meetings. Be bold - either ask in person to attend, or suggest global mobility issues where you can add value to obtain a spot on the agenda
Start with familiar, business relevant discussion areas, e.g. tax or immigration compliance, and then broaden the conversation, e.g. mobility talent selection
Emphasise data insights to add context and value to conversations, e.g. “did you know X number of assignees are at risk of redundancy at the end of their assignment due to insufficient roles being available in their home country?”

Be pro-active to build trust

Further, global mobility teams need to work pro-actively to build business relationships and develop trust. A business partner relationship built on trust is one where:

The business has faith in the capability and reliability of the global mobility team to deliver what’s best for the organisation and its employees;
The global mobility professional is credible, having the subject matter expertise to back up the issues they are raising;
The global mobility professional has developed a level of familiarity where they provide the business with a feeling of safety and security;
The global mobility professional clearly exhibits an understanding of the bigger picture of organisational focus and goals.

Any relationship is developed over time through meaningful interpersonal interactions. I encourage you to try some of these tips for yourself and develop your own take on what a global mobility Business Partner means for you and your organisation.

Do let me know how your relationships develop or if you’d like to talk further on how Deloitte can help you build your business partnering skills.

¹ Deloitte Global Workforce Trends 2018

² Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2019

Clare Allen, Deloitte

I am a Consultant in Deloitte’s Global Workforce team, advising clients on design and delivery of new Global Mobility approaches that align with their overall business strategy. This includes project management, communications, facilitating Labs and policy and process creation.

My latest career highlights include a short stint working on client site in Basel, Switzerland and designing & delivering a 2 day Global Mobility Business Partnering training to 30+ Global Mobility professionals in Brussels.

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Digital transformation - what does it mean?

2019-08-11T17:25:17+01:00

By Laura Burton, Associate Director, Deloitte

One of the hottest topics out there currently, both for our clients and also internally at Deloitte is digital transformation. But what does it actually mean?

Is it using robots to replace humans? No.
Is it using computers to do manual tasks? Kind of.
Is it about changing the way we do business through digitising our processes? Yes.
Would it be helpful to be talked through a real-life example of what this means in practice? Absolutely.

I have worked in Global Mobility services at Deloitte for the past 14 years and it’s fair to say that a lot has changed over the past decade (and a bit). When I started the job, one of my responsibilities was to print the email exchanges of the day (oh the poor environment) and label these up to be put in the files by the team of archivers who worked in the basement. This sounds horrific in today’s world and I’m pleased to say for all involved that we now have an electronic filing system and we are a paperless Firm.

A small and yet incredibly important example of digital transformation that is easy to observe and understand. Let’s also do a shout out to the printers that learnt how to staple during this window of my career too- whoop!

But what is the future of digital transformation and what should we be doing today that will transform the way we work tomorrow?

In the Global Mobility space the answer to this question currently is, data.

What data do we have available?
How clean is this data?
What can the data tell us?
How can we derive business value from the data?
Who should be using this data?

One of the challenges that many of our clients face is knowing the cost of moving an employee from A to B and how much it will cost the business once they are there. To truly make the best commercial/strategic decision over whether or not an employee should be assigned overseas; what is the cost/benefit to both the business and the individual?

Traditionally, businesses have relied on external datasets to inform their decision making process and to understand what the transfer and on the ground costs will be; in addition to using tax projection software to give them an indication of the tax cost. But how about flipping that process on its head and using the data you already have within the business to inform the budgets of the future?

For example, if you know how much you spent on your assignment population in the past 12 months, why not use this data to predict the costs of assignments in the next 12 months? Let’s also introduce external datasets to help account for how the costs of the past may change in the future.

Deloitte’s Mobility Forecaster tool does just that, using data analytics, machine learning and modelling we are able to predict ten times more accurately the cost of an assignment when compared to traditional methods. We are also able to compare, amend, redraft and store cost projections, instantaneously removing time spent preparing budgets in the first place. And how about being able to select a candidate that is cheaper by linking up your cost projection models with your HR database?

But how do we significantly transform the business using this tool?

We make it simple enough to be put in the hands of anyone in the business who needs to access and use it. Thereby making the whole process more streamlined and efficient.

To learn more about Deloitte’s Mobility Forecaster please follow the link here.

Laura Burton, Deloitte

Laura has worked for Deloitte since 2005 in Global Mobility Tax supporting companies with their globally mobile workforce including the digital transformation of processes within this field.

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