The work of human resources is never complete. There are so many important initiatives in every organisation that require its attention: workplace culture; diversity, equity, and inclusion; learning and development; and hiring—just to name a few.
All of these tasks require a lot of time and effort to yield meaningful results. Unfortunately, many HR teams have limited resources. As a result, they have to prioritise a select few initiatives and do them well—or take on several and do them well enough. There are some jobs, however, that should only ever be done well. Global hiring is one of them.
There are a lot of complex variables at play in global hiring, such as immigration and international labor law. It requires expertise and specialised knowledge. Does that mean you should forgo global hiring if your resources are limited, then? Not at all.
There are several global mobility solutions your company can leverage to tap into the international talent pool without significantly increasing overhead, or having to compromise the quality of your recruiting efforts. There are three main options to consider when doing so. In this article, we’ve outlined these solutions and what you should consider when deciding which is right for your company.
1. Hire someone to work in-house
The first option is to hire a dedicated global mobility manager or specialist to work within your company. This makes sense if your organisation does high volume international recruiting or has a large workforce that’s globally distributed.
Sometimes companies hire one global mobility specialist to take over easy cases, and contract external support for complex cases. As mentioned, international hiring and workforce management is complex. Each country has its own particular regulations concerning things like labor compliance and tax law. Realistically, one person alone can’t navigate the bureaucracy of multiple countries.
For small to midsize companies, in-house global mobility management isn’t the best option. It’s highly unlikely that there will be an available budget to hire a team of global mobility experts—especially in younger startups.
Another in-house approach that some companies take is delegating global mobility management to existing staff, usually team members with little to no relevant experience. In almost every case, we recommend against doing this.
As mentioned in the beginning of the article, in the absence of an expert, there’s a high chance of making errors that could ultimately cost more than if you’d hired an experienced professional from the start. Additionally, global mobility-related tasks are complex and require a lot of time—a precious and limited resource in nearly every company.
2. Partner with a traditional agency
Another option for global mobility management is contracting an external service provider. Traditional global mobility (or employee relocation) agencies offer a variety of mobility-related services to companies and their employees. For example, immigration support, financial administration, cultural and language training, travel logistics, and more.
These agencies have been around for years and there are many established service providers across the world. One of the main advantages of working with an external agency is that they typically employ experienced and knowledgeable global mobility specialists. Additionally, as mentioned, they tend to provide a comprehensive service offering.
However, there are a couple of drawbacks to traditional relocation companies. For one, there’s usually a lack of transparency around the process and status quo of cases. This can be frustrating for HR teams, as they’re used to having full visibility into the hiring process. For talent, this can negatively impact the candidate experience, especially when there are delays or complications.
3. Embrace the next generation of global mobility
In recent years, global mobility solutions have evolved and adapted to the needs of modern HR teams. Service providers like Localyze have made it easy for companies to manage their global teams by combining the power of an all-in-one platform with a team of global mobility experts and partners. This careful pairing of technology and human support represents the next generation of global mobility solutions.
In order to attract, hire, and retain the best talent, many companies rely on HR tech stacks that are made up of multiple tools like applicant tracking systems, onboarding software, and more. It’s all but a given that these solutions seamlessly integrate with one another. This provides HR teams and people managers with a clear overview of their workforce and helps them provide the best possible employee—and global mobility— experience.
A global mobility platform supports employers with, as the name suggests, all of their global mobility challenges, from hiring international talent to renewing residence permits, relocating employees, processing remote work requests, and more. Here’s a more detailed overview of the features and functionalities you should expect from such a tool:
Ability to easily create new processes
Want to help your talent apply for a visa? Need A1 certificate for a short business trip? Interested in providing relocation support for a candidate’s family members? Whatever your global mobility need is, you should be able to start the process quickly and easily.
Other useful resources: Checklist for applying for an A1 Certificate
Pre-check assessment
Inevitably questions will come up when creating new processes or assessing a hiring pipeline with international candidates. You can get answers to them by submitting a pre-check assessment, which allows users to send their queries to case managers.
Transparent dashboard
HR teams should be able to easily keep track of all ongoing cases: relocations, visa changes, business trips, workations, temporary transfers, and more. Employees should also be able to monitor the progress of their cases. A centralised and transparent dashboard makes that possible.
Other useful resources:
Knowledge portal
A collection of resources and answers to frequently asked questions for HR teams and talent.
Remote policies and requests
For a global mobility program to be successful, it’s critical that all stakeholders have easy access to relevant and up-to-date policies. For example remote and hybrid work policies. Additionally, employees should be able to easily make remote requests.
Integration with other HRIS
Make your HR tech stack work for you—not the other way around. Choose a global mobility platform that integrates with existing HR tools.
HR teams should expect the above-mentioned features from an all-in-one global mobility platform. The combination of automation with human support provides greater transparency into global mobility processes, minimises workflows, and creates a positive experience for both users and employees.
The bottom line
HR leadership is essential in developing a workplace culture that emphasises employee well-being, development, and success. This can be difficult to achieve, however, when there are limited resources and inefficient processes.
In many HR teams, there are limited resources, which affects the size and scope of initiatives that can be taken on. Some companies choose to prioritise a small number of projects, whereas others opt for prioritising many at the expense of overall quality.
There are certain tasks, however, like international hiring, that require excellence and should only be performed by experts. Don’t let that deter you, though. A modern global mobility solution is the perfect choice for HR teams that want to attract and hire the best talent from across the globe.
Want to learn more about global mobility? Check out our Global Mobility Basics guide or book a Localyze demo now.
