I have actual mobility case management experience in two extremely different mobility programs - a centralized and fully outsourced model with rigid operational metrics and highly specialized teams, and a small in-house mobility team with no key performance indicators. The starkly contrasting experience I gained from these organizations, as well as my subsequent experience implementing and supporting mobility management software with mobility teams of different sizes within multiple industries, have given me a deep insight into what makes mobility processes work.
End-to-End Process Design
Designing efficient and sustainable processes
International assignments require the development of an end-to-end process that accurately depicts the expected flow of activities in multiple locations, while also allowing a good degree of flexibility for eventualities that may occur at any stage.
In my experience, this is usually done through the identification of expected milestones unique to the organization or industry, but trends observed from actual international assignments must inform and instruct the refinement of mobility processes. Therefore, when consulted on end-to-end process design, I place additional emphasis on avoiding the incorporation of rigid elements by focusing on process objectives instead of individual tasks.
The nature of an international assignment is such that it can be effectively viewed as a new, fixed-term employment that is halfway between the home and host locations. As such, it would be fair to say that the global mobility function has the potential to trigger the whole set of activities at the joiner and the leaver stages of the employment life cycle, albeit done in different locations at the same time.
The mobility function, therefore, has a high level of overlap and interdependence with other HR functions - simply put, a change in another function may have a lot of impact on mobility processes, which should always be ready to accommodate such changes.
Key Performance Indicators
Tracking to achieve efficiency
Just like any service-oriented function, the mobility team's performance must be measured against some observable indicator for purposes of analyzing service delivery efficiency and effectiveness. In order to achieve this, the right data needs to be identified and its collection built into the relevant process steps that accurately capture the performance being measured.
My experience taught me that KPIs should ideally serve the purpose of guiding mobility teams in efficiently achieving their objectives; however, taken to extremes, they have the potential to suffocate and oppress team members, leading to loss of valuable skilled resources. Nonetheless, they are necessary to measure the success of the end-to-end mobility process.
Bearing in mind that processes evolve over time, there must also be a mechanism in place to review the continued relevance of such performance data to the process step being measured. For example, I observed that an operational metric that measured the work permit authorization stopped making sense over time, because it ultimately didn't achieve the goal of securing such work authorization as this depended a lot of other factors that were not being measured as they weren't in place when the metric was devised.
Report Analysis & Presentation
Getting the true picture from the right data and appropriate methods
In order to make informed decisions on a particular business strategy, it is crucial that one is able to identify the correct set of data to be extracted and apply appropriate assumptions when analyzing it, in order to derive logically sound conclusions. The information must then be presented in a way that best facilitates decision-making.
I have the necessary experience and skills which allows me to spot the data needed by the business in a given situation, apply logic and industry knowledge when I interpret and analyze that data, and then structure the information obtained to appropriately suit the business need.
I was frequently consulted on how to design reports during my time working in mobility software client support. For example, there was a client who wanted to know how long it took on average from the initiation of assignment to the signing of the assignment contract. When we delved deeper into the purpose of the report, what they actually needed was a way to identify gaps in the process that caused delays, which allowed me to help them design a set of reports that also looks at different parts of the system, because merely reporting on the contract signed date wouldn’t have given a full picture of the process gaps.
I am only able to properly design processes by effectively collaborating with clients and colleagues through the use of Interpersonal Skills, aided by a good understanding of Technology.
Want to know more?
You can read my blog posts on #global-mobility, check out my LinkedIn profile, send me an e-mail, download my CV, or click on the social media links below.
I'd love to hear from you! 😄