5 Ways to Enhance the Employee and Internal Customer Mobility Experience

The evolution of talent mobility as a strategic enabler of organizational growth and talent development continues to drive change, both in the way mobility functions and the structure of the programs to support the organization.  Shifts in workforce demographics, a focus on compliance and a directive to rationalize program investment require that mobility play a more consultative role in guiding business decisions regarding global talent deployment strategy and execution.  Despite this requirement shift, many organizations are not evolving fast enough. As reported in SIRVA’s 2017 Annual Mobility Report, “Talent Mobility for Business Growth – Aligning Practices to Drive Organizational Impact”, over 43% of participants characterized the alignment of their organization’s mobility policy framework as “misaligned” to organizational and talent objectives.

Many organizations are focused on designing mobility policies that reflect the priorities of the organization and deliver support to maximize the employee experience.  However, if an organization does not consider how program support is best delivered (service delivery model), there is also risk of “noise” in a relocation program.  Business leaders must look at mobility programs holistically (policy and delivery) if the intent is to prioritize employee and internal customer (mobility user) experience.   To maximize the employee and internal customer mobility experience, consider the following:

1. Alignment of Mobility Strategy with Organizational Strategy

Is mobility a purely operational function, or is “smart” mobility critical to the success of organizational priorities such as growth and talent development? Mobility can play a role in candidate selection and assignment/relocation planning to advise internal business partners on potential candidate or location challenges that may impact the success of the assignment or relocation.  This role is significant if mobility is a key driver to achieve organizational priorities, and the mobility program and function must be structured in such a way to support these objectives.

2. Mobility Scope of Services

To evaluate your service delivery model, you will first need to review the types of services that the mobility function delivers to customers and employees (either directly or through a vendor).  You will then need to answer the big question: do our services (strategic advisory services, operational program administration, etc.) align with our defined mobility or organization strategy? If not, changes must be considered. Once you define your scope of services, you will need to evaluate the competencies of the mobility team to deliver the defined scope of services.  Do the skills and experience of team resources sync with specific job descriptions? Should the internal team or an external partner provide the service? Evaluating the answers to these questions will help you identify if there are more efficient ways to deliver your services.

3. Policy Structure and Evaluation Experience 

If mobility transformation efforts are solely focused on policy, you might be missing the bigger picture. While policy is a good place to start to enhance customer and employee experience, it cannot be the end of the conversation. Your overall service delivery model and prioritization of customer and employee experience must be at the forefront when approaching mobility transformation.  You must first define the desired experience and work backwards to ensure that your delivery model is structured in such a way to support the experience.

4. Vendor Partnerships

Smart partnerships between mobility and internal/external providers can provide consistency and enhancement to the overall employee and customer experience. Consider if you are successfully leveraging your partners’ knowledge, expertise, global reach, and operational infrastructure to best enhance your mobility program.

5. Technology

Evaluate if you are using all available technologies (both internal and external) to increase efficiency of service delivery through the automation of tasks, processes and workflows. Are there opportunities to provide self-service options to business stakeholders or relocating employees? Do you have enough visibility into activity status and information to reduce unnecessary engagement with mobility resources? Management reports and system integration are all very important when building mobility technology tools that enhance customer experience.

If you are not sure where to start, you are not alone.  Many organizations struggle to find the right balance between operational excellence and business/employee partnership, and often find that the mobility function is overly reactive versus proactive.  The implications of a positive customer and employee experience may extend beyond a one-time relocation, and may contribute to the perception of the overall mobility experience and function within the global workforce.  As such, it is critical that organizations focus on their philosophy for employee and customer experience and align the mobility function to support that philosophy.

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