International Human Resources Management sounds like a very corporate part of People Operations? Welcome to the era where companies (including startups!) do not settle only for a local market, but grow across the globe and therefore need to secure success in their operations in different national environments without losing from sight neither global nor local priorities. So, there is a Global People Operations Director and a Talent Acquisition Manager and a Talent Manager - how aren't those people already enough to cover this part of HR/People Operations? What is the extra value from a Global Mobility Manager (GM Manager)?

The benefit

We will not go into too specifics of why, but rather agree that internationally mobile workforce is essential for achieving strategic objectives. The benefit of having an in-house GM function starts from the moment you decide to start hiring foreign talent. Efficient global expansion and growth is critical for today's companies and it relies on global staffing - employment of home, host and third country nationals to fill key positions who are able to work effectively in geographically dispersed operations for the benefit of organisational goals and objectives. The moment a company thinks to open offices in multiple countries, the GM functions becomes a necessity to creating the strategy and supporting in fulfilling the company business needs.

What does a GM Manager do?

In the beginning of GM functions, it was mainly solving the problem of making sure mobility has processes in place and is covering all possible compliance issues. From this administrative function it has evolved into a strategic and value driven business support.

• GM Manager is a strategic advisor to help in global workforce planning, ensuring that key experts within the organisation are placed in the critical roles that they are uniquely qualified. 

• GM Manager combines global mobility, talent and reward topics by aligning reward mechanisms with the best matched assignment types.

• GM Manager holds ownership of performance metrics and tracking while working with data on the purpose of risk identification, vendor performance, security and crisis management.

• GM Manager makes the global resourcing decisions from the programme cost planning and monitoring side.

• GM Manager has the global mobility function offer a measurable contribution and impact to the business objectives.

• GM Manager creates a competitive advantage for the company in their pursuit of global workforce.

What to expect

At the end of the day, the biggest risk and a waste a company could make is to have their GM Manager focus on only cutting costs and securing compliance, making it into a transactional and service-driven function. It is expensive to have an in-house administrative function trying to cover all GM field services that the company's talents might need. The strategic business partner, the GM Manager, should have it's focus on designing policy to ensure great employee experience, review development of new markets and plan global workforce and staffing. This is the counterpart that in your company is responsible for creating a positive talent experience but also knows all the ins and outs from costs to risks when putting together expansion plans into new markets. GM is not only providing support by relocation someone from A to B, but makes sure the right person has the right resources to make their relocation successful in a way that it is both beneficial from the career perspective of the talent and purpose oriented for the company.

Maximum efficiency

Managing the supply and demand of globally mobile professionals is what creates the competitive advantage for the company.

In my eyes, a GM Manager is a person who should be invited to join the management team to ensure a smooth international deployment and give them access to the business strategy, needs, changes, upcoming projects and the key stakeholders. How else could the GM strategy, policies, processes and operating model meet the needs of internal stakeholders if there is no way of having the big picture for the GM manager?

To end this post, sharing the Global Mobility Specialist Competencies needed to fulfil a strategic role and advise the business on Global Mobility issues that impact the effectiveness of the organisation.