Boost Employee Retention with Strategic Global Mobility Programs

As the talent shortage continues, sourcing candidates has never been more challenging. High turnover only compounds this issue. Losing employees widens existing skills gaps, making it even harder to meet demand and keep pace with market trends.

What’s usually behind low retention rates? Many businesses risk losing talent because they’ve been slow to embrace workforce mobility and remote setups. 64% of workers say they’re more likely to stay with an employer that offers location flexibility.

HR managers often recognize the need for a mobile workforce but struggle to implement effective programs. The complexity of managing logistics, compliance, and costs can be overwhelming.

Leading companies make mobility a core part of their strategy. By standardizing and optimizing processes, they can keep employee relocations simple. Read on to see how you can copy their approach and develop a strategic global mobility program.

Defining key goals and challenges

While studies link global mobility to higher retention rates, the situation is complex. Employees leave companies for various reasons. Before you introduce any policies, you need to understand why you’re losing people and how mobility schemes can solve these issues.

According to Gallup research, these are the most common reasons for voluntary turnover:

• Inadequate compensation
• Poor management
• Organizational issues
• Lack of career advancement
• Overwork or scheduling issues
• Undesirable location

Conduct surveys to see why your employees are leaving and use this as the basis for global mobility policies. For example, could location flexibility help workers avoid the commute and alleviate scheduling issues? Or would some workers benefit from a lower cost of living in a foreign country?

Ideally, all your global mobility policies should tie into broader company objectives. See where you can improve employee satisfaction and make progress toward goals.

Judging your expansion capabilities

Check you have the resources and infrastructure to execute all your mobility schemes. Your company must be able to deliver on all its promises and support teams throughout transitions. If not, you could damage trust and undo all the benefits of your initiatives.

Here are the key factors when scoping out your global mobility program:

• Budget: Do you have the finances to invest in all the global mobility policies you want to introduce?
• Workforce: Does your team have the capacity to handle mobility schemes on top of their other responsibilities? Do you need to hire extra specialists?
• Technology: Do you have the right software solutions to manage remote, distributed teams?

What policies to include in your global mobility program

With these parameters in mind, decide which mobility initiatives to include in your program and create detailed policies. Everyone can refer to them and understand what to expect. This helps you standardize the relocation process and lower the risk of complications and delays.

Here are the different types of mobility policies you can pick from:

Work from anywhere (WFA)

75% of employees say they’d take advantage of a WFA scheme if their company introduced one. In fact, this benefit is so popular that many people prioritize it over salary or vacation days.

Given this high demand, businesses could attract and retain many skilled workers by allowing them to work from whichever country they choose.

When drafting your policy, the main consideration is whether any roles or departments are tied to locations. For example, employees who handle or oversee machinery must be on-site for some of their working hours. Identify these roles and clarify why they’re ineligible for the policy to maintain a sense of fairness.

Software companies are great candidates for WFA, as teams perform the majority of their work online. You can introduce a business-wide policy as Shopify and Dropbox have done.

Check out our Digital Nomad Policy Template for more ideas on what to include in your policy.

Workation

If your company can’t support WFA policies, consider introducing workations instead. That’s when employees travel and work for a temporary period. There are fewer logistics like tax and payroll to consider, and most roles have times when they don’t need to be on-site.

While workations are easier to manage than WFA policies, they’re almost as effective. 69% of employees said they’re less likely to quit after a workation.

If you’re interested in introducing a workation policy, look at Airbnb’s open letter to employees for inspiration. It discusses the benefits while mentioning the limitations.

Short-term assignments (STAs)

STAs are a popular mobility scheme, and many companies plan to offer more of them. As they become standard, employees are likely to expect them.

The main consideration is whether the benefits justify the costs. As STAs require employees to live abroad for up to 12 months, you need to pay expenses like travel and accommodation. However, assignees only have a limited time to acclimatize and start delivering results.

In your STA policy, require teams to provide clear goals and timelines so employees understand exactly what’s expected of them. Use engagement tools to stay connected and track their progress from afar.

Long-term assignments (LTAs)

LTAs can significantly impact retention, as 28% of employees say they’d move countries if given the option. They’re also the most common type of assignment.

Despite their popularity, LTAs can be complicated to plan and execute. The visa process is usually demanding as employees require sponsorship and work authorization. They also usually need to attend interviews and undergo background checks.

Partnering with a trusted service like Deel Immigration can help you keep the visa process simple. Our team takes care of collecting all the supporting documents and filing the forms. We keep you in the loop by enabling you to track the application status via our dashboard.

Deel can even guide you through the steps of establishing an entity and obtaining your sponsorship license. That way, you won’t encounter barriers in the early stages of your program.

Download our LTA policy template to explore what the process looks like in more detail.

Relocations

Almost half of businesses anticipate an increase in the number of permanent relocations. Employees are keen to move abroad to benefit from a lower cost of living, favorable tax rates, and access to better resources.

Relocations involve many of the same challenges as LTAs. The main difference is that you must help employees secure long-term residency and work authorization. As these permits often have strict conditions, some of your team are likely to be ineligible.

Outline the requirements for every country where you operate in your relocation policy. You can explain why your company can’t support certain roles. If employees are set on relocating, you can show them what steps to take to get closer to their goal.

Despite these limitations, permanent relocations are almost as common as LTAs. You risk losing top talent if you don’t support this mobility scheme when your competitors do.

Accounting for relocation costs

When it comes to individual cases, you may need to weigh up the financial benefits of retaining talent against the program expenses.

Here are the typical costs involved in employee relocations:

• Entity setup
• Sponsorship licenses
• Visa procurement
• Legal and immigration fees
• Tax equalization
• Housing and accommodation
• Travel tickets
• Shipping and storage

In many cases, workers are too valuable to the company to lose. Experts estimate it costs around three to four times a role’s annual salary to replace them. However, there may be rare times when you can’t justify the expense of the relocation.

Navigating compliance challenges

Compliance management ensures your business handles all the legal aspects of employee relocations correctly. This reduces the chance of complications of delays, fines, or lawsuits.

When relocations are smooth, employees are more likely to feel supported and valued by the company. There’s less chance that mobility initiatives will count against you, frustrating workers and damaging your reputation.

Here are the key areas of compliance to address in your policies:

• Employment contracts: When an employee works in a country for a set period, they’re subject to its employment laws. Require teams to update contracts accordingly or use solutions like Deel to generate localized agreements
• Immigration: Traveling workers must comply with the terms of their visa, or they risk deportation, and your company could lose its sponsorship license
• Payroll and tax: Most countries specify how you pay employees, withhold their taxes, and contribute to social security. For example, they may require you to follow a specific schedule for payments and reporting
• Permanent establishment: Hiring and paying employees abroad could trigger tax liabilities for your business. This means you may be subject to double taxation
• Data privacy and protection: When managing distributed teams, you’re likely to arrange cross-border data transfers. You must meet international standards of safeguarding, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to avoid costly fines
• Misclassification: The legal definition of an employee varies between locations. Check the laws or use contractor services like Deel when you move workers to see if you need to change their status

Supporting employees through transitions

Traveling and moving abroad can be stressful experiences. If you can support teams through this process, your mobility schemes are more likely to have a positive impact on employee engagement and retention.

Consider offering employees a combination of the following:

• Support for dependent visas
• Guidance with personal administration (like banking, enrolling in public services, etc.)
• Paid time off or flexible working hours during the move
• Cost of living adjustments
• Travel stipends
• Equipment delivered to their door

Deel offers equipment provisioning, which lets you order office equipment and furniture and send it to remote teams. You can ensure workers have everything they need when they arrive in a new location, no matter where they go.

Implement a strategic global mobility strategy with Deel Immigration

Mobility programs can boost retention by offering flexibility, career development opportunities, and new experiences. Implemented well, they can be a powerful strategic tool.

As location flexibility becomes increasingly popular, your business must invest in its global mobility program to remain competitive. You can continue to attract skilled workers and retain your top talent. Partnering with a leading immigration provider like Deel can help you maintain this advantage.

Deel Immigration offers you:

• Assistance with entity setup
• Assistance procuring sponsorship licenses
• EOR-sponsored visas for new countries
• Visa and immigration services
• Guidance with renewals
• Real-time updates via our Immigration dashboard
• Instant background checks
• Discounts on relocation packages
• Notifications about changing immigration laws
• Equipment management for remote, distributed teams

Ready to launch your global mobility program? Book a demo with a team member today.