2024 KPMG Global Mobility Benchmarking Survey

Aligning mobility strategies with broader business objectives is seen as a top priority. This highlights the critical role of global mobility in achieving organizational goals and driving business growth. The global mobility function’s contribution to strategic value for the organization is taking precedence: being recognized as a trusted advisor to the business is the way forward. By reviewing and understanding the roles, strategies and pain points of your internal stakeholders you can ensure alignment with broader business objectives.

There is a growing need for adaptable mobility policies to meet changing business requirements, ensure compliance with tax and immigration laws, and support structured short-term remote-work capabilities. Additionally, there is a need for more structured approaches to better incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion into mobility programs, as many organizations have only basic levels of DEI integration. Although current programs offer tools for flexible and accessible global experiences, they are not perceived as aligning with broader DEI strategies. By regularly reviewing and updating mobility policies organizations can keep their global mobility programs flexible and aligned with changing business needs, as well as ensure compliance with tax, immigration, and employment laws.

The development, attraction, and retention of talent are top priorities for mobility, indicating a strategic shift towards talent within global mobility policies and practices. Alignment with talent remains one of the most significant opportunities for global mobility and is widely perceived by leaders as an area where the function can have the greatest strategic impact within their organizations. By regularly engaging with your talent stakeholders, you can understand their challenges and align mobility initiatives with broader talent management strategies bringing greater value to their roles. Organizations are encouraged to evaluate talent processes and document areas where global mobility should have greater involvement to support attraction, development and retaining of top talent.

Selecting the appropriate service delivery model to facilitate global mobility strategies and drive effective policies and behaviours is essential for the success of the function. Centralized or regional models for global mobility management can enhance consistency, control, and responsiveness to regional dynamics. When designing a structure leaders should consider both current and future needs of the business and choose a service delivery model that supports the business strategy to ensure it meets the needs of local markets, especially those expecting more global moves. By leveraging the skills and experience of supplier network, organizations can supplement their programs in areas needing additional expertise, technologies, or resources across both compliance and operations.

As organizations seek to speed up processes to meet the changing needs of the business, technology plays a strategic role in simplifying complex logistical tasks and improving operational efficiency in global mobility. AI adoption is on the rise, with many organizations planning to leverage AI for automating administrative tasks and enhancing decision-making. By understanding the technology available to your global mobility team through your supplier network, you can leverage specialist platforms that fit into your needs. By assessing where team spends their time, technology investments can be focused on streamlining mobility processes and automating routine tasks. Organizations are encouraged to establish a strategy for AI that aligns with business goals and ensures that AI delivers the most value enhancing the corporate or employee experience.