Analytics in Motion: How Having a Solid Grip on Data Can Transform Global Mobility

The data we hold has the potential to unlock invaluable insights that are reshaping the way we understand, manage, and optimize global mobility. 

 This article was originally published in the Q4 2023 issue of Mobility magazine. 

In an era characterized by unprecedented connectivity, the dynamics of global mobility are rapidly evolving. Every move across borders generates an avalanche of data. This information holds the potential to unlock invaluable insights that are reshaping the way we understand, manage, and optimize global mobility.

Data analytics has been a hot topic within our industry for a while now, and we often get questions from our clients on how to do it better. Imagine harnessing the power of data analytics to predict move patterns, enhance the expatriate experience, and ensure seamless immigration processes. Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to revolutionize data analytics, but there is still a lot that needs to be clarified about its potential and limitations. In this article, we delve into the transformative impact of data analytics on global mobility, exploring how it is empowering teams. 

A Wide Variety of Data

Each global mobility team sits on top of a lot of data, and the more assignees your team looks after, the more data there is at your fingertips: where your mobile employees are, where they come from, where they are next going, when they started and finished their assignments, etc. The teams handle salaries in both home and host countries, pension setups, bonuses—and, of course, assignment-specific benefits and allowances. You have access to the gender balance of the assignee population, the family compositions, children’s dates of birth and which schools they go to, and what kind of pets they have. Nationalities, citizenships, passport numbers, visa expiry dates, how much their rent is and when it’s up for renewal … the list goes on and on. However, unless data is gathered and analyzed, the relevance at a macro level could be lost. In addition, more data does not automatically equal better data if you don’t know how to use it to your advantage. 

Global mobility data is both qualitative and quantitative and goes beyond what any regular HR team normally has access to—and for good reason. While your employer doesn’t usually need to know how many kids you have and how old they are, if you are sending someone on assignment, it’s crucial to have this information to make sure that they are appropriately taken into consideration when the assignment package is drawn up. It isn’t that global mobility is overly nosy; it is all serving the single purpose of making sure processes, packages, and support levels are right for each assignment. 

Nonetheless, not all teams are able to convert this privileged access to information to their benefit. A lot of larger programs use technology, but that alone doesn’t mean they are utilizing any analytics capabilities. After all, the world’s most popular assignment management system is still Microsoft Excel, despite huge interest in AI. If your data is scattered around dozens of tabs in hundreds of spreadsheets, or if you’re not taking advantage of the full analytics capabilities of the reporting suite of your assignment management system, it’s likely that it isn’t being harnessed to its maximum potential. Managing data manually takes up a lot of time, and it doesn't exactly lend itself to convenient analysis. When COVID-19 hit and companies realized they had employees stranded in multiple countries without a clear overview of who was where and whether they needed assistance, this lack of oversight became evident. Knowing where your workforce is shouldn’t be this difficult in this day and age; in fact, it should be considered essential for any employer. 

Improved Cost Control

Everyone involved in global mobility knows mobile employees are more expensive than regular ones—the average assignment is three to five times more expensive than keeping that same employee in their home role in the home location. However, the overall cost can still come as a rather bleak surprise to the business, especially if cost estimates are not part of the assignment sign-off process. The employers that run cost estimates as part of their planning are typically not only better aware of their cost but also their value. 

Typically, a cost estimate will cover four components that make up the total cost of the package: salary, annual benefits, one-off relocation costs, and tax and Social Security liabilities. The salary component makes up a large portion of the total costs and includes any additional allowances and pay adjustments, such as mobility premiums or bonus payments. The annual costs include the ongoing benefits provision (such as housing, school fees, or a company car), whereas the one-time costs occur at the start or end of an assignment (things like a pre-posting medical, flights, and shipping). Lastly, the tax and Social Security contributions are calculated on the total value, and they have the potential to make up a significant proportion of the overall move costs. 

If you run cost estimates, and especially if you do so through an assignment management system, it is far easier to stay on top of what your globally mobile workforce is costing the organization. It is also easy to start analyzing the variety of cost areas that make up the total. For example, you can focus on costs for a particular region (How much do my U.S. outbounds cost? What about U.S. inbounds? Or Americas as a whole?), or policy type (What is the difference between home-based packages and local ones?), or even drill down to the level of individual package components (How much are we paying for housing globally, regionally, and per location?). 

Methodically utilizing cost estimates for your entire population also unlocks the potential for making a comparison between your actual costs and the forecasted ones. This is something that is commonly on the radar for global mobility teams; however, many struggle with the collation of the actual costs data, and thus give up on the exercise. Having said that, running the comparison will illustrate whether you are over- or underestimating your assignment (and overall program) costs. The easiest way to compare your invoiced amounts and the forecasted ones is to rely on a service provider that manages all payment data (or even the actual payments on your behalf!) integrated into your assignment management system. Alternatively, you could run the comparison before approving any invoice. 

Being able to run this level of cost reporting and analysis is a significant asset to becoming more strategic. Business is driven by numbers, and if you can deliver valuable insight to unlock better business decisions, your role as an adviser to the business is going to be greatly valued. Often, global mobility can be perceived as the blocker—because we know the repercussions if relocations and compliance aren’t done properly, and we tend to say that out loud—but changing this perception into a business and growth enabler will elevate the status and importance of the function. Who wouldn’t prefer to be part of the planning process rather than just the admin team that implements what was decided behind closed doors?

Easier Compliance Adherence

In the ever-evolving compliance landscape of global mobility, where authorities around the world are looking for ways to increase their revenue, two critical pillars stand out: tax and immigration. When individuals cross borders, the complexities of tax regulations and immigration requirements can pose formidable challenges. However, utilizing data analytics within your global mobility program offers a great solution, harmonizing your processes and making it harder to find yourself noncompliant. By mitigating risks, your global mobility team can fix issues before they escalate, saving the company from costly penalties if they are caught breaking the rules, even inadvertently. 

Everyone moving to another state or country triggers tax implications. Each jurisdiction wants to maximize its taxable income, and in recent years we have seen more and more countries enforce earlier liability cutoffs for people crossing borders. How can data analytics help? Tracking people and days spent in the country becomes a much easier task if you are using technology. You can set it up to pre-emptively flag likely problem cases so you know where to expect trouble, or at least know those cases are likely to require more care or manual input. Alternatively, you can be notified when tax is about to be triggered and take appropriate action at that point rather than after a limit has been breached. Additionally, tracking international remote work requests is another way to improve compliance and collate data trends. For example, you could analyze whether the number of requests has remained at the same level as in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, or how long they are on average, and use the findings to drive your policy. 

Moving talent around the world is closely intertwined with immigration, and meeting the regulatory requirements of host countries is crucial to ensuring your employees can continue to live and work in the host location. Data-driven systems facilitate meticulous record-keeping, ensuring that documentation requirements are met for each relocation. Saving everything systematically means that when you’re asked to produce any documents, it’s quick and easy to retrieve the paperwork because it is not scattered across multiple locations. Data analytics can also help streamline the visa and work permit renewal process because all the information—including expiry dates—is stored centrally. This means automatic notifications can be sent out when it’s time for a renewal process to kick off, saving you from manual tracking. 

Actionable Insight to Drive Decision-Making

Data analytics plays a pivotal role in measuring, understanding, and optimizing key performance indicators—and I don’t just mean individual employee performance, but how well your program overall is performing over time. How satisfied are your employees, and are they progressing to more senior roles after coming back? Imagine you had a location that was a bit of a hotspot for failed assignments, and by analyzing the factors behind people’s decisions to go back home or leave their jobs, you spotted the issue and adjusted your policy; most likely, since the change, failures would no longer trend higher than in other locations.

When data is used well, global mobility teams can harness its power to identify trends, support decision-making, and drive efficiencies. You can transform raw data into actionable insights; for example, consider a manufacturing company planning to open a new factory in a new country. Assessing its talent pool based on previous successes could help it build the best team to get the new facility up and running. Furthermore, analytics could show how much could be saved by hiring a team locally, or by choosing a commuting arrangement from abroad rather than sending someone there for two years accompanied by their family. 

We all know that going through a major policy change is a huge, time-consuming process, but we are also aware of how frustrating it is to keep making the same exceptions repeatedly. Data analytics enables you to identify what is working and what needs tweaking. This process of continuous improvement ensures your program keeps up with a world that’s constantly evolving, not only in terms of remaining compliant but also meeting the expectations of your employees. Working smarter with data can lessen the requirement to go through disruptive policy and process reviews in the future. Keeping your program fit for purpose means you stay ahead of the curve and gain a competitive advantage. 

Unlock Your Full Potential 

In conclusion, data analytics is a catalyst for transformation for all of us in global mobility. By leveraging data-driven insights, global mobility teams can enhance efficiencies, improve compliance, and raise their strategic decision-making profile. Embracing data analytics ensures that global mobility programs remain adaptable and effective in a rapidly changing world because its power is not only in its ability to interpret the past but also in its capacity to shape a dynamic and successful future. 

Anni Keranen is a software sales specialist at ECA International. She is a technology enthusiast with nearly a decade of global mobility experience. She can be reached at anni.keranen@eca-international.com.