mobility matters, S5E2: from chaos to clarity! is your mobility program crisis-ready?

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Chris: Hello, and a very warm welcome to today’s episode of Mobility Matters. I’m Chris Cole, Director of Global Talent Mobility here at Cartus, and I am so excited to be joined by my fantastic colleague Angela Tegg. Angela, welcome. It’s great to have you here with us today.

Angela: Thank you so much, Chris. It’s great to be here.

Chris: So, in this episode, we’re going to be shining a light on crisis management in the context of global mobility, and it’s a topic that we know our listeners are interested in, but perhaps haven’t had the opportunity to dedicate a lot of time to, and I think you know, crisis planning can often slip to the bottom of the to-do list until it becomes the only thing on the list, right. And because these events aren’t daily occurrences, many teams are either at the kind of very start of building a plan or maybe feel that theirs could use a tune up, which you know we all know that’s absolutely normal, but as we’ve seen across the years, from Brexit’s mobility ripple effects to COVID to conflicts and weather-driven kind of disruptions, preparation makes an enormous difference, right.

So, Angela, I know you led a round table on this at the FEM EMEA Summit in London last year. Do you want to share some, some details of the events?

Angela: Yeah, absolutely. And we had some really great discussions, and as you rightly mentioned, we discovered that many companies actually don’t have a formal plan for crisis management, and actually, as we were talking, what we found was even where plans do exist, global mobility teams are not always included very early on in the communication pathways, and as we sort of examine some of those discussions, we found that message tracks really do have to differ for those individuals who are on assignment, compared to those who are in a location on a more permanent basis, or perhaps even as a business traveler, and as I was talking to those individuals and companies that joined the round table discussion, it seemed like some had crisis management plans, but they actually weren’t part of it until really late on in the whole process, which was very interesting.

On the flip side, I was actually joined by somebody who had crisis planning completely tied up and done, so it was really good to hear both, then everything in between, from totally nailed it to haven’t got a clue where to start.

Chris: Excellent, and as you pointed out, right, there’s lots of people listening today that either have not considered it or perhaps in the early stages, right. So, and that’s why we thought today would be good to round up our top 10 tips to help people get cracking and equip them with the straightforward plan that they can actually use, so we’ve got this handy written guide of these 10 recommendations that you can grab from our website, cartus.com or just follow the link from wherever you’re tuning in. Now, I think from this point, Angela, do you want to kick us off with point number one?

Angela: For sure, no worries at all. So, tip number one, I’m going to say achieve organisation alignment, and the reason I kicked us off with this one is because crisis management, well, actually, really, any topic needs to begin with clarity. Once everybody understands their roles and responsibilities, and I definitely think it helps prevent, or at the very least, reduce duplications or gaps in knowledge and service. I think we saw, particularly when there are emergency situations, what is important for one group is not necessarily important for another, and so can slip through the cracks, so once anybody is clear on what their interaction and their expertise is going to need to be, it definitely helps move the way if we have individuals, for example, and representations and groups who understand visa or housing requirements, for example, they’ll all play a really vital role in successfully navigating crisis management. So, if we think about emergency relocations and where they may be needed, having representation from groups who understand, say, visa or housing requirements, for example, they will be able to navigate that crisis management perhaps more successfully than others who are maybe not so familiar with that particular topic. If we consider that clear and community consistent communication really does help individuals feel safe and informed, it’s a small safety net in amongst what can be quite an uncertain time when people are reacting very quickly, perhaps to things that aren’t planned.

Chris: Absolutely, and I think you made some excellent points there, and I’m now going to bundle the next two tips together, because frankly, we think that they go hand in hand, starting with tip number two, which is plan, plan, and plan some more, and yes, the repetition is deliberate, right? And here’s the thing, I think in global mobility, proactive planning isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s the backbone of the resilience here, so crisis management really exposes whether those plans exist or whether we’re kind of relying on crossed fingers, and when we talk about planning, we’re talking about a few kind of specific things, we’re talking about tracking geopolitical hotspots, right. So, paying attention to regions where tensions are rising or stability is shifting, and we’ve all seen how quickly a situation can change. Monitoring weather patterns in key destinations, because those climate-related disruptions aren’t rare anymore. We’ve seen extended monsoon seasons, severe storms, flooding, and they can all have a huge impact on travel and housing. And, as recent as this weekend we saw the weather impacting the East Coast of America, shutting down airports. So, these incidents are more and more common, and as you mentioned, in terms of immigration, you know, delays, something as simple as a temporary embassy closure or an immigration policy change can cause a cascade of issues and downstream impact, and then we get down to even things like keeping travel documents current, and I promise you, no one wants to be the person discovering an expired passport in the middle of an evacuation scenario, right? That’s not a fun conversation to be having. And future, you will be saying, “Thank you for kind of staying ahead of that particular topic, for sure.” So, I don’t think planning is going to be able to stop a crisis from happening, but it will absolutely determine how smoothly we can get through it.

Angela: Almost feels like you need a crystal ball here, Chris.

Chris: Wouldn’t that be great? And now it’s going to talk about the partner to tip two, which is future proofing your relocation policy, so if planning gives the direction, then policy flexibility gives us that maneuverability, and in a crisis, you need both working together. So, future proofing your relocation policy is understanding and building in flexibility, so that teams can adapt quickly when conditions change, right? Being inclusive and acknowledging the diverse needs of different families and circumstances, and also incorporating sustainability and long-term thinking, not just what’s needed today, but what your workforce might need in six months or a year from now, and it’s really important to review it regularly as well, so it doesn’t slowly become outdated or unfit for purpose, right. So you know, we don’t want policies to be set in stone. They should be living documents but making them adaptable enough to reflect new realities and new risks. I was thinking about examples here, and when we were looking at the COVID situation, right, traditional temporary housing markets were impacted significantly following that crisis, right, there was limited availability in popular expat locations, and your hands can be tied, but if you have flexibility around cap adjustment or extended temporary living for certain criteria, you’re giving yourself more levers to pull in those situations, so I think we’ll all remember those days, Angela, working through COVID and helping to support our clients, but yeah, coming up with creative solutions in advance is definitely going to help your mobility teams. So now we’re going to talk about the people behind the plans.

So, Angela, do you want to talk us through tip number four?

Angela: Tip number four, yeah, these are really going hand in hand. Knowing your relocating employee population is tip number four as a recommendation, and it really is one that I think we should probably be following anyway, even outside of a crisis. Chris, you mentioned COVID. If you think about the Ukraine crisis, there are so many things that threw into the headlights, really, that there was people had or companies had a handle on where some of the population was, but not all, they knew where their families were with individuals, but not in every case, and that actually we became very reactive, which meant a little bit further down the line there are things that perhaps companies have had to address, so I think really understanding the whole picture when managing a mobility programme requires accurate and up to date tracking of the population, because that really does help to make for quicker decision making, and actually one of the things, if we think about the knee-jerk reaction, sometimes we have to make, we have seen the other side of that, where perhaps we moved people from one location very quickly to another, and six months down the line, because we haven’t been able to move people back, we tipped into some tax discussions and immigration complications, and that was because we made very quick decisions that didn’t necessarily incorporate as many individual considerations as we might have liked, we applied, I think, across many organisations a bit more of a one size fits all approach than perhaps ideally you would have liked. Those things happen if a mass evacuation is necessary, then frankly, we’ll do what keeps people safe first and foremost, and the compliance aspect might, in those certain circumstances, become the secondary consideration, but definitely knowing who your population is, and ideally what stage they are at, and within their relocation, I would say is a key element for tip number four.

Chris: Yeah, and I think that last piece there isn’t only relevant during a crisis, right? Knowing your population, where they are, the status of the move, is something that actually strengthens mobility programmes, right? And the same is true for the next tip, because good communication is kind of one of the most powerful tools we have in global mobility, so whether we’re navigating a major disruption or simply guiding through a normal relocation journey. Tip five is about implementing strong communication strategies, and when we say strong, I don’t think we’re necessarily saying we mean more, we’re saying clear, consistent, and coordinated communication, right, that can cut through the noise when people are overwhelmed or unsure of what’s happening, and I think the top 10 guide really makes an important point on that around clear consistent communication reduces uncertainty, builds trust, and maintains stability during moments when everything else to the employees may feel unpredictable, and even to ourselves at some points, right?

You know, we don’t have all the answers yet. There can be a misconception sometimes that you know we shouldn’t communicate until everything is perfectly confirmed, but actually one of the worst things to do during a crisis is to go quiet, people will fill silence with their own worst case scenarios, right, so the goal isn’t perfection, it’s transparency, letting people know what you do know, what you don’t know yet, what you’re working on, and setting the expectation around when they can expect updates or information, I think, and that alone can dramatically lower anxiety levels for employees who are far from home, unfamiliar circumstances, and that reassurance is priceless. I would say.

Angela: 100%. I think that even saying no news is available lets people know that they’ve not been forgotten, and like you say, it’s being worked on even if an answer isn’t available immediately. 100% agree.

Okay, so the next two recommendations that I really wanted to talk around are collaboration and vendors, so if we think about tip number six, I want us to think about building strong supplier partnerships, we really cannot underestimate how important local expertise is, absolutely invaluable, so we really do recommend discussing your expectations with your suppliers and partners, because all of that feeds into tip number one that we discussed a bit earlier on, so we think about achieving organisational alignment, and then tip number seven, another do not underestimate is the on the ground support. Stressful situations require both practical and emotional support, and our local partners, who are often experiencing some of those same situations, are really best placed to be empathising and supporting your employees and other suppliers at the same time.

Chris: Okay, so now we’re going to move on to our next pair of tips, which are tip number eight, maintain compliance, and tip number nine, ensuring financial readiness, and I’ve grouped these together because they’re really all about due diligence. These are the get your ducks in a row before you need them tips, and we definitely think that future you is going to be very grateful, right? If you do that.

So, tip number eight, compliance might not sound glamorous, but in a crisis, it becomes absolutely critical. The reality is that regulatory environments can shift very quickly during a crisis. Immigration, we’ve got tax rules, data privacy restrictions, and even something simple as a cross-border move can require change overnight, right? So, if your organisation isn’t keeping a close eye on these requirements, or if your documentation isn’t up to date, you can find yourself in a very stressful situation that could turn out to be quite expensive as well, so if we think about immigration rules, can tighten suddenly. Do we know where our people are? Are the travel documents valid? Are their visas compliant with local laws? And are we documenting every cross-border movement properly? Those are the questions, really, for the mobility teams to be thinking about. And these are really hypothetical questions, we’ve seen during recent global events how quickly borders can close, how visas can suddenly need re-evaluation, and how tax residency rules can shift, right? So your mobility team is right in the middle of all of that. So, compliance isn’t just paperwork, it’s about stability, and it’s the difference really between being able to move someone to safety and potentially not. So, the guide recommends staying extremely close to your immigration providers, stay close to your HR teams, because that’s where the most accurate real-time information is going to live, and proactively building compliance and crisis planning into your annual review cycle means you’re not scrambling when a crisis does hit.

So now, closely linked, I suppose we’re looking at tip number nine here, which is ensuring financial readiness, and this is where the practical and the emotional side of crisis management really do collide, because in any crisis, whether it’s political unrest, an evacuation, extreme weather, the need for immediate access to funds becomes very real very quickly, and when we’ve been through these kind of situations with our clients before, the things that we need to think about for the employees are last-minute flights, temporary accommodation, what are the basic essentials they may need, emergency transportation, medical support, the new particular policy items, so if your financial mechanisms are slow, or if they’re rigid, or buried under layers of approvals, that delay becomes more than an inconvenience, it becomes an obstacle to safety and employee well-being, and the guide really does emphasise building robust fast-acting financial processes that can support and be provided without delay, so whether that’s pre-approved emergency budgets or a rapid release of funds or just clear sign off processes that can activate automatically in a crisis, those are really going to be where the due diligence is going to pay off.

So, you can do this work now in the calm, you won’t be trying to figure out who approves what, while someone is stranded at an airport with no accommodation available, so that financial readiness is also a key signal of care. I would say, so when employees know that their companies will support them quickly, it builds that trust that lasts a long time after a crisis has passed. With that, I will hand back to Angie to take home with tip number 10.

Angela: Thank you so much, Chris. Tip number 10 feeds into everything that we’ve been talking really over the past while. Above all else, we need to be agile because it is so important to remember that whatever we plan or whatever we think we’ve got in place, you’ve just mentioned it can quickly come undone when dealing with things that are unexpected in world events or political unrest. We have to ensure that the plan, whatever and however great it is, does allow for flexibility, feeds into staying in touch with your suppliers on the ground, it feeds into having had all of those early discussions with your key stakeholders, understanding who can say yes to something that may have been a no yesterday, because something has changed in the political world. We just need to remember that what works today may very well not work tomorrow, and it’s really important to avoid a one size fits all approach, whilst fitting everything within the frameworks that we’ve been talking all the way through this, so it’s definitely a hard one, but agility is going to be the key to keeping your employees, Chris, you mentioned it a minute ago, making them feel safe.

We’ve got a duty of care to make sure that they feel supported along the way, and as we think about agility within a compliance circumstance, understanding that there may be a risk and what level of risk the organisation is willing to take is also a key part within that agility discussion, so yeah, above all else, the best laid plans often don’t work out quite how you think they are, and sometimes that’s okay. We just definitely need to be agile in amongst all of these things that require such good planning, if that’s not too much of a contradiction,

Chris: And there you have it. It’s our full top 10 tips for crisis management in global mobility: 10 straightforward, practical, and hopefully action-sparking ideas that you can take back to your teams and start working with right away. So, whether you’re at the beginning of building a crisis plan, if you’ve got a solid foundation already that just needs a fresh coat of paint, we hope today has given you a few round goals and a bit of clarity, and maybe even the confidence to take that next step.

Now we know the truth is that crisis management isn’t something any of us hope to use very often, but having the right structures and support in place can make all the difference when the unexpected inevitably happens, and as you’ve read throughout today’s conversations, mobility teams play a huge role in keeping employees safe, informed, and supported, sometimes at the most vulnerable moments. So, Angela, thank you so much for joining me today, for sharing your experience and for bringing such thoughtful insights to the table.

Angela: Well, thank you very much for having me. It’s been a pleasure,

Chris: And of course, a massive thank you to all of the people tuning in to this episode of Mobility Matters. We genuinely love sharing these conversations with you all. Don’t forget that the written guide with all 10 tips, plus some additional details, is just a click away, you’ll find a link in the show notes or directly on cartus.com. Great resource to use as a starting point for your own planning workshops.

And if you ever have a topic, you’d love us to dive into, a question you want answered, or a challenge you’re facing in your mobility programme, do reach out. You can email us anytime at cartussolutions@cartus.com. We truly love hearing from you, and your ideas help shape future episodes. With that, that’s it from me now. Thanks again for spending your time with us. Take care and see you in the next episode of Mobility Matters.