The issues of risk management and compliance came sharply into focus when, during the preparatory discussions for a panel session at our recent EMEA Summit it emerged that the Head of Global Mobility at a huge insurance, savings and investments multinational said that in response to the UK’s vote for Brexit, the company was busy checking the Right to Work status of some 17,000 employees – and that the work was being carried out as a matter of some urgency.

Just one month before that, FEM held a London Chapter Meeting at KPMG in Canary Wharf where concerns were also raised about the increased level of scrutiny and cross-border data sharing by tax authorities, so it became clear that there were important questions that needed to be addressed.

Economic and political upheavals

The last six months have seen unexpected results in the UK’s EU referendum and the US election, and now, Italy too has returned a referendum result that seems to have surprised most commentators, resulted in the resignation of the country’s Prime Minister and will undoubtedly have far-reaching consequences for all those moving and trading in and around Europe. Political and economic upheavals are not the only challenge however, in the search for new markets and cost-efficient production, businesses are increasingly venturing into less familiar and more challenging locations and Global Mobility and HR professionals need to be able to locate their employees in the event of a natural or man-made crisis.

It can be difficult therefore to know which is the greatest risk for an organisation – is it financial, operational, reputational or simply the fundamental issue of the safety of employees?

On the front line

Global mobility professionals are in the front line here and must ensure that their policies are both responsive to sudden change and fully compliant. So, here at FEM we have commissioned an industry-wide survey:

Complete the survey > Managing Risk and Compliance in an Uncertain World

This will form the fifth of our annual Policy in Practice reports and is a thorough examination of the current state of Global Mobility policy in regard to the many aspects of the profession that are open to risk. We are asking key people in the industry to take just ten minutes at most, to respond to questions about where risk exists and how to define it, how it is managed in their organisation, how it addresses issues of security, health and safety, tax and social security compliance, immigration law, business travel, cultural agility, technology and housing and schooling options.

Please make sure that you have your say, just click on the link above, or here and fill in the survey before Monday 12^th December.

The results should deliver a fascinating snapshot of the current state of the GM industry, but most importantly the report will enable practitioners to gain insight into best practice and use that to shape their own policies and programs.

All answers will of course remain anonymous, but participants can also enter a Prize Draw to win one of three £100 Amazon vouchers – something that could be very useful at this time of year!

The FEM 2017 Policy in Practice Report will be launched at our Houston Conference February 28th 2017.

We do hope you will be a part of it.