In a time of radical shifts in working patterns, economic crises and rapidly developing world events, Global Mobility has never been more in the spotlight. In view of this, we carried out a spot survey to establish exactly what are the biggest mobility-related challenges GM professionals expect to face in the coming year. Here we look at the issues that topped the list:

International remote working was the standout challenge cited in our survey, cited by two in five respondents. This demonstrates just how much and how quickly the world has changed in a few short years; in our last survey, which was run in 2019 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, international remote working did not feature at all. International remote working, for all its benefits and popularity with employees, comes with a plethora of compliance risks and the issue of compliance itself comes fourth in our survey (see here for more information on tax risks and here for other compliance risks).

Unsurprisingly, the tough economic climate is behind the second and third biggest challenges for GM teams – managing the rising cost of living and cost pressures respectively. Cost pressures were cited by similar numbers of respondents in 2019 and present a persistent long-term challenge for many teams; but managing the rising cost of living – specifically in terms of inflation – was not cited as a major challenge in 2019. Rising relocation and housing costs have also been newly mentioned this year.

In these complex and ever changing times, contact us at ECA to help you navigate your team’s challenges and manage your mobility programme with robust policies, sound advice and data, and effective tools.