11 Oct Recruiting and Relocating Employees? How to Stay Sane as a Global Mobility Specialist

If you’re a Global Mobility Specialist, you think in terms of how the world is within easy reach. If you’ve been at it for many years, then you’re ahead of everyone else in thinking how the world can’t be even more flatter. Companies hire talents everywhere, after all. This makes your work global in nature even if, say, you’re just situated in one location in the United States.

It can be a very stressful job, because beyond looking for talent on a global scale, you also have to know the intricacies of immigration law, administrative and human resources functions, some accounting procedures and a variety of complex technical and project-related duties. You may even find yourself assisting in the relocation of a company’s new hire.

As more companies do business globally, you’ll have to think you’re in more than one place or country with talents you can reach out to immediately. It can be a stressful job, because in many cases, your potential hire cannot make it to your interview in a physical location as is usually the case. You’ll have to do your assessment online, if traveling is not an option. How do you know you’ve got the right talent? Not easy.

It can be a maddening process when you also have to deal with different time zones, which means you could be on the phone on any given day — or night. Many end up with erratic work schedules to accommodate a potential recruit’s schedule, whether he prefers to be called during the day or nighttime.

The pressure happens when you bring someone from another country and the new hire doesn’t perform as anticipated. It’s a far riskier scenario than having someone already in the city. Uprooting someone from another country and then sending them back is on you.  It doesn’t help that the media has painted the United States as this beacon of hope for all immigrants and yet, a few months into their job, the disappointed employee’s American dreams come crashing down.

For example, one prestigious financial institution put one British guy in a bind when he was told, after a year of service in the New York-based company, that he would be sacked–without getting his green card. He had to give up the house he bought and give up his American dream. It hurts even more to think how he loved New York as almost anyone who has moved in the city.

In such cases, there was nothing the Global Mobility Specialist could do. He feels disheartened when this happens to his recruits, because it’s not easy to hire from abroad.

What isn’t declared as a potential troublesome issue is the cultural aspect of the move? Global Mobility Specialists make sure the assimilation and acculturation process for the potential hire go smoothly, even if there are external aspects that can’t be controlled.

A country’s work culture can be different, too. It’s up to the Global Mobility Specialists to brief and train the new hire at times to make the necessary adjustment. After all, it’s not only a new company but a totally new environment for the incoming hire.

For California Corporate Housing , an effective Global Mobility Specialist would do well to make sure the following is up to snuff:

• Coordinate their pre-departure, post-arrival, even their choice of corporate apartment
• Know immigrations laws inside and out, making one almost like an immigration lawyer
• Make sure international cost assignments have no loopholes
• Maintain business partnerships all over the world, not just when an employee is needed.
• Ensures that prospective employee needs to comply with company policy
• Know what it really costs and takes to relocate someone from abroad
• Be a gatekeeper of US relocation policies with foreign affiliates