by Carla Foden, Growth Leader, Gallagher Mobility Services
There’s an expression in English: “[X] is as much use as a chocolate tea pot.” It means that whatever X is, it’s not much use at all. Potentially, it’s also quite messy. In his quote, Benjamin Franklin talks about hidden talents being as much use as a sundial in the shade. Perhaps not as messy, it’s certainly well within chocolate tea pot territory.
This latest research from the RES Forum puts an X on costly, unrecognized, underused or departing global talent. All of which are the equivalent of placing your sundial in the shade. While they won’t lead to hot chocolatey tea all over your kitchen, they’re still not the best use of the resources at your disposal. Worse still, it’s more common than you might otherwise believe.
Throughout my 20+ years in GM, tax and relocation, I’ve seen millions of client investment dollars lost to badly executed development-motivated GM programmes. Poor planning and poor candidate positioning are the usual suspects. Add to that an absence of talent brokering, as well as a lack of engagement with the international workforce before, during and after an overseas development opportunity. Each is a misuse of resources - a sundial in the shade. And each could so easily have been avoided with a different approach to strategic talent management. As the RES Forum’s report explains.
Challenge your beliefs and assumptions
Many of the conclusions from this study rang true for me. I particularly loved the simplicity of Dangerous Unknowns, Grounded Beliefs, Potential Distractions and Low Risk Assumptions. Much like the hidden talents I see so often, each of these are rife in business.
For example, I hear conversations about the Dangerous Unknowns of skills-based pay, despite the links to lower cost, better skilled talent. I don’t understand the concern. Talent can and should flow from anywhere and price itself accordingly. It’s up to the organisation to develop (and retain) that talent when it flows their way.
Then there is the Grounded Belief that, once you have it, your talent will be interested in taking up international opportunities. This isn’t what I’m hearing from organisations struggling to motivate millennials to distance themselves from family, friends and support networks.
Potential Distractions include the obvious financial pressures facing many organisations right now. What’s more, post-pandemic workforces haven’t finished rightsizing, which takes attention from developing the talents that remain. Plus, while there is focus on younger generations, we’re encouraging end of careers professionals to stick in the workforce longer. How do we continue to motivate and develop all of them?
In contrast, there is the Low Risk Assumption that jobs will be more distributed as global organisations shift to matrix structures. We already learned that there are better ways to share an organisation’s knowledge during the pandemic. What we must consider now is, what does that mean for the role of GM?
A rose by any other name
Back in the 80s it was called ‘Relocation.’ In the 90s and noughties it became Global Mobility. Over the last decade or so, we’ve become Talent Mobility. In some quarters, anyway, others are stubbornly refusing to go there.
So why not, as Steve Fogarty suggests in his piece, go with Global Workforce Flexibility Team? The world of work has changed beyond recognition. Sending a handful of people from a massive global workforce on an overseas development programme can bring limited gains. Enabling a workforce to define their own terms of service can alter outcomes, drive a talent agenda, and bring forward-thinking companies to the top of the rankings when it comes to attractiveness.
Empathy, internationalism, coaching and brokering, advocacy and representation, comprehensive compliance expertise, and that all important service mindset. All these core skills, innate within GM, are activated when you play to the strengths of your workforce. All that means is placing your sundial in the sun and brewing your tea in a proper tea pot. Both of which deliver the best possible results, without making a mess.
RES Forum research
This piece is taken from the RES Forum research paper Talent Development through GM: key to winning the war for talent? Written by Professors Michael Dickmann and Benjamin Bader, the paper opens with a quote from Benjamin Franklin: “Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shades?” From there, the paper outlines the risks of not recognising, using or developing talent and seeks to link talent management with the opportunities found through Global Mobility.
Get your copy of Talent Development through GM: key to winning the war for talent? here: theresforum.com/annual-report
About Gallagher
As part of Gallagher Multinational Benefits and HR Consulting, our Global Mobility advisory teams are specialists, who can help clients translate intent into practice, by simplifying the complex, fast moving, costly and time-consuming world of Global Mobility. We work with our clients to identify opportunities for implementing the most practical approach for their company when redefining and developing agile strategies.
