By Sean Collins, Director of ESG, Asia Talent Mobility Alliance (ATMA)

Introduction

Global Mobility (GM) has always been a conduit to developing talent and enabling a rich and diverse career, whether that be talent rotation programs, project moves or executive assignments. But what about the GM professional’s career?

Mobility often works in a silo within HR and, due to the specific technical skillsets of the function, often get bookmarked in the role and overlooked for talent development programs or cross function career opportunities within the organization. This can be career limiting and when GM professionals find themselves out of a job it can be difficult to break into HR or other business roles outside of the GM function. This is despite having significant exposure into many aspects of HR and skill sets that could easily transpire into broader roles.

Advice for GM managers looking to grow your career

At Talent Mobility Search, a recruitment firm specialising in GM and HR roles, Managing Partner, Sean Collins, offers the following career guidance to GM managers who are looking to grow their career:

1. Build strong relationships with your key HR stakeholders. Make sure they know who you are and how talent mobility can play into and impact the company’s talent strategy. This will enable you to get involved in strategic HR projects early and build your credibility.
2. Seek out stretch projects and assignments within HR. This could be a broader C&B project, workforce planning, M&A or new country expansion. This will push you outside your comfort zone but will help build your broader HR skills and strengthen key HR relationships. These projects also help differentiate yourself from others on your resume.
3. Speak to your manager and HR leader about your ambition to grow your broader HR career. It will be much easier to transition into a broader HR role within your current organization than to apply externally (where you would not have built the same relationships and credibility).
4. Invest in external HR courses, especially those that offer accreditation recognised within your country. Some companies may offer financial support for learning programs related to your role.
5. Build you commercial and business acumen by truly understanding and immersing yourself in the business you are in. How it makes money, its established and new growth markets, the competitive landscape, how a new product or service is developed and taken to market (and the regional differences/requirements). This will allow you to add more strategic value to the organisation and build your personal brand.
6. As ESG becomes a greater focus across all organizations an opportunity exists for GM managers to support their company’s ESG strategy and build their career capital. This can be across all three pillars:
   1. Environmental – tracking CO2 emissions from the program and developing a strategy to reduce the carbon footprint of global mobility,
   2. Social – how global mobility can support the DE&I initiatives of the company as well as the wellbeing and employee experience within the program (including supporting diverse employee groups),
   3. Governance – ensuring compliance and ethical standards across the global mobility program.
7. As GM evolves, ensure your skillsets are future proofed by embracing and taking on all forms of talent mobility such as extended business travel, remote work and virtual assignments.

Following the guidance above will better place Global Mobility Managers to secure roles within the broader HR space, in roles such as DE&I, C&B / Rewards, and governance, as well as generalist HR roles such as HRBP, HR Manager, etc. By building HR skillsets GM managers also increase their chances of securing blended HR / Mobility roles in smaller organisations that do not warrant a full time GM headcount.  This is a great opportunity to leverage existing GM experience and build out the broader HR experience.

In summary, the onus is on the individual to drive their own career path, by seeking out opportunities for growth, learn new skills and build strong networks both internally and externally.  This will ensure better job security, a sustainable career and personal wellbeing and fulfilment.

RES Forum research

This piece was written for the RES Forum research paper Vision 2030 – the future of talent mobility. Set for release in January 2025, the paper looks ahead to the world of international and cross-border work in 2030. As well as a comprehensive industry-led piece of research, the paper also explores three potential visions of life and work in half a decade’s time. These scenarios were created following numerous conversations and represent our best estimate of what it might be like to live and work in 2030. In response to these visions, we gathered a selection of perspectives from across the RES Forum community. This is one of a selection of pieces to be released alongside the research paper.

Asia Talent Mobility Alliance (ATMA)

The Asia Talent Mobility Alliance is a not for profit organization dedicated to enhancing innovation and development of the talent mobility industry of Asia. Their mission is to be the authority on talent mobility for governments and business in Asia; provide support to mobility professionals and stakeholders throughout Asia by facilitating communication, education, community and advocacy; reflect, embrace and promote the distinctiveness of Asian countries, cultures, industries and individuals within the framework of talent mobility.

asiatma.com