Pulse Survey

Virtual Intercultural Training and Online Support

Over recent years, the availability of virtual training and online cultural resources to support the acculturation of international employee mobility has increased considerably. Brookfield GRS conducted a survey of 33 companies to gain information about how and why these options are being used by companies and whether these virtual options are working well to support globally mobile employees and their families. The survey also discloses whether they are improving the effectiveness of employees in assuming their assignment role.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Impacts of Real Estate Market Recovery on Domestic U.S. Relocation Policies

Many companies implemented policy changes in reaction to the recession and the resulting high level of homeowner reluctance to relocate. Now, with an economic recovery seeming to ease pressures to react to extraordinary circumstances, many companies are wondering whether the time has arrived to revisit these exceptional strategies. This Pulse Survey focused on participating organization's recent, and/or planned, changes to their domestic U.S. relocation policies that have been influenced by recent recovery trends.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

International Assignment Challenges for Low Wage to High Wage Countries

Globalization has provided companies access to labor resources worldwide and companies are sending international assignees from and to a more diverse group of countries than in years past. As a result, mobility managers are increasingly being faced with assignees moving from low wage to high wage countries. This Pulse Survey will focus on the issues that companies are facing with this type of assignment and identify solutions to some of these issues that make it challenging.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Reviewing Policy for US Inbound International Assignment Challenges

The United States is among the top five locations that present the greatest assignment difficulties and the number one destination country for international assignments, according to the 2012 Brookfield GRS Global Relocation Trends Survey. This Pulse Survey will focus on some common policy provisions, as well as the approach companies are taking in response to the challenges their assignees encounter.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Expatriate Return on Investment (ROI)

There has been a great deal written about expatriate Return on Investment (ROI), much of it in the academic arena. Yet almost all of the debate and discussion is still tentative and being researched rather than at a point where a helpful conclusion has been reached. Recent debate and discussion seeks to broaden the base of the discussion rather than pursuing a purely financial ROI evaluation. This is grounds for optimism, but we are still far from reaching firm conclusions about what expatriate ROI really is, how to calculate it and how to adopt a strategy that will ensure a positive ROI. Brookfield GRS has conducted research for our Pulse Survey series on the topic of ROI and how it might be impacting mobility programs, policies and practices. We asked questions to 32 mobility professionals across a wide range of industries in order to capture a snapshot of the slowly evolving but increasingly significant trends in this area.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

The Millennial Generation and Mobility

The Millennial Generation in the workplace is often defined as being comprised of those employees born between 1977 and 1989. Frequently described as tech savvy and free spirited, among other common traits, this is a generation that is only beginning to leave its imprint on how business is conducted around the globe. Appealing to Millennials in terms of recruiting and retaining talent is becoming a priority in many industries. Brookfield GRS asked questions to 19 mobility professionals across a wide range of industries in order to capture a snapshot of this quickly evolving and increasingly significant assignee demographic.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Understanding International Business Travelers

Extended business travelers have not traditionally been managed by Mobility departments; however, in this era of increasing focus on compliance, mobility managers need to have a strong understanding of this population. The potential mobility risks they pose, along with who manages their mobility, how to track their movement, and what controls are needed to ensure compliance are all questions that mobility managers should be able to answer in order to safeguard their company and provide proper guidance on this critical group of employees.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Preparing for the Unexpected

Whether it is an assignment location that requires planning and preparation, emergency scenarios due to factors in the external environment or unexpected assignee scenarios like divorce, cultural adjustment challenges or medical emergencies, mobility teams need to be prepared for a wide range of unexpected events with emergency procedures and crisis management strategies.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Ensuring Mobility Compliance

There are a number of obstacles that need to be navigated by Mobility Managers in order to achieve compliance with the mobility program, and since relocating an employee requires a substantial investment by the company, careful preparation to ensure that relocations occur with the knowledge of the Mobility Team is critical. This Pulse Survey explores what organizations are doing to ensure that the Mobility Group is aware and involved in each assignment or transfer.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

U.S. Domestic Short Sales

The U.S. housing market continues to impact employee mobility and command the attention of Mobility Leaders as managing home sale related aspects of the mobility program remains a challenge. Companies should ensure they have a process in place for dealing with employee requests for assistance with short sales and should re-evaluate these decisions on a regular basis. This report analyzes 23 companies' approaches to managing short sale requests.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

U.S. Domestic Pre-decision Program

The ongoing challenges in the U.S. housing market continue to impact companies resulting in increased mobility costs as well as reluctance from employees to accept a move. Pre-decision Programs can serve as valuable supplements to existing mobility programs. In this Pulse Survey companies can discover what other organizations are doing or considering when developing a Pre-decision Program.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Canadian Flexible Spending Accounts

Because the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) allows the company to reimburse the majority of relocation-related expenses as non-taxable income, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) have become a tax-favored program in many relocation policies. Brookfield GRS' Consulting Services team conducted a survey of 17 companies to determine how many have moved towards the use of an FSA in their policy and to determine the effectiveness and impact on their overall mobility program.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Current Trends in Developmental International Assignments

When companies are looking for opportunities to trim costs from their mobility programs, it may be tempting to consider Developmental Assignments as an area which could be cut; but this may not be a good idea! This Pulse Survey probes the category of Developmental International Assignments in order to identify the some of the current strategic thinking and practices around the topic.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

US Domestic Homebuyer Tax Credit

The US housing market has continued to impact employee mobility and command the attention of Mobility Leaders as market-related requests for assistance have been coming from relocating employees. To gain insight on how companies are responding to employee requests for reimbursement of Homebuyer Tax Credits they must repay to the U.S. government, Brookfield GRS Consulting Services conducted a Pulse Survey of 21 companies’ attitudes and approach.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Global Mobility Program Management and Staffing

Sooner or later, every global mobility program is placed under scrutiny, with organizational leadership questioning if the current model for staffing and managing the program is the best for the company’s needs. Whether driven by organizational change or transition or simply a scheduled review process, the answers are no less clear cut. The reality is that each global mobility program truly is unique and there is no set best practice that applies across the board. Instead, there are a wide range of approaches that can work and the trick is looking at all of them and finding the one that fits best with the company’s individual needs. In this issue of the Pulse Survey, Brookfield GRS’ Consulting Services team offers tips for beginning a global mobility program evaluation. It also shares a view into the programs of nine companies representing a diverse range of industries, detailing how they are structuring their programs and their internal level of satisfaction with their approaches.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Repatriation

Repatriation is defined as ‘returning to the country of origin.’ Though it sounds simple, for globally mobile employees and their employers, it often does not feel simple. Without doubt, the physical aspects of getting the employee and their belongings from point A to point B, making sure that they have a place to stay and an allowance to cover expenses are very well developed. However, the Brookfield GRS 2010 Global Relocation Trends Survey revealed that four of the top eight relocation challenges cited by the participants centered on repatriation in the areas of career management, retention, application of experience and company ROI. This Pulse Survey sought input from international mobility professionals regarding how their companies are addressing the challenges posed by repatriation. The results also brought present ideas these companies have implemented to improve the process for both their employees and the company overall, including steps they are exploring to maximize repatriation success.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Inbound US International Assignments

In recent years a number of industry surveys, including Brookfield GRS annual Global Relocation Trends Survey, have identified the United States as a challenging international assignment location. While immigration is often cited as the primary challenge, additional issues identified by corporate mobility managers centered around cultural adjustment, location specific difficulties and other matters related to transition. This issue of the Pulse Survey Report provides the participating companies’ perspective on what they consider to be the top four adjustment pain points for employees going on assignment to the United States. Further findings illustrate some current creative approaches the participating companies are using to assist the assignees and their families along with perceived areas for improvement of mobility programs to help companies better mitigate these issues going forward.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Preparing for the Global Economic Upturn

As the global financial outlook begins showing signs of stabilization, the Brookfield GRS Consulting Services team set out to examine how companies’ mobility teams are Preparing for the Global Economic Upturn. The respondent reported that recruiting and retaining talent rank highly as key corporate objectives and that many of the reactive policy changes that were made during the initial economic decline have since become permanent parts of the companies’ mobility programs. This issue of the Pulse Survey Report provides a more in depth analysis of these and other findings and offers some key tips gleaned from respondents to assist companies who are undertaking similar analysis of their programs.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.

Mobility Reporting for Executives

The first Pulse Survey looked at Mobility Reporting for Executives with findings revealing that most companies feel having an effective communication and reporting practice to executives is critical to providing a strategic picture illustrating the impact and benefit of mobility to an organization. The challenges, however, lie in how mobility management reports are used, how the information is disseminated and what criteria are used to determine and effectively communicate information that is of most concern to a particular audience. This issue of the Pulse Survey Summary Report examines these challenges and offers tips to help organizations effectively utilize the data captured from mobility reporting for maximum benefit.

Full copy of the report is available in our Knowledge Center.