A New Work Journey survey from Vialto Partners

The Mobility Agility survey explores how organizations are adapting to support a new, more flexible, more agile workforce that is not confined by international borders.

By Amanda McIntyre, Eileen Mullaney, and Sarah Mullen

The post-COVID era has given rise to dynamic work structures, paving the way for a more flexible workforce. Shifts in demand from traditional mobility to newer forms of mobility have gained prominence, such as hybrid work models, virtual assignments, cross-border commuting, and international short-term remote working arrangements. This expansion of mobility underscores the growing importance of Global Mobility teams in managing this more agile but complex workforce—mobile in ways not previously anticipated. Drawing from the responses of 450 participants across 45 countries, representing a diverse range of industries—our survey explores the latest benchmarking and trends emerging from this new agile workforce.

Among the Mobility Agility survey highlights:

Remote work has evolved: decline of domestic, increase in international

After its initial boom during the COVID pandemic, there was speculation that remote working would decline as employees and employers returned to pre-pandemic ways of working. Instead, the employer-led push to have employees return to the office has been softened by the introduction of more formal hybrid remote work (98%) and temporary international remote work (69%) policies and programs. The drivers remain employee-driven—supporting employee requests (61%), retaining talent (57%), and enhancing the employee experience (51%).

With greater freedom comes greater responsibility

Employers have opened up flexibility for employees to work in a more agile way. Alongside an increase in organizations who enable agile working, we have seen organizations focus on governance and surveillance. 64 percent of respondents have some form of “Big Brother” monitoring of days required in the office under hybrid models. Organizations have tightened up on guardrails for international remote working in order to limit risks, including—prohibiting certain countries due to personal safety concerns (59%), applying cyber security guidelines (58%), and limiting the amount of time permitted overseas.

New ways that Global Mobility aligns to business objectives

The way assignments are structured is changing. Increasingly, companies are utilizing host-based models (50%), most commonly permanent transfers with a “plus” component and/or a “right of return,” to help manage mobility costs (25%) and simplify administration (24%). Most organizations (64%) expect an increase in virtual assignments where the employee stays in their country of employment but works on a project for an entity in another country—to resource global projects (75%) and promote global connectivity (48%).

Click here to access the full survey.