Steve Black, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at global talent mobility platform Topia, considers the ways in which relocation services may need to adapt in a post-pandemic world.
It would be hard to dispute that flexible or remote working has become a topic of discussion for many organisations around the world. This could be seen as a threat to the traditional relocation/international assignment model, but in our discussions with customers and prospects it actually suggests more fluid organisational structures could result in the movement of more staff than before the pandemic. Previously, where relocation might only have affected 5% of an overall employee population, now remote working is being demanded by growing numbers – in our Adapt survey this year, 85% of HR said they expected remote working requests to increase in 2022.
What this could mean is more staff moving to and from new locations on a more regular basis. Certainly, it will create new categories of employment under hybrid working models, which could change the sense of what relocation or international assignments mean. Fundamentally, for Relocation Management Companies (RMCs) it means they are operating in a world where the workforce is far more dynamic and spikes in shorter-term, employee-initiated remote work assignments may create a new service category for providers.
Talent shortage
The main reason we are seeing diverse forms of employment is not just because employees have come to expect the choice, but because employers have been forced to become far more creative to resolve talent shortages. If companies want to keep their best talent or compete for the best on the market, they are having to adapt the concept of what it means to be an employer ...
Photo: Steve Black, Topia.