TECHNOLOGY
Andrew Street, John Lewis’s chief
executive, who featured heavily in the series, was reported in the FT as saying the company needed “high skill, the technical knowledge to make all of this work. And high service, the people who are out with our customers”. This was the ethos that won John Lewis the Relocate HR Team of the Year award in 2012. There is an increasing drive for
HR global mobility professionals and HR generalists to be more strategic. The technology tools of their suppliers can often free them up to deal with the bigger-picture issues and engage with their relocating employees and expatriates.
Technology enabling a more strategic approach MOVE Guides, the technology-based relocation management company, brings together the various aspects of global mobility onto one platform. This allows HR global mobility users to focus on the parts of the job they love most. It also frees up more time. The company’s Cost Estimate Tool is a prime example. A
familiar problem in global mobility has been the manual third- party generation of cost estimates and the slow turnaround of cost estimates for relocations and assignments. The tool gives users the ability to make real-time changes
and compare cost estimates with actual expenditure. It reduces time in estimating and managing mobility spend, and gives real visibility on the cost to the business, thanks to easy-to-access data. At the click of a button, the user has cost estimates in minutes, not days or weeks, the company claims. The thorny issue of exceptions – or deviations from
relocation and assignment policy – is another area in which a technology platform can make a huge difference. By tracking and storing the data on a platform, global mobility teams can focus on the analysis and key trends, enabling them to make strategic decisions about their programmes. MOVE Guides also explains how this approach relates to
the wider HR trend around improving the employee experience and “empowering employees to take ownership of their situation and trusting them to do the right thing”. Removing the layers of admin and time spent on manually managing the employee population enables companies to shift the focus to hiring the right people and providing a positive experience that will drive retention.
Apple in the headlines Apple has been in the headlines again recently, for controversial reasons as well as for the well-hyped launch of the iPhone 7. Longer battery life and a better camera will have kept some admirers happy, but the loss of the headphone jack infuriated others. This is seen as Apple’s move towards a future in which its sights will be set on the wireless audio market. Apple was also newsworthy because of the recent tax ruling
against the Irish government. Liam Brennan, Going-there’s VP of client relations, highlights why the Apple tax ruling was important to global mobility. Referring to the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting reports (BEPS) that were presented to the G20 group of nations near the end of 2015, he explains this
renewed initiative by governments to standardise the approach to taxing global corporates. The intention is to remove the possibility of companies
playing off one jurisdiction against another and seeking to move profits from high-tax to low-tax locations. There is a strong wish from governments and the public to see global corporates pay their fair share of taxes. Liam Brennan points out that, while many of the guidelines are complex, Action 7 and Action 13 could have the biggest impact on global mobility and business travel. Action 7 seeks to reduce the threshold by which a Permanent
Establishment (PE) is created. Action 13 requires companies to submit detailed country-by-country reports indicating the scale of their operations and the movement of employees and contractors in those markets. Although currently only applying to companies with global revenues exceeding €750 million, this is likely to impact companies of all sizes over time. Says Liam Brennan, “What this means for global mobility
teams will be an increased requirement to monitor business travellers and assignees to particular jurisdictions. This increased administrative burden will be requested by the C suite in order to ensure that profits are allocated to individual markets and taxed accordingly.” Going-there’s GT Global Tracker app, which won this year’s
Relocate Award for Technological Innovation, seems to have been launched at a perfect time as compliance measures become more vigorous. It tracks business travellers and assignees and records the length of time spent in each jurisdiction. The app checks double tax treaties and sends alerts, so
that HR and global mobility teams can keep accurate records. Combining tracking for immigration and security, the benefits are obvious for this simple standalone app that delivers potentially huge value for organisations of all sizes in keeping employees and their corporate employers compliant and safe.
The power of mobility insights Graebel has launched a new tool, MQ Insights, designed to support mobility leaders in their quest to provide their business leaders with strategic insights and to demonstrate the importance of mobility and the excellence of their programmes. Tim O’Shea VP of consulting services at Graebel, explained how HR leaders could utilise the tool to strengthen their mobility
40 | Re:locate | Autumn 2016
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