In the Spotlight: Digitalization of Talent Mobility – The Technology Lens

Rapid technological advances in the consumer environment, that are driving changes in broader employee expectations and global organizations’ needs, are mirrored in the global mobility arena. Joe Genautis, BGRS’s Chief Information Officer, shares his views on the impact of new technologies In the Spotlight.

What are the major technology and digitalization trends impacting global organizations and their mobile employees?

Joe Genautis: Our technology-related discussions with clients point to two primary areas that affect their mobility programs.

First, the desire for better solutions to information sharing and the ability to move data seamlessly between their internal systems and those of their service providers. The main goal generally is to maximize efficiencies and accelerate the ability to make data-driven decisions.

Second, the need to enhance the mobile employee experience, with more of the mobility journey managed through web portals and mobile apps. For our clients, this means finding the right balance between the self-serve and supported elements of employee moves, aligned to their organization’s talent mobility philosophy. For employees and their dependents, it translates into more flexibility in terms of their move. With improved access to information on status and required actions, they can more flexibly accomplish appropriate tasks, blending self-serve functionality with the guidance from their relocation consultant.

In light of these trends, what are the major technology considerations for BGRS’s clients?

Joe: As organizations move away from developing non-core technology in-house, they are looking to their service providers to provide specialized technology solutions. And as organizations’ technology ecosystems grow in complexity, the need to integrate the platforms and work with service providers who can guide them through this process increases exponentially.

We see organizations looking to partner with service providers who can offer technology flexible enough to align to their specific needs. Clients want to use technology to gain efficiencies, automate parts of the process and thereby enable their in-house mobility teams to become more consultative. Our experience serving many of the world’s largest organizations enables us to bring global, cross-industry, expertise to the table and consult on technology platform implementations tailored to the client’s mobility program and broader HR benefits delivery needs. And, our focus on agility enables us to move quickly and change as market trends and clients’ needs evolve.

The Talent Mobility leaders we work with are also faced by increasing number of requests for deeper insights into their companies’ mobility program performance from their senior leadership. The challenges that our clients most often face is data availability in a format fit for actionable decision-making. We see the need for data to better facilitate flexible mobility support delivery, candidate selection, retention and career progression driving improved mobile employee experience.

We support clients in integrating technology applications, aggregating data and facilitating cross-functional collaboration to obtain actionable data sets that can better shape their mobility program decisions. We leverage analytic tools which are part of our client technology offering, a dedicated team of in-house data analysts and increasingly see our clients bringing in data scientists to support the talent mobility teams from within their business intelligence functions.

How would you describe the BGRS’s technology vision?

Joe: Our strategy is driven by initiatives that both enhance the employee experience and improve the availability of actionable mobility program data for our clients. We continue to leverage opportunities provided by advanced systems integration and developments in cognitive technologies.

We have a very agile approach to both technology development and implementation, which enables us to remain in lock-step with our clients’ evolving needs. We consciously seek to augment our technology offerings in a strategic way through external partnerships. A dedicated team of internal experts monitors the marketplace and assesses new and innovative products with potential alignment to our service portfolio.

To sum it up, our integrated approach to technology development incorporates investment, partnerships, and product development that best support our – and our clients’ – future success.