Success Stories: Design-Led Mobility Program for the Future
The Global Mobility function at this Fortune 500 consumer goods company is seen as a critical talent development partner and employee experience maker. They are actively driving mobility innovation and digitization to meet the evolving needs of their diverse workforce.
CLIENT PROFILE
Industry:
Consumer GoodsHQ Region:
EMEAProgram Size:
750 mobile employeesServices Provided:
- Talent Mobility Program Administration
- Talent Mobility Consulting
- Financial Services
- Expense Management
- North America Tax Payments
CLIENT OBJECTIVES
Management of the distributed workforce and virtual mobility, in addition to the more traditional mobility types, has been an area of recent focus for this client. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for understanding how to effectively manage a distributed workforce, enhance the employee experience, optimize costs, and provide flexibility to the business. The organization invited BGRS to design and facilitate a workshop with strategic mobility vendors at their annual conference to “challenge their thinking” and take part in a collaborative solution design.
The client’s objectives included:
- Developing strong, data-based strategic insights around documented trends in future mobility
- Aligning internal stakeholders, including regional Global Mobility managers and Shared Services Center leadership, around key strategic priorities
- Aligning the client’s 2021 strategy with emerging employee mobility trends
- Involving key vendor partners to ensure supply chain integration and alignment
- Delivering an action plan with a commitment from all parties to deliver across all four quarters of the year
BGRS SOLUTION
BGRS’s Mobility Experience Solutions practice delivered a tailored workshop using design-led thinking methodology. We capitalized on an intimate knowledge of the client’s program as a relocation management provider since 2017, as well as experience from serving leading global organizations across a range of industries.
BGRS’s comprehensive solution included:
- Structuring the session around the client’s key strategic priorities such as spectrum of flexibility, equality, equity, and sustainability
- Training the client and other vendor participants in using virtual collaboration platforms and breakout rooms
- Designing and facilitating a half-day virtual workshop, which divided more than 30 participants into five different groups to explore questions developed by BGRS and selected vendor partners
- Providing the opportunity to discuss strategic topics, holistically, with peers and strategic vendor partners in a safe environment and in a format designed to nurture creativity
- Presenting summary of findings immediately after each breakout session
- Delivering a comprehensive summary report in support of the client’s action plan development
"I was surprised by the richness of the workshop results. It was amazing to see the critical contribution of the design-led methodology, specifically in the context of virtual collaboration, which may be more challenging for participants. I had not anticipated we would get this much input to our strategic alignment process."
Global Director of Employee Mobility
RESULTS AND OUTCOMES
The BGRS Mobility Experience Solutions team was not only able to close the gap created by the inability to deliver what was historically a face-to-face interaction, we were able to introduce approaches that fostered greater inclusion sustainably.
The key positive outcomes of BGRS’s role included:
- Providing experienced support of the transition to a virtual collaborative environment
- Acting as a consultative partner with in-depth knowledge of the client’s program and expertise to align the workshop structure, content, and outcomes to the client’s strategic objectives
- Supporting the client in identifying and defining the key initiatives to prioritize in the context of their 2021 strategy, which included:
- Global mobility policy and process redesign to better support diversity and inclusion
- Enhanced employee communications
- Closer alignment of mobility and talent management
- Sustainability in mobility program delivery
- Gaining a deep understanding of the client’s organizational and mobility strategy to better support them in achieving their objectives through mobility experience management
"The results of the workshop confirmed that our strategic direction is in alignment with the future broadening of mobility’s remit and prominence of the distributed workforce. Our ability to effectively tap into the collective wisdom of our internal peers and key service delivery partners allowed us to better define an action plan and agree how we can evolve our program to better meet the needs of our mobile workforce."
Global Director of Employee Mobility
Understanding the future of mobility and the organization’s workforce trends, alongside the key business objectives is critical to maintaining a successful mobility program. BGRS’s proven design-led methodology contributed to the client’s deeper understanding of how to maintain their focus as experience makers, recognizing that every mobile employee is going on a journey, which needs to be underpinned by personalized, flawless support and guidance.