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Balancing assignee satisfaction with sustainable actions

With the introduction of initiatives across the globe, such as the EU’s Fit for 55 climate package and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, the topic of climate change and sustainability continues to gain traction in the agendas of governments, corporations and companies worldwide.

At ECA, we recently held a series of Global Mobility (GM) Exchanges covering different regions, with an opportunity for collaborative discussions on company initiatives, plans and progress around the integration of sustainable efforts in their GM functions.

These sessions offered a platform for companies to assess how effectively they are translating wider sustainability objectives into their GM programmes compared to the market, with an open forum for discussion on current, proposed and potential initiatives.

Sustainability success in GM

Despite sustainability growing in societal status, this does not yet seem to have translated into companies having success in achieving sustainable goals. Only 3% of respondents in ECA’s 2022 Global Mobility Now Survey believe that they are successful in achieving a high level of sustainability in their GM programme, whereas almost half of respondents believe they are neither successful nor unsuccessful.

This suggests that companies may lack information, guidance or confidence in how they can effectively implement and demonstrate the efforts being taken to meet these goals.

From the interactive sessions, there was clear appetite and evidence that companies are actively looking for ways to introduce sustainable initiatives into their GM functions; however, they are presented with significant challenges in conjunction with reaching these targets.

A key takeaway from our sessions revolved around the challenge of balancing assignee satisfaction with implementing sustainable actions. On the surface, making adjustments to the assignment lifecycle that incorporated a sustainable approach appears to have only a net-positive impact. However, it was clear that one of the hurdles to implementing these initiatives was from the perspective of the long-standing policy arrangements, usually dictated by putting the assignee needs first.

Balancing the challenges of sustainable options

Where ECA can help

In the ever-changing world of global mobility, there are continuous challenges in ensuring that policies remain agile. With our exposure to the market trends and the future aims of our clients in adapting their mobility policies to incorporate sustainability, we are well-placed to provide crucial analysis and review of your policy.

If you are looking for support, discuss your requirements or goals with our Consultants who can then provide you with:

  • A detailed policy review to identify areas where your company is already taking measures in this field, while ensuring that the sustainable angle is highlighted sufficiently.
  • Bespoke advice on the specific sustainable targets that your company can adopt, aligning this within your policy.

We also look at ways to minimise the impact of global mobility on the environment at different stages of the assignment process in our blog post, "Making global mobility more sustainable".

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