What does strategic support in a volatile world look like?

Over the last year we have been analyzing the changes emerging within global mobility industry, particularly since the pandemic.

We aim to develop the industry’s most robust and dynamic operating model so that businesses around the world can manage their mobility programmes efficiently and confidently.

As a result of our analysis, we have focused on five areas to enhance our services and make us better placed to help clients in the future:

  • Human Centricity – we have listened to clients’ expectations, and put plans in place to exceed them
  • Centres of Excellence – efficient centralised support for our teams on the ground
  • Technology – intelligent use of technology to enhance our service
  • Innovation – to predict the best ways to develop our operation and improve our service
  • Consultancy – analysis of macro trends which have an impact on the global mobility industry

In this article we explore how focus on these five areas will deliver effective and productive mobility programs for our clients and their assignees.

 

Human Centricity

A critical element of our strategic plan for the next five years is personalisation. How do we bring individuals and their families’ needs into every aspect of our services?  Our aim is to support employees by preparing them for a move, educating them about what to expect and then meeting those expectations each and every time. In addition, we aim to provide support for mobility teams responsible for budgets and logistics.

We know that HR and mobility teams need more support in this area as their staff request and expect a more holistic approach to their assignments. Our investment in this area means we are able to provide more options and advice on best practice. The goal is to make sure those responsible for all global assignments have access to the latest thinking and increase the success rate of every placement.

There are difficult moments when people move from one place to another because relocating can be a difficult and emotional process. This is much more than a logistical exercise, it’s about educating assignees in relation to the new culture they are going to work in and helping them when problems arise. We know that feeling supported and confident as a new assignment begins is crucial and that’s why we’re always available via a channel that works best for the assignee.

Human centricity – and empathy – will underpin every investment decision we make in the future.

Centers of Excellence

At the end of 2019 we recognised that our services were largely operating through locally-based teams. Whilst that was working well in some markets, it wasn’t working as well as we would have liked in others. We identified that there were benefits to bringing some elements into a central location, and developing a standardised approach and best practice. These teams are now based in our Centers of Excellence, which bring together multilingual teams in one location. Here we can focus our training efforts, building the right type of processes and making sure that we can more efficiently manage a large-scale programme without losing the personal touch with local account management teams.

We now have two European Centres of Excellence, in Prague and London. And we’re really driving that development forward to ensure that our service is consistent and stable.

Jurgen Zyderveld, Group Vice President at Crown World Mobility, explains the thinking behind the centres: “There’s a misconception that the centralisation of some services means we have reduced support in certain regions of the world. This is not true. Our aim is to drive value whilst maintaining a bespoke service to clients with people on the ground in over 40 countries worldwide. The advanced support in these centres will help the skilled people on the ground and raise standards. There’s no denying it has been difficult to implement such a major shift in our operating model but we are confident that our staff, and more importantly our clients, will see the benefits for years to come.”

 

 

Technology & Innovation

Our investment in technology is designed to support human centricity. We have no ambition to become a technology company that leads in the latest technological innovation. We believe that selective investment in the right technology can enhance the experience for our clients.

Our clients tell us that technological integration to support decision making and reporting is one of their primary requirements. This has driven our thinking and we now have some of the most advanced data sources seamlessly flowing into our clients’ systems.

The feedback we receive from companies with smaller mobility programs is that our technology is extremely beneficial for end-to-end management of your assignees. If you’re a company with a larger mobility programme, you are likely to have your own systems and the needs are very different. These companies want us to exchange data in both directions in an efficient and secure manner. We’ve made major investments in APIs to facilitate this data flow and assist in the automation of budget controls and reporting. There will be more news about our technology and innovation in the new year.

 

Consultancy

We can help to map out any strategic or tactical plans our clients may be considering. What makes us different to many of our competitors is the global coverage and depth of experience in each location. Due to the knowledge our teams have acquired over many years, we are able to personalise and create a solution we believe fits with the unique characteristics required in each placement.

Due to our international reach and connections in each region, we can also help to manage the demands of global teams by predicting the impact of global socio-political events. The aim is to predict changes and issues so that mobility teams can have contingency plans ready.

 

Future Plans

Crown has been helping people move around the world for over 50 years and our global reach means we are not focused solely in one region. During this time we think we’ve seen it all, from recessions, financial crises, people looking to escape conflict and now a pandemic. As we are privately owned, we have a streamlined chain of decision making which is one of our biggest strengths. We can adapt to the immediate challenges our customers face and we are constantly investing in new ways of working.

If you want help on planning your mobility programme, or more information on the ways in which mobility teams are changing their approach, then contact us.

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