In line with the popular movie-based expression ‘I know what you did last summer’, since last Friday we may be popularizing ‘I know what you did last evening’. For many this would imply the obvious—namely football (soccer)! Yes, the EURO 2016 has started, which means watching football matches, discussing teams’ odds to win, and reading […]
Latest Insights from Expat Industry Survey
Recently, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by UnitedHealthcare Global, surveyed 360 executives from North America and Europe and conducted five in-depth interviews with experts to examine companies’ experiences with global mobility. In the following I will highlight some key report data that caught my eye. • Assignment geography is not about the traditional home […]
Autopilot Mode vs Cultural Intelligence
Have you ever experienced driving to your workplace and actually not remembering how you got there? I guess that might be a pretty common phenomenon, given that most of the time (experienced) drivers are planning for their day, having a conversation with someone, or engage in problem-solving while being on the road. Even without an […]
The Global Talent Competitiveness Index: Key Points from the Latest Report
On January 19, 2016 in Davos INSEAD launched its latest Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) report. As in previous years, the report focuses on the important topic of global talent competitiveness, highlighting the emergence of an unprecedented international landscape that redefines global mobility. Today we can speak about increased mobility across all facets of the […]
Towards a Better Understanding of Global Professionals’ Adjustment
It is hard to argue with the claim that adjustment is one of the most prominent topics related to global mobility. Annual industry surveys, such as Cartus or Brookfield surveys, regularly point to a high prevalence of adjustment challenges. This is also reflected in the academic literature, where adjustment has been assumed a critical psychological […]
The Ageing Workforce: Experience Never Gets Old?
The other day I watched the movie Intern. It is a light and entertaining comedy, which also makes some good points. Specifically, the story features a 70-year-old widower Ben, played by Robert de Niro, who becomes a senior intern at an online fashion company run by young and ambitious Jules (played by Anne Hathaway). Although […]
Global Mobility and the Top Global Issues
At the end of last year, The World Economic Forum published their Global Agenda 2015 report, which summarized the top 10 issues that were thought to dominate the world over the upcoming 12 to 18 months. The identified trends range across the social, economic and political sphere and, naturally, many of these trends have implications […]
Why Would Countries Want to Befriend Their Diasporas Abroad?
Conventionally, emigration of the skilled, especially from developing to developed countries, is considered to be a brain drain and seen as problematic. That is especially relevant for countries with high emigration numbers, such as India and China, who work on luring back their talents. Also Ireland, considered as a nation of emigrants, has recently launched […]
‘Up in the Air’: Exploring the Philosophy
Once in a while it is good to revisit older movies – as is the case with Jason Reitman’s 2009 film ‘Up in the Air’. Naturally, as the film title already suggests, it has spurred both my personal and professional interests. The story has several facets to it, as the movie touches on the difficulties […]
How about some New Year’s resolutions?
We all make resolutions, don’t we? Some of us in a more structured way, others very informally, but I guess the majority of us mark the change of year by reviewing what happened and, more importantly, making new goals, promises and resolutions for the year ahead. For example, the scientific journal Nature shared the New […]
Hardship Allowances in Expatriation: A Default Practice?
Be it for the purposes of business expatriation or self-initiated expatriation, when moving abroad one of the main factors that matters is the expat’s destination, namely the host location. According to the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) 2014 Global Livability Rankings, the top ten choices for relocation would be (ordered from highest to lowest rank) Melbourne, […]
Global Mobility in a Day
Today I would like to share with you one peculiar insight I recently became aware of when planning the forthcoming weeks in my calendar. Specifically, I was invited to attend an event hosted by the Barcelona city council, which is meant specifically for expats in the area. The event is part of a campaign for […]
Family Performance in Expatriation: About the Concept and Measurement
The role of the family in expatriation has been a long-standing topic in the field of global mobility. Many different sources highlight that the family has been and continues to be an important factor in expatriation. Indeed, according to the latest Cartus 2014 Global Mobility Policy and Practices survey, family challenges remain the top (61%) […]
Gender Bias on a Global Scale
Remember the last time you did something wrong or experienced a failure? How did you explain it? I bet you could have attributed many reasons to some sort of situational factors. For example, you could have failed to execute some work assignment on time due to having many other urgent tasks, right? Now, think of […]
Latest Global Mobility Highlights: Decrease in Long-Term Assignments
When talking about expatriation we tend to think primarily about traditional long-term assignments, which are two to three years in duration and imply an employee relocation to the host country. These are the assignments that we readily relate to attractive compensation and benefit packages, career enhancing moves, and profound cross-cultural experiences. However, in spite of […]
Expat Lifestyle, Travel Bug and Addiction
‘Once an expat, always an expat’, ‘catching the travel bug’ and ‘itchy feet syndrome’ – these are some of the fairly common phrases you come across when looking through expat blogs, forums and global mobility related articles. Indeed, sometimes expatriation moves from merely a one-time international work experience to a nomadic lifestyle, and there are […]
