Building from diversity: some ideas to improve how we do it!
When I started my career in global immigration, we were told that moving to another country is one of the most stressful experiences a person can encounter in their life. Having gone through this myself, I remembered it to be daunting, exciting, stressful and even liberating at times (except when trying to open a bank account for the first time, which is always a nightmare!). Consequently, being aware of this fact, as both professionals and individuals who have lived it, we were responsible for ensuring the well-being of employees and their families during this process.
Indeed, many global mobility professionals around the world are highly skilled at approaching service delivery with emotional intelligence when it comes to the arduous process of globally relocating individuals. Nowadays, and more than ever, building a diverse workforce is amongst one of the priorities for international companies. Thus, global mobility teams are faced with the compelling yet added challenge of guiding and caring for a diverse talent population, often involving complex scenarios.
Inevitably, and even though we all understand the need for scalability and efficient process flows, excessively rigid structures or a one-size-fits-all approach do not reflect the intrinsic and diversified needs of the people we aim to assist. It is time to understand that life is complex, especially when an individual is moving from one country to another. We should not ignore this; we should embrace it rather than neglecting the circumstances of the individuals we are serving and their potential necessities just for the sake of keeping things simple.
On top of this, diversity is normally much more complex than what we would initially think. Yes, of course sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, age or religion are matters to take into account when planning processes from a diversity perspective. Nonetheless, hidden disabilities, neurodiversity, and even circumstantial factors can influence not only the results of the process, but also the actual experience of the individuals who are relocating.
With all this complexity and elements in mind, what should we ponder as global mobility specialists in order to create and implement processes planning for what diversity really means? How can we ensure that the corporate world of global mobility (encompassing business needs, efficiency and compliance) is also meeting the needs of the diverse world we live in today?
In sum, how do we start integrating diversity in each of the cells of our global mobility programmes?
Start with the questions
It would be ideal if every process were perfect from the start and the relevant teams and professionals had foreseen diversity needs from phase zero of any idea. However, this is normally not the case, so the only way to go forward is for processes and structures to adapt and become truly accessible and inclusive. In addition, in order to improve any process (specifically any complex ones) the first step is to ask the right questions.
To start with, did we even think at all about the diversity of the people we are going to assist when designing our process, steps, timelines, instructions, leaflets or simply written communications? Or are we just providing in bulk what we consider will be useful for everyone?
Do we actually provide them with the relevant information for their particular needs? If we do not, why don’t we? Maybe we cannot even legally have access to such information. Other times, we may simply not have thought about it.
Have we tried to ensure accessibility by offering different channels of communication? For example, process information can be written, provided on a call, or even given to the employee as an interactive video to watch at their convenience. Is it possible for businesses to efficiently and within budget create these options and let them confirm which one they prefer or should we look at other methods?
There are many questions that can be asked and any beginning is a good one, but it is always good to keep in mind that most of us are in some way diverse. That is why it is better to plan and improve processes from a diversity perspective instead of for diversity as a one-off.
Establish a sense of belonging with the process
There are countless books written on the need of belonging for individuals in all facets of their lives, including at their workplace. However, we do not normally think of the sense of belonging in a global mobility process. And it should definitely be there!
This means ensuring that the employees and their accompanying family members feel the communications and guidelines have been tailored considering their circumstances. Of course, this highly depends on the specifics of the process we are discussing, though one thing is certain: by increasing flexibility and offering conscious options, we can improve the sense of belonging in the process, their responses towards our requests and, in sum, better timings and results for everyone.
When working out processes from a diversity perspective, whenever possible, offer options. For example, do not simply ask someone to select between Mr./Ms. Consider adding a gender-neutral option, because even if the immigration host country will only offer you those two options at a later stage, you will already know this is something relevant for your particular individual that may require some discussion. As well, something as simple as using inclusive and gender-free vocabulary whenever possible can help in achieving this feeling of belonging — with some languages being very gender specific this task can become extremely complicated, but there are usually certain methods for overcoming the issue that can be highly appreciated by those receiving the message.
Global mobility professionals can also incorporate their valuable sense of belonging to the processes, for which a top-down approach (normally great for compliance) might not actually be the best. Every individual in the global mobility process can add to the purpose of improving the sense of belonging for the employee and their family members by adding their own experiences and previous knowledge into the processes.
Get honest feedback
Any possible process improvement will go through different stages, will require pre and post data analysis and a control phase to ensure quality. One of the easiest and most useful actions to be taken when measuring diversity results is to actually ask the people who have gone through the process itself.
Using anonymous surveys or direct communications with the employees and their families and gathering relevant, objective and highly personal opinions on the global mobility process can be of tremendous relevance for such an individualised experience. Afterwards, analyse the data and read it through a lens of diversity.
Moreover, for the global mobility specialists managing the process, speaking up about diversity or accessibility may feel odd or uncomfortable, but it is through sharing best practices and being open to try new ideas that we will set up more inclusive processes.
In sum, by embracing their role in advancing diversity and inclusion through their daily tasks and processes, people involved in global mobility (in all the different areas, from relocation to immigration, tax to HR) have the possibility of improving results and even diversifying who benefits from a global experience. By doing so, we are incidentally providing knowledge and cultural exchanges in host societies, ensuring greater diversity and indirectly increasing opportunities for certain groups of people, especially for those who had previously felt excluded.
Just like moving from one country to another, the change of adapting to a framework that embeds diversity into its processes can be intimidating and electrifying, eventually leading to growth and progress.
This article was prepared and submitted by Scherezade Maestre in her personal capacity. All opinions and views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the opinions of the paradiGM community. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any ethnic group, gender identity, organization, company or individual.
