INNOVATION
Innovation in the Global Mobility Industry post COVID-19
Global mobility needs to seize this opportunity to shine
The global mobility industry is uniquely positioned to be innovative.
· It’s an industry that has a few big players, with deep pockets and large budgets for technological innovation.
· It’s packed with agile, owner-managed practices (both law firms and mobility firms) which can pivot quickly when the market changes and diversify when needed.
· It’s international: new ideas can be bounced back and forth between countries and continents with ease, developing and becoming more exciting as they’re discussed between people who are thousands of miles apart but live and breathe the same challenges every day.
How can the industry harness these natural advantages to innovate for success, especially in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic?
1. Diversification
Global mobility, by its nature, must be able to diversify when the market changes. Immigration legislation changes daily, global housing markets fluctuate, currencies go up and down. Service providers in the industry have to ensure that they can offer what the market needs.
For example, when the posted worker enforcement directive started to bite in 2018, service providers from immigration firms to employment lawyers, tax lawyers and relocation companies, began to support with the new legislation, seeing an opportunity to assist their clients and to create a new revenue stream. Two years on, an in a post-COVID-19 world, this service offering has been crucially important for many providers in the EU.
Post-COVID-19, we anticipate more new legislation, from vaccine certification requirements to the brand-new world of “digital nomad” visas. These structures are being created right now. Our industry should not only listen and react to what’s new, but should work to have a direct impact on change, creating pathways for clients.
2. Collaboration
Smaller law firms and mobility practices have long supported one another through networks, alliances and regular international conferences.
COVID-19 violently ruptured the ways in which most of us connect to our fellow humans. However, our irrepressible need for connection led to a sharp rise in virtual meetings and video calls. This brought people together in unexpected ways: it became almost as easy and as natural to have a speaker from the other side of the world in a meeting as it was to invite your colleague who (usually) sits opposite you. International connections became as available to a start-up with limited funds as to an established firm with a travel and conference budget.
Collaboration between small and large firms is fundamentally important to innovation; sharing ideas across practices is the only way to see such ideas take root and flourish.
The global mobility should continue to forge connections virtually as well as via in-person meetings and conferences. We should particularly encourage such interactions between start-ups and larger, well-established firms. Both have much to gain.
3. Agile working practices
COVID-19 sparked a global shift to working from home, by necessity. The mobility industry is well-placed to consider how this shift could evolve from a short-term requirement to a long-term structure.
People working in global mobility can work from home easily with a laptop and an internet connection. They also understand risks of working internationally without correct permissions; they know how to apply for permissions when required.
Global mobility is a “knowledge industry”; people working in global mobility need to learn from their peers. Team-work and mentoring is crucial in this industry; these things are hard (although possible!) to successfully achieve with a 100% remote workforce.
Agile, owner-managed companies in global mobility can adapt quickly; and can communicate quickly and easily with staff. Experimenting with bringing employees back to the office temporarily or for some days a week doesn’t have to be as risky an enterprise as it would be with a larger firm.
Could global mobility practitioners be pioneers in the new systems of working we need to see in 2022 and beyond? Could we write the rulebooks that others then may use?
4. Technology
Despite all the advantages the global mobility industry has, we are, perhaps, a little behind when it comes to technology. Legaltech is beginning to gather pace, and the providers in the global mobility industry space need to understand what is happening and what is required of them in order to stay in the game.
It’s easy to get either confused or overly carried away about things like the use of artificial intelligence or bots in legal technology. In reality, it’s still a little while before immigration applications are adjudicated using AI. Many countries have arcane and antiquated immigration systems, relying on paper or PDF forms which still have to be signed with actual pens.
That said, global mobility providers do need to understand how to use technology to provide their clients with things like: useful business intelligence, data analytics, data security, streamlined communication, reduced reliance on email, mobile updates, technology assisted queries. Plus, providers need to be able to use technology effectively to collaborate internally and with their peers; to facilitate innovative work from home practices and to track and report on successful diversification efforts.
Our industry is beginning to wake up to the possibilities of technology; we should use our natural advantages of collaboration, diversification and agility to get to the next level with software enabled services.
The world is changing. The global mobility industry is perfectly positioned to change with it.
This article was prepared and submitted by Sophy King 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.
