National Foreign Trade Council
Global Mobility Roundtable
February 21, 2003
Outlined below is a summary of the meeting held in New York City on February 21.
Participants included:
3M
ACIP
America Online, Inc.
Arrow Electronics
Avon Products
BDO Seidman, LLP
Berlitz International
Cendant Mobility
Citigroup
Deloitte & Touche
Dow Jones & Company
Expaticorp
Federal Voting Assistance Program
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy
PC
GMAC Global Relocation Services
IBM
Jackson Lewis LLP
KPMG LLP
Merrill Lynch & Company
NFTC
Raytheon Technical Services Company
Relocation Resources International (RRI)
Schlumberger
Societe Generale
The Synergos Institute
Thomas Clayton Consultants
Weichert Relocation
XN Financial Services
Advancing Global Mobility Policies
Cynthia Neff, Director of Corporate Privacy and Human Resource Public Policy at IBM,
emphasized the connection in global mobility between human resources and trade policy.
IBM sees global mobility as a competitive tool. Starting in the 1990s, IBM embraced the use of
technology to change their internal employment structure (i.e. virtual individual offices and
virtual teams). In recent years IBM and other technology companies have had to globalize in
terms of product development, production, and service. Their current focus is IT utilization, not
production. One goal of the Global Mobility Project, which is supported by IBM and other
major multinational corporations, is to articulate the shift in IT’s utilization to governments and
the criticality of global mobility.
Barriers to mobility include: (1) security concerns; (2) economic concerns; and (3) public anxiety.
At the same time, bilateral and multilateral trade agreements work towards increased mobility.
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The Global Mobility Project has identified the following issues, problems, and possible solutions.
The principles for reform include:
(1)
Security precertification and biometrics
(2)
Efficiency – use of electronic filing
(3)
Government/private sector partnerships
(4)
Harmonization – common definitions of terminology and mutual recognition
(5)
Expediting permanent residency status
The next steps include:
(1)
Expanded corporate involvement
(2)
Reform at the national level
(3)
Reform at the international level
The Global Security Situation: How to Continue to do Business in Dangerous Locations
George Hall of Thomas A. Clayton Consultants spoke on the topic of global security in terms of
issues of political kidnappings, kidnappings for ransom, inefficient judicial systems, corrupt
police, and poor economic conditions. Latin America leads the world in kidnappings for ransom.
The kidnappers are sophisticated in who they target.
In light of this danger, companies should educate potential victims and employees about how to
become harder targets by, for example, changing daily routines and travel patterns and being
more aware of surroundings. Employers should also have a “crisis committee” that will bring
appropriate resources to bear on the problem. Key managers in each country have to be briefed
on what to do when an incident occurs. George cited a number of case studies. In most
situations, the primary goal of the kidnappers was economic.
Developing, Managing, and Retaining a Global Workforce
Scott Thompson, Human Resource Services Manager of Schlumberger, described their global
workforce practices. Today Schlumberger has 84,000 employees worldwide, with 140
nationalities working in 100 countries. They consciously try to match up their workforce with
the geographic sources of their revenue. They currently work with 45 “ambassador” universities
where they actively recruit.
Schlumberger’s Human Resource group was reorganized into an employee services unit and an
employee motivation unit that focuses on management development and succession planning.
Recruiting is also done on-line, even in countries that are not technologically advanced. Scott
shared their learnings in developing the e-HR tools. Key to Schlumberger’s success are its longterm relationships with key faculty and department heads.
Federal Voting Assistance Program
Polli Brunelli, Director, and Carol Paquette of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, described
the act that allows U.S. citizens who reside overseas to vote. There are an estimated six million
citizens residing abroad. An electronic registration and voting experiment is underway with the
goal of using the system beginning in January 2004. Congress has authorized ramping up
capability to expand the project’s scope.
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Immigration in 2003: New Department, New Congress, New Challenges
Gary Merson, Government Affairs Counsel of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy PC,
briefed the audience about current issues and challenges related to business-sponsored
immigration. The combination of security concerns and a weak economy negatively affect
cross-border business.
Gary recognized the significance of such new legislation as the USA Patriot Act and the Child
Status Protection Act. Gary then reviewed expected changes under the new 108th Congress. One
issue he raised is the level of the H-1B cap falling back to 65,000 after September 2003. He also
described possible security initiatives, i.e. visa waivers for certain countries and the tracking of
visitors. One recommendation is to precertify employers. In addition, he noted that INS will be
broken into two sections, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Bureau of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Expatriate Cost Management & Reporting
Eric Bachmann, Director of Global Assignment Services at Merrill Lynch, made a presentation
on expatriate cost management and reporting. Merill Lynch has shared service teams in London,
Hong Kong, New York, and Tokyo.
Eric described business factors starting with the slowing of the economy in 2000, changes in the
top management of the firm, and the aftermath of September 11. One result was a 33%
reduction in expatriate staff. Their opportunities to save per capita costs included (1) selection of
assignment types; (2) reduction of entitlements; and (3) lump sum packages. Using the Six
Sigma process, Merrill Lynch identified key cost drivers and other variables, benchmarked
against competitors’ costs, and provided analytics to senior management. Their goal is to
manage ROI and expatriation as assets.
Issues to consider include:
(1)
Assignment administration
(2)
Transparency
(3)
Impact on mobility
(4)
Impact on overall savings
(5)
Competitive practices
The next meeting of the Global Mobility Roundtable will be on April 29, 2003 at the Yale Club
of New York City.
For further information, contact Denise Schulman at dschulman@nftc.org or 212-399-7128.
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