Global employee mobility: Technology and efficiency

The #1 job of the global mobility function is to deploy talent to the assignment location in as cost effective and efficient way as possible. Are you thinking about how to best align your mobility process to meet the needs of your business strategy while keeping costs down? Are your assignment policies flexible enough to cope with different assignment patterns, a rapidly changing workforce diversity, and a growth in new assignment locations? Does your mobility function make effective use of technology? PwC can help you address these challenges and future proof your mobility function and processes.

  • Technology
  • Global mobility effectiveness
  • Cost reduction & tax planning

Talent Mobility 2020 and Beyond

Technology

2010

We began a five year, 10$ million program of innovation to re-imagine how we work with clients and assignees in an effort to constantly improve the assignee experience while reducing the compliance burden. We launched MyTaxes and the first true global organizer.

2011

We launched new and innovative mobile technology applications − myTravel and TravelWatch − to make companies' mobility programs even more efficient, portable, and automated. We also launched Global Data Collect (or GDC), which is now recognized as the market leading technology solution supporting the efficient, timely and accurate gathering of global compensation and payroll tax reporting

2012

PwC’s TravelWatch solution was awarded the Re:Locate Magazine Award for Technological Innovation in Relocation.

2013

We formed a number of collaborative partnerships to complement our global mobility technology development plans, including a strategic alliance with Microsoft

2014

We will continue to invest in technology and relationships, and listen to our clients, as well as the broader market to understand the challenges they face. We will continue to develop and deliver innovative technology solutions, like ShareTax, which processes global calculations for share plans.

2015

We will launch the next generation of global mobility technology in early 2015, myMobility, this will involve the convergence of a number of tools and capabilities, utilizing the most contemporary technologies.

Short- and long-term assignees, frequent business travelers, intra-regional, and virtual assignees, all create a need for an intuitive, secure, self-service technology platform that can handle the many aspects of talent mobility with ease and confidence. In addition to changing deployment models and assignment types, we are seeing a number of factors in the market that are shifting the expectation of global mobility technology providers, including significant growth in talent mobility, new and emerging markets and heightened scrutiny from tax authorities  on expatriate compensation, tax treaties and social security agreements.

We are a journey with our clients to develop and implement technology that supports your global mobility function and business strategy.

Global mobility effectiveness

The success of international assignment programme administration is dependent on its processes. Without well-defined processes, programme administration is ineffective. We work with our clients to evaluate their processes from beginning to end, making sure they have well-defined steps, established activity ownership, and clearly established hand-offs.

Our Global Mobility Consulting practice specialises in all areas of global mobility planning, including programme and process reviews. They help ensure that your programme meets corporate goals and satisfies your customers: the business and your expatriates.

Cost reduction & tax planning

PwC approaches tax planning with a holistic perspective. We do not simply provide individual tax planning for expatriates, but we consider corporate tax, payroll, accounting, risk management, and administrative effort. Based on our experience, most clients are interested not only in savings, but more importantly in maintaining your corporate reputation. As such, the tax planning we recommend always factors our client’s desire to be globally compliant.

PwC identifies opportunities to add value from the first day we work with a client, including:

  • Reviewing your tax filing positions, equalisation policies, payroll reporting and withholding practices, handling of equity-based compensation, and inter-company charges relating to expatriate compensation to identify opportunities to reduce costs and manage risks.
  • Examining whether your processes are aligned with peers and other well-run organisations, identifying opportunities for cost synergies.
  • Benchmarking your assignment and tax equalisation policies against competitors.
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