Dear RES Forum Members and in-house GM professionals,

Protests such as Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future have brought environmental issues into the spotlight, with the call for sustainable and responsible management growing ever stronger. However, little is known about what this means for global mobility (GM) within organizations and how GM departments manage these issues.

Sustainable human practices aim to protect and strengthen our natural habitat, preserve resources and stop detrimental activities such as the emission of the large quantities of carbon associated with global warming. With respect to sustainable global mobility, some goals and activities might include minimizing carbon emissions associated with GM programmes and international moves. This could include minimizing flying, encouraging virtual teams (and training for effective team work), drawing up schemes that support responsible travel (cycling to work, using public transport), sponsoring flexible working schemes (working from home, flexibility for travel to work etc.), or selecting service vendors that prioritize sustainability.

Responsible GM would additionally strive for global fairness and justice, including initiatives such as global talent management that provides local talent with opportunities. It would be characterized by non-discrimination (age, gender, sexual orientation etc.). Global justice approaches would aim to strengthen local subsidiaries and to seek to support overall development in economically less advanced countries.

Sustainable and responsible management approaches should go far beyond a marketing or brand building initiative and should focus on integrating these practices into the DNA of the organization, placing them at the heart of competitive strategy. After all, just imagine how consumers and stakeholders (e.g. Millennials) will regard non-sustainable and non-responsible organizations in the future.

This survey looks to understand the status quo of sustainable and responsible GM today and tries to chart possible developments in the future.

This survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete and the results will be published as part of the RES Forum Annual Report in Spring 2020. The report will be authored by Michael Dickmann, Professor of International HRM at Cranfield University, School of Management


Thank you in advance for your participation!

Michael (Report author) & Andy, David, Jose & Heather (The RES Forum Team)

A few notes...
The RES Forum Annual report is truly unique in the HR mobility space in that it reflects the hot topics and issues for global mobility professionals as identified by global mobility professionals. By participating in this survey and therefore our Annual Report research, you are helping to shape global mobility thinking, policies and practices. The data is also used for research purposes and wider dissemination. In addition, we analyse longitudinal trends.

If you have never seen our annual reports before, do take a look at the most recent reports at the following link http://theresforum.com/annual-report/

Please note that any in-house GM professionals completing the survey who are not already RES Forum members are welcome to join our community for free to view past reports, to receive a copy of this report, and to send benchmarking questions out to the RES Forum membership. Please visit www.theresforum.com to join us!

Question Title

* 1. To what extent does your organization...

  1- Not at all 2- To a small extent 3- To some extent 4- To a great extent 5- To a very great extent 6- Unsure
Regard sustainability as a worthy goal
Act in a sustainable way (creates resilient business/GM strategies, governance and management approaches that aim to achieve sustainable business/GM goals)
Encourage all employees in its communication to behave more consciously with regards to sustainable behaviours
Provide training in sustainability awareness and behaviours
Use its sustainability initiatives as an external marketing tool
Exploit its sustainability initiatives to strengthen employee engagement
Integrate sustainability principles into new initiatives
Have a business strategy that is built on ideas of sustainability
Enable external stakeholders to support sustainability 
Influence the wider community to be more sustainable

Question Title

* 2. To what extent does the global mobility (GM) function in your organization...

  1- Not at all 2- To a small extent 3- To some extent 4- To a great extent 5- To a very great extent 6- Unsure
Regard sustainability as a worthy goal
Act in a sustainable way (creates resilient business/GM strategies, governance and management approaches that aim to achieve sustainable business/GM goals)
Encourage all employees in its communication to behave more consciously with regards to sustainable behaviours
Exploit its sustainability initiatives to strengthen employee engagement
Integrate sustainability principles into new initiatives
Have a GM strategy that is built on ideas of sustainability
Enable external stakeholders to support sustainability
Influence the wider GM community to be more sustainable

Question Title

* 3. Have sustainability considerations had an impact on GM programme design?

Question Title

* 4. What effect have sustainability considerations had on the frequency/numbers of international assignments in your organization?

  Long Term International Assignees Short Term International Assignees International Business Travellers
No effect
Reduction by up to 10%
Reduction by 11 – 25%
Reduction by 26% or more
Increase by up to 10%
Increase by 11 – 25%
Increase by 26% or more
Unsure

Question Title

* 5. Have sustainability considerations had an impact on the preference to use virtual working instead of international assignments in your organization?

Question Title

* 6. For your organization, how important IS IT TODAY...?

  1- Not at all important 2- Slightly important 3- Moderately important 4- Very important 5- Extremely important 6- Unsure
To use transport sustainably (e.g. be conscious of the carbon footprint by minimizing flying or encouraging public transport; support bike or walking schemes)
To encourage virtual teams (replacing international travel) for more sustainable practices
To develop responsible working patterns (e.g. encouraging home office work, part-time and flexi-time work)
To encourage fairness of opportunities (e.g. with regard to age, gender, sexual orientation)
To factor in responsibility issues when making staffing decisions (e.g. by supporting local talent)
To support the environment by actively helping schemes to offset the carbon footprint of your organization
To use energy, water and buildings sustainably
To dispose of waste in a sustainable way (e.g. encourage re-use, recycling)

Question Title

* 7. For your organization, how important WILL IT BE IN THREE YEARS' TIME...?

  1- Not at all important 2- Slightly important 3- Moderately important 4- Very important 5- Extremely important 6- Unsure
To use transport sustainably (e.g. be conscious of the carbon footprint by minimizing flying or encouraging public transport; support bike or walking schemes)
To encourage virtual teams (replacing international travel) for more sustainable practices
To develop responsible working patterns (e.g. encouraging home office work, part-time and flexi-time work)
To encourage fairness of opportunities (e.g. with regard to age, gender, sexual orientation)
To factor in responsibility issues when making staffing decisions (e.g. by supporting local talent)
To support the environment by actively helping schemes to offset the carbon footprint of your organization
To use energy, water and buildings sustainably
To dispose of waste in a sustainable way (e.g. encourage re-use, recycling)

Question Title

* 8. For the GM function within your organization, how important IS IT TODAY...?

  1- Not at all important 2- Slightly important 3- Moderately important 4- Very important 5- Extremely important 6- Unsure
To use transport sustainably (e.g. be conscious of the carbon footprint by minimizing flying)
To encourage virtual teams (replacing relocations) for more sustainable practices
To incorporate responsible working patterns in GM contracts (e.g. encouraging home office work, part-time and flexi-time work)
To encourage fairness of opportunities (e.g. with regard to age, gender, sexual orientation)
To supporting local talent

Question Title

* 9. For the GM function within your organization, how important WILL IT BE IN THREE YEARS' TIME..?

  1- Not at all important 2- Slightly important 3- Moderately important 4- Very important 5- Extremely important 6- Unsure
To use transport sustainably (e.g. be conscious of the carbon footprint by minimizing flying)
To encourage virtual teams (replacing relocations) for more sustainable practices
To incorporate responsible working patterns in GM contracts (e.g. encouraging home office work, part-time and flexi-time work)
To encourage fairness of opportunities (e.g. with regard to age, gender, sexual orientation)
To supporting local talent

Question Title

* 10. When selecting and working with external service vendors – such as for household goods shipping companies - how important is it for your GM department that the service vendor...?

  1- Not at all important 2- Slightly important 3- Moderately important 4- Very important 5- Extremely important 6- Unsure
Pursues overall sustainability approaches to its GM service delivery
Measures its carbon footprint (and shares data with you)
Collaborates in a network that uses sustainable approaches
Pays fair wages (such as the living wage in the UK)
Has explicit goals to improve its GM sustainability approaches
Has GM transport policies and practices in place that minimize its carbon footprint
Has efficient energy and water use
Has sustainable waste policies and practices in place

Question Title

* 11. How important are sustainability considerations compared to cost, quality or innovation considerations in the decision to work with a GM service vendor.
The decision to work with a GM service vendor is driven to what extent by...?

  1- Not at all 2- To a small extent 3- To some extent 4- To a great extent 5- To a very great extent 6- Unsure
Cost
Quality
Innovation
Sustainability

Question Title

* 12. What are the risks for GM service vendors if they do not have good sustainability approaches? Can a specific department remove a supplier from the vendor process for not having adequate sustainability credentials?
Sustainability is so important for senior leaders in my organization that we will stop cooperating with GM service vendors that have low sustainability credentials...?

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