What if building trust helped global mobility thrive at the speed of change?

Market and geopolitical volatility are compounding prevailing business pressures: shrinking timelines, rising business uncertainty and cost concerns, and fragile trust foundations. Leaders require a paradigm shift to not only address these pressures, but also to be the architects of a more strategic future.

In this shift, organizations must transform quickly and have a clear understanding of their weaknesses, strengths and superpowers. Nearly all CEOs in a recent EY survey say they are transforming their businesses, leveraging talent and technology to boost productivity and competitiveness. They say geopolitical volatility is the top threat to growth amid broad erosion of trust in governments, institutions and businesses.

For workforce mobility, speed and trust are indispensable and interconnected. Speed is structural, underpinning cross border work, effective risk management, and the delivery of seamless experiences for a connected, mobile workforce.

Understanding speed doesn’t mean the mobility function can maintain it without difficulty. Our latest Mobility Reimagined Survey shows slightly more than a third of mobility functions report they are very good at moving with speed, but they face major barriers in collaborating across functions, dealing with the complexity of their mobility programs and managing the complexity of their vendor ecosystems. A majority of functions, 62%, say most of their time is spent on reactive tasks, forced to defuse immediate requests without delving into higher-value strategic activities.

“Mobility can’t afford to be a logistical function,” says Tyler Huff, Head of Global Mobility at Novartis. “It’s a trusted strategic adviser to the business and employees that enables the realization of talent and business goals. Trust across teams and systems can amplify impact. It’s a strategic differentiator.”

The mobility function can have that amplified impact when it moves beyond the largely transactional legacy of the function. Employers report that the mobility function‘s biggest contribution to the organization is not only in operational enablement, but rather in building employee trust in wider strategy.

How to define trust for workforce mobility

Trust can seem elusive and ever-present, in equal measure, requiring a clear definition. We asked mobility professionals what factors are crucial for building trust in a mobility context, and their responses focused on four key areas: strategic integration across functions and the wider business, operational effectiveness, assignee experience, and data integrity and technology platform stability.

Expanding on each key area, our definition of trust for workforce mobility then refers to the confidence that mobility systems can reliably deliver intended outcomes for both the organization and its people. Trust is established when mobility is strategically integrated with talent and workforce priorities; when employees have confidence that mobility programs will support their career objectives and that they will feel informed, supported, and valued throughout the process; when operational effectiveness ensures timely, consistent, and compliant delivery; and when data integrity and technology stability provide a dependable foundation for decision-making and execution at speed.

Each dimension of trust for mobility reflects an opportunity for strategic influence and faster progress toward goals. Clearly defined experiences and outcomes, for example, empower employees to embrace new opportunities, take on unfamiliar roles and relocate with confidence — all aspects of talent development and building workforce resilience. Trust is ultimately a performance driver, underpinning credibility. When it is embedded into processes and decisions, organizations move faster with fewer delays, fewer reworks and far more confidence. This contributes to the ability of mobility functions to transform with confidence, supported by reliable data systems and technology stability. 

These characteristics of trust in a mobility context allowed segmentation of respondents based on their stated degree of success in each area. Analysis revealed just a fifth of functions operated with high trust, and realized better outcomes compared to those with low trust.

Mobility programs have become a powerful lever for organizations to use to shape their future talent, creating the skills, experiences and leadership capabilities needed for long-term competitiveness. As business cycles accelerate, mobility experiences emerge as the bridge between today’s workforce and tomorrow’s capability needs.

The strategic value is seen in how the mobility function’s performance is measured, and in how the organization’s potential is realized. All employers say they are using mobility programs to develop talent, with workforce planning for future skill needs as their top priority. Previous iterations of this survey showed mobility assignments are a key part of solving talent gaps, and the performance of mobile employees remains the primary key performance indicator (KPI) for the mobility function.

But they are also measuring the level of positive employee experience and whether the mobility function is seen as a trusted partner for realizing business goals. These KPIs help paint a more nuanced picture of the return on mobility investments.

For example, having clear career pathways related to international assignments, and monitoring the quality of assignee experiences, are directly tied to talent retention. A convincing 80% of employees say that their recent international mobility experience increased the likelihood of staying with their employer. This underscores the role of mobility programs in strengthening retention and accelerating career progression. Employees increasingly evaluate mobility experiences not solely by the success of the move itself, but to the extent to which the experience advances their skills, builds confidence and supports their long-term career trajectory. In this context, mobility experiences are evolving beyond transactional assignments to become meaningful catalysts for professional growth and sustained employee loyalty.

But the inverse is also true — low reliability in the mobility program delivery can prompt employees to avoid opportunities. Nearly all (95%) employees say trust is a key driver of whether they will consider mobility assignments, and employees who don’t trust the mobility function are nearly five times less likely to take up future assignments, compared to those with complete trust.

A generational divide

Meeting or exceeding expectations, tailored to business purpose and employee priorities, is one way to build trust. Generational preferences for mobility assignments show stark differences between early- and late-career employees.

Nearly all employees (88%) believe flexibility in global mobility policy is important, significantly up from 70% last year. But Gen Z employees are nearly twice as likely to say that flexibility is “extremely important” than other generational cohorts. Those younger employees are motivated to seek mobility opportunities mostly by whether they offer better family opportunities and skill development. Baby boomers, by contrast, prioritize an assignment’s financial package and overall support, representing a more mature stage in their career nearer to retirement.

Recent years have seen the broadening of scope for mobility functions. Along with being tasked to fulfill their traditional operational role managing mobility program cost and compliance, functions now also need to be built for strategic horizon-scanning and improving experiences by reducing friction.

Scope has increased in response to intensifying complexity in the external environment and within an organization’s own delivery models. For example, regulation and immigration are cited as the main barriers to mobility functions operating at speed, with those barriers affecting business investment and advisory. Of employers, 74% say they engage immigration professionals to advise the business on strategic decisions like sales bids or mergers and acquisitions. Just over half of employers (51%) say they decided not to pursue a business opportunity in the last two years because of immigration issues specifically.

Just as mobility professionals are spending most of their time on reactive tasks, they are also facing tighter budgets: nearly all employers (97%) expect cost reductions in the coming year. Accomplishing the routine while laying the foundation for strategic value represents a structural shift: organizations are moving away from “single function” operating models toward broader operating ecosystems that blend internal capabilities with specialist vendors, technology platforms and automation to increase speed and scalability. Yet the data suggests a caveat: ecosystems create advantage only when they are designed for integration and reliability. Where systems, vendors and processes remain fragmented, the result is often friction, slower decisions and weakened trust across the mobility journey.

The ecosystem mindset

The ecosystem approach relies on strategic partnerships with technology investment to augment overall capabilities. A vast majority (82%) believe it’s beneficial to engage third-party vendors for mobility services, citing the benefits of improving employee experience, compliance and managing costs. Similarly, mobility functions name AI investments as the main lever toward cost reductions and faster execution. Each piece of an organization’s operations carries certain benefits and risks, with the greatest benefits seen with purposeful integration.

As reactive workloads continue to strain internal teams, for example, demand for outsourcing is rising as a means to access speed, expertise and scalability. However, without greater simplification and stronger integration, complex multivendor models often introduce friction that slows decision-making and erodes confidence across the mobility journey. These findings suggest that while outsourcing reflects a clear aspiration for faster and more scalable delivery, trust itself cannot be outsourced; it must be deliberately built through integrated processes, system connectivity and consistently reliable execution.

“The future of Global Mobility is integrated by design,” says Juan Carlos González, Senior Director of Global Mobility & Immigration at Microsoft. “Employees expect a seamless, intelligent experience that spans mobility, immigration, payroll, and global talent without friction or fragmentation. At Microsoft, we see AI as the catalyst that unlocks hyper personalization and real time support across that ecosystem. When technology and trusted partners are intentionally harmonized, mobility becomes a force multiplier for both employee experience and business agility, not just a transactional function.”

But without harmony, piecemeal partnerships can create more pain than relief. More than a third (36%) of employers have five or more mobility vendors. Only 31% say they have complete trust in their third-party vendors, seeing fragmented technology and processes as the primary barrier to speed. A lack of coordination between the many parts harms trust, speed of delivery and the realization of goals.

One step toward better coordination is building an infrastructure that can orchestrate routine tasks reliably. Of employers, 89% see advantages from automating various mobility tasks with faster processing and approvals, and improved employee experience, as the top benefits. The data shows that the mobility function is in a transitional state: it is no longer a manual-first function, but it is also not entirely digitized and industrialized. Partial automation delivers some efficiency, but done haphazardly it still limits speed, scale and AI readiness.

Investing in smarter AI implementation

Years of headlines about what generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has the potential to do have been replaced most recently with calls for practical use cases and clear ROI. Just as many mobility functions have acted tentatively, hoping for quick wins, they have also lost valuable time building the foundations needed for more strategic integration.

But this AI investment is outpacing trust in the infrastructure that powers it. Just 51% of mobility functions believe that their data is accurate, and 47% consider their technology platforms are reliable. Other barriers to deeper AI adoption for mobility functions are connected to perennial issues for business more broadly: cost of implementation, data security and having skilled professionals to bring vision to reality. The relationship between trust and execution is critical here as well. High-trust mobility functions are four times less likely to face barriers to implementing AI. They are less constrained by execution blockers and are instead more focused on strategic issues, indicating greater readiness to scale AI responsibly and effectively.

“Across the industry, the conversation has rightly moved from AI potential to AI outcomes, but outcomes only materialize when the right foundations are deliberately built,” adds Juan Carlos González at Microsoft.

“Our focus has been on designing a connected and trusted digital ecosystem for Global Mobility and Immigration intentionally built, not retrofitted. Mobility delivers its greatest impact when it underpins the end-to-end Hire to Retire experience, aligning people, process, and technology around the employee journey,” he continues. “By unifying employee experience ownership and HR’s technology blueprint under a single Digital Transformation model, bringing Engineering and HR together, we’ve moved beyond pilots and short-term wins. That level of integration is what sustains trust, accelerates execution and creates the momentum required to scale AI responsibly and with confidence.”

Momentum is not accidental. For mobility functions, it is the outcome of deliberate choices that balance operational speed with earned trust. The survey findings point to a clear path forward: simplify where complexity slows execution, invest where trust underpins confidence, and elevate mobility from a transactional service to a strategic engine for talent and growth. By acting intentionally across these areas, mobility functions can move faster and move the business farther.

To flourish, organizations should consider focusing on these key areas:

Design operations for speed

• Simplify and integrate the mobility ecosystem. Consolidate vendors, streamline workflows, and standardize delivery to reduce friction and execution delays.
• Apply AI where it directly accelerates outcomes. Automate case triage, cost modeling, knowledge search and employee inquiries to free capacity for higher‑value work.
• Build proactive immigration readiness. Anticipate regulatory change, reduce bottlenecks, and equip leaders to pursue cross‑border opportunities with confidence.
• Deploy talent faster without compromising compliance or cost discipline. Design processes that balance speed, control and risk at scale.

Cultivate trust architecture

• Strengthen foundational trust across systems and teams. Unify data, improve platform reliability, and ensure end‑to‑end process clarity across HR, Tax, Payroll, and Immigration.
• Create a secure, AI‑ready technology backbone. Clean and integrate data, strengthen governance and build platforms where AI can safely support faster, better decisions.
• Design employee experiences that build confidence. Deliver transparent communication, timely career outcomes and personalized flexibility that employees and families can rely on.

Generate momentum through strategic mobility

• Position mobility programs at the center of enterprise talent strategy. Use mobility assignments intentionally to build future‑critical skills, leadership capability and global experience.
• Integrate mobility programs with workforce planning and succession. Deploy talent where it accelerates capability development and closes strategic gaps.
• Shift from transactional moves to purpose‑led experiences. Align individual aspirations with business outcomes to create sustained momentum and measurable impact.

In an environment defined by constant change, evolution depends on what is built to endure.

What distinguishes leading mobility functions is their capacity to sustain speed under pressure. Trust is what helps functions turn that pressure into progress.

Summary

Global workforce mobility functions are being asked to move faster in volatile conditions of rising complexity and scrutiny. New survey insights show that trust is what allows speed to translate into results. Functions that build reliable systems, experiences and partnerships are better positioned to deploy talent, support growth and sustain momentum.