Looking back at the inaugural Melbourne Mobility Forum, attended by 100 mobility professionals, it felt as though everyone agreed that the mobility landscape in Australia is poised on the brink of potentially massive disruption.
It’s not surprising that the theme of transformation dominated throughout the agenda – transformation of mobility operations, of mobility’s role in the wider HR and Talent agenda, of the use of technology across mobility and HR, and of the mobility professional’s own personal development.
The employee workplace experience is changing rapidly, and competing against a backdrop of isolationist and legislatively socio-political environments. Employees are demanding ever more agile ways of working; organisations are looking to win the war for top talent and considering radical ways of retaining and developing their internal talent pipelines.
How can mobility reinvent and re-optimise itself to support these agendas? There were active discussions by delegates with some interesting practical comments about what is being done right now, for example; building a global skills database; exploring integrations with upstream employee experience technology platforms; tracking and measuring key business objectives against assignment success rates. We wonder, was this discussion merely rhetoric or are we genuinely at a turning point, where the rapid changes and advances in technology now mean that those who do not engage with transformation risk being left behind?
Technology is going to be of central importance in supporting the mobility industry’s “new normal” – analytics, automation, AI, reporting, predicting, forecasting – and it’s going to be vital for Australian mobility professionals to become well versed in technology purchasing, implementation, and integration. In this respect, peer to peer networking and experience sharing will be welcomed.
Keeping up with these shifting sands of HR transformation, tax and immigration changes, business needs and employee demand, mobility professionals are understandably keen for thought leadership, practice-focussed peer to peer discussions, as well as the ability for continuing professional and personal development. The closing speaker, Mykel Dixon reminded us of our inbuilt reserves of creative energy and encouraged us to draw upon these to build resilience and enjoy the challenges that continuous change can bring.
That’s the key, perhaps. It is a conscious choice – that mobility professionals can choose to turn up, bring their creative problem solving personalities to work and embrace change. The Melbourne Mobility Forum proves that you don’t have to do it alone.
