Global Mobility Services

“The global economy is going through a profound transformation” notes Elio Luongo, Chief Executive Officer and Senior Partner, referring to the rapid pace of technological development and the chronic short supply of needed expertise. “This growing skill gap is a drag on business and a drag on economic growth. Organizations around the world are being forced to look beyond their borders to attract workers to propel their businesses forward.”

The demands on the global workforce are evolving. How will your mobility program respond? Is your talent and business strategy future-ready? The KPMG GMS practice is revolutionizing the future of mobility through innovation. We have the insight, people and experience to provide your organization with integrated, technology-supported strategies designed to address your business challenges and seize new opportunities.

Together, we can give your organization a competitive edge. We can help you manage risk, reduce costs, enhance the employee experience, and attract and retain top talent. We provide tools and critical business insight that empower you to manage your mobile workforce with confidence.

Let us show you how.

Running a successful global mobility function

The future of work is uncertain, but mobility will most certainly play a role. There are so many possibilities to get the right talent in the right positions - whether it’s a physical or virtual relocation or assignment – and KPMG can help you to plan out your mobility strategy so that it’s aligned with your talent strategy, considering the issues in any country where you do business or have employees. Our Mobility Consulting Services include:

Policy design, considering not just tax and legal issues, but employee experience and ESG considerations
Travel tracking process and technology assistance
Assignment cost projection
Taxable benefits review
Payroll and social security advisory
Coordination with mobility vendors

Managing your global tax and payroll compliance obligations

Foreign assignments, relocations, business travel and remote work arrangements may create personal tax issues for the employee and payroll and corporate tax issues for the employer. KPMG can work with your organization and employees to address the compliance in any country where you do business or have employees, whether fully outsourced or providing support to allow you to manage the compliance internally.

Managing the complexities of your business travelers

Sending employees abroad serves many purposes, including filling skills gaps, sharing local expertise with team members in other locations, providing career development opportunities, and creating greater cultural diversity throughout the organization. Employee business travel generates many opportunities, but it also exposes employers and their employees to risk. KPMG can assist in understanding the issues, how to navigate the tax and legal complexity, and manage the risks.

Enabling your employees to work from anywhere (WFA)

As we all strive to cope and adapt to the new reality and rapidly changing landscape, many organizations are being forced to quickly adapt to remote ways of working. Allowing employees the flexibility to work remotely may be an important factor in becoming the employer of choice and may allow organizations to broaden their talent pools outside of their local environment. KPMG’s team of experienced professionals have the capabilities to develop a customized and sustainable WFA program to address your organization’s tax, immigration, and employment and labour needs, as well as to address employee experience and cyber security considerations.

Transforming your global rewards program

Constantly evolving governmental regulations throughout the world and rapid technological advances make designing and administering effective and cost-efficient compensation and benefit plans increasingly complex—yet vital to a company’s ability to thrive in the global marketplace. Here’s how KPMG can help:

Compensation program design and implementation for executive and broad-based programs, including tax, legal and benchmarking considerations
Advising on international tax issues related to various forms of incentive compensation, including equity, pension and benefits plans
Equity administration

Immigration and your workforce strategy

The nature of today's talent environment is competitive and complex. Organizations are constantly seeking the most efficient immigration strategies to attract and retain top global talent, while shaping sustainable workforce strategies. KPMG’s immigration professionals go beyond simply processing applications to instead focus on helping clients turn immigration into a talent driver. Our team of Canadian, US and global immigration professionals proactively collaborates with clients to understand their business, develop their workforce strategies and anticipate future workforce trends and opportunities.

With KPMG’s process, experienced network of professionals, and suite of immigration technology tools, our team will assist to streamline the administration of immigration cases, mitigate compliance issues and provide insights needed to help meet your organization’s objectives.

Technology to support your evolving global workforce

Global business is constantly transforming and managing the risks associated with mobile employees is challenging. Technology is key to staying ahead of the curve to meet your changing business and management needs.

Whether it is a program manager monitoring the compliance process, or a business line leader concerned with overall cost— you require a system that provides the right information when and where you need it. We have technology solutions that can be tailored to support the mobility aspects of your program and your needs. You can leverage the full power of our integrated platform KPMG LINK Work Force - linking you, your providers, and KPMG to your global workforce to help streamline and reinvent the way you manage your processes in a single portal with real-time data at your fingertips at any time.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

We have found that our clients typically face one or more of the following:

Talent Management

Talent considerations are rapidly evolving, and many organizations face multiple issues on this front, including talent shortages, changes to the structure of their workforce, new ways of working, and more. Mobility can often be a key part of the solution. The mobility of employees presents an opportunity to expand your pool of talent, bring people together, bridge cultures, unify a global organization, and give employees amazing development experiences. There are many challenges to be thought through along the way, but a well-thought-out mobility program is well worth the investment.

Employee Experience

When implementing a global mobility policy, it is important to review employee experience to ensure it meets the needs of the global talent you are hoping to attract. Are your policies sufficient for the demographics of your future workforce, and do they factor in considerations such as Inclusivity, Diversity & Equity; ESG; and technology to aid in productivity and collaboration?

Managing Overall Global Risk

A wide range of risks are associated with a global mobility policy, including those focused on legislation, compliance, compensation, policy and tax. Careful management of these based on expert input is essential.

Technology

Our clients often need to evaluate their existing tracking technology to determine where gaps exist that would prevent adequate employee tracking with regards to tax and immigration, along with the need to integrate this process into existing HR technology.

Employee compliance and corporate compliance represent the primary tax compliance considerations an organization must consider when implementing global mobility.

Employee compliance refers to the individual tax obligations of a given employee. While this has traditionally been a personal matter left up to the individual, corporations are more frequently offering support in these areas due to the changing nature of the workforce and added complexity created by cross-border activity. There is also a desire to offer more support to talent so that employees can focus more on their key responsibilities and minimize their time spent on cross-border tax and legal issues.

Corporate compliance refers to the tax obligations of the corporation, which may include payroll, social security, corporate tax and indirect taxes. As with employee compliance, a global mobility program, while offering many benefits, can complicate compliance and necessitate external consultation in these areas.

Global Mobility Department within an organization should be partnering within the business. This will encourage insight into strategic decision-making, offering value beyond just deployment, including helping the organization to further its business and talent strategy through mobility. It may be desirable to outsource certain functions of a more administrative nature in order to free up capacity and allow the Global Mobility team to have a more strategic role.

KPMG is experienced in offering global mobility services to large and small multinational organizations across many industries with diverse needs. We offer team members with international HR, tax and immigration, finance and accounting, and relocation management experience. We are passionate about helping you shape your workforce to be future ready and focused on helping you obtain the best experience for your globally mobile employees. We are ready to meet the challenges you face and help make sure you get the most out of your global mobility program.