Global Workforce Colloquium 2024 Blog

The Expat Academy team burst through the doors of Etc. Venues for the Global Workforce Colloquium at 7am on Monday morning – meeting partners carrying banners, books, sweets and presentations along the way. For those of you that have been to our Annual Conference in the past, you may also have been confused about having to go up an extra floor! We had a couple of hours to get everything set-up and working perfectly before the Vanguards arrived for their Huddle.

The day was split into two, with members able to choose which session/room they would like to be in for each part – A logistical nightmare you say?! It was surprisingly smooth with QR codes members could scan, great signage and a little ushering.

The first part of the day was Technical Tax or Global Mobility Essentials. The latter was aimed at those new into GM, to give them the basics of the assignment lifecycle and the roles GM has to play and was delivered by our very own wonderful Lynda Brennan from the GMPD team.

First up in Technical Tax Andy Kelly and James Hourigan from BDO looked at the UK. The Spring Budget was of course front of focus with the end of the Nom-Dom Regime and start of the Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) Regime. They also took a look at the “new era” of GM tax policy and governance.

Next in Technical Tax was Laura Hutton and Jo Bramley from Grant Thornton taking us through ROW. They described 2024 as the ultimate election year and whilst they expect there to be more derisking/friendshoring they also point to the rise in conflict. We also ran through the changes in the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Social Security International Agreements.

The first networking break was much needed to discuss how all of this impacts our roles and our assignees (and of course coffee & cake…). The next session was our first Huddle and the choice was between “Mobility Technology” and “Proving Your Team’s Worth”.

First up in proving your team’s worth was Mike Hibberd from Global Expat Pay, who talked through how we can deliver operational and business insights, measure ROI and plan ahead by using data. The discussions focused on if we have visibility of our programme costs, and if we have the data required to make all of this possible. Second up was Claire Fielding from AIRINC looking at the human psychology side of proving worth and how to use the qualitative side as well as data. The huddles looked at who the main stakeholders are for GM and how we can flex our communication style with each.

Meanwhile in the other room, Tim Wells from Equus Software and Tom Crosby from Tracker Software Technologies were looking at how GM is evolving and how we must integrate technology. The huddle questions looked at what tech GM teams would like to implement, what are the barriers to this and what would be our dream tech to take away our biggest pain points!

Refuelling was provided in the form of lunch and the room was truly buzzing with networking, visiting vendor stalls and laughter. After lunch we dived straight into our second Huddle of the day and in one room Marcus Downing, Kate Fitzpatrick and Frankie Watkinson from Mercer were guiding us through “Advancing Global Mobility’s Influence”. The pandemic has fast tracked the war on talent, and we discussed what actions GM can take to add further value to the talent agenda and strategies we should deploy at assignment completion to measure it.

In the adjacent Huddle room, John Sammon from Santa Fe, Radhika Gorsia from Aires and Kathyrn Osborn & Meriem Derouiche from FIS were examining partnerships with vendors. The discussion made it clear that being open and honest, reviewing what doesn’t work and aligning dedicated resource is best for building strong vendor relationships.

One final pitstop and we were into the last sessions of the day, one of which was part 2 of that GM Essentials training with Lynda Brennan and GMPD. The other room completed the circle with Technical Immigration and first up Ben Sheldrick and Joanne Taylor from Magrath Sheldrick took us through the latest UK immigration updates.

UK immigration has hit a high and with the elections coming up, we expect each of the political parties to put forward their own agenda on immigration, but we agreed that none would give us everything we want. We looked at the raising salary threshold for Skilled Workers and the Family Route, and new technicalities of the Shortage Occupation List. Good news came in the form of Youth Mobility Schemes and changing Visitor rules.

Ray Rackham from Newland Chase then took to the stage to wrap up with ROW immigration. There have been further steps into digitization around the world, with e-visas and online portals. There is also a strange new dynamic across the globe of revitalization whilst also being protectionist – We wonder where we’ll be when the next Colloquium rolls around!

Wow, that was a lot! We headed back into the networking space for a well needed drink and some lighter chatter. We can’t wait to do it all again next time, once our brains have recovered that is…