It’s 2024: An international workforce is standard as businesses expand into new markets and tap into diverse talent pools. This expansion strategy, however, introduces complexities from navigating foreign employment laws and varied compensation packages to managing seamless employee relocations around the world.
Enter global mobility software.
These advanced solutions serve as the central system for global mobility programs and help manage the intricate logistics of moving employees internationally. Global mobility software can streamline compliance with local laws, help craft a positive relocation experience, and align mobility processes with strategic company objectives—all while prioritizing cost savings.
Relying solely on basic in-house resources to manage the multifaceted relocation process is increasingly untenable. Relocating requires much more than simply moving an employee from one country to another.
A comprehensive global mobility management strategy encompasses everything from tax and payroll implications to employee support services while transitioning a team to new roles abroad.
This article explores leading global mobility software options for 2024, their respective benefits and challenges, and how they each have a role in upgrading the global mobility industry and elevating the employee experience for mobile workforces worldwide.
TDLR
Why Is Global Mobility Important?
More than just relocations, global workforce mobility is a comprehensive strategy for managing a company’s international workforce.
Here’s why global mobility software is pivotal in modern business operations:
- Cost Savings for Relocation: These platforms streamline the relocation process, automate tasks, and manage resources efficiently, saving valuable time and money that companies can redirect to core operations and growth.
- Enhanced Employee Experience: A smooth relocation process helps employees quickly adapt to new environments and focus on their roles, boosting their productivity and loyalty to the company.
- Compliance and Risk Management: Global mobility software aligns company operations with local laws in different countries, reducing legal risks and ensuring compliance with tax and immigration regulations.
- Strategic Talent Deployment: Beyond moving employees, this software enables strategic talent management, placing the right people in the right roles, in the right locations, and at the right times—a crucial capability for businesses competing in international markets.
- Scalability and Adaptability: As a company grows, global mobility software scales, offering advanced features and integrations that adapt to evolving organizational needs, whether managing 10 or 10,000 international moves.
- Data-Driven Decisions: These tools provide HR and management teams valuable data, such as cost and salary projections, enabling informed, real-time decision-making.
- Empowering HR Teams: This software lightens the burden on HR teams by automating administrative tasks associated with international relocations, freeing them to focus on strategic activities like talent development and employee engagement.
Global mobility software is indispensable in today’s business and technology landscape — arguably a cornerstone of a company’s global mobility approach. It streamlines logistics and improves the relocation strategy to ultimately uplift the employee experience and overall corporate strategy.
What Challenges Do Global Mobility Software Address
The truth is that today, the process of relocating employees around the world is more complex than ever. Moving staff between different countries involves intricate logistics, compliance with local laws, and the employee’s personal well-being, which can be burdensome for HR teams and the company.
Global mobility management software emerges as an important tool for navigating these complexities and transforming potential roadblocks into manageable tasks.
Global Mobility Software addresses several challenges:
- Compliance with local laws
- Cost and salary projections
- Efficiency and time-saving
- Employee experience
- Data management
Top Features to Look for in Global Mobility Software
The right global mobility software is essential for efficiently managing international employees and stakeholders and ensuring everyone’s company’s ability and success.
To optimize your investment and align the software with your organization’s specific needs, prioritize these essential features:
- Real-time analytics and reporting
- Compliance monitoring and alerts
- Cost estimation and budgeting tools
- Employee self-service portals
- Integration with payroll and HR systems
- Multi-currency and multi-language support
- Security and data privacy
- Mobile accessibility
- Customizable workflows and templates
By focusing on these features in your global mobility software search, you are positioning your organization to enhance its global mobile workforce, global mobility strategy, and streamline its global mobility management.
9 Best Mobility Software Companies for 2024
As businesses expand globally, the demand for efficient, user-friendly global mobility management software rises.
Let’s explore nine leading options for 2024.
1. AltoVita
AltoVita is a leading corporate housing platform and relocation management solution. It offers extensive, fully furnished accommodation options in over 7 million properties in more than 35,000 locations worldwide.
Tailored to meet businesses' unique needs, AltoVita also serves as a business travel solution through its multi-award-winning enterprise software. This platform significantly reduces the traditional booking process time from 24-48 hours to 3 minutes.
Through strong partnerships with housing providers, AltoVita offers competitive market prices, ensuring optimal visibility and cost-saving benefits. Designed for HR managers, global mobility professionals, and traveling employees, AltoVita provides a unified space for efficiently managing corporate travel investment.
The platform strongly emphasizes employee satisfaction, offering a vast selection of vetted and verified accommodations to ensure employees have a comfortable and safe stay. Moreover, AltoVita has customizable features that adapt to various business needs and preferences, allowing for tailored business solutions and effective corporate travel management.
Standout Features
- Instant Booking: This feature enables the immediate reservation of selected properties, which are confirmed and directly communicated to the hospitality operator and traveler after admin approval.
- Managed Budget: Administrators can create custom search pages by setting budget parameters and offering a selection of accommodations within a specified budget and location, city-specific or worldwide.
- Shortlist Curation: AltoVita’s experts curate a tailored shortlist of available properties based on booking requests, streamlining selections and reducing back-and-forth communications.
- Live Stats Dashboard: The dashboard provides live analytics and reporting in various formats for maximum visibility and comprehensive analysis of accommodation activity and expenditure.
- Safety Verification: Relocation and mobility managers can review and select properties based on comprehensive safety and security measures, ensuring confidence in the accommodation’s safety and security.
2. Topia
Topia provides a unified global talent mobility platform, enabling companies to deploy, manage, and engage employees worldwide efficiently. This platform is integral to a broader talent strategy, aiming to simplify all aspects of employee movement while emphasizing enhanced experiences.
Widely adopted by Fortune 1000 companies, HR teams moving companies, and relocating employees, Topia is a trusted guide through the intricate process of international office relocations and assignments.
Topia offers a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for managing a distributed workforce efficiently and complying with relevant regulations. Its data-driven, rules-based workflow automation simplifies operations for HR, global mobility, finance, and payroll teams, helping them navigate the complexities and risks of a multi-location, mobile workforce.
Standout Features
- Topia One Platform: A unique cloud-based solution designed to connect and standardize all necessary data for global deployment, managing, and engaging mobile talent.
- Managed Budget: This feature allows companies to set a specific relocation budget, giving employers and employees explicit control over costs through a predetermined list of service options.
- Scenario Planning and Cost Estimates: Topia’s tool provides real-time, automated calculations, offering instant insights that enable companies to make informed decisions. This frees HR teams to focus on essential tasks instead of constant cost calculations.
- Assignment Case Management: This feature streamlines administrative processes, centralizing all global mobility data with detailed reporting and analytics, allowing HR teams to focus more on strategic talent management and less on tedious tasks.
3. Benivo
Benivo is a global mobility management software platform that empowers companies to efficiently manage employee relocations and assignments. It enhances the employee experience while aligning business growth with HR management’s strategic needs and preferences.
Benivo significantly reduces relocation costs, allegedly saving companies between 30% and 70%, by integrating seamlessly with immigration, tax, and HR systems. This approach eliminates repetitive work and streamlines direct housing bookings and other essential relocation services.
The flexible and customizable platform allows HR teams to tailor compensation and relocation services to individual employee needs and specific company policies without compromising security or compliance.
Standout Features
- Workflow Automation: Streamlines operations by eliminating repetitive tasks, reducing errors, and integrating with service providers at no additional cost.
- Unified Data Control: A secure, single platform that consolidates HR, employee, vendor platforms, and analytics, enhanced with supply chain cybersecurity features.
- Real-time SLA Tracking and Accountability: Facilitates prompt identification and rectification of process issues, enhancing vendor accountability and service quality.
- AI-Powered Predictive Analytics: This technology uses data to proactively identify and address issues before they escalate, providing transformative insights and real-time adjustments for a smoother employee experience.
4. Equus
Equus is a leading global mobility management tool designed to support an organization’s strategic growth by seamlessly connecting global workforces and mobility ecosystems. With a focus on simplifying the lives of international and global workforces, Equus offers two distinct products: AssignmentPro and PinPoint.
AssignmentPro manages every aspect of employee moves, from pre-authorization to compensation, taxes, and repatriation. It integrates talent mobility programs with an extensive network of suppliers for real-time global mobility data access.
PinPoint, on the other hand, focuses on accurate workforce tracking, compliance management, and engagement enhancement during employee travel or relocation.
Equus offers flexibility, allowing international employees to customize their relocation experience within budget constraints.
Standout Features
- Group Moves Automation: This software simplifies and automates the process of group and project cost estimates, making large-scale relocations more manageable.
- Cost Estimates Tool: Enables quick and precise calculations and reporting on compensation to streamline budget management.
- Consumer-Grade Employee Experience: Offers a convenient and intuitive mobile app for employees to manage their relocations.
- Comprehensive Risk Management: PinPoint’s risk calculator identifies and flags potential risks related to specific locations, supporting employee safety, compliance, and informed decision-making on travel or working requests.
5. Urbanbound
UrbanBound is a technology-powered relocation management company designed to simplify employee relocations. It provides a software solution that reduces the administrative burden and cuts program costs by up to 66% while enhancing the relocation experience for employees and interns.
The platform features payment, housing, and travel expense management, including personalized assistance through dedicated Relocation Consultants. This allows HR departments to delegate time-consuming tasks and focus on supporting their workforce. UrbanBound provides comprehensive reporting capabilities, enabling employers to analyze and manage relocation timelines and costs effectively.
Using UrbanBound, companies can ease employees’ transition and position themselves as exceptional workplaces, potentially boosting candidate conversion rates and reducing turnover.
Standout Features
- Cost-Effective Relocation Management: Reduces administrative burden and cuts relocation program costs by up to 66%, maintaining high employee satisfaction.
- Intuitive Intern Management: Simplifies relocation for interns, streamlining the administration of payments, housing options, and travel expenses.
- 24/7 Centralized Access for Employees: Offers employees continuous access to a centralized app to view benefits, location insights, and moving timelines, promoting a smooth transition.
- Dedicated Relocation Consultant: This service provides a personalized relocation experience with a consultant who guides employees throughout their move and offers consistent support.
6. ReloTracker
ReloTracker is a comprehensive, web-based relocation management system designed to adapt to the modern needs of the global relocation industry. In a world where remote work and digital communication are increasingly prevalent, ReloTracker provides a streamlined, efficient, and secure solution for relocation management companies, local relocation providers, and their clients, including HR departments and immigration service providers.
The system centralizes necessary documentation and data, automates numerous tedious tasks, and facilitates seamless communication between parties, enabling users to efficiently manage, organize, and track the complex processes associated with employee relocations.
For employers and transferees, ReloTracker is a single, integrated platform where they can view and enter all their information without navigating through multiple systems.
Standout Features
- Integrated Communication and Organization: ReloTracker simplifies communication between all parties involved in a relocation, allowing users to easily manage operations and reduce reliance on bulky email chains and scattered documents.
- Robust Security Measures: ReloTracker prioritizes user data security with role-based access, encrypted data transmission, and strict adherence to international data protection regulations (such as GDPR).
- Comprehensive Financial and Expense Management: The platform supports complete expense management services.
- Flexible Integration and Customization: ReloTracker can be integrated with various internal and external systems, making it a highly adaptable solution. It also supports the Automatic Transfers of Relocation Information (ATRI) standard, promoting seamless information exchange between systems.
7. Sirva
Sirva Worldwide, Inc. is a leading global relocation management and moving services company. It offers comprehensive support for HR professionals and mobility professionals handling employee relocations, whether domestic or international.
Sirva provides end-to-end solutions, leveraging its portfolio of brands—including Sirva, Allied, and North American—to deliver a full spectrum of services, from corporate relocation and household moving to commercial moving and storage.
With 67 owned and over 900 affiliated locations in more than 190 countries, Sirva combines a broad network with localized, attentive service. For key executives, Sirva’s exclusive VIP and Elite VIP relocation programs provide top-tier, personalized service tailored to each executive and their family.
Standout Features
- Fully Integrated Relocation Services: Sirva offers a complete suite of services through its diverse portfolio of brands and extensive global network.
- Expert Visa and Immigration Support: Comprehensive inbound and outbound global immigration services delivered by experienced specialists, ensuring a smooth relocation process.
- Exclusive Executive Relocation Programs (VIP & EVIP): Specialized support for senior executives, with dedicated teams, personalized attention, and enhanced destination support.
- Innovative Proprietary Program Options: Unique offerings, such as the RiskGuard® fixed-cost home sale option and “no closing cost” home loans, align with corporate objectives and streamline the employee relocation experience.
8. MoveAssist
Since 1997, MoveAssist has pioneered high-quality software solutions tailored to the needs of global mobility professionals, including Relocation Management Companies (RMCs), Destination Service Providers (DSPs), in-house international mobility teams, and HR departments.
MoveAssist’s products, such as mai-relocation and mai-assignment, offer comprehensive global mobility industry and management solutions, incorporating vendor management, compliance monitoring, and billing. Designed for flexibility and user experience, these products are customizable and user-friendly.
MoveAssist is devoted to fostering long-term partnerships with clients by assigning dedicated teams to each account and upholds stringent security measures, including ISO 27001 certification and encrypted data, ensuring sensitive information is rigorously protected.
Standout Features
- Innovative Solutions: MoveAssist develops award-winning products delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS) in a secure private cloud. Their responsiveness to new functionality requests is a defining quality.
- Customizable User Experience: Clients can tailor the look, feel, and operation of MoveAssist’s software for optimized efficiency and usability.
- Personal Client Relationships: MoveAssist prioritizes long-term client partnerships, assigning dedicated teams for continuity and personalized service.
- Advanced Security Protocols: MoveAssist ensures clients can operate confidently with ISO 27001 certification, encrypted databases, application firewalls, 2FA, and SSO capabilities.
9. Mercer
Mercer, a global consulting leader and part of the Marsh & McLennan Companies, specializes in health, wealth, and career solutions for businesses. Established in 1945, Mercer’s expansive global staff assists organizations in advancing their most vital asset: their people.
Through its Mobility solutions, Mercer empowers over 2,500 clients worldwide, including major multinational companies, to grow their businesses by moving key talent to a new country or internationally, developing global leaders, and implementing comprehensive talent mobility strategies.
Mercer’s tailored offerings adapt to specific mobility strategies or programs, covering various types of international and domestic assignments and effectively managing the complexities and costs of talent mobility.
Standout Features
- Tailored Data Products and Services: Mercer provides up-to-date and accurate data for managing global mobility programs, regardless of assignment duration.
- Comprehensive Domestic Relocation Services: Mercer offers policy expertise and data solutions to optimize domestic relocation programs within the United States or Canada, ensuring they are cost-effective and competitive.
- Assignment Policy Segmentation: Mercer helps companies segment expatriation policies by assignment duration, purpose, and geography, addressing the drawbacks of one-size-fits-all policies and aligning mobility programs with organizational business and talent needs.
Key Takeaways on the Future of Global Mobility Programs
Global mobility software is vital in today’s modern, international business landscape. These tools streamline the mobility program process, ensure compliance with local laws, help with cost-savings for relocation, improve the employee experience, and enable each employer to use data effectively to make informed decisions.
By leveraging these advanced solutions, employers can manage their global mobility programs efficiently, ensure a positive experience for their employees, and optimize their strategic business objectives.
For example, incorporating features like real-time analytics and compliance monitoring can significantly enhance the efficiency of an employer’s global mobility efforts. This, in turn, can lead to better cost management and employee satisfaction, ultimately contributing to the overall success of the company’s international operations.
Investing in robust global mobility software is a strategic advantage for businesses looking to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world.
Learn how to start with AltoVita and streamline your global mobility program today.
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