This article is part of a recurring series highlighting recent talent mobility industry reports. If you would like the WERC editorial team to consider covering a specific industry report, email mobility@talenteverywhere.org.
The 2025 KPMG Global Mobility Benchmarking Report underscores the growing strategic role of global mobility in organizations. No longer confined to administrative tasks, mobility functions are enabling business agility, deploying talent efficiently, and contributing to measurable organizational value. Influenced by economic uncertainty, geopolitical risk, and the rise of flexible working, these programs are continuously reshaping their strategies.
Companies are increasingly viewing mobility as a strategic lever to attract and retain talent while ensuring compliance and cost efficiency. Mobility leaders see their functions evolving from a service role to one that directly drives business outcomes, making alignment with corporate goals essential for competitive advantage.
The Rise of Agile Assignments
One notable trend in 2025 is the move toward short-term, project-based, and flexible assignments. Organizations are shifting away from traditional long-term relocations, leveraging mobility as a tool to respond quickly to talent needs and market shifts.
About one-third of surveyed companies plan to review or revise mobility policies in the next 12-18 months to accommodate changing business trends. This flexibility reduces cost and addresses talent scarcity by enabling faster deployment of critical skills across borders. Short-term assignments, when paired with effective support structures, allow businesses to optimize talent utilization and employee satisfaction.
Measuring Value Beyond Cost
The survey reveals a clear shift from cost-cutting toward demonstrating tangible value. While cost management remains a factor, only 18% of organizations cite it as a top priority, down from 39% in 2024. Instead, mobility functions are focusing on metrics that show return on investment, such as speed of talent deployment, retention rates, and contribution to business objectives.
By developing dashboards and analytics to track these outcomes, mobility teams can prove their strategic impact to senior leadership. This data-driven approach strengthens the business case for mobility programs and positions the function as a central contributor to organizational success rather than a cost center.
People and Experience: Talent-Centric Mobility
Employee experience has emerged as a core differentiator in global mobility. Approximately 82% of organizations report that mobility supports talent acquisition and deployment, but challenges remain in attracting highly skilled and scarce talent, particularly when it comes to those with a deeper understanding of AI and technology. Survey data shows that more than 75% of organizations collect employee feedback. While 80% indicate they act consistently on resulting insights, just over 1 in 10 call their current approach to collecting feedback “highly” effective.
Mobility teams are being encouraged to design experiences that enhance engagement, foster development, and maintain retention. This involves careful policy design, ongoing support during assignments, and clear communication about how mobility contributes to career growth.
Strategic Communication and Leadership Alignment
Even as mobility becomes more strategic, gaps in communication persist. While 34% of organizations report that their mobility strategy is widely communicated, only 20% indicate that it is broadly shared and well understood. This highlights the need for clear, consistent messaging that conveys the purpose, benefits, and goals of mobility programs to stakeholders and employees.
Alignment with leadership is equally important. Mobility leaders must secure executive support to ensure their strategies are embedded in broader talent, business, and operational objectives. Effective communication and alignment transform mobility from a transactional function into a strategic enabler.
Technology and Analytics: The Digital Frontier
Despite the growing complexity of global mobility, many organizations remain reliant on spreadsheets and manual reporting. The survey found that 72% of respondents still use spreadsheets as their primary analytics tool, while only 16% utilize advanced analytics platforms like Tableau or Power BI.
AI adoption is increasing, with 62% planning investments in the coming year to automate administrative tasks, cost projections, and payroll reconciliations. However, only 34% of mobility teams currently use AI. Leveraging predictive analytics and AI-driven insights can help anticipate talent demand, optimize assignment types, and free teams to focus on strategic activities, signaling a significant opportunity for modernization.
Policy Redesign for a Flexible Workforce
Mobility policies are evolving to reflect new ways of working. Companies are integrating remote work, short-term assignments, and commuter arrangements into formal policies, enabling greater flexibility while maintaining compliance. Approximately one-third of organizations are planning for policy reviews within the next year to better align with business needs and talent expectations. Modernized policies help attract and retain top talent, particularly in high-demand sectors, while ensuring that mobility functions can respond swiftly to shifting business priorities. The emphasis is on creating frameworks that support both operational efficiency and employee satisfaction.
Upskilling the Mobility Function
The survey highlights the need for talent development within mobility teams themselves. Upskilling in areas such as AI, analytics, business advisory, and strategic communication is a growing priority. About 29% of respondents cite team upskilling as a key focus area, while 30% struggle with sourcing scarce talent for mobility operations. Organizations are encouraged to build hybrid models that combine operational excellence with strategic advisory capabilities, ensuring that teams are capable of both managing day-to-day assignments and contributing to long-term business planning. Empowered, skilled teams are critical to driving mobility’s impact across the enterprise.
Overcoming Challenges and Risk Management
Despite its strategic potential, mobility faces challenges. Gaps in communication, analytics, and technology adoption can limit effectiveness. Attracting and retaining scarce talent remains a key pressure point, particularly in fast-growing or specialized industries. Policy inflexibility may hinder organizations from capitalizing on remote work or short-term deployment opportunities.
Mobility functions must also maintain compliance across diverse regulatory environments while demonstrating value to senior leadership. Addressing these challenges requires deliberate investment in technology, talent, and policy, as well as ongoing evaluation of employee experience and business impact.
Mobility as a Strategic Differentiator
Global mobility is evolving into a strategic enabler of business success. Mobility teams that align strategy with corporate goals, invest in technology and analytics, modernize policies, and focus on employee experience are best positioned to drive competitive advantage. By measuring value beyond cost, empowering teams, and embracing agile assignment models, organizations can leverage mobility to deploy talent where it is needed most, retain key employees, and respond to emerging business challenges. Mobility is no longer just a support function, but rather has become vital to organizational agility, talent strategy, and long-term growth.