Seven Things You Can Do to Gain Support for Your Mobility Program
By: Craig McEvoy, Global Mobility Strategy & Consulting
Unlike Accounting, IT or Product Development, Mobility isn’t always acknowledged as an essential business function. It’s up to you to engage your company stakeholders in the conversation of how Mobility can benefit their goals and the greater company mission. Identifying and prioritizing stakeholders according to the impact they have on your Mobility program and applying these key steps will help you get started.
1. Begin with your purpose and mission
Crafting a Mobility mission statement is an important first step in your Stakeholder Engagement strategy.
The Mobility mission statement should be an extension of a company’s brand. It should outline Mobility’s goals and the approach it takes to achieve them. Because Mobility works closely with HR business partners and departments like Finance, Payroll, Procurement, Risk and Compliance, their viewpoints must be considered when planning your goals.
2. Find the right stakeholders
Not all stakeholders are the same. Determine the issues that are important to each stakeholder and decide what roles they’ll play in advancing the mission. Some may be highly regarded but indifferent to Mobility, while others may rank lower within the organization but be a critical gatekeeper for your efforts. You’ll want to focus on the key stakeholders who are necessary for the success of future initiatives and program objectives.
3. Get them excited about how your mission can benefit them
Your job is to describe the positive impacts Talent Mobility has on their function of the business. Identify at least three key messages, or reasons for them to believe. These talking points will become the crux of your messages going forward.
4. Communicate and educate
With a clear sense of each stakeholder’s impact on Mobility’s mission, you can assign appropriate communication actions to the applicable people in the plan (i.e. schedule quarterly face-to-face meeting with Talent Development to review year-to-date transferee satisfaction survey data). To effectively manage your stakeholders, you’ll need to gauge their interest and influence on your mission. It’s essential that you keep stakeholders informed and educated at an appropriate level using your key messages.
For example, How should I respond to HR’s question about the impact of short-term assignments on careers? A face-to-face meeting? A detailed report? If a stakeholder has minimal interest in Mobility and little overall influence, Mobility should be accessible, but regular communication probably won’t take priority.
5. Put it in writing…and on your calendar
Document your communication plan and commit by scheduling your outreach now. If it’s not on your personal calendar, it’s less likely to happen. To ensure you remain accountable, include your team on your plan.
6. Continued momentum
A formal Stakeholder Engagement strategy is an ongoing conversation – not merely quarterly meetings and recurring status updates. You need to monitor, evaluate and enhance your communications. You’ll find there are times when you need to generate ad hoc reports or make a phone call to provide clarity.
7. Think win-win
Stakeholders are only human. Not everyone will be supportive, so anticipate where there may be conflict. Listen to concerns and seek opportunities and relationships that can be built upon. And, most importantly, find a strategic compromise.
We’re helping companies all over the world with this. It’s important to have a strategy set and metrics in place, but we can help you conquer the last step – engaging your stakeholders.
After using our propitiatory Graebel Mobility PathBuilderSM Stakeholder Engagement tool, people gain ongoing support and buy-in for their Mobility programs. Our consultants offer best practices so you’re able to implement and sustain an effective communication strategy. After tapping into their expertise and using this simple, structured tool, you can confidently answer key stakeholder questions. Channel their enthusiasm. Feed their interest. Follow these seven steps, and you’ll have the power to shape your career and Mobility’s future.