Connecting Mobility to Create Diverse Workplaces #SHRM19

by Anish Aravind On June 19, 2019 0 comments

This month I completed an enriching two decades as an HR professional.

As I'm entering into my third decade as an HR Pro, it's an honor to be invited by the largest forum of HR professionals in the world to play catalyst role using social media platforms once again (this being the fourth time!) for their 2019 Annual Conference & Exposition at Las Vegas, USA - as an International attendee.

Ever since 2012 when I accidentally reached the Bloggers' Lounge, I've been blessed to find myself connected to an amazing group of people that SHRM curates with care - the SHRM Bloggers. You can find the 2019 list here.

The inclusion meant that I could choose any one from the huge list of sponsors who collaborate with SHRM Events team to bring together the largest ever congregation of HR folks on the globe year on year in the U.S. So I set out to look for a theme which I could used to pick a name from the 2019 list. I decided to use 'onnection' as the theme and zeroed in on a team who for the past 60 years, devoted themselves ardently to enable business to generate value out of Global mobility - Fragomen. I have been fortunate to have a side view of Fragomen team's passion for pursing this as a profession from 2005 when I got to manage global mobility for one of pioneers in business process management in India. My attempt will be to make a case for HR folks to be connected to mobility as a critical business need for any global business. Read the following cases to relate to the need for HR folks to remain on top of mobility issues for creating talented work places.

1. Diversity is a sure-shot determinant or influencer for increased creativity. I realised this during my first stint (referred above) when I got the opportunity to collaborate with Fragomen team in India and U.S. to support a U.S. firm's need for a diverse set of talent, necessitated by an exigent business need - relocation of their headquarters. The result was a win win situation for every stakeholder involved. Some of the individuals who I helped transition from different part of my global company to the U.S. still remain connected to me via social media.
2. Time can be of immeasurable value in business situations. I found this the hard way when a CXO's travel to the U.S. was delayed by over a year due to immigration related processes. Unfortunately, this was a business visa situation and my firm had chosen not to use professional support.

The two instances have been picked from the experiences I've had with mobility during the 2005-2015 period.

Last year, I came to know about a similar situation which an HCM client of mine was facing, where their co-founder's business travel to U.S. was delayed for over a year.

With the above as context, I had reached out to Andrew Greenfield, who is a Partner with Fragomen and is based in their Washington D.C. office. Andy explained to me the complexities which make the current global mobility to U.S. unique. An example would be the Trump Executive Order and ensuing situations that CIS adjudicators will follow for every application.

As the business context can add to the above mentioned complexities, I feel that it's best that I strongly recommend any attendee from the 2019 SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition, who is seeking to explore the possibilities around using mobility as an enabler for workplace creation, to add Andy's session into their #SHRM19 schedule. The SHRM mobile app will help all attendees do this with ease.

Andy Greenfield:
The New Dynamics for Immigration: Trump Administration and Congressional Priorities
LVCC N201-204
Tuesday, June 25 10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

Watch Andy give a preview of this session here.

Still not convinced ? OK, here's some more meat from my experience working with small businesses from India who find U.S. as a key enabler. If you are a small or medium business, the U.S., UK, EU would end up being a large market which would be tough to ignore. Hence understanding the nuances of immigration in depth as an HR pro will help position your role as a talent enabler better.

Andy's colleague Julia Onslow-Cole will be speaking at #SHRM19, too - here are the details:

Julia Onslow-Cole:
Brexit and Other Mobility Issues in the United Kingdom and European Union
LVCC N227-230
Tuesday, June 25 from 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM

Watch Julia give a preview of her session here.

I will be covering these sessions along with my fellow #SHRM19Bloggers - hoping to catch up for a #shrm19Selfie soon.

Originally published on Delving Deeper blog.

Anish Aravind is a Co-founder & Principal Consultant at SS Consulting (www.ssconsult.in) Kochi, Kerala, India. He is a Human Capital Management professional with over two decades of experience in enabling 'People-to-Business’ results in Manufacturing, FMCG, IT Product and ITES Industry segments. The BK Birla Group, Marico India, Wipro Consumer Care, GE-Capital / Genpact and Arbitron India-Nielsen Audio are the companies where Anish was employed before he became an HR entrepreneur by Dec 2014. Since then, Anish’s been playing the role of an HCM & Organisation Effectiveness coach to IT Small Medium businesses and also volunteers for SHRM India, National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM), and National HRD Network of India. He is currently Hon. Secretary of NIPM's Kerala chapter which is one of the most vibrant chapters of NIPM. He has recently been invited by the National Council of NIPM India as an advisor on HRTech.

SHRM India placed him in the Expert cohort of the India HR Influencer report for 2019. Besides being an avid birder and citizen Science contributor from Kerala State, Anish is also a member of the Kerala Cricket Association’s Professional Panel of Umpires.

Connecting Mobility to Create Diverse Workplaces #SHRM19

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