Global Mobility Moves Talent, Not Always Careers – Why Sponsorship is the Missing Lever

Organisations master the complexities of relocation: visas, policies, payroll, family, home search. But what slips through is the career trajectory before, during and after a move. With nearly 40% of expats leaving within a year of returning home, one lever needs more attention: sponsorship.

multi-generational-business-people-walking-stock-image

Helen Tubb

26 October 2026

A Fragile Return

Ask any HR leader why their organisation invests in international assignments and two words feature strongly: development and retention. 87% of mobility professionals view mobility as critical for talent development and 76% link it directly to retention.[1] An international posting can be an attractive fast-track: trust a high-potential employee with the stretch of a new market and culture, and loyalty and growth follow.The talent value is equally reflected in budgets, with relocation costs averaging around $77,000 per employee and exceeding $300,000 for long-term assignments.[2] But this investment remains fragile. Aside from assignments that underperform or finish early, up to 40% of repatriates leave their employer within a year of returning home.[3]So what’s different for employees who fully benefit and stay? Whilst there are multiple reasons, Sean Ahern, Vice President of Global Mobility at Prudential Financial, calls out a salient one:"When a strong home country advocate is maintained throughout the assignment, the overall return on investment of the expat assignment tends to be much better, meaning the person has better opportunities to repatriate to a job in their home country that allows them to progressively move up in their career."[4]What he describes is a form of sponsorship.Although the sponsorship concept has existed for more than a decade, many organisations do not fully name, embed and design for it. Most critically, they fail to ask: who is being sponsored, who is sponsoring and what are the consequences for mobile talent?

What Sponsorship Is (and Is Not)

Often confused with mentorship, coaching and other practices, sponsorship is distinctly different. A sponsor leverages their social capital (power, reputation and influence) to create career-critical exposure and opportunities for talented employees. In short, they not only talk with the person, they pivot to talk about them in other rooms.The “Sponsorship CODE” framework helps understand the main types of behaviour:

Connect – joining up with senior and influential people via one-to-one introductions, invitations to groups and other modes of networking.
Open – enabling routes to high-visibility projects, strategic roles and other opportunities that demonstrate capability and readiness to progress.
Defend – pushing back on unfair criticism, biased views and snap judgements that are explicit or implicit barriers to growth.
Endorse – advocating towards other people, both in group and public settings and in private interactions where key decisions are made. [5]

Even in organisations with robust, merit-based talent systems, these behaviours play a pivotal role in enabling high-potential employees to be noticed, recognised and championed, especially in larger multinationals and on the pathway to executive positions.The acceleration effect of sponsorship can be seen in the latest data. Professionals with sponsors are promoted at nearly double the rate of those without[6] and up to 30% more likely to put themselves forward for a high-visibility project[7]. Contrary to myth, sponsors benefit as well. The likelihood of them advancing in their careers goes up by 53% compared to non-sponsors[8], along with improvements in leadership capability, employee engagement and collaboration.

The Mobility, Advocacy and Inclusion Triangle

If building and sustaining sponsorship depends on proximity, an international move can disrupt, at worst block access. Familiar scenarios include a high-performer leaving headquarters and their sponsor disperses, retires or simply loses interest; or an inpatriate arriving with sought-after expertise, but limited social capital to yield the right networks and relationships.Such scenarios are not confined to the unfolding assignment or return trip as sponsorship relationships take shape much further upstream. An organisation can run a flawless relocation programme and still be choosing assignees through implicit filters related to the names floated and candidates selected to move.Across this full timeline, sponsorship access can be looked at from an inclusion perspective. Informal networks, unconscious biases and traditional norms and narratives mean that sponsorship tends to favour existing power structures. And when sponsorship is left unchecked, employees from under-represented groups, by gender, race and ethnicity, social background, even leadership style, are typically under-sponsored.Women, in particular, face a double challenge when mobility and advocacy are combined. They already represent the minority in international assignee populations at an average of 20%.[9] Added to this, they are under-sponsored by up to 54% compared to their men peers.[10] That means in organisations generally, they receive plenty of mentorship, coaching and encouragement, but far less active advocacy to ensure career growth and advancement. Take the example of Jan, a senior process engineer in a global energy firm who was posted overseas to gain next-level management experience. Her N+2 had gradually spotted her strong performance, become her sponsor and built the case for the assignment. But the anticipated career boost and promotion never followed. The sponsor changed function and lost track during the assigned period and nothiing was put in place to maintain relationships, reputations and backing in head office. Jan resigned not long after.[11]

How to Activate the Sponsorship Lever

HR and other leaders do not need a new department or seven-figure programme to factor sponsorship – effectively and equitably – into global mobility. The starting point is always to treat sponsorship as an integral part of the mobility lifecycle, from selection through to return, rather than an ad-hoc, hidden occurence. Four actions can help with this integration:Review who gets sponsored, not just moved. Pull the list of current assignees and ask one question for each person: who is championing their talent in strategic places across the organisation? Then look at previous selection slates and ask whose names were floated, by whom and why. Candid questions like these help to open the conversation and reveal where sponsorship may be missing.Anticipate and identify a ‘in- or out-of-country sponsor’. Rather than a local buddy or check-in manager, this is a leader identified well before the assignment starts. As a sponsor, they hold genuine standing in the organisation and have already invested in knowing and building a relationship with the assignee, so they are well placed to advocate when it counts.Develop sponsorship as a leadership competence. Inaction is often driven by a lack of awareness and know-how; the classic confusion with mentorship is a case in point. Investment in awareness-raising and skills development, using the “CODE” and other practical frameworks, helps to encourage, support and track behaviours in the longer term.Watch for the gender and other diversity patterns. Make sure sponsorship quality and access are made explicit criteria within an inclusive approach to global mobility. Where under-represented populations are at risk, action can go further by integrating sponsorship-building into wider talent strategies, of which an international assignment is just one of many elements.Underlying these actions is a deeper mindset shift. With global workforce trends, organisations can no longer afford to overlook sponsorship as a significant variable for global mobility. Sponsors are the movers of careers, not just talent, across borders.

[1] ”2024 Talent Mobility Trends", Mercer, 2024
[2] ”Immigration, Talent and Business Resilience in 2026”, Talent Everywhere, 2026
[3] Global Relocation Trends Survey, Brookfield; cited in “Boosting the Retention of Employees When They Return from Overseas”, Forbes, 2023
[4] ”Repatriation and Retention: Ensuring Mobile Talent and Businesses Thrive”, NetExpat, 2026
[5] Created by Helen Tubb based on her INSEAD-awarded sponsorship research, 2024
[6] Women in the Workplace Report 2025, McKinsey & Co and Lean In, 2025
[1] Interview case taken from Helen Tubb’s INSEAD sponsorship research (see above); Jan is pseudonym used for confidentiality reasons.
[7] (Forget a Mentor) Find a Sponsor, Slyvia Ann Hewlett, 2013
[8] The Sponsor Effect, Slyvia Ann Hewlett, 2019
[9] Worldwide Survey of International Assignment Policies and Practices, Mercer; cited in “The Gender Imbalance of Global Mobility”, BTR, 2021
[10] Forget a Mentor) Find a Sponsor, Slyvia Ann Hewlett, 2013
[11] Interview case taken from Helen Tubb’s INSEAD sponsorship research (see above); Jan is pseudonym used for confidentiality reasons.

About the author

As a leadership advisor, Helen Tubb helps organisations strengthen their talent pipelines and executive dynamics in complex, dynamic environments. She combines over three decades in international corporates and senior executive roles, organisational psychology credentials and distinction-awarded INSEAD research. Her work on sponsorship centres on closing the Talent Sponsorship Gap through talks, workshops and system development.Website: https://www.helentubb.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helentubb/You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@HelenTubb

Find out more about the Think Global People and Think Women community and events.

Subscribe to Relocate Extra, our monthly newsletter, to get all the latest international assignments and global mobility news.Relocate’s new Global Mobility Toolkit provides free information, practical advice and support for HR, global mobility managers and global teams operating overseas.

©2026 Re:locate magazine, published by Profile Locations, Spray Hill, Hastings Road, Lamberhurst, Kent TN3 8JB. All rights reserved. This publication (or any part thereof) may not be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of Profile Locations. Profile Locations accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein.