Alongside volatility and uncertainty – which were explored in detail through presentations and conversations at yesterday's RES Forum annual report launch – key challenges for in-house HR and global mobility experts are a real lack of information and clarity, according to delegates attending the event.With so much up in the air politically over the past 12 months, there was a sense that HR was being put in the impossible position of being assumed by the wider business to have all the answers, despite the constantly shifting situation in the political sphere.

Brexit and global mobility

The RES Forum’s data on Brexit and VUCA showed that the UK’s European Union referendum result, its recent UK general election, and the imminent Brexit negotiations had only increased uncertainty and decreased business optimism.On Brexit, most organisations studied in the RES Forum’s Annual Report 2017, The New Normal of Global Mobility: Flexibility, Diversity and Data Mastery, feared they would face more costly and complex compliance and social security situations.In response, said the study, foreign talent sourcing strategies needed to be more agile and responsive.

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Certainty in uncertain times

In the past months, a number of large companies have sought to add certainty to their long-term plans in response to Theresa May’s hard-line stance on Brexit by announcing moves to the European mainland.However, there is a sense that the actual number of moves may well be different from the headline figures – particularly with further uncertainty now added to the mix after the general election result.In some cases, preliminary investigations reveal that large-scale simultaneous group moves to EU cities like Dublin, Paris and Frankfurt aren’t going to be easy in terms of schools, residential property and travel infrastructure.

Solutions-oriented approaches

Defining the challenges and then identifying the information and the type of data needed for good scenario-planning are among the steps necessary to respond to uncertainty. While the RES Forum’s report shows that around that 40 per cent of respondents feel under-resourced to do this, co-author Professor Michael Dickmann, of Cranfield University’s School of Management, said he was expecting concerns to be higher than they had turned out to be.“If you turn that 40 per cent round, that’s quite positive, with 60 per cent undecided or feeling quite prepared,” he added.The RES Forum is an independent community of more than 1,350 in-house HR professionals in over 40 countries around the world. To join for free and to view the full RES Forum Annual Report from which this article is taken, go to the RES Forum’s website and click on ‘Join’.

Follow the link for more global mobility news and features. Read more from the RES Forum in the Summer 2017 issue of Relocate magazine (out June). Reserve your copy here.

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