Relocate Global Celebrates Fresh Thinking
After two years of innovating cutting-edge remote, then hybrid, ceremonies, Relocate’s Future of Work Festival was another groundbreaking first. It was also a sparkling reminder that great things happen when people get together, writes Ruth Holmes.
30 June 2022
Taking its inspiration from nature and the stunning backdrop of Relocate Global’s Weald of Kent headquarters, the Future of Work Festival – a ground-breaking day of listening, sharing and collaborating – offered everyone in our community the space to pause and reflect on where we’ve journeyed from and where we are all headed.Over 100 guests from countries as far afield as Australia, Singapore and the USA representing a wide range of international corporations, including KPMG, Hewlett Packard Enterprises and HSBC, gathered also to celebrate excellence across relocation and international education in 2022’s Relocate Think Global People Awards ceremony hosted by reporter and presenter, Jayne Constantinis.
CROSS-SECTOR PERSPECTIVES AND A WHOLE-WORLD VIEW
Welcoming guests, Fiona Murchie, Managing Editor of Relocate Global, says: “We’ve long made the case that Global Mobility and good work are critical to supporting thriving communities and economies.“This past year – with the war in Ukraine, talent shortages across many sectors, the ongoing impact of Brexit, the rise in international remote working and the four-day week – this is now abundantly clear. Companies are turning to the Global Mobility community as never before to resolve their challenges.“This makes today both extra special and important as we celebrate everything our vibrant sector has to offer with our Relocate Think Global People Awards. Everyone gathered here makes a real difference to people’s lives. Today’s Future of Work Festival is also about how we can share this knowledge, and the steps we can take in collaboration to make sense of work today for a better tomorrow. Working with other disciplines and diverse industry sectors is how we will stimulate economic recovery and support individuals and organisations to flourish. International experience, inward investment and exploring new global markets are all crucial.”The Future of Work Festival attracted a world-class panel of speakers, including: Michelle Burners Price, Marc Burrows and Stuart McGlone of KPMG; author and HR consultant, Teresa Boughey, who sits on the Women and Enterprise and Women and Work all-party Parliamentary groups; Rob Fletcher of Heart Relocation; Kerwin Guillermo of Hewlett Packard Enterprises; Dr Linda Holbeche; 2022’s most influential CEO, top HR thinker and practitioner, Vlatka Ariaana Hlupic; CEO of the AoEC, Gina Lodge; artist Peter Moolan-Feroze; Kelly Noon, founder of Onno; John Rason of Santa Fe; Sarah Rozenthuler, leadership consultant and coach; leadership expert Claus Springborg; and Paul Williamson of the Ambassador Theatre Group.Guests discussed key themes – sustainability, wellbeing, the future of work, agility and innovation – in a cross-sector collaboration that was literally a breath of fresh air after the rapid changes of the past two years.“I think wellbeing is a really hot subject at the moment,” said Paul Williamson, Group Head of Talent Development at the Ambassador Theatre Group and a judge at this year’s Awards. “I think people have a heightened awareness of it post-pandemic and it brought into focus a lot of really important stuff , particularly over various lockdowns around mental health and wellbeing in particular.“I think one of the challenges as we start to come out of the pandemic and we start to experience work again in a different way is how we can keep wellbeing on the agenda. We know that if people feel looked after, included and that they belong, that affects engagement, which then affects positively impacts on the business.”COLLABORATING TO RESOLVE COMPLEXITIES IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD
“I think it is a very interesting period, so we are going to look at Global Mobility and The Future of Work,” said John Rason, Group Head of Consulting at Santa Fe Relocation. “The two have overlapped in a very interesting way.“Mobility used to be a programme of people dispatched for international reasons for a period of time, but with the pandemic, many people worked cross-border at their own choice, which means the whole organisation has become part of a Global Mobility programme.“The future of work has become much more fluid. It is clear the balance between what employers and employees want is radically changing. Aspects of that are wellness, compliance, connectivity, engagement. Some of these themes we explore this afternoon, which will be very interesting because clearly different sectors have different needs.“The future of work is a topic that needs people to come together and to embrace it and explore it and challenge each other,” continued John Rason. “An event like this gets people from all over the industry, from large corporations that are moving people around the world, to psychologists and academics, all exploring ideas from different angles. It gets people around the topic to really dive into it together.”“Relocate Global is trying to blend the world of mobility into the wider international wider work environment and bring a wider stakeholder engagement into this space, rather thinking in a very narrow perspective of just around global mobility,” observed Rob Fletcher, Co-founder of Heart Relocation.“An event like this brings in people you wouldn’t normally meet if you go to any other industry event in this space. But we all have a very common goal. I think if you can blend the different ideas and thought processes that come from people with slightly different starting points, that actually contributes to a better result.“I learn more from being here. I learn different approaches to things that may be well-established within my narrow perspectives, but it gives me the ability to think slightly differently and come out with better solutions to the ones we have already.”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.
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©2024 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.
