After several years of disruption, 2025 feels like the year global mobility finally found its footing again. Organizations are rethinking how they place talent, develop careers, and support moves in a way that fits how work happens now. What we’re seeing across the industry is not a return to old patterns but a rethink of mobility’s purpose and the expectations that come with it. The conversations mobility leaders are having today sound completely different from the ones happening even a couple of years ago.

Mobility moves to the strategy table

A big part of that shift is the increased influence mobility teams now hold inside their organizations. In 2025, mobility has moved from the sidelines to the strategy table. Leaders are recognizing that mobility is not just an administrative process, but a powerful tool for shaping skills, accelerating careers, and building the workforce a company needs for the future. According to KPMG’s 2025 Global Mobility Benchmarking Report, mobility leaders expect to increase the strategic value of their programs from 6.0 to 7.1 out of 10 in the next 12 to 18 months. Relocation is no longer something that happens after decisions are made. Instead, it’s helping inform those decisions and driving conversations about talent growth.

Flexibility becomes non-negotiable

We’re seeing this play out most clearly in the growing demand for flexible mobility policies. Studies this year show how employees are shaping their own mobility journeys and expecting support that fits their goals and circumstances. According to KPMG’s research, 42% of businesses conducted a full policy review in the previous year, and about one-third identify it as a top priority within the next 12 to 18 months. People are exploring cross-border opportunities earlier and want clearer choices and support, rather than rigid, predefined packages. Companies have taken notice, and 2025 has been a year of rethinking policy design so it flexes with the individual rather than forcing the individual to fit the policy.

The generational design challenge

This focus on flexibility becomes even more important when you look at generational expectations. Gen Z employees, many taking their first international assignments, are looking for structure, guidance, and human support that helps them navigate uncertainty. Senior leaders, by comparison, want autonomy. They prefer flexibility, efficiency, and the ability to tailor services around their experience and priorities. This generational divergence creates a fundamental policy design challenge. A single mobility framework cannot effectively serve both populations. Organizations seeing the strongest satisfaction scores in 2025 have implemented tiered service models with structured onboarding programs and dedicated support for early-career assignees, and streamlined, self-service options for senior executives. The companies struggling most are those still applying one-size-fits-all approaches to increasingly diverse populations.

For a deeper look at how these generational differences play out, read our recent article on this topic.

Speed as competitive advantage

Another clear trend in 2025 is the shift in the types of assignments companies are leaning into. Traditional long-term expatriate moves are becoming less common as organizations look for ways to move talent faster and more efficiently. According to KPMG’s data, 70% of respondents are leveraging short-term assignments, often as a lower-cost alternative to traditional long-term moves. Speed has become a competitive advantage, and mobility is being redesigned to keep up. 

Short-term assignments, project-based deployments, and other agile models have gained traction because they mirror the pace of modern work. This shift is showing up across industries, with companies turning to more adaptable structures that allow them to respond to business needs quickly without the weight and cost of a legacy assignment model. 

 Compliance in the digital age 

Compliance has also become a much bigger part of the mobility conversation this year. Immigration systems are becoming more digital, which streamlines some steps but also brings stricter documentation standards and more scrutiny. The digitalization of immigration systems represents both opportunity and risk. While e-filing has accelerated processing in some markets, it has also created new compliance vulnerabilities. Systems now flag inconsistencies that previously went unnoticed in paper-based processes, and the margin for error has narrowed considerably. At the same time, companies are taking a closer look at tax exposure, data governance, and the overall risk that comes with moving people across borders. Mobility teams are spending more time partnering with legal, tax, and security functions to make sure the right guardrails are in place.

All of these shifts have made 2025 a defining year for global mobility, but they’re not ending here. The conversations happening across mobility teams, talent leaders, and employees point to a continued push toward flexibility, sharper risk management, and more intentional career pathways in the year ahead. As we look toward 2026, it is clear that mobility will continue evolving into a more strategic, experience-led, and future-focused function, shaping not only how people move but why organizations move them.

Looking ahead in 2026

The deepening talent crisis

As we look toward 2026, talent shortages are expected to deepen, creating even more pressure on organizations to widen their search for critical skills. Reports from the World Economic Forum show that employers across nearly every industry are struggling to fill roles, and many of the countries facing the tightest labour markets are also grappling with rapidly aging populations.

Data shows that one in five workers in advanced economies is already over 55, a number set to rise in the years ahead. With experienced employees retiring faster than new talent can be developed, companies are preparing for more cross-border hiring, more competitive relocation strategies, and a greater emphasis on mobility as a tool for closing skills gaps that local markets can no longer fill.

The predicative analytics imperative

At the same time, mobility programs are entering a new era of data-driven decision making. Predictive analytics is emerging as the essential capability for RMCs to have, driven by the need to answer questions traditional reporting cannot address. Which employees are most likely to accept and succeed in international assignments? What will a specific move cost six months from now given current inflation and currency trends? Which compliance risks are most likely to surface based on an assignee’s profile and destination? 

Organisations whose RMCs had these capabilities in 2025 are gaining significant competitive advantages through faster decision-making, more accurate budgeting, and the ability to intervene before problems become crises. By 2026, the gap between companies with predictive mobility analytics and those relying on reactive reporting will be stark. 

Building for volatility

Geopolitical and regulatory volatility will also likely shape how organizations approach mobility in 2026. Immigration rule changes that once occurred annually are now happening quarterly in several major destination markets. Economic conditions that affect assignment costs, from housing availability to exchange rates, can shift significantly during a single assignment cycle. These factors, combined with ongoing geopolitical tensions, are prompting mobility teams to build contingency into assignment planning in ways they haven’t before.

As a result, organizations are exploring more diversified and resilient mobility models. Many are building multi-hub approaches, expanding the use of short-term or project-based assignments, and creating assignment structures that allow them to shift talent quickly when conditions change. The focus for 2026 is on mobility frameworks that can scale, adapt, and keep business moving even when the global landscape becomes unpredictable.

2026 is shaping up to be a year where mobility becomes far more central to business strategy. For mobility leaders, the imperative is clear. The programs built for stability won’t survive in an environment defined by volatility, and the approaches that worked when mobility was administrative won’t scale when mobility becomes strategic.

The organizations best positioned for 2026 are those already rethinking their foundations, asking not just how to move people more efficiently, but how mobility can become the strategic capability their business needs to compete for talent in an increasingly constrained market.

 

Sources: 

https://kpmg.com/cy/en/home/insights/2025/10/global-mobility-benchmarking-report.html

https://www.ey.com/en_gl/insights/workforce/mobility-reimagined-survey

https://www.air-inc.com/mobility-outlook-survey-2025/