Mobility
This structure is representative of
our regional programme volume.
The Americas/EMEA region
is unique in that the regional
Global Mobility team member
is responsible for immigration
matters that are related to local
hires, not just immigration matters
related to permanent relocations
or temporary assignments.
As such, the U.S. domestic
immigration case volume and
related email volume is quite high.
The Americas/EMEA team member
was spending a disproportionate
amount of time just managing
the email traffic related to U.S.
domestic immigration cases. In
many cases, the team member
was simply “forwarding” emails to
our global immigration law firm
for a response; there was no value
being added by having these
emails routed through Global
Mobility.
Since additional headcount to
manage U.S. domestic immigration
was not an option, I turned to
my partnership with our global
immigration law firm for a solution.
Through discussions and review of
our caseload, we concluded that
the nature of many of the emails
did not require the attention of
a specific paralegal, attorney, or
Seagate Global Mobility team
m ember.
An agreement was made to create
an email alias that would be
managed by a team at our global
immigration law firm, to which we
would drive most of general email
traffic from Seagate. The email
alias was initially rolled out to our
largest internal clients – Human
Resources Business Partners and
Talent Acquisition.
While it has been a relatively short
time since we went live with the
alias, all indications are that the
use of the alias has improved
our overall service delivery with
timelier responses. Our next step
will be to roll out the email alias to
all employees with U.S. domestic
immigration cases. Use of the alias
is slowly being adopted by the
employees through incorporation
by the global immigration law firm
in its email responses, but our goal
is to promote widespread use by
the employees.
Viewing your external vendors as
simply tactical service providers is
extremely limiting; your vendors
should be viewed as an extension
of your organisation’s Global
Mobility team.
By strategically partnering with
your vendors, you will quickly find
that your Global Mobility team’s
bench strength is expanded
beyond the limits of your internal
headcount.
Penny Reyes Bonhagen leads the Global Mobility/Immigration team
from Seagate’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Penny began
her Global Mobility career at Yahoo!, Inc. where she also led their
Global Mobility/Immigration team. She has managed the teams at
both organisations through various corporate restructuring activities,
evolving business climates and cultures, and service delivery model
transformations.
20
May 2015