Global Line, a consultancy firm based in São Paulo, Brazil, and Worldwide ERC®’s Mobility Brazil released their most recent data report on the state of global mobility in Brazil. Although some trends have continued since the last survey in 2020, the work landscape has changed dramatically.
This year, the Brazilian survey results were able to capture responses from a great number of locally and foreign-based companies. Thirty-two percent of survey respondents were companies based in Brazil, the survey’s highest recorded number so far. One hundred thirty multinational businesses were surveyed of various sizes, with 49% of companies reporting a workforce of 1,000 to 10,000, 30% reporting a workforce of up to 1,000, and 21% with a workforce of over 10,000 employees.
While remote work was somewhat of a novelty pre-pandemic and then, during the start of COVID-19, a crucial way to keep businesses open, it has morphed into a critical business strategy for many organizations.
Remote Work Is Here to Stay
While the 2020 report gave an overview of the switch to remote work, the 2023 survey has shown that remote work is here to stay. Seventy-five percent of the responding companies reported that they are using a hybrid schedule of on-site and remote work, while 20% of companies report exclusively being on-site, and the last 5% work entirely remotely.
One of the benefits of remote work for employees is that it helps engagement. Forty-seven percent of professionals reported feeling more satisfied with their jobs due to flexible work hours and said that remote work is advantageous for work-life balance.
The Impact of Remote Work on Brazilian Mobility Programs
This rise in remote work has also affected mobility programs in Brazil, with 55% of reporting companies saying that increased remote work has coincided with changes in mobility programs. Thirty-two percent of companies reported that the number of people transferred has decreased, while just 4% reported that their number of transferred professionals has increased.
An Overview of Brazilian Mobility Programs in 2023
The Worldwide ERC and Global Line survey covered 5,000 individuals both inbound and outbound and found that, like in previous years, there were substantially more Brazilians living overseas (1,930 people) than foreigners living in Brazil (571), but both groups have decreased since 2020.
The most popular mobility programs for companies continue to be localized professionals, long-term transfers, and short-term transfers, in that order. Previously, long-term transfers were the preferred mobility program for companies.
When it comes to wages for transferees, 65% of companies prefer their wages paid to be comparable to the country of origin for short-term assignments. Only 33% of companies could say the same about long-term assignments, however. Thirty-two percent of companies preferred to look at host-country wages, and another 27% looked at a combination of home-country and host-country wages.
The Biggest Challenge Facing Brazilian Mobility Programs in 2023
Like previous years, the biggest challenges facing transferees are issues related to the host country’s culture for both work and home life. Seventy-nine percent of companies reported that increased workload was a main factor for transfer failure, while 53% and 50% of companies said that “trouble integrating with the team" and “employees’ inability to adapt to host country culture," respectively, were the main factors for transfer failure.
While 71% of companies offer transferees a fixed benefit package, 38% of responding companies did not offer any support program for transferred professionals. Considering the high cost of transfers (29% of companies said that it was the critical challenge of transfer management) and the relationship between transfer failure and a lack of cultural integration, HR and global mobility professionals should keep adaption challenges and ways to support in mind when creating or strategizing successful mobility programs.
Worldwide ERC members can access the full Mobility Brasil 2023 report in the Worldwide ERC research library.