Welcome to the latest issue of Mobility Minute, a newsletter created by Worldwide ERC®. This weekly newsletter will keep you up-to-date on news from and about the global workforce mobility industry.
What's happening?
Here's a quick glimpse of what you'll find in this week's Mobility Minute:
The Critical Role of Mobility in the Ukraine Crisis
Webinar: Resilience, The Art of Recovering from Setbacks
Annual H-1B Visa Lottery Deadline Approaches
Resilience: The Art of Recovering From Setbacks
Wednesday, March 16, 2022, at 2:00 pm ET In times of crisis, how do mobility leaders like Elena Anderson GMS-T, GPHR, SHRM-SCP, Bob Church, Jr. and Becky Woods GPHR, SHRM-SCP keep their teams afloat and safe, take tough decisions, and keep business going? Join these panelists and moderators, Susan Ginsberg and David Welch for a special webinar on how resilience has empowered them to realize their true potential in times of crisis.
Gain insights from HR/Mobility professionals how they have become more resilient the past two years
Learn how companies have transformed to become more agile and adaptable
Hear lessons learned about the importance of resilience
The Critical Role of Mobility in Ukraine Crisis
Most of the two million people that have fled the violence of an advancing foreign army in Ukraine have had little support or advanced planning. Those fleeing Ukraine with the assistance of employers have been truly fortunate, by contrast. Many companies called meetings before the invasion, disbursed advance pay, and offered immediate travel assistance out of the areas that appeared under imminent threat. Those companies most prepared had plans in place, ready resources, and a network of experts that have enabled the companies to react quickly to rapidly collapsing transit avenues and uncertain access to resources.
Get the facts:
Many firms took action before the invasion; disbursing advance pay in Euros, finding temporary housing in Western Ukraine, and other countries, and relocating employees to other countries
Even with early action and employer support, many who have fled Ukraine are still grappling with day-to-day issues of transport and housing
COVID still complicates cross-border travel with some vaccines not being accepted in all countries and pre-flight tests preventing air travel for those who test positive.
Why is this important?
As it was with COVID, the immediate issues for mobility are localized, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows signs of creating a global impact that will endure for years.“Right now, we are just dealing with safety and security concerns, but it seems increasingly likely that people are going to want to leave Russia,” says NEI Global Relocations' Michelle Moore, looking to the likely long-term implications. “Most clients aren’t confronting long-term decisions like that today—no one takes these operational decisions lightly—but if it keeps going the way it has, it’s just a matter of time. It becomes a duty of care decision.”
Canada eliminates many visa requirements for Ukrainians
Ottawa Canada is opening new avenues for Ukrainians who want to travel to Canada on a temporary or permanent basis. “While they defend themselves against Putin's costly war of aggression, we will provide safe haven to those who fled to protect themselves and their families,” says Sean Fraser, minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship.
U.S. International Student Enrollment Dropped As Canada’s Soared International student enrollment at U.S. universities and colleges dropped 7.2% between 2017 and 2020 and another 22.7% between 2020 and 2021. International student enrollment rose 52% between 2017 and 2020. -Forbes
Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation
Dissatisfaction with wages is not the primary driver in the Great Resignation, coming in at 16th among all factors in predicting employee turnover. MIT Sloan Management Review found many factors were far more reliable indicators to include:
Toxic corporate culture 10.4 times more important than compensation,
Job insecurity and reorganization 3.5 times more important
High levels of innovation 3.2 times more important
Failure to recognize employee performance 2.9 times more important and
"We live in an interconnected world," says Dr Pescaroli. "Every single company [in the West] is going to be affected by Ukraine in some way, not just firms that do business in Russia." A global expert in risk management asserts that COVID-19 revealed that far too many firms do not have contingency plans for how they will deal with global crises. The global risk management sector, worth $7.4 billion in 2019, is currently projected to rise to a $29 billion industry in the next 5 years.
Reshoring and Offsetting The Great Resignation And Demographic Drought
Reshoring/nearshoring can help solve some labor issues by putting production under local control by removing risk from unpredictable government policies. In the past few months, efforts to relocate manufacturing have accelerated as manufacturers announced they were cutting ties with China suppliers and setting up facilities in the United States. The benefits of reshoring/nearshoring include: decreased delays in shipping, improved control of the labor force, boosted local economies, and faster, reactive changes when external factors demand them.
Russian Sanctions Snarl Supply Chain That Was Only Just Recovering from Pandemic Pressure
Flights between Europe and Asia have are being rerouted, adding three to four hours to some routes and requiring more fuel just as the war pushes oil prices to record highs. Ground transport is also being affected, as the conflict disrupts key rail routes between the European Union and China, slowing trade. Europe’s trucking industry is facing a fresh shortage of drivers, as tens of thousands of Ukrainian truckers head back to Ukraine to join in the fight against Russia. In ports, containers stacked on docks awaiting time-consuming customs inspections to make sure they are not carrying blacklisted items, like spare airplane parts or semiconductors. Supply chain woes on every front seem to be going nowhere.
Ceva Logistics Teams With Kodiak Robotics On Self-Driving Routes
Kodiak Robotics has been delivering freight autonomously between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston since mid-2019. Since mid-2021, it also has operated weekly shipments between Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio and just started a 200-mile route between Dallas and
Canadian Atlantic Immigration Program now accepting applications
Candidates with a valid endorsement from an Atlantic Canadian business are now able to apply for permanent residence. To immigrate to Atlantic Canada through the program, candidates must be either a recent graduate of a recognized post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada or a skilled worker. “Newcomers have played a key role in strengthening communities across Atlantic Canada and helping businesses succeed. By working closely with employers and our provincial partners, the Atlantic Immigration Program will attract highly skilled workers and international graduates to our region, and it will help rebuild our economy, address our labor shortage and build a prosperous future for Atlantic Canada,” says Sean Fraser, minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship.
The H-1B cap registration period for the fiscal Year 2023 opened on March 1, 2022, and will run through March 18, 2022. During the registration period, prospective petitioners electronically register each foreign worker they intend to file an H-1B petition for. The registration process was simplified recently and now allows petitioners to register for the lottery without investing the time and effort it takes to submit a complete application. The initial registration only requires the petitioners to pay a $10 registration fee and submit basic employer and prospective employee data. The H-1B selection process will then be run on properly submitted electronic registrations. Only those with selected registrations will be eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.
Get the Facts
The H-1B visa’s annual quota of 85,000 visas
For FY 2022, USCIS received 308,613 H-1B registrations and was selected in a total of 131,970 in three tranches over the year.
The denial rate soared to 24% in the fiscal year 2018 and remained high at 21% in the fiscal year 2019 and 13% in the fiscal year 2020. During the fiscal year 2021, the denial rate for new H-1B employment petitions dropped to 4%.
Registration Open for 2022 CRP® exam, the deadline is April 29, 2022. The deadline to apply to sit for the CRP® is April 29, 2022. This will be the ONLY opportunity to sit for the CRP exam this year. The Worldwide ERC® Certified Relocation Professional (CRP®) designation is the only credential dedicated to identifying professionals that demonstrate a broad understanding of managing employee mobility within the United States. Learn more on Worldwide ERC®.
Countries all over the world are beginning to lift or loosen their travel restrictions. Italy has dropped its pre-arrival testing requirement for vaccinated travelers, becoming the latest European country to ease entry protocols. Travelers to Hawaii will also have an easier time as they are no longer required to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccine or a negative COVID-19 test to bypass a mandatory quarantine.
Some countries still enforce strict protocols: Japan has ended a ban on new entry by foreigners that had been reimposed amid the emergence of the omicron variant in November. But there are caps on how many visa holders can enter the country and foreign tourists are still not permitted access.
One country just extended its ban on international flights indefinitely. Can you guess the country?
Hint 1 The country boasts 6,884 ultra-high-net-worth individuals with assets over US $30 million and claims to have 140 billionaires, ranking the country third in the world for billionaires, behind the USA and China.
Hint 2 The constitution states there are 23 official languages.
Hint 3 It is claimed that the game of chess originated in this country some 1,500 years ago. It is said to be based on the 7th-century war game called chaturanga.
Read more about travel trends for 2022 in Fortune.
Answer: India
Worldwide ERC®, P.O. Box 41990, Arlington, VA 22204, United States, 1-703-842-3400
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