Last Updated on March 2, 2023
Staying compliant means tracking the movements of your employees as they cross international borders. Compliance with immigration laws of every country your organization is working in is key to managing a successful global workforce. HR teams need to know which employees are traveling, when and where they are going, how long they will be going for and what they will be doing there. Here’s why it’s important to track employees as they travel abroad and how technology can help you manage their movement so you can stay compliant.
Track employees globally – is it that easy?
It can be tough for global mobility specialists to keep tabs on every single employee – especially when you’re trying to track employees manually on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes travel assignments for employees are last minute, or sometimes your team is simply the last to find out. Some assignments could impact the immigration status of particular employees, meaning that information is necessary to staying compliant.
HR teams also need to know what the immigration status is for every foreign national employee before they leave their base country in order to maintain compliance with global immigration laws and regulations. If not, an employee’s status could inadvertently be placed in legal jeopardy. If an employee doesn’t possess the correct documents and supporting evidence, or if the employee hasn’t received an approval on a particular case, your company and that employee are at risk of denial and other more serious legal consequences.
In a fluctuating political climate that extends well beyond the United States, regulation changes in other countries have become frequent and highly scrutinized. These changes can also impact how you track employees traveling for work or personal reasons, regardless of their immigration status in the U.S. (Here are some tips to help you manage immigration scrutiny.)
Technology makes tracking simple
So what is technology’s role? With the right cloud technology at their disposal, HR professionals can manage employees traveling across borders easily and proactively. Technology can allow employees to check in and out of work assignments and locations on their own. This provides HR teams with more visibility, as well as the ability to anticipate issues ahead of time.
With the insight a cloud-based platform can provide, immigration managers and global mobility specialists can see where employees are while abroad, and help guide them through their options to prevent interruptions in work and reduce the possibility of unnecessary detainment. Plus, secure online document storage helps ensure all documents are well-organized and up to date at the time of the employee’s departure or arrival back into the country.
Travel tracking technology helps arm HR departments with the insight and tools they need to stay ahead of anticipated challenges. As employees move across borders, you can see where they are going on their assignments, reduce the risk of legal problems at the border and keep their documentation safe, organized and up-to-date.
To learn more about how technology can help you manage immigration and mobility, read our ebook, Immigration Management: Technology’s Role in Times of Regulation Change.
