Last week found us back in Amsterdam for what turned out to be one of our most practically valuable Huddles yet. The agenda was ambitious - stakeholder engagement, strategic compensation, corporate challenges, and a provocative debate to finish - but what made the day special was the people who came!
Mastering the Art of Influence
We devoted the morning to stakeholder engagement, and the energy in the room was obvious. The interactive masterclass had attendees mapping their influence landscapes and decoding what truly drives their stakeholders beyond the obvious. One particularly clever insight that sparked excitement was using AI to craft narratives tailored for specific stakeholder groups - though with the important caveat to genuinely understand what you're saying, because getting found out in a live presentation helps no one! And if you never present anything live? Well, maybe you should!
This compliance influence tactic generated real buzz: when trying to convince managers about compliance risks, consider delivering that message in front of the employee. Suddenly the manager becomes accountable for any risks they choose to ignore. Strategic transparency at its finest!
Counselling Corner: The Unvarnished Truth
Our breakout sessions tackled immigration, policy structure, benefits, and tax considerations, generating themes that resonated across all groups. One member issued a powerful call to action around restrictive immigration policies - urging collective employer action to influence government policy, particularly relevant in the Netherlands but applicable everywhere. It's a call we wholeheartedly support and encourage all members to pursue in their respective countries where possible.
The policy development conversation revealed those eternal tensions between cost management and employee experience, and providing global frameworks whilst delegating local flexibility. Of course, along with the recognition that scarce skills command richer packages regardless of cost-cutting pressures. Easy, right?
A swear-word to some – ‘ServiceNow’, was a discussion topic which proved particularly enlightening - universally seen as ill-suited to GM's complexity, leading teams to bypass it entirely, which then unintentionally sabotages their ability to demonstrate workload and value to stakeholders. This brought our morning's stakeholder training into sharp focus: if your systems undermine your story, those influence skills become absolutely critical!
Real Challenges, Real Solutions
Lynne Mecca from PVH delivered a brilliant Corporate Update, sharing not just successes around policy revamps and vendor consolidation, but bringing a genuine challenge to the room around a Dutch salary threshold that jumps dramatically after the age of 30, creating real headaches for moving across entities many international employees hired before that age at a lower wage. The fact that Lynne brought her TA lead along to tackle this challenge speaks volumes about what these Huddles offer - a safe space where leaders can bring their toughest problems alongside their cross-functional colleagues and access collective wisdom that simply isn't available elsewhere. The creative solutions offered perfectly illustrated why members trust this community with their most pressing challenges.
The strategic compensation session from AIRINC provided immediately actionable insights on home versus host packages, compensation affinity concepts, and aligning talent strategies with the right models. The world of Global Mobility is not just a balance sheet world now, and while it’s not possible to assess every move in its granular detail and change compensation methods accordingly each time, Sandra De Bruyker helped attendees truly understand the options available in this new era.
The Provocative Finale
We finished with our Perspective Playground debate around eliminating expat packages…all together! After a day discussing cost pressures, talent attraction, and that Dutch salary challenge, you can imagine how spirited the exchanges became! It was the perfect way to stretch thinking and end on a high.
The collective wisdom in that room was extraordinary, and the feedback confirmed what we already knew - when members bring their real challenges, their cross-functional partners, and their willingness to engage honestly, these in-person Huddles create the kind of practical learning and genuine problem-solving that defines our community.
Missed this one? We'd love to see you at the next gathering - because this is where the magic happens!