Major corporates have been collaborating to make sure globally-mobile employees in ‘dual career relationships’ can prosper alongside one another.

A network opening up new job opportunities overseas to relocating partners was described last night by Helen Root, the international HR and corporate relocation lead at FMCG firm Nestlé UK & Ireland, at an event at London’s Cass Business School hosted by Provisita, which provides social and professional integration for relocating families.

Root says that out of those within her company who were candidates for global relocation, 70% were in ‘dual career relationships’, where both had a successful career they were looking to advance.

She says that if one person is relocating to accommodate their spouse, “you’re saying to one of them that you’ve got the ‘lead’ career”.

Given how problematic it is if people do not accept positions due to a couple issue, Nestlé is working with the International Dual Career Network. “We’re working with who you might think are our competitors,” she says, with a host of major names including AXA, HP, IBM, KPMG, L’Oréal, Microsoft, Swarovski and Unilever. There are so far four existing network hubs in Lake Geneva, Paris, Mexico City and Zurich.

London is launching in Q1 of this year, Root says, with Moscow among locations to launch later. The network, for the spouses of member companies’ employees, aims to avoid a newly-migrated spouse feeling like they are a secondary concern being told “we’ll fit you in somewhere”.

Root also said that it was key to “create the right type of assignment” on an individual basis – meaning flexibility is needed from the company, rather than just the employee, and their partner.

Also speaking were Provisita chair and chief executive officer Patrick S Frederick, HSBC global head of mobility Tracy Figliola and Kiki Stannard, a partner and the reward and employer solutions lead at RSM Tenon.

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