Global LT has a passion for empowering people to live and work successfully in all corners of the world. As a result, we also have a passion for hiring ex-pats with diverse backgrounds. Having a knowledge of language and unique cultural perspectives is what makes our team incredibly successful. Hiring someone who can manage HR for a global company is no easy feat, but our newest member, HR Director Paola Mollo, is up to the task.
Paola was born in the south of Italy. At age 18, she moved to northern Italy in Turin, where she studied at the university and got her law degree. After 24 years in northern Italy, working as a corporate lawyer and HR manager, she moved with her husband, daughter, two dogs, and two cats to the United States when Paola’s husband was relocated from Italy to Michigan for work in July of 2022. Paola decided to take 6 months off work to help her daughter, who was 11 at the time, adjust to the culture and start a new life in Michigan.
When asked if it was hard to adjust to a new culture, Paola said, “It was very easy for us because we were open-minded. We knew that it was a different country and a different culture, so we were really open to trying to understand American culture. We started talking with our neighbors and using American traditions and explaining them to our daughter. When we didn’t know something, we’d ask American people to explain to us how it works here.”
Before the move, Paola and her husband were also faced with the immigration process. Her husband’s employer provided an attorney in the U.S. to help handle things, but because Paola and her husband were lawyers, they figured out what was needed and prepared all the documents in Italy. They put everything together and sent it to the U.S. Consulate in Milan, met with the council there, and after a few days, they had their visas.
“Getting the visas was really fast. For us, the hardest part about relocating was moving our pets. For the dogs, we had to provide specific certifications to the U.S., and there are only two places in Italy that provide those. We had to get them vaccines and special tests, send those test results to the Italian government, and then they issued “passports” for the dogs,” Paola commented.
And because of international flight laws, you can only have one cat per flight. Paola’s husband had moved to the U.S. four months before she and her daughter did, but he came back to help fly the pets back. “We had to split up – my husband took one cat, and I took our daughter, the other cat, and the two dogs.”
The company that Paola’s husband works for provided relocation services to help with their move. Relocation management companies (RMCs) help with everything from the plane ticket to finding a home in your new country, and because Paola and her family had those services provided, it made their lives so much easier during their international move. She said, “They helped with everything – the international shipment of our belongings, flight tickets, and they provided a real estate agent in the U.S. They also provided English lessons for me and my daughter, and they tried to help with cultural aspects like giving different bank options and what we needed for our social security number appointment.”
Because the international agreements Paola worked with as a corporate lawyer were in English, she had to be able to understand them. She wasn’t able to conduct a conversation in English, other than some basic phrases, but she could read it and write it in order to write agreements and update clauses. Once she began learning English for her move to the U.S., she became much more fluent.
Being an expat herself and having to learn a new language, she was well-equipped to work for a global company, with international employees, that specializes in relocation and culture and language training. “You can be in HR wherever you want, you just have to know the specific rules and policies of where you work. But if you add in the experience of working with an international company and people that come from around the world, your mind is open to other cultures. And it’s really important because as the name says, human resource managers manage people, manage humans, and trying to be a better human means that you have to understand also other cultures.”
Knowing the importance of culture, Paola and her husband speak Italian at home with their daughter. “We don’t want her to lose this culture. We know that unfortunately, that is the risk [with relocations] sometimes. We make sure to discuss what she did at school and things like that in Italian so she retains that.”
When Paola was presented with the opportunity to work for Global LT, she felt like she had something in common with the company. “I experienced it in my home like one of our customers – what it means to move to another country and learn another language. I just felt that there was a connection between my experience and what Global LT does for its learners every day.”
Paola’s journey of relocation and language learning makes her a perfect fit for Global LT. Minority-owned and founded by a Cuban immigrant, celebrating diversity is at the heart of who we are. For more than 40 years, we’ve been helping professionals and their families live, work, and communicate successfully worldwide.
If you’re interested in joining Global LT’s mission to empower people to live and work successfully anywhere in the world, check out our open roles.
This post was written by Megan Tully, Marketing Manager.
