Articles and news

The challenge is to deal with individual assignment complexity, envisage greater policy segmentation, and map each compensation approach to assignment types.

An issue that often confuses expatriates is that of “host-location spendable income.” Here we illustrate it through practical examples.

A longstanding approach to expatriate compensation is the home-based balance sheet methodology. Here we describe the approach and variables that affect it.

To optimize their global workforces, leading companies attack the talent mobility issue from several angles.

Is quality of life affected by air pollution and traffic congestion? Access to good health care or modern sports facilities? Or maybe by all of the above?

The biggest obstacle to employee mobility is dual-career and family issues, according Mercer’s mobility policies and practices surveys.

Financial incentives that motivate employees to accept a foreign assignment and compensate them for adverse conditions associated with the assignment location.

As the size of a household increases, so does money spent on goods and services – but at a decreasing rate. See how that affects spendable income calculations.

Employers headquartered in North America face significant challenges in staffing their operations in emerging markets, according to Mercer’s research.

The more mobility and talent management strategies are integrated, the less vexing traditional problems of expatriate management become.

The cost of electricity, gas, and oil for appliances, plus water, garbage collection, and so forth should be factored into allowances.

Define the underlying criteria of the housing allowance to ensure fair, consistent treatment while controlling costs.

Successful organizations know how to leverage diversity to create a unified and inclusive global culture.

As expatriate tax matters become increasingly complex, with home and host locations expanding into developing countries, HR professionals face a difficult task.

Social security can be one of the most significant contributions that employers pay an employee on an international assignment, but it may also be overlooked.

Despite the increase in global talent sourcing, not taking quality of living and cultural adjustment factors into account can doom international assignments.

Practical suggestions for keeping exceptions to company policy from becoming the norm – and creating administrative burden and escalating costs.

When expatriates face sell/keep and rent/buy decisions for housing, consider the pros and cons within the parameters of the relocation policy.

How can you know how successful your communication efforts have been? And how can you avoid problems with future communications with expatriates?

Getting benefits right can be a positive contribution to an overseas deployment, but balancing employee expectation with rising costs is a challenge.

Auditing and benchmarking your mobility program can counter the effects of changes in your company or the business environment on policies and processes.

Analyzing and monitoring assignment expenditures can help HR balance budget requirements and expatriate needs, while arming them with data for future planning.

Identify service providers that have the right knowledge and expertise, interview them, then get detailed proposals outlining services and fees.

Expatriates and organizations alike tend to overlook the challenges and risks associated with returning from an international assignment. They shouldn't.

An increasing number of assignments means higher costs, so ensure that the short-term allowances you provide to your employees are calculated smartly.

Cost-reductions can be great for a company that has a large expatriate population for which this cheaper alternative to the balance sheet is appropriate.

Both in spite of – and because of – economic uncertainty and uneven growth, multinational companies continue to refine their talent mobility practices.

Local plus packages have grown ever more prevalent. Learn the key characteristics of successful local plus policies and some of the implementation challenges.