Global talent management — and global mobility — continues to be buffeted by the effects of crises and issues related to goods and services, people mobility, legal or security implications. This is prompting many organizations to review their business and talent strategies.
The past few years have seen many changes in the evolution of working types and patterns, along with the emergence and acceptance of different types of mobility. New ways of working, such as work from anywhere and international remote working, or virtual assignments, are being explored by organizations eager to enhance employee experience while meeting talent deployment needs. At the same time, cost concerns have reemerged at the forefront of barriers to mobility and management control.
Such context triggers a questioning of global mobility programs’ policy frameworks, and survey results show that this is one of the key priorities for the next two years. It also pushes organizations to look at the role and positioning of international mobility within their overall talent management strategies and at the mobility function itself as it gets involved in new topics.
Our latest reports help you uncover:
- 2025 Strategic Mobility Management: the current trends in global mobility programs.
- 2023 Long-Term Assignment Policies and Practices: long-term assignment policies and practices to gain actionable insights and benchmark your approaches.
Long-term Assignment Policies and Practices*
The report explores long-term assignment (LTA) policy and practice trends from over 300 participating organizations, and their evolution since the 2020 survey edition.
- LTA trends and demographics, policy frameworks and program administration
- Remuneration approaches
- Tax, social security and compliance
- Allowances and benefits including cost of living (COL) / goods and services (G&S), housing, education, transportation and more
- Hardship / quality of living (QOL) premiums and rest-and-recreation leave
- Security and emergency evacuation measures
- Pre-assignment support and relocation assistance
- Repatriation and localization
*Long-term assignment is defined as an assignment for an existing company employee to live and work in another country, accompanied or not by their family, for a definite period of time between one and five years, after which the assignee is either repatriated, localized or sent on another assignment.
Key Long-term Assignment Policies and Practices report highlights
The survey findings reveal that the proportion of female assignees remains unchanged from 2020, with women accounting for one-fifth of all long-term assignees.
Managing exceptions, cost containment, and managing tax and tax compliance turn out to be main challenges in LTA management.
Close to three quarters of respondents have reviewed, are reviewing or plan to review their policy flexibility, or consider introducing flexibility in their long-term assignment policies. Household goods shipment, spouse and family support, pre-assignment support, airfare and home leave, followed by vacation and education allowances are the five most likely flexible elements in typical LTA policies.
Three quarters of organizations do not track long-term assignment failure, most commonly due to lack of a process in place. Moreover, and to the same degree as in the 2020 WIAPP edition, close to half of all respondents have not defined what assignment failure means for their organization.
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Participation remains open
You may participate at your convenience to receive discounted access to the full report and benefit from participant-only benchmarking opportunities. Survey participants can also order custom cut benchmarking reports for tailored insights and company positioning.
Complete the Long-Term Assignment Policies and Practices Survey →