The world of human resources and employment is forever changing. Many companies used to have a standard long-term assignment policy for expatriates, a short-term assignment policy and even a permanent transfer policy. Today, the employment industry is seeing a change in these very practices and policies.
Current assignment policies, all of a sudden, are taking on alternative forms. Human resource experts explain that over the last decade companies have introduced a commuter policy, a lump sum policy and even a developmental assignment policy.
HR professionals and global mobility managers explain that the reasoning behind these somewhat recent changes can be attributed to the constant spotlight on costs. These assignments can cost a company up to three times a base salary figure. This number can be even higher if an assignee has a partner, or a dependent. Organisations want to ensure that the assignees aren’t making less than they would if they stayed in their original locations but they also want to make sure they don’t make any significant financial gains.
Additionally, assignee administration is extremely time-consuming and cumbersome. The amount of paperwork that comes with an expatriate staff member is far more than that of an average employee. This amount of paperwork can cause an increased number of human resources administration errors and could spur feelings of disparity among assignees.
Global mobility functions are also working towards a transparent international assignment policy. By creating a transparent policy, global mobility managers are hoping to cut the number of individual assignment negotiations and clearly set expectations from the very beginning.
There has also been a shift amongst a new generation of assignees that look at their careers as “borderless”. These workers view an international assignment as merely part of their career plan. This is an opportunity where they can develop new skills and further their careers. Due to this new way of thinking, some mobility managers started offering a “core-flex” policy, which provides a basic set of fixed elements, as well as some optional benefits.
The core-flex policy helps a company tie in an assignee’s personal requirements with their own budget restraints.
At the end of the day, organisations are quickly learning to become more creative in balancing cost control while encouraging international experience.