International approach to managing expatriate benefits: advantages, resources and tips to get started based on Generali’s experience in over 100 countries.
Companies have been incre
asingly operating across borders. Consequently, the number and variety of employees working abroad has grown exponentially.
Today there are several types of expatriate arrangements: from the traditional executive assignments to intra-regional mobility schemes, short-terms exchanges and the so-called local plus contracts.
How these can be re-conducted to a common strategy and measuring framework?
How to align HR managers and employees perspectives
HR managers have been navigating an increasingly complex mobility landscape. They need to control costs and minimize the administrative burden of dealing with multiple jurisdictions. Responding to their duty of care and in line with the organisation’s culture and values, they further need to deliver globally consistent benefits programmes, ensuring that employees on the move are as equally protected as locally-hired workers. Finally they seek to establish an attractive package to compete for global talents.
However reconciling the above needs can be difficult to accomplish. Mobile employees may fall in the gaps of conflicting regulations between their country of origin and their new destination. They may risk losing their entitlement to social security in their home countries, and at the same time may not qualify for benefits in the host country, even when contributing to local schemes. When it comes to retirement, they may need to reconnect contributions accrued when they move or relocate.
Why international plans and how do they work?
International plans for expatriates respond to the need for a new approach to mobility programs that better fits today’s diversified and global workplace. International plans are typically established centrally at global level and often not following local practices. This approach ensures portability and coordination, while allowing for greater flexibility and tailored design.
For employees away from their home country, portability makes an important difference as it ensures access to protection and social security (from healthcare to pension) wherever they are based now, and wherever they’ll move to in the future.
HR professionals can manage a single plan that operates across geographies rather than separate contracts across the globe. Central administration and pricing favour global overview and financial synergies, offering a single entry point to the experience of all mobile employees worldwide.
Finally international plans allow for greater flexibility compared to domestic solutions. The benefits design can better adapt to each company goals and budget and support the integration of varied benefits for different employees in the same plan. Beside traditional expatriate benefits (medical, life and disability, retirement) it is easier to plug in more personalized and innovative offering such as: business travel and travel intelligence services, benefits for spouse and families, tailored savings plans, and preventive health and wellbeing programs designed to support healthier and longer working lives.
How to address needs for local compliance?
There can be cases when locally administered insurance policies are necessary to get working permits or are favored by regulators.
By working with a global benefits network companies can easily adapt to different contexts and regulatory requirements, taking advantage of the network ability to bridge global governance and control, and centralized pricing, with adaptability to local conditions and full local compliance.
How to get started?
When setting up their mobility strategy, companies need to identify the right questions to be raised, in order to shed light on their workforce and on the environment where they operate. You can find inspiration in our example of mobility checklist prepared in collaboration with Generali's leading unit dedicated to expatriates assistance (Europ Assistance) that integrates key aspects to consider when managing expatriation risks. While each company has to further develop this framework based on its specific conditions and needs, we hope this can help get the conversation started and put your mobility strategy on the right track.