International employee mobility raises many questions for both the employee and the employer.
Although no legislation requires the drafting of a charter or an internaational mobility policy, its implementation is essential in order to provide a framework for the conditions governing missions abroad, to ensure fairness between employees, to avoid numerous time-consuming negotiations and to prevent any cost drift linked to international mobility.
Employees who are offered an expatriation by the company may perceive this as a strong signal from the employer that they are a sensitive talent. They sometimes behave like “divas”. Nothing is too good for these “happy few” who are particularly demanding regarding the material conditions accompanying their mobility.
But most often taken individually, the employees’ demands remain legitimate.
Despite the pressure, the International Mobility Service does not have to give in to all demands.
He will have to have an iron fist in a velvet glove.
In this context of subtle balance, an International Mobility policy will find its place.
We suggest the steps to follow to design it.
It can be used for drafting or auditing an existing charter or even for harmonising two policies when several companies merge.
The first stage consists of working with the general management to analyse and understand the company’s strategy and its medium or even long-term vision so that the international transfers policy can serve the company’s needs and objectives. Otherwise, it would turn out to be a catalogue of accompanying measures not supported by management.
An audit of the existing situation must be carried out:
International Mobility Indicators
- what is the profile of international transfer employees?
- function?
- family situation?
- age?
- level and type of training?
- seniority in the company?
- …
- what are the countries of departure and reception of employees :
- Does the company have an entity in each country receiving an employee?
- what are the objectives of the mission :
- training?
- development of the group culture?
- to overcome a lack of local skills?
- …
- How long are the missions abroad?
- how many employees abroad :
- during the mission?
- How many people leave each year?
- average number of returns per year?
ORGANISATION of International Mobility
- Is there already a policy or some main principles surrounding the support of employees sent to another country?
- How are packages awarded to employees?
- How long does it take to prepare for an expatriation between the selection of the candidate and the assignment abroad?
- What processes are in place to manage expatriates?
- formalized?
- shared between the different services?
- digitised?
- What are the resources :
- Does the company have the technical skills to manage international mobility internally?
- does the company have local contacts who are familiar with international mobility techniques? if so, in which countries?
- does it use external service providers? which ones? why? how does it evaluate their services?
- Have cost studies been carried out in advance?
- How is compliance with regulations ensured, whether in terms of immigration, labour law, taxation or social protection?
- What steps is the company taking to comply with the regulations in all countries?
At the same time, interview all stakeholders (current and returning expatriates, HR colleagues in the home country and in the host country, operational managers, branch managers) to identify their needs and suggestions for process improvements.
After the internal audit, question market practices by benchmarking what other companies of similar size in the same type of industry are doing. There is little literature on the subject. Also, participation in professional circles (Cindex, Cercle Magellan, …) will feed your reflection.
In addition, regularly read the newsletters of the major legal and tax firms (Ernst & Young, KPMG, Taj, Vialto, …) to ensure compliance.
Then start writing the policy.
Define whether you will have a single policy for all mobility or whether you will segment it by profile (different support measures according to the situation: conditions for mobility within the same continent, more generous packages for transfers outside the continent, etc.) without introducing discriminatory criteria (age, gender, etc.) to benefit from a particular package. Up to 3 or 4 policies seem to us to be a good option. Beyond that, it would mean managing too many individualisations and would deviate from the principle of policy.
Your charter should cover the following topics:
- eligible population
- geographical scope
- objectives and duration of the mission
- the initiator of the mobility: employer? employee?
- the type of employment contract: retention in the country of origin? contract in the host country?
- applicable legislation
- the place where the payroll is paid
- social security coverage
- the treatment of personal taxation
- remuneration: base salary, individual / collective bonus, salary review process / reference salary update, exchange rate management, various bonuses (mobility allowance, cost of living allowance, hardship allowance), installation package / during the assignment: accommodation, children’s school, …, / on return
- management and leave entitlements
- the career management process
- the terms of return
Integrate new forms of working arrangements. In particular, set out the conditions of eligibility for teleworking abroad. It has complex legal and tax consequences. In terms of employer brand, it seems difficult to avoid it from the outset, but it is advisable to anticipate it so as to be able to justify any refusals. This will reassure the company and the employee physically located in one country and working remotely for a Group entity in another country.
Then you will determine who, from the country of departure, the host entity or even the head office, pays what by formalising it in a “cost-sharing agreement” document to be signed by each country when the new mobility is set up.
Carry out cost simulations to support the business, advising it on what needs to be provisioned according to the type of mobility.
Despite the anticipation of situations, special requests will inevitably arise in your day-to-day management, requiring you to define a highly structured process for managing exceptions: implementation of a policy derogation request form, process for validating exceptions and monitoring them. Purely internal information for the attention of HR colleagues.
Do not forget the employees on assignment and propose possible options for managing the transition.
Define “who does what? roles and responsibilities of each actor involved in international mobility (HR / payroll team / managers of the country of departure and the country of assignment).
Test your processes and automate them as much as possible.
Train your colleagues regularly in multi-disciplinary team mode. Bring the HR and payroll teams together so that they have the same language, the same vocabulary and each integrates the information needs of the other.
Make sure the policy is easy to administer.
Get formal approval from management.
Next step: develop your communication plan to market your policy to your HR colleagues, managers and employees:
- Give this policy a name, making sure that it is easy to pronounce in different languages and that it values the employee (“emerging talent policy” vs. “local + policy”).
- Write guides and brochures tailored to your HR colleagues with detailed processes, your operational managers and branch managers and finally for your employees
- Communicate success stories
Finally, regularly measure the satisfaction of all actors involved in international mobility.
You are now ready to take your employees on successful international assignments.
Article written by Anne-France Tremeau, who is part of our network of business partners in International Mobility.
