Throughout 2013 70% of companies expect to increase short-term overseas assignments and 55% to increase long-term ones, following an increase in both over the last two years reported by more than half of companies surveyed. This according to Mercer’s Worldwide International Assignments Policies and Practices Report. The host companies where people expect the highest number of assignments are: United States, Brazil, China, UK and Australia.
Mercer cites the top five reasons for international assignment programmes as:
- To provide specific technical skills not available locally
- To provide career management/leadership development
- To ensure knowledge transfer
- To fulfil specific project needs
- To provide specific managerial skills not available locally
Numbers may be on the up but the duration of long-term assignments is trending down with the average length now standing at just under three years. Interestingly, the average age of long-term assignees is between 35 and 55 years but for short-term assignments there is a similar proportion in this and the less than 35-year-old bracket.
The pattern continues for multinational companies to source most of their international assignees from the country in which they are headquartered and assign them to foreign subsidiaries. However, there has been an increase in the percentage of subsidiary company transfers, as opposed to HQ-to-subsidiary transfers since 2010. This evolution is most significant among European companies, with six in ten reporting an increase of this pattern of assignments, indicating the growing competencies of staff in other parts of the world.
The impact on cost, long-term retention and resulting ROI is unknown since 65% of employers have no specific tools to track and manage assignments, other than using basic tools such as Excel and Word. Furthermore, 63% of participants reported that they keep no statistics on turnover of repatriated assignees. But even without statistics, 39% of participants reported that, generally, employees with international experience were promoted more quickly. Three in five companies globally have a detailed cost-projection approach that includes tax and social security costs, but about five in nine employers do not track projected against actual costs.
Phil Stanley, APAC Global Mobility COE Leader, commented on the results as follows, “International assignments have become more diverse to meet evolving business and global workforce needs…Mobility and HR directors now face great complexity in the number and type of international assignments that need managing.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
