INVESTIGATING THE EFFICIENCY OF A MOBILITY PROGRAM AND IMPLEMENTING A NEW SOLUTION TO ENHANCE VARIOUS ASPECTS OF EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT

Client’s Profile

The client was an organisation with a global footprint, consisting of 200 expatriates from 20 different nationalities, deployed to 25 host countries. Expatriates deployed from the company’s Headquarters were managed by the head office, whereas Third-Country Nationals (TCNs) were managed by the home and host subsidiaries, with some level of coordination from the head office.

CLIENT’S CHALLENGE

The decentralised model was the cause of many challenges, including:

  • Inefficiencies
  • Inconsistencies in policy and process implementation
  • Limited visibility and control of the assignments
  • Poor visibility and control of costs
  • Compliance gaps
  • Multiple contact points for assignees and managers
  • Gaps in Social Security coverage, retirement benefits and health benefits

ITX SOLUTION

The ITX team investigated the client’s mobility programs, main goals, and key challenges. Upon reviewing the findings, ITX recommended to use a Global Employment Company (GEC) for the management of the TCNs, whilst continuing to manage the HQ nationals through the head office.

Over a period of 6 months, ITX helped the client to design and implement all aspects of the GEC, including policies, processes, templates, payroll, benefits, and operating model.

OUTCOMES

The new model addressed all of the client’s initial concerns and helped in the achievement of the client’s objectives, including:

  • Easier and faster recruitment and deployment of employees to overseas subsidiaries.
  • Fair and consistent treatment of employees, leading to improved employee experience
  • Single point of contact for all Mobility-related processes and queries, leading to faster response time, better governance and compliance, and enhanced service quality.
  • Better control of costs and management of assignment budgets
  • Efficiencies and economies of scale due to less duplication of efforts and resources 
  • Reduced workload on overseas subsidiaries
  • Advantages of Social Security agreements from having a GEC in Switzerland.  No gaps in Social Security coverage

By pmbcom