ORC’s Worldwide Survey of International Assignment Policies and Practices ranked in second place in the Expatica HR 2008/2009 Top 5 Industry Survey Awards, scoring highly as a topic of value to HR professionals presented in an easy to read and digest form. It drew a record number of participants in 2008--showing an increase of 36 in the number of participants worldwide--with 930 companies responding to questions on all areas of their expatriate assignment policies and practices.

Here are some of the main findings from the survey:

Programme Goals – When it comes to Assignment Policies – What is important?

Forty-eight percent of participants indicated that the most important goal of an International Assignment Policy is to support the company’s business objectives while ensuring policies can be easily adapted to changing business requirements. This is consistent in all regions except Japan where the most important goal of programmes is to ensure assignees are kept whole and are treated fairly and equally. This goal was the second most important among participants in the Americas and EMEA. While still important, controlling overall programme costs and ensuring a return on investment, and attracting and retaining assignees by maintaining competitiveness compared with other companies were cited as third and fourth most important programme goals.

Company Policies: What areas are being reviewed?
It is not surprising in today’s economic climate that the top area under review by participants is the overall cost-effectiveness of their expatriate programme. This is the case in all regions except in the Asia-Pacifi c region where the top area under review is expatriate localisation.

Assignment Management: Which functions are outsourced and which are not?

The administration of international assignment functions, when provided, is predominantly outsourced for such items as relocation, tax and social security compliance or planning; work permit and immigration counselling; cultural orientation; home sale/management; and legal advice. Functions most readily performed in-house continue to include international policy development, international compensation administration, and international benefits administration.

Cost Savings: What changes have companies recently implemented?

While 44 percent of participants did not implement any of the changes listed, among the 488 companies that had, the most frequently cited area of cost savings over the last two years was to place a heavier reliance on localising expatriates (41%).

Top 5 Assignment Locations
1 – Western Europe (38,937 assignees)
2 – Asia Pacifi c (34,932 assignees)
3 – Middle East (28,028 assignees)
4 – United States (25,375 assignees)
5 – Africa (17,593 assignees)

Top 5 Home Locations
1 – Western Europe (52,598 assignees)
2 – United States (38,543 assignees)
3 – Japan (27,789 assignees)
4 – Asia Pacifi c (23,118 assignees)
5 – China (22,367 assignees)

Top 5 Areas of Policy Review
1 Overall cost-effectiveness (48%)
2 Short-term assignment policy development (40%)
3 Global policy development (37%)
4 Overall competitiveness (34%)
5 Expatriate localisation (32%)

Click here for more information on the Expatica 2008/ 2009 Top 5 Industry Awards.