International HR Adviser Spring 2017

SPRING 2017

ISSUE 69

Free Subscription Offer Inside

International HR Adviser The Leading Magazine For International HR Professionals Worldwide

Features Include: Cross-Border Workers: Where Are Your Business Travellers? • Global Taxation Update How Small To Medium Sized Mobility Programmes Can Utilise Technology To Transform Their Approach And Add Value To Their Business Brexit: What Will It Mean For Employers?

Lessons Learned In Conducting Mobility RFP's Relocation In A Digital Age - Are You A Gate Keeper Or Game Changer?

How Important Is Access To Unlimited Mental Health Benefits Under International Health Insurance?

Advisory Panel for this issue:

contents

In This Issue 3 7 10

Taxation: Cross-Border Workers – Where Are Your Business Travellers?

Andrew Bailey, BDO LLP

Global Taxation Update – Recent Tax Updates From Around The World Andrew Bailey, BDO LLP

Technology: How Small To Medium-Sized Mobility Programmes Can Utilise Technology To Transform Their Approach And Add Value To Their Business Tim Wells, Equus Software

12 14 17 20

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International HR Strategy: Brexit – What Will It Mean For Employers?

Andrew Vincett, Deloitte’s Global Employer Services Group

Brexit – A Global Opportunity: Use Brexit To Learn A New Language!

Phil Renshaw, Cranfield University

RFP Process: Lessons Learned In Conducting Mobility RFP’s Siobhan Cummins, Head of Global Mobility, Naspers, & Paul Barnes, TheMIGroup

Serviced Apartments: Definition – (Effective) part.ner.ships?

Jo Layton, The Apartment Service

How Important Is Access To Unlimited Mental Health Benefits Under International Health Insurance?

Kayla Hall, Regency For Expats

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26 29 31 33 35

Global Mobility: Relocation In A Digital Age – Are You A Gate-Keeper Or Game-Changer?

John Rason, Santa Fe Relocation Services

Women in Leadership: Can A Woman Run An Enterprise As Successfully As A Man? Gemma Sanz De La Serna, Olivier Mythodrama

Global Mobility Insight: Success Leaves Clues: Can HR’s Past Elevate Global Mobility’s Future?

Damian McAlonan, The Boost Partnership

The Big Opportunities For Talent Acquisition: Strategy, Technology And Partnerships Ashley Mills, Futurestep

Bridging The Departmental Gap - How Finance And HR Can Work In Tandem Robert Gothan, Accountagility

Training & Coaching: Managers Who Coach: An Alternate Approach That Really Works Milo Sindell, Skyline Group International

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Diary Dates

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Directory www.internationalhradviser.com Helen Elliott • Publisher • T: +44 (0) 20 8661 0186 • E: helen@internationalhradviser.com damian porter • Publishing Director • T: +44 (0) 1737 551506 • E: damian@internationalhradviser.com International HR Adviser, PO Box 921, Sutton, SM1 2WB, UK Cover Design by Chris Duggan In Loving Memory of Assunta Mondello

While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of information contained in this issue of “International HR Adviser”, the publishers and Directors of Inkspell Ltd cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither the publishers of “International HR Adviser” nor any third parties who provide information for “Expatriate Adviser” magazine, shall have any responsibility for or be liable in respect of the content or the accuracy of the information so provided, or for any errors or omissions therein. “International HR Adviser” does not endorse any products, services or company listings featured in this issue.

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Taxation

Cross-Border Workers - Where Are Your Business Travellers?

Cross-border workers are not a new phenomenon and international companies have always had need of an internationally mobile workforce. This may be due to the inherent nature of their business or to ensure talent is managed and careers developed for succession planning. It is the nature of these moves that has changed over time and the increase in focus by revenue authorities on both the personal and wider tax implications. This also interlinks with the increased global focus on ensuring everyone pays their “fair share” of tax in the correct location.

Although traditional assignments remain a major feature of expatriate secondment programmes, we have seen a marked increase in employees commuting across multiple jurisdictions while the family remains living in the home country. This has proved popular for numerous reasons including the family remaining settled with no change to children’s education arrangements and no dual income issues arising. More flexible arrangements also meet the multi-national demands of modern day business and are often led by the perception that by not formally assigning an individual, associated costs, administration and compliance requirements will be kept to a minimum or simply do not arise. As there is no formal relocation taking place these “commuter” arrangements can be put in place relatively quickly, as the demands of the business dictate. Often formal terms are never put in place, leading to “accidental” business travellers or perennial commuters.

This can leave HR playing catch up as the individual commences their working arrangements before terms and conditions of the employment have been revised, formal paperwork has been completed, or in fact they are even aware that the individual has changed their working pattern. It can also result in wider tax and legal consequences for the business to consider, more of which is set out later in this article.

One down side to commuter arrangements is that it is no longer a case of having one or, at worst, two countries rules and regulations to address. Employees travel across

numerous borders, potentially creating a tax obligation and/or legal issues wherever they touch down. These will more than likely fall on the local corporate entity in each of those locations where one exists and it will be down to the business to ensure they are being compliant both from a legal standpoint and for income tax and social security withholding purposes.

Each country will have its own guidelines on when payroll withholding tax is required.

The UK is particularly onerous in this regard as the revenue authorities (HM Revenue & Customs - HMRC) expect withholding tax to be operated where an individual works as little as one day in the UK. Indeed, the tracking of business visitors to the UK has been at the forefront of HMRC’s clamp down on tax avoidance for a number of years now and they are actively checking compliance in this area. Where businesses have failed in their duty to track and report visitors to the UK, HMRC is also asking that records for earlier years are obtained and submitted as part of an overall settlement of payroll taxes that are due. The deadline for submitting year end reports in the UK is 31 May following the end of the relevant tax year.

The general rule for employment tax is that it is payable where you work; however, the country where an individual is tax resident will broadly tax worldwide income regardless of the working arrangements. As a starting point this will lead to double taxation as two or more countries are taxing the same income. For example, a German tax resident working in Germany, France and Belgium will typically have full tax due in Germany with tax in France on the income relating to French workdays and tax in Belgium on the income relating to Belgian workdays. It is then a case of establishing how this double taxation can be alleviated. If there is a relevant double tax treaty this will provide clear steps as to which country has the taxing rights and how any double taxation is remedied. Otherwise it is down to the domestic law of each location to facilitate relief.

Do bear in mind that tax treaties are constantly being revised or introduced.

Ireland has recently updated its interpretation of the employment tax article and has moved to an “economic employer” position.

This is becoming more common place with tax authorities moving away from looking at who the legal employer is and placing greater

emphasis on which entity is benefiting from the work being done and/or meeting the costs of the employment.

There are also special rules to consider for frontier workers within Europe where individuals may live in one country but work just over the border in a neighbouring country. These rules tend to focus on ensuring individuals claiming tax residence in their country of abode, but working in another, are not able to play the system and pay tax in whichever country has the lower rate of tax.

Although it is very rare for eventual double taxation to occur, there may be a period where the individual is out of pocket from a cash flow perspective because of the tax withholding requirements in each location.

Consideration must be given to situations where payroll withholding is operated in more than one country as each country’s rules may stipulate that tax is deducted on all employment income – unfortunately payroll withholding requirements do not always tie in with the individual’s final tax position.

Where possible, it is then imperative that any up front application is submitted to the revenue authorities to allow for double taxation relief to be given via the payroll process. Payroll departments will need to be involved in this process and payroll systems checked to ensure they can process the adjustments as each pay period arises. In many jurisdictions double taxation credit via payroll is not feasible and employers may need to loan their employees the funds to pay tax withholdings.

Similar rules also need to be considered for employees working within the US. There is both a Federal and State system of tax.

Each State has its own tax laws and rates and these need to be applied where an individual usually lives and works in one State but has business trips to others. These are effectively considered cross-border workers with many of the same issues which arise for international workers.

Social security usually works a little differently to income tax. Although the same basic rule applies in that social security is due in the country where the work is performed, social security legislation tends to override this to ensure it is only paid in one country at any one time. This is especially true within the EU (including Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein who have adopted

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

the EU social security regulations) and between countries who have signed social security agreements for the avoidance of dual contributions. In particular, there are specific provisions within the EU regulations that deal with multi-state workers. These tend to site the social security liability in the home country, but the necessary certificate must be applied for and approved by the relevant authorities. The same is true where countries have social security agreements in place.

Where interacting countries do not have a social security agreement then the domestic social security legislation of each country needs to be reviewed and this can sometimes lead to a dual social security liability.

Contractual arrangements can be adjusted to factor this possibility into account. Much like tax, social security rates vary widely from country to country. Careful planning with contractual and working arrangements can lead to a much reduced social security liability. Care needs to be taken however, as social security/state benefits typically flow from the contributions paid. This can lead to conflict where the employer is focused on limiting their cost but the employee is concerned with the provision of social benefits and the long-term aim of maximising their state pension. Taking France as an example, although their social security rates are high (especially for employers), French nationals tend to prefer to remain within the system to maintain their entitlement to various benefits. This is especially true for commuters who not only have to consider their own healthcare coverage (usually dealt with by way of private international medical cover), but also that the family remaining in the home country will have full access to medical care.

Some countries will allow voluntary social security contributions to be paid and in certain circumstances the arrangements can be constructed which allow the best of both worlds – social security being paid at the lowest possible rate whilst enabling the expat to pay into their home country social fund and access home country benefits. Many companies are not even aware that they are creating any tax and social security problems as they view commuter arrangements as business trips. Additional benefits provided such as flights, accommodation costs and subsistence, which would normally be allowable business expenses, may actually be considered taxable income. This is due to the fact that there is permanence or regularity to the duties being performed which is a clear distinction from a genuine business trip which tends to be ad-hoc in nature. This may create a number of permanent workplaces for the employee across the globe. Again the rules in each jurisdiction need to be reviewed to determine the taxability of

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these additional benefits and planning measures considered to minimise the tax and social security impact.

Given the likelihood that tax liabilities will be created in multiple jurisdictions, the employer will almost certainly want to include a commuter within their tax equalisation policy to ensure the individual is not adversely affected by their crossborder role. For some companies this may actually mean implementing a tax equalisation/protection policy for the first time or adjusting their existing policies to formalise the terms and conditions for commuter arrangements. Individual tax return preparation assistance will be required in each country as well to meet the legal filing obligations which arise.

There are also potential corporate tax consequences arising from the activities of cross-border workers. In particular, it is necessary for multi-national businesses to consider whether there is sufficient presence in a particular country to create a permanent establishment (“PE”) for corporate tax purposes in that country. If commuters are concluding deals and signing on behalf of the company whilst overseas, or if there is some kind of fixed place of business created overseas, this may well be the case.

Each country has its own domestic rules regarding whether a PE arises, albeit the bar for a PE to arise is typically higher than the bar for there being local income tax consequences (for example, it is unlikely that a one off visit for a day or two would create a PE in isolation, but it could result in income tax liabilities as mentioned above). Where there is a PE, its’ taxable profit will need to be determined, as well as considering whether there is a tax treaty to provide relief from any double taxation that arises as a result. There will also be compliance and administration requirements to meet in the PE country.

It is worth noting that the on-going project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) headed by the OECD has recommended a tightening up of the definition of a PE. As a result, it is likely that domestic law changes will be made in the future in various countries to lower the bar in terms of when a PE arises, as well as there being less ability to claim relief from double taxation under treaties in relation to PEs. Overall, this is likely to increase the compliance costs for businesses as well as introduce uncertainty. In addition, we are already seeing evidence of tax authorities using comments from the BEPS project in order to challenge the PE position of businesses under current rules.

It’s worth highlighting that the BEPS project has considered a number of other areas, including how profits are allocated for transfer pricing purposes and the associated

documentation that multi-national businesses need to prepare. The general theme is towards a more thorough approach to ensuring that pricing and documentation genuinely reflect the substance and control of risks within the business.

There will also be more transparency in future as a result of the introduction of Country by Country Reporting (“CBCR”) for larger multi-national businesses. Under CBCR, businesses will be required to report various pieces of information including profits, taxes and number of employees, on a country by country basis. This will require them to have systems in place to accurately extract the necessary data, and also consider whether the picture painted is in line with how they would like to be viewed.

It is therefore more important than ever for multi-national businesses to have processes in place to manage and control their PE position.

This is both in terms of understanding when the threshold for creating a PE is going to be met in a particular country, as well as being proactive in terms of the profits attributable to the activities conducted by a PE once it is established. It is also to enable them to comply with the wider transfer pricing and disclosure requirements arising from BEPS. The BEPS led corporate changes raise the profile of business travellers within an organisation. No longer is it purely questions for HR that are limited to that of potential payroll withholding and individual tax liabilities. Now questions also arise for finance and tax, which embrace permanent establishment creation, transfer pricing and corporate reporting.

Each business will need to determine what processes are appropriate based on their specific circumstances. However, generally they should consider providing clear protocols to internationally mobile individuals in terms of their activities in different countries, for example, where individuals have regional or sales roles. They should also have a mechanism to monitor the location of their cross-border workers, for example, when they travel overseas or work at home in cases where home is in a different country to their employer. This way, potential PEs can be identified early and proactively managed to minimise costs. The business can also minimise the risk of any reputational damage as well as the increased tax authority scrutiny that can arise when errors have previously been made.

Apart from the tax considerations there are other issues to factor in. Although EU nationals generally have free rein to travel within the EU, moves between other countries will almost certainly involve obtaining the necessary work permits/ visas. Some countries will have additional requirements such as registering with the local police or town hall. It is not uncommon for commuters to start working in a country

Taxation before the necessary paperwork is completed and there has even been the occasional case of an expat being arrested as a result – this does not usually go down too well! It can also impact on the company’s future ability to do business in that location if they are prevented by the relevant authorities from doing so due to prior non-compliance.

One longer-term factor often overlooked is pensions. Employees invariably want to remain within their home country scheme and continue contributions in that country.

Although this is nearly always possible where an individual remains employed and resident there, it may not necessarily provide optimum tax relief. Pension schemes in one country are not always recognised as allowable retirement vehicles in other countries. This can lead to unexpected tax charges, reduced tax relief and therefore a reduction in overall return on investment upon retirement.

Forward planning is essential to minimise disruption to the employee and the business and to quantify hidden or unknown costs; robust tracking measures must be implemented to ensure global tax compliance. In this digital age, companies are turning to technological solutions to help in their continued drive to keep abreast of the rapidly changing tax map. Online platforms, such as BDO QuickTrip, combine

with a smartphone app to provide a simple yet innovative solution to enable companies to track their business travellers through the use of GPS (although this function can be turned off if required). A system of built in alerts notifies you when a tax event may be on the horizon so that planning measures can be implemented and reports can be produced throughout the year to ensure you actively manage your compliance obligations and plan ahead.

As we can see, what may have been considered a series of low key business trips to start with is comparable in many respects with a full blown assignment, with all the associated ramifications and some of the potential costs and compliance requirements of a traditional assignment, magnified across a number of countries. Commuter arrangements are likely to continue to increase in number, especially within regions where you can travel anywhere within a particular continent within a few hours. There is a clear business need for commuters in multinational companies to cover regional or global roles and besides, more employees are demanding such flexible arrangements due to the reduced family and personal impact. More and more, businesses will be required to have a good understanding of the issues they face when instigating this type of arrangement.

Andrew Bailey

National Head of human capital at BDO LLP. He has over 30 years’ experience in the field of expatriate taxation. He is indented to Lee Coccaro and Carole Le Page for their contribution to this article. BDO has offices in 158 countries and is able to provide global assistance for all your international assignments.

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article or any other expatriate matters, please do not hesitate to contact Andrew Bailey on +44 (0) 20 7893 2946, email Andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk

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GLOBAL TAXATION

Global Taxation Update Recent Tax Updates From Around The World AUSTRALIA

How the proposed changes to Superannuation might affect you In January the Government presented parliament with the legislation containing the superannuation system reforms, first announced in the 2016/17 budget. It aims to address the needs of Australia’s ageing population and increase the flexibility of the superannuation system.

The Changes At A Glance The changes will take effect from 1 July 2017, (unless another date is otherwise mentioned below) and will affect numerous aspects of superannuation, of which the main changes are briefly summarised below.

Most of the changes are targeted at high income earners who make up a very small percentage of the population; however, some existing concessions are being

extended to benefit a larger percentage of low income earners.

How This Might Affect You Capital Gains & The Aud 1.6 Million Cap For individuals who are required to reallocate assets from the retirement phase to the accumulation phase prior to 1 July 2017 to be in line with the AUD 1.6 million cap, there

What is the change?

Who is affected?

The total amount of superannuation that can be transferred into the taxfree retirement phase will be capped at AUD 1.6 million per individual; any remaining balance will sit in an accumulation account and be taxed at 15%.

Less than 1% of Australian superannuation fund members.

Concessional contributions

Division 293 tax is imposed to align the tax concessions of superannuation contributions received by high-income earners to that of the average-income earner. The Division 293 tax threshold will be lowered by AUD 50,000 to earnings greater than AUD 250,000 The annual before-tax (concessional) super contributions cap will also be reduced by AUD 5,000 to AUD 25,000

The change to the Division 293 tax threshold will affect high income earners, which is around 1% of fund members The change to the concessional contributions cap will affect around 3.5% of fund members.

Non-concessional contributions

An AUD 100,000 annual non-concessional contributions cap will be imposed, however, individuals with super balances over AUD 1.6 million will not be able to make any further non-concessional contributions.

Less than 1% of Australian fund members.

Catch-up concessional contributions

From 1 July 2018, individuals with super balances less than AUD 500,000 will be able to carry forward their unused concessional cap for up to 5 years.

Expected to help around 230,000 workers whose income fluctuates significantly from year to year or who have an extended period of time away from work.

Personal superannuation contribution deductions

All individuals under 65 will be able to claim a tax deduction for personal super contributions up to the concessional cap.

Expected to benefit just under 1 million fund members, particularly those who are selfemployed and earn salary and wages from an employer.

Low income superannuation tax offset

To avoid low income earners (individuals earning less than AUD 37,000) paying more tax on super contributions than on their take home pay, a tax offset will be available for the tax paid on super contributions, to a limit of AUD 500.

The tax saving will benefit 3.1 million low income earners, including 1.9 million women.

Spouse tax offset

A tax offset of up to AUD 540 will now be available to more individuals who make super contributions to their spouse, as the recipient spouse income cap has been extended from AUD 10,800 to AUD 40,000.

The tax saving is expected to assist 5,000 couples.

Transfer balance cap

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

are transitional provisions allowing the cost base of those assets to be reset to market value as at the date of transfer by deeming the asset to be disposed of and reacquired at that date at its market value. This means that only the gains that accrue from the date of transfer (prior to 1 July 2017) onwards will be taxed under the capital gains tax regime upon disposal. However, it also means the CGT discount will not be available if the asset is disposed of within 12 months of the transfer.

Please note that as stated in the explanatory materials to the legislation, where assets are already partially supporting accounts in the accumulation phase (i.e. a non-segregated fund), tax will be paid on that proportion of the capital gain made prior to 1 July 2017, however, the tax may be deferred until the asset is sold, for up to 10 years.

Division 293 Tax From BDO’s immediate tax perspective, the changes are likely to impact senior executives, specifically in regard to the Division 293 Tax, as more individuals will be caught by the lower income threshold. Division 293 Tax is often overlooked, so it’s a good reminder for employers to review their expat assignment and tax equalisation policies to ensure the additional tax is considered, and inform the employees who may now be affected.

BDO Comment Individuals should consider the impact these changes will have on their retirement planning and discuss the superannuation changes with their financial planner before 1 July 2017 to ensure their retirement plan is in line with the proposed legislation and remains tax effective once the law passes.

Ireland

Significant changes to Irish payroll obligations on non-Irish employments exercised in Ireland The Irish Revenue released an e-brief on 22 December 2016 setting out a number of updates to Statement of Practice (IT/3/07), entitled Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system Employee payroll tax deductions in relation to non-Irish employments exercised in the State.

The most significant amendment to this Statement of Practice is the publication of the Revenue’s interpretation of Article 15 (the Employment Article) of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and Capital in the context of temporary assignees and shortterm business travellers.

The amendments to the Statement of Practice will now significantly limit the circumstances in which foreign employers can apply for an exemption from Irish payroll tax. In fact, this new approach by the Revenue will bring a significant majority, who spend more than 30 workdays in Ireland in a tax year, within the scope of Irish tax.

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Key Change- Article 15 Interpretation Prior to the publication of this e-brief, where an employee of a non-Irish employer performed duties in Ireland, but was present in Ireland for less than 183 days, it may have been possible to claim income tax relief where certain additional conditions were met.

One of these conditions was that the remuneration of the temporary assignee was paid by, or on behalf of, an employer who was not a resident of Ireland. In effect, a foreign employment.

Historically, the Revenue had treated a foreign employment as one where the employee was legally employed and physically paid by a non-Irish company, provided that company did not have a taxable corporate presence, such as a branch, in Ireland.

The Revenue has now significantly revised this position and are no longer prepared to accept, for the purposes of granting a release from the obligation to operate the PAYE system, that the remuneration is paid by, or on behalf of, a foreign employer if the individual is; • Working for an Irish employer where the duties performed by the individual are an integral part of the business activities of the Irish employer, or • Replacing a member of staff of an Irish employer, or • Gaining experience working for an Irish employer, or • Supplied and paid by an agency (or other entity) outside the State to work for an Irish employer.

In addition, the release from the obligation to operate the PAYE system will not be granted; (i) Simply because the remuneration is paid by a foreign employer and charged in the accounts of a foreign employer, or (ii)Where the remuneration is paid by a foreign employer and the cost is then re-charged to an Irish employer.

It should be noted that the Revenue has confirmed that the existing exemption for non-operation of the PAYE system for nonresident employees performing incidental duties in Ireland for no more than 30 days in aggregate in a tax year will remain in place. This exemption will apply for business travellers from both Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) and non DTA countries.

Summary In recent times, we have found the Revenue’s approach to the application of the Statement of Practice to be inconsistent.

While it could be argued that this updated position should theoretically address this issue, the consequences of this approach may significantly increase the compliance obligations and the costs of these assignments for the foreign employer.

Given the subjective language being used by the Revenue - “integral part of the

business activities”, “gaining experience” – and the lack of any guidance on these terms, it is difficult to envisage scenarios in which an Irish PAYE Clearance will be granted to a foreign employer once duties are performed for an Irish company.

BDO Comment We strongly recommend that non-resident employers (in conjunction with associated Irish businesses) should now review their current and proposed temporary assignments to Ireland to ensure there are sufficient controls and procedures in place to manage their Irish PAYE obligations.

SWEDEN

Proposition for new legislation introducing monthly filing obligations for employers in Sweden As a measure to reduce tax fraud and tax evasion and to allow the tax authorities direct access to certain details in respect of compensation paid out to employees, it is proposed that employers will be required to file a monthly report to the Swedish Tax Authority detailing each employee’s compensation at an individual level.

The proposed new filing obligation would replace the employer’s current monthly filing of payee returns where the companies report income, preliminary taxes and employer contributions for all employees as lump sums.

With the new system it is proposed that the current possibility to file payee returns on paper is abolished and that the information would need to be filed electronically - either through a file transfer via the Swedish Tax Agency’s website or by manually registering the information for each payee online.

If adopted the changes are proposed to come into effect as of 1 January 2019. However, for employers who are required to keep personnel books (“personalliggare”) and have more than 15 employees, the new regulations may come into force from 1 July 2018.

BDO Comment Tax authorities globally are clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion with digital methods of filing becoming ever more prevalent. The Swedish tax authorities are no different and measures to combat nonpayment of tax are only likely to increase.

UNITED KINGDOM

Scottish Tax Rate Threshold - 2017/18 The Scottish government has announced that they will be raising the higher rate threshold to GBP 43,430 from 6 April 2017 in line with inflation. The threshold in the rest of the UK will rise to GBP 45,000. Although the Scottish government has had certain income tax powers for some years, this is first time they have exercised their right.

GLOBAL TAXATION BDO Comment Companies with Scottish tax payers will need to ensure that their payroll systems can administer two different tax thresholds. Higher earners in Scotland will be paying marginally more tax than those in the rest of the UK. The position may of course change significantly in the future should Scotland vote to become independent.

Update On Changes To The Uk Non-Domicile Tax Rules After a seemingly never ending period of uncertainty we now have the draft legislation containing changes to the taxation of non-UK domiciled individuals. The legislation will be effective as of 6 April 2017.

Who Are Non–Domiciled Taxpayers?

Generally these are individuals (including those on international secondments) who were born outside of the UK and come to the UK without the intention of establishing a permanent home in the UK. Non-domiciled taxpayers have historically been entitled to tax relief in the UK that domiciled taxpayers have not been entitled to, e.g. the ability to not be taxed on offshore investment income which is paid and kept outside the UK. Summary Of The Updates The update covers the key proposals, including the following:

being able to leave the unremitted untaxed income offshore. Again, there are certain conditions that will need to have been met.

• The new deemed domicile rule. From 6 April 2017, any non-UK domiciled individual who has been resident in the UK in at least 15 of the past 20 UK tax years will become deemed UK domiciled for income, capital gains and inheritance tax purposes • Any individual who was born with a domicile of origin in the UK will automatically be treated as domiciled in the UK for all tax purposes if they are resident in the UK from 6 April 2017 • Rebasing for offshore assets for individuals who become deemed domicile on 6 April 2017 under the above rule. It may be possible to rebase certain types of offshore assets to uplift the base cost to the value as of 6 April 2017, so that the amount chargeable for capital gains upon sale is therefore reduced. Certain conditions will apply (including the necessity to have paid the remittance basis charge at some point) • A grace period to unravel or “cleanseâ€? offshore mixed fund bank accounts. This relates to offshore accounts which contain unremitted “mixed fundsâ€? (i.e. unremitted overseas income, gains and clean capital).

Here it is proposed for HMRC to allow a temporary window of 2 years for individuals to unravel such accounts where clean capital can be separated into a separate offshore account and, if so wished, for this to be remitted tax free into the UK whilst

Register now for International HR Adviser’s monthly email newsletter, and invitations to the free Global HR Conferences we organise.

Simply email helen@internationalhradviser.com and put Newsletter in the subject, and you will receive up to date information on Global Mobility every month, as well as a complimentary invitation to our Global HR Conferences.

Impact Of Rule Changes On Individuals On International Secondments It is anticipated that there will be limited impact on most individuals seconded into the UK on the basis that the changes will mostly affect inbound individuals that have been resident in the UK for 15 of the last 20 years. However, if you have non-domiciled individuals that have been working for you in the UK for that length of time the rule changes should be brought to their attention so that they can take action prior to the deadline.

A key issue that individuals working in global mobility will have to keep an eye out for is individuals that are being seconded to the UK, who were originally from the UK, but have established a long-term home outside the UK. Historically these individuals might have been able to complete a secondment in the UK without re-establishing their UK domicile, but this will not be the case from 6 April 2017 onwards. As such it is vital that they and their employers consider the tax implications of their secondment in advance of the move.

Prepared by BDO LLP. For further information please contact Andrew Bailey on 0207 893 2946 or at andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

How Small To Medium-Sized Mobility Programmes Can Utilise Technology To Transform Their Approach And Add Value To Their Business Despite some economic uncertainty in 2017 and beyond, we are still seeing many companies looking to increase the amount of business they do internationally. For us as mobility professionals, this is likely to mean a continued rise in overall assignee numbers. However, planning and managing international assignments is fast becoming more complex.

Stricter compliance rules, changing immigration laws and increasingly complex tax legislation mean companies face newfound legal and regulatory scrutiny at every turn. At the same time, assignees expect higher levels of personalised service, with their family’s safety and happiness in the forefront of their mind.

Global Mobility teams are having to take a more strategic approach to managing their programmes so they can meet the increasing expectation that they act as advisors to the business at this time of rapid change. To facilitate this, we are seeing an increase in the adoption of technology solutions to make the assignment lifecycle more efficient to administer through automation and process efficiencies, reduce compliance risks, enhance the employee experience and enable better decision-making from the business as a result of access to insightful data and analytics.

The good news is even companies with small to medium-sized programmes can now use solutions similar to those large multinationals have been using for years. Tasks ranging from cost estimate generation and electronic assignment authorisations, through to reporting, taxes, vendor management and repatriation can be handled more efficiently and cost-effectively using today’s global mobility management technology.

An All-Too-Common Situation

Larger mobility teams, those handling thousands of assignees per year, typically bring a sophisticated and consistent approach to the process, managing the

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assignment lifecycle efficiently, with clearly defined procedures.

Smaller teams, say, those managing 150 expatriate assignments or less, often find the assignment lifecycle more cumbersome to manage and more manual to administer, thus potentially increasing the compliance risks for their programmes. In addition, these teams sometimes have their roles split between Global Mobility and other areas of HR, such as Reward or Resourcing, so often have to juggle additional responsibilities.

Yet all companies, regardless of team size and financial resources, are subject to the same international laws and regulations.

This puts smaller teams at greater risk of non-compliance and may bring punitive consequences, the cost of which would be felt to a far greater extent in organisations with smaller budgets. In addition, manual, repetitive tasks, errors in data entry, timeconsuming (and expensive) cost estimates, and the need to juggle multiple spreadsheets take time away from counselling assignees and the broader internal stakeholders.

Still, relatively few small to mid-size mobility programmes are taking advantage of today’s affordable technology offerings.

Either they are not aware these options exist, or they believe investing in technology also means adding headcount. Or they hold the opinion that only larger programmes can afford today’s solutions.

Utilising SaaS In Global Mobility

Fortunately, today’s SaaS (Software as a Service) technologies can help even the smallest global mobility teams leverage data. They can improve processes to eliminate mundane tasks and create more time to support assignees’ needs and manage compliance, without adding to headcount. Cloud-based software, with its rapid development, deployment and easyupdate capabilities, makes an investment in global mobility technology a great fit for mobility programmes seeking more control, better consistency and added value to key stakeholders.

For example, the time taken to generate

cost estimates becomes quicker than making a cup of tea, and being able to produce these accurately, at speed, will enable the business to make quicker and more informed decisions about international assignments and headcount planning. This is equally relevant to project-based businesses to support the bidding process for new international work and ongoing project budgeting. Also, enhanced communication capabilities through the technology solution can result in employees being better informed, and therefore more engaged in the relocation process.

As well as cost estimates, the previously time-consuming work of obtaining management approvals, generating assignment letters, maintaining payroll balance sheets, and managing vendor services can all be done through a single webbased system, containing one true source of assignment data and security-controlled user interfaces for key stakeholders. With more built-in efficiencies, small teams can do more with less, and do it all faster and with less room for error.

How Can Current Trends In Mobility Be Supported By Technology?

Global mobility programmes are being affected by important trends impacting the marketplace.

Understanding these dynamics can help small to mid-size teams transform their programmes to become more strategic and productive.

Accountability: The number of expatriate assignments is on the rise, but along with this increase comes a clear need to be more accountable about each individual case. More companies are using technology to get better visibility of their expat population so they can manage their programme more strategically and consistently, to meet their duty of care.

Compliance Challenges: The number of required administrative tasks is increasing to maintain programme compliance, and penalties for non-compliance can be severe.

Companies are adopting technology to keep details of every assignment secure and help them to manage these tasks efficiently through automation and tracking. This is

TECHNOLOGY critical both for the safety and security of expats and to protect the employer itself.

High Employee Expectations: Technology can help elevate global mobility to more of an advisory role by automating the mobility coordinator’s routine tasks, freeing up their time to focus on more value-add activities such as counselling employees, providing them with a great relocation experience.

Data Analytics and Looking Forward: Increasingly, management teams are looking for more insight in to the workings of their businesses. Being able to provide meaningful reports and analysis quickly is key to supporting the global mobility team’s role as an advisor to the business. Today’s technology solutions do much more than export programme data, they can collate data from multiple platforms and turn it in to meaningful information that can enhance decision-making within the business.

Today’s technology solutions can support mobility teams to adapt their programmes to accommodate these and future trends.

Better Global Mobility Management Adds Value

By leveraging technology solutions, global mobility teams can improve the overall assignment experience for assignees, HR, vendors, management and other key stakeholders. Companies save time and money with lower risk and less frustration by: • Automating all critical tasks related to every aspect of an assignment • Freeing staff from mundane, repetitive tasks so they can truly be advisors to their stakeholders • Personalising the entire experience by putting the focus squarely on the individual assignees’ needs.

Gone are the days of one-off document creation, isolated spreadsheets, confusing and uncertain calculation tools and multiple data sources. Now, centralised technology platforms and, because mean multiple stakeholders can use the same system, so visibility of the programme improves across the organisation: • Assignees are kept informed and engaged with the process through communications and automated reminders sent through the software solution so they keep up to date with the status of their move • Finance/Payroll teams can be given access to see budgets, estimates and payroll balance sheets to better measure programmes costs and potential savings • Corporate Security teams know who is where at any given time, ensuring greater safety and security for employees in the event of international issues • Internal Audit teams can trust the reports the data generates, knowing they have a visible audit trail showing activity within the mobility team and with every vendor at every stage of each assignment

• Global Mobility can expand the programmes without having to add headcount. Existing staff can do more to advise assignees, manage partners, counsel colleagues, and nurture and retain talent • Senior Management can discern the cost/ benefit of every assignment and have a real-time overview of the assignees in their organisation.

All companies demand and deserve value from their technology investments.

Today’s global mobility solutions can be pre-configured or customised, easy to implement and receive frequent upgrades. It all comes down to strategically increasing the programme’s overall value to the business.

Today’s technology solutions can support mobility teams to adapt their programmes to accommodate these and future trends.

Choosing The Technology Partner That’s Best For You

When selecting among global mobility management software providers, companies wanting a more strategic global mobility programme that adds value to their organisation should look for the following in any potential partner: • Proven corporate mobility experience – has their team worked in-house in your position before and therefore truly understand your requirements?

• Predictable business performance, with consistent profitable growth • Category leader that is active in the industry • A clear product vision / roadmap for the future • Loyal, satisfied customers • How long have they been customers?

• If they’ve lost customers, why?

• In-house implementation and client services teams with proven experience in global mobility • Continuing education and training capabilities • Ongoing client relations/communication programmes

• An extensive partner network comprised of stable, reputable companies • Global reach with regional offices in locations important to your business • Fair and competitive pricing and a clear explanation of the value provided.

Summary

By leveraging today’s software technology, mobility programmes of almost any size can introduce workflow, costing and task management solutions that increase staff productivity, improve the experience for assignees and minimise risks to the business.

Such an approach saves time, reduces costs and delivers increased value. Partnering with an experienced technology provider can help global mobility professionals remain on the front foot as trends and compliance legislation change - there has never been a better time to embrace mobility technology!

To learn how Equus Software can become a proven, stable partner to your business, visit www.equusoft.com.

Tim Wells

Tim is VP, Technology Solutions at Equus Software. Based in London, he helps organisations across EMEA to solve global mobility problems and increase operational and strategic effectiveness through the adoption of technology. He is a product owner of Assignment Pro Core, an Equus Software solution for small to medium-sized mobility programmes. He also supports larger programmes using the full Assignment Pro solution as well as organisations looking to track their short-term business travellers through PinPoint, another Equus solution. Much of Tim’s 17 year career in global mobility has been spent managing regional and global mobility programmes in-house for well-known multinational organisations in the financial services, consumer goods and technology sectors. He also has experience consulting in the Big 4 environment, as well as working as an independent consultant for the three years prior to joining Equus. Tim’s particular area of interest within mobility is in how it’s used to facilitate talent development – this stems from his MSc degree in Strategic Training and Development from the University of Surrey.

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

Brexit: What Will It Mean For Employers?

Predictable. Adj. ‘Able to be foretold or declared in advance’. 2016 proved to be anything but. In fields as diverse as sport (speak to Leicester City and Chicago Cubs fans), entertainment, business and politics, the year was full of surprises.

24 June 2016 might become one of those dates that make people instinctively recall where they were and what they were doing; it was confirmed on that day that the people of the United Kingdom had voted to leave the European Union. At time of writing, Prime Minister May is set to trigger Article 50 on 29 March 2017, an event which will culminate in the UK’s exit from Europe two years later.

The Global Employer Services team within Deloitte provide individual and employer tax compliance and consulting services to domestic and international organisations across all industries. In this article we have brought together input from leaders in our Immigration, Reward, Mobility, and Location Strategy teams to explain today’s landscape, recognise some of the hurdles to be overcome, and identify best practices.

Immigration

Arguably the central issue of the Brexit debate, both before and after the referendum, has been immigration. Net migration to the UK has exceeded 100,000 every year since 1997 [ 1 ] and in her 17 January 2017 ‘Plan for Britain’ speech, Prime Minister May told us that the public’s message had been clear: “Brexit must mean control of the number of people who come to Britain from Europe”. The government’s white paper on Brexit ‘The United Kingdom’s exit from and new partnership with the European Union’ published on 2 February 2017, has since reaffirmed that commitment.

So, what levers do Mrs. May and the Minister of State for Immigration, Robert Goodwill, have at their disposal?

On 5 September 2016, the Prime Minister rejected expansion of the ‘Australian style’ Points-Base System currently in place for most non-EU nationals coming to the UK, saying it would not adequately let Britain control the numbers arriving. Similarly, proposals for regional visa schemes, notably a post-study work scheme for Scotland, put forward by the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee, and a London-only work visa championed by Mayor of London, Sadiq

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Khan, have been rejected by Mr. Goodwill.

At present, we have very few clues about how the UK might seek to limit migration from the EU-27. There are various options that could be considered - increased levies and higher charges on businesses; new tiers or categories for new EEA workers; a US style system with specific visa categories, annual limits on numbers, and caps on permanent migration; a quota system for low-skilled migration – but it’s not clear which one the government will favour.

Until the uncertainty starts to clear, employers should focus on being ready to react.

Some employers have prepared employee ‘FAQ’ documents or manned ‘immigration hotlines’ to help inform their employees and distil the most helpful information for them.

Audits of the status of staff, both inside and outside the UK, to identify nationality/ dual nationality/familial nationality as well as qualification against the criteria for Permanent Residence, are also recommended, as is help to proactively manage the risks for certain individual employees.

Reward And Executive Pay

As the post-vote story has unfolded, two principal questions have emerged in the context of Reward and Executive pay: • Long-Term: what will be the UK’s approach once outside the EU? • Short-Term: what, if anything, should an organisation do now in response to the Brexit vote?

The former is still a matter of debate, but there are important considerations to bear in mind in the context of the latter.

Long-Term

What is worth noting, if we contemplate what approach the UK will adopt to executive pay once outside the EU, is that much of the current EU regulation concerning executive pay has been influenced by existing UK legislation. Furthermore, in certain areas (deferral for instance) UK domestic law goes further than the EU regulations require. Perhaps, therefore, it is hard to see a complete U-turn in approach once the UK leaves the EU – a relaxation of the agenda towards executive pay might be unpalatable to the public – but, were major EU cities to successfully court UK business and incentivise movement of business out of the UK, are these levers that could be pulled?

Short-Term

In recent years media stories of shareholder activism abound. Stakeholders and the public have demanded a more forensic review of pay, performance and the quality of the link between the two. Changes to the performance conditions attributed to awards can be perceived extremely negatively but, in the wake of a major external political event like Brexit, were a company to decide to change its strategic focus, it might make good sense to realign performance conditions to ensure they are still realistic and fit for purpose. We have discussed this difficult subject with many organisations and a ‘best practice’ that emerges is that stakeholder engagement is key.

Companies are finding answers to many questions relating to employee and executive reward catalysed by the referendum, such as: • Currency movement has affected our bonus pools, how should I respond?

• What changes might we see for companies issuing UK share awards to EU employees and vice versa?

• More generally, should a company’s reward strategy respond to any changes in its overall business strategy?

No one answer fits all organisations, but the best answers will have involved multiple stakeholders and align most closely to company philosophy.

Location Analysis And Mobility

It seems, since Brexit, for every headline declaring a major corporate exit from the UK into Europe, there’s another announcing major plans to invest. But a consistent theme emerges: for many companies, part of the strategic response to Brexit’s opportunities will be found in the flexibility of the workforce and the quality of the employee mobility programme.

Brexit is just one of several major disruptors in today’s modern business landscape: predictions suggest 6% of all jobs in the US will be eliminated by robotics by 2021; [2] an increasingly demanding and agile workforce put pressure on employers to provide the work/life balance they expect, while the skills demanded of that workforce are changing more rapidly now than ever before; continued growth in outsourcing and shared service centre (SSC) models with many companies expressing plans to expand use of SSCs with ‘knowledge-based’ as well

International HR Strategy as administrative processes. So 2016’s political shocks and the uncertainty surrounding 2017’s various European national elections, overlay on an era already awash with enormous and rapid change.

Four areas of focus have emerged concerning Brexit for Global Mobility professionals: Social security; the fall in Sterling; mobility programme complexity; and location strategy of the wider business.

Social Security

The guiding EU principle in the context of social security is that a person covered by the relevant regulations should be subject to the legislation of a single Member State. It’s unclear how this might change when the UK exits the EU. Once outside the EU the UK’s ability to conclude bilateral agreements with each individual European country should, broadly, maintain the status quo. However, each separately negotiated agreement could have its unique elements making maintaining compliance in reporting, withholding, registering for, and payment of, social security across Europe, potentially, a much more complex task than at present. Furthermore, we would recommend employers proactively review mobility policy to determine the level of protection of home benefit entitlement and/or double coverage, which is provided to workers.

Fall In Sterling

Since the vote to leave the EU, and as of 28 February 2017, Sterling has lost nearly 17% of its value against the US Dollar and a Lloyds Bank report of Sterling’s performance against 60 global currencies over 2016 showed Sterling fall against 56 of them [3]. Employees temporarily assigned to a new work location may continue to be paid in their home currency providing an unexpected economic windfall for overseas expatriates working in the UK but a significant blow to UK employees overseas.

Many mobility policies include foreign exchange rate clauses designed to provide protection for employee and employer against exchange rate movement. However, many do not, and in any case enforcement of the clause can prove difficult. Global Mobility professionals need to consider how to effectively communicate any changes in this area.

Mobility Programme Complexity

Aggregated together, Brexit and unrelated changes and challenges are unlikely to make the professional life of the Global Mobility professional any simpler. Businesses will need to rely on the expertise and insight of internal Global Mobility teams as much as ever to identify cost savings, raise awareness of unidentified employee and corporate risks, and help shape strategic decisions.

Business Location Strategy

In Davos, Switzerland, in January this year, Mrs May declared “Britain is, and will always be, open for business” while, last year Mr Khan launched the campaign “#LondonIsOpen” . To date, we have not seen large scale movements of roles or employees out of the UK and, indeed, there have been several examples of companies deciding to locate significant new activities and operations in the UK, particularly in the distribution and high tech sectors. The job creation data we have gathered certainly appears to support those statements.

But it must also be recognised that were the UK to lose direct access to the single market, particularly, but not exclusively, the rights of passporting for the Financial Services industry, many companies would need to consider whether to make strategic and structural business changes to remain competitive; once again, insight from Global Mobility teams will offer an invaluable contribution.

We see that an important factor in the longterm success of a corporate relocation is the need for adequate short, medium and longterm workforce planning. Those demands are generally supplied, respectively, by assignees from the home country, locally sourced and trained talent, and the future local talent pool from universities and colleges. The availability of suitable housing and schooling are also extremely important drivers – a company will struggle to relocate teams if their families cannot be looked after adequately.

Of course the costs of relocating are a prime consideration. Businesses often underestimate the financial costs of moving groups of employees to a new location so proactive and detailed cost modelling is a valuable exercise in location analyses; comparisons of headline tax and social security rates provide only limited insight.

Tax bandings, filing statuses, recognising the availability of local expatriate tax incentives (e.g. Spain, France, The Netherlands), differences in approaches to executive reward, and an appreciation for non-income tax costs (e.g. wealth tax regimes) are all important elements to build into cost comparisons.

Location analyses can be as thorough as you have the time to commit to them – employment law, mobility policy, housing, schooling, talent, social welfare coverage, state and personal pension provision, real estate, corporate taxes – there is an almost limitless number of factors to consider.

Experience tells us that the most valuable analyses for a business are those that start with, and maintain a particular focus on the individual drivers that are of premium importance to the business as a whole.

Summary

Immigration - Be ready. Consider auditing the immigration status of your workforce

in the UK and across the EU so that you can respond quickly and effectively, managing impact to the business when the future landscape becomes clear.

Reward – review forward. Look at incentive plans in the context of strategic changes. Are current performance measures and targets still appropriate?

Mobility – Cost modelling can help gauge the financial and administrative costs of employee relocation. It also presents the opportunity to ‘stress test’ the ‘fitness’ of current relocation policies.

Location Strategy – although some corporate structural changes may be seen, the UK remains an attractive place for business.

As UK PLC considers its post-Brexit actions, HR, Mobility and Reward teams will be important stakeholders and should ensure their seat at the table developing and supporting business strategy, and facilitating the opportunities that will presented.

References: [1] www.migrationwatchuk.org /statisticsnet-migration-statistics [2] www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/ sep/13/artificial-intelligence-robotsthreat-jobs-forrester-report [3] w w w . l l o y d s b a n k i n g g r o u p . c o m / globalassets/documents/media/pressreleases/lloyds-bank/2017/20170108currency-review-2016-final.pdf

Andrew Vincett

Andrew is a Director in Mobility Tax within Deloitte’s Global Employer Services group. He specialises in the Financial Services industry and in US and UK expatriate tax matters but also has a thorough understanding of employment taxes, the taxation of equity reward, and payroll compliance matters. Over his career, which has included time working in both the US and the UK, he has worked on some of the world’s largest and most complex global mobility programmes.

Telephone: +44 20 7007 0722 Email: avincett@deloitte.co.uk

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

Use Brexit To Learn A New Language!

Most people reading this, active in the field of Global Mobility (GM), will be familiar with a number of core challenges running through our work. Perhaps the most significant is the trap of working solely in the administrative necessity of operations and processes, whilst having the desire to work as a strategic adviser with board level influence (for example, see Michael Dickmann’s work with The RES Forum). Another more recent, but core conversation is Brexit, a phenomenon creating a wide range of new concerns. And yet Brexit offers an opportunity to address the administration versus strategy trap.

Brexit provides us with an opportunity to do something different in GM and to see different results There are plenty of research surveys highlighting both the desire and the need to elevate GM’s status within organisations today, see for example Santa Fe Relocation Services, 2016 Global Mobility Survey (see Fig 1 & Fig 2).

These emphasise the acknowledged importance of international mobility to the success of organisations, combined with the isolation of GM practitioners unable to work at strategic levels. There’s an old saying, often attributed to Einstein, that if you do the same things you can’t expect different results. Brexit provides us with an opportunity to do something different in GM and to see different results.

The basic problem lies in the fact that the GM function sits within or is closely associated with the HR function which is,

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of course, predominantly staffed by those with an HR background, an HR culture, and crucially using an HR language. In contrast, business leaders, increasingly including those in the not-for-profit and public sectors, have a business background which is based upon a finance culture and, as you would expect, a finance language. All organisations are driven by financial factors whether that be budgetary in the sense of cost management, or revenue and profit driven. The driving language of business is that of finance. Decision-making is made in the language of finance.

This is not the same as saying that everything is about numbers or metrics.

When financial decisions are made they consider issues of risk and opportunity which will include factors that are tough to tie down in definite numbers – although numbers can be used to illustrate them and enable debate.

For example, a decision to invest in a new piece of machinery may include questions as to how many staff to employ, how experienced they should be, the mixture of that experience, and suitable levels of training. The answer to this requires insight, expertise and descriptive persuasion. And yet the context within which this discussion will take place is a business case analysis, which will create numeric sensitivities, in other

BREXIT – A GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY words it’s in the language of finance.

In recent years, the GM function, in line with most others, has been under incredible cost pressures. Whilst the exact costs vary, we can be confident that sending someone on an international assignment is more expensive than using a local hire in almost all circumstances. This applies as a simple rule whether we are considering longterm assignments, short-term assignments, commuter assignments or business travellers.

The GM function has been successfully demonstrating its positive impact through managing the costs of these assignments effectively. This has included the improved use of technology, outsourcing, and the efficient management of suppliers.

These cost management successes have been used to demonstrate the value of the GM function and hence the value of international assignments. However, in the language of business and finance this is not about value - it is only about cost. Although value (and indeed cost) is ultimately subjective, nonetheless it is a net construct. It compares incomings with outgoings.

It’s the difference between what is paid for something and what is earned from something.

Hence, halving the cost of sending assignees is only valuable in the long-term if the revenue, profit or impact generated by those assignees exceeds those costs. The value of international assignments cannot be demonstrated by solely looking at the costs involved.

There’s no doubting the deep expertise in organising international assignments.

Managing a wide range of complex issues from tax and immigration compliance to family relocation challenges, all across a wide variety of countries, requires considerable knowledge, skill and dexterity. Especially when many of the countries involved are going through constant change of which the Brexit and Trump effects are just the latest set.

The transformational impact of international assignees on business performance is widely recognised, including research showing that CEOs with such international experience generate greater financial returns than those without (see for example, Carpenter, Sanders and Gregersen 2001). This does not, however, mean that we will be or should be respected for the importance of the work we do.

Especially when we allow the conversations we have to be about cost not value.

The ability to use our skill and experience at a strategic level will not happen until we speak the same language as the business. Whether we like it or not, and let’s be frank about this, many people in HR do not like it, we must speak the same language if we are to achieve change. Of course, we could seek to persuade businesses to change their language to that of HR, after all we all know that ‘people are our most important assets’, but that has not been successful to date. If this angers you then the alternative way to persuade you is that by first

learning the language of finance and hence learning to speak the same language as the rest of the business, it will then be possible to change that language to that of HR from a position of strength as an insider.

Whether we like it or not, and let’s be frank about this, many people in HR do not like it, we must speak the same language if we are to achieve change.

So why does Brexit offer an opportunity?

Although Brexit has so far mostly created uncertainty regarding its impact on business and GM, there are some initial key actions and conversations taking place. Crucially, ensuring we have data on the number of staff that may be affected by changes in employment rights across the EU: How many EEA nationals are currently working in the business (who, of course, may not have had any interaction with GM previously) and how critical are they to operational success?

And then secondly understanding the strategic options for the country location of the business and its operations going forward. There is a clear relationship between these two and yet the latter will start to take place in the corridors of business strategy in which GM has generally been absent.

The opportunity is to step forward to demonstrate the value of international assignments and the international mind-set it generates for your employees on the business.

A mind-set that has been shown to have value.

This will require a proactive approach that will necessitate hard work and long hours. And, critically, a change in language. Otherwise the door to the strategy debate will quickly close again. The language used has to be consistent with that of the business, i.e. finance. Naturally it will include all the measurements that apply to GM as well, e.g. retention and career progression statistics, but it needs to build up to show the business case impacts on value. Given that most GM functions have limited history producing such value-based figures, and that much of the raw data may not be immediately available to HR, this will require creativity. But

the language of finance is a creative language.

And if that makes you shudder (how do you react when you hear of ‘creative accounting’?) this probably just illustrates that you do not yet speak this language (all accounting is subjective and hence creative).

Of course, the language of finance, like all languages, has its nuances and colloquialisms.

One man’s budget is another man’s forecast.

One woman’s KPIs (key performance indicators) are another woman’s CSFs (critical success factors)! There is a need to understand the specific language of your own business. This, however, should be straight forward because your finance colleagues will be able to explain it, and they will engage when the conversation is about value.

Finally, be cautious with the term ROI. This has proven a popular acronym in GM conversations in recent years and is in many GM surveys (do you calculate the ROI of your assignments?).

The problem is that when finance people look at the ROI of a project they are usually looking at a range of measures and indicators none of which is the original technical definition of ROI! (It makes one wonder what GM people mean when they positively assert that they calculate ROI.) Talk about value. Then discover the language of value in your organisation. And work from there.

The strategic impact (value) of international assignments has to be considered in organisations affected by Brexit. To ensure a complete understanding is achieved GM needs to be at the strategic table, but to get there we have to talk the language of finance.

Take this opportunity as it may be a while before the next one arrives!

Phil Renshaw

Cranfield University.

With a background in international banking, treasury and as a Finance Director, Phil Renshaw is now an executive coach, leadership development facilitator and an expert in the value of international assignments. He is currently researching this topic as a Henry Grunfeld Research Fellow and in his PhD at Cranfield University. If you would like to talk to him about changing the strategic dimension of Global Mobility and specifically the value of international assignments, he would be delighted to hear from you. He can be contacted at phil.renshaw@cranfield.ac.uk.

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RFP PROCESS

Lessons Learned In Conducting Mobility RFP’s As companies increasingly focus on cost control and good governance they are reviewing contracts and partner services more regularly than in the past. At Naspers we conducted five RFP’s in 2016 to select global partners for the following services: - relocation, immigration, expatriate data, technology and expatriate payroll outsourcing.

The RFP process can be time consuming and complex, and this article seeks to provide an overview of the key areas to consider when undertaking a mobility RFP. It is based upon the successful Naspers 2016 RFP process and general industry good practice.

The Planning Process

The Planning Process is one of the most critical as it will ultimately shape your final outcome.

Planning should include all stakeholders within mobility, your procurement team and the wider business (whose employees will ultimately utilise the services) from your procurement to financial colleagues. This will ensure alignment on objectives, timescales and time commitment from all, which is crucial. When planning the overall deliverables and timelines remember providers may not be able to start their pricing until questions are answered so allow time for the provider’s final response.

Clearly defining the objectives for your RFP and each stage of the process is essential and typically includes the following;

• Agreeing the RFP questions, pricing, service specifications • Allowing time for questions and answers • Evaluation and scoring approach for every evaluator to follow • Face to face meetings • Final selection process • Contracting • Implementation with handover from previous provider • Go Live!

Please refer to the visual showing the timeline of events that shows the key milestones in the successful Naspers RFP process.

How can you save time and ensure you don’t end up selecting providers to your RFP that don’t meet certain key requirements?

Be open with information on the present state of your programme and your company’s objectives. Share policies as this will allow respondents to understand your company culture and approach to mobility. Include details of your demographics and the number of relocations per annum and if possible by policy type, home and host location etc. All the information that you share will help respondents to tailor their response including pricing to your needs. They will also be able to start providing feedback on your policy and programme, whilst understanding where noise may be coming from, for instance, if you have remote or challenging locations. Ultimately, the more you share the higher the quality of responses will be. This will make the evaluation of responses easier whilst increasing your chance of making the right provider selection!

Naspers Challenges During The RFP

• Timescales and availability of Naspers Resources • Managing the day to day Mobility programme • Conducting multiple RFP’s at the same time • Contract negotiations.

Who you invite to respond and why is another key area to spend time on to achieve a positive outcome. Obviously you need a quality and cost-effective solution from your chosen provider, but importantly you need a long-term partnership that will truly deliver value to your programme. Spend time up front to review potential providers and this investment of time will pay dividends. Look for a good cultural fit and evaluate if they have experience in your type of programme. Do they have knowledge of overcoming challenges you face in your industry and locations?

If your company has very strict criteria that a provider must meet such as data privacy, limitation of liability etc., then consider issuing a RFI prior to the RFP. This should just include key questions relating to the criteria a provider must meet to work with your company. This will ensure you only invite providers to the RFP that you can ultimately contract and work with.

Take time to compose the RFP request. Be clear with what you require and if you need a yes or no answer make it so a yes or no must be selected. Then allow for an expanded response so the respondent can provide further detail

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

that may be of interest to you. Take a moment to look at where your programme is but where you may need to move to in the coming years.

What could your programme look like in 3 – 5 years’ time? You don’t want to contract with a provider who doesn’t fit with what your future requirements may be. So include questions that relate to what your future requirements may be to ensure you select a provider who can support your programmes future state and evolution. Technology for the global mobility team and relocating employees is typically a key element of a RFP. Take time to ask questions that truly test the respondents on how they will not only meet your requirements but how their technology adds value to their clients.

Ensure you provide detailed service specifications and clear pricing templates which every respondent will complete as the majority of respondents questions typically relate to pricing or lack of detail.

Consider including specific scenarios based on your common home and host locations to be priced as this can be helpful when comparing costs. This detailed approach will ensure you receive pricing based upon your requirements, otherwise you may find very different approaches to pricing being used.

This then leads to a lengthy and difficult evaluation period as you try to compare non like for like pricing.

Some companies prefer to use their own contract terms rather than using one provided by a contractor. If this is important to your company include a copy of the contract terms with the RFP and make it a condition of participation.

Learning’s From The Naspers RFP

• Carefully pre-plan the whole RFP strategy • Communicate objectives clearly with potential partners • Advise stakeholders and customers • RFP – set out requirements, timelines, etc.

• Areas that took longer than anticipated • Pricing • Clarifying services including technology • Contracting • Areas that were easier than planned • Implementation.

Face to face presentations with selected potential providers is a key element of the process. Take time to communicate with your internal stakeholders on what they want to achieve from these presentations. Provide guidance to potential providers on what you need to be covered in the presentations but also leave time for them to tell you where they believe they can add value to your programme and how. Consider asking for live demos of technology, but allow time and remember providers will need access to the internet.

If you have limited time for presentations consider follow-up technology presentations at a later date just for those companies you select for final consideration. Many companies

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also schedule a visit to the final selected provider’s office to meet the wider team and get a true feel for the company prior to a final decision. This is becoming more typical and should be seriously considered as some companies have reversed their initial ratings of potential providers following such visits.

What Worked Well For Naspers!

• Fast pace kept momentum going • Achieved our objective of getting new partners in place quickly and efficiently • Interaction between chosen partner to work together efficiently for Naspers benefit.

Communication is key and do communicate any updates or changes to the RFP schedule ASAP. The more you can help respondents to pre-plan for what commitments you need from them the better the outcome will be for you. This would include providing dates for when face to face meetings are scheduled to take place when you issue the RFP.

Naspers Contracting & Implementation Check List

• • • •

Agreeing terms Data privacy Technology compliance Implementation - Agree a road map - Actions, responsibilities, timelines - Ensure new partner takes on the administration • Workshop – Invest time in the new relationship.

Implementation is critical and it is recommended that you allow a section of questions to cover this area in your RFP request. Then during presentations ask providers to explain how they would implement your programme, what resources are required from your company and timescales. Be careful if a provider is suggesting they can implement your programme quicker than others. It may be that they lack true experience and don’t fully understand the level of required work to successfully implement and go live with a programme of your scope. A rushed implementation can achieve positive results but you have to be very careful as a bad implementation has far reaching negative consequences for mobility, your wider stakeholders and of course relocating employees.

In summary the following are key points to consider when planning a successful RFP.

Do

• • • •

Take time to plan the end to end process Consider the use of an RFI Meet and evaluate providers prior to the RFP Have potential respondents sign a NonDisclosure Agreement • Share programme and policy information • Allow time for all stakeholders’ actions, including the providers!

Don’t

• Rush into an RFP hoping to find your way as you move through the process • Ask for pricing without clear service specifications • Be tempted to speed through the process.

The work that you put into the planning phase will be rewarded several times over as you move through the RFP process and we wish you a successful RFP experience.

Siobhan Cummins

Joined Naspers as Head of Global Mobility in June 2016. She was previously an Executive Director at EY and led the Mobility Performance Improvement team for EMEIA. She has over 27 years experience in Global Mobility as both a practitioner and consultant working for ORC Worldwide, Mercer, Thomson Reuters and Deloitte.

Siobhan has extensive experience in large mobility transformation projects including mobility strategy, overall programme improvement, policy design, change management and programme implementation. She is also experienced in expatriate workforce planning and talent management.

In 2010 she received an industry award for her outstanding contribution to the field of Global Mobility. Contact: Siobhan.Cummins@naspers.com

Paul Barnes

joined TheMIGroup in 2012 as Vice President, Client Relations for the EMEA region. Paul’s primary role is ensuring our mobility programmes are strategically aligned with our clients’ objectives and continue to evolve to meet their future challenges and requirements.

With over 25 years experience working with multi-national companies, Paul has been instrumental in the implementation, management and evolution of numerous high level mobility programmes. Contact: paul.barnes@themigroup.com

INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

Definition: (Effective) part·ner·ships?

The (successful) co-operation between people or groups working together to book serviced apartments.

Every global serviced apartment booking agent shows their true value through their network. These networks and partnerships allow the agents to be able to provide excellent solutions for every enquiry, whether it is local, regional or global, in primary, secondary or tertiary locations.

A good question to ask yourself, your teams and potentially your third parties, is when you enter into a ‘partnership’ with a serviced apartment agent, a provider, a supplier or a buyer, do you ever stop to consider the spirit in which you have entered this relationship?

Is it a co-operation where your team and the team of your chosen partner/agent work together to provide the very best solutions to your business (and if you are a third party – to your clients)? Or, have you created a keen competitive environment, a race to the finish, with a winner and a loser for each piece of business? Do you want the market to compete for your business? Who is the ultimate decision maker, and what is the most effective solution for your business?

Commitment Or Competitive?

Either through the natural evolution of your programme, challenges with providing global coverage, or frustration with current services (or of course, an excellent sales pitch from a new agent), you could feel that there is a better solution out there.

The challenge is, do you jump 100% or do you test one against the other? Can you get the best of both worlds? Can you make these agents compete for your business – what are the considerations, and at what cost?

Who Measures The Success?

If you make the choice to compete the agents against each other, what is your criteria for success? And who is measuring this?

Is the success measured on % conversion, on rates achieved, on speed of services, on personality, on added value services, on data, or on how embedded they already are in your business?

Is it you that measures?Your supply manager? Your procurement team? Your booker/consultant? Or the end user that has final say on which agent is the most effective partner and receives the lion share of the business?

Each of these stakeholders has an

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excellent reason to have an opinion, a reason for choosing one agent over another – but which one is the most powerful? And is this choice or reason an objective measure or subjective? Personal or professional?

Personality or performance?

Every global serviced apartment booking agent shows their true value through their network.

These networks and partnerships allow the agents to be able to provide excellent solutions for every enquiry, whether it is local, regional or global, in primary, secondary or tertiary locations.

The Decision Makers

Would it surprise you to hear that in the majority of cases it can be the consultant who is the ultimate decision maker.

And this choice could simply be that one agent ‘is easier’ to work with than the other. i.e. consultant to consultant - the relationship is more mature, the style is more compatible, there is a friendship that has developed over time, and sometimes that there is a recognition

programme in place for the individuals or teams by way of lunches, vouchers, tours that have been enjoyed for many years.

This decision can be completely aside from your company goals and aspirations.

It can be subjective as to the product that the assignee is being offered, the terms and conditions of the provider, the current availability in the market, the rates offered, the potential added value services, the escalation handling after arrival, the 24 hour ‘out of hours’ services, consolidated/local billing, global data provision or commercial terms – these areas could be secondary to the speed of response and the relationship or friendliness of the agent.

Multiple Agents Responsible For Regional Coverage

If you have always had a local or regional programme, but are now embarking on developing a global programme and previously you have always worked with a great local agent but are aware that your current provider maybe isn’t strong outside of their current or local market, having a tri-regional, country or specific location partnership with multiple agents can work.

The depth of the success however, can depend on how important it is for you as a company to have one cohesive system to provide management data (i.e. global data versus regional data), on your agent’s and consultants understanding on how to use multiple out of hours 24-hour emergency support services across markets, and also having a clear process map to ensure that each provider is exact in their responsibility and coverage for undertaking the bookings and after sales service (source markets versus home markets).

Using more than one agency partner without reviewing these areas in advance can cause some confusion and frustration both from a management perspective and at ground level.

Data Consolidation

A solution for this is for you to employ a company (at a cost) that can merge all the data from the various systems through API links and uploads into one system that can then be presented in easily understandable dashboards with business recommendations to your business.

This option doesn’t help to manage the global clock, but it does provide you with the information you need to effectively operate and manage your business, your relationships and your company spend in each region and globally as a whole.

SERVICED APARTMENTS Cutting Out The Agents

Local relationships and effective supply management are imperative to the success of programmes, and without them even the most well thought out solutions can be derailed. However, it is key to remember that savings that are made locally (i.e. cutting out the agent, therefore the margin) can be eaten up with the ongoing and growing need for global supply management across multiple regions and products, health and safety responsibility, global management data, specific market coverage, financial acumen with consolidated invoicing and 24-hour safety and security and escalation/ dilapidation management.

If you are only buying in a limited number of markets, and data and regional or global coverage isn’t a critical success factor, and your teams are set up to manage the above, then buying local is definitely a cost-effective solution for a local programme.

Commitment Or Dilution

Asking two agents to compete against eachother, who will ultimately provide exactly the same products that should (in reality) be priced the same with the same/similar services, costs and provisions can, in many cases, dilute your brand market impact but increase market confidence, and therefore increase the value proposition of supply in the region.

Instead of using the power of your brand to engage the market, to provide you with additional added value services, preferred terms and conditions and excellent volume rates, you can risk increasing rate, skewing the demand in the market and potentially losing out on the benefits of loyalty or volume purchasing.

Market Forces

Asking your agents to price or compete for the same business in the same region, i.e. in the world of serviced apartments, you employ 2 agents (or more) for each enquiry, there can be further impact on the market than you would expect.

Of course, the partners/agents will compete for the business on a case by case basis, but simply, if one takes a lower margin than the other, you have an immediate saving – understanding the margin and the services before you go out to market could save you setting up two competing agents.

If you have decided that you like the spirit of competition, and that you would like to employ two agents to compete on every piece of work, there will be two options for these agents and for your staff, and it really does rely on the expectations you have set your company as to the one that will be successful for you. Remember, your consultant will now be the decision maker in this programme.

Firstly – speed. For some bookers, this is the main priority, if you have set SLA’s with

your clients that your consultants will be responding to you with options in super quick time, some agents work very well on this SLA - they move fast, and generally, don’t check availability first and they send over a list of options that they have in their database.

(This method blocks the other agents from competing as the consultant will ‘turn down’ the other agents as they have chosen the offer from the ‘speedy’ agent. Obviously, this can be pretty frustrating for the agents that have taken the time to check for actual live availability, but is effective if speed is your game plan, not quality checks or live solutions – you will find that in time both agents will follow the same route to market).

Secondly – book now. This second option is to have the option to ‘book now’ as soon as you have the options in front of you. You know that the products are definitely available, and that the agent has actually connected with the operator of the product to ensure that the unit is available, suitable, priced correctly and can be reserved immediately.

(The book now model is an interesting concept where there has already been a full check completed pre the submission of ‘suitable products’, but if speed is your priority, these options come a little slower due to the pre-check, but knowing all options offered are available and on hold does give you confidence in the long-term, but a perceived ‘delayed’ response to the consultant).

Market Demand Forecasting

One key challenge with the multiple agent model is that market confidence and pricing is reliant on demand. i.e. when there is more demand for a product or place, the prices naturally increase. Think of this like a bidding tool, or the housing market. If there is limited supply, but there is high demand, the pricing increases.

The larger markets and global suppliers understand this and so work on conversion rates in line with demand – demand forecast systems help them to price their products effectively, understanding that they may only convert a percentage of their enquiries.

Secondary and tertiary markets and smaller suppliers can be very different. If multiple agents request similar dates and stays, this can give the supplier the confidence that demand for their product is high, and therefore, there is a potential opportunity to increase the rate in line with demand – this is because although the agents are competing for the business, they are still going to the same supply chain in the market. This can equate to the rates not necessarily decreasing with the agent model, if you are using more than one agent, there is a risk that you are increasing the cost of your programme, and you are certainly not using the opportunity to drive down prices due to your volume or commitment in market. One to watch and be aware of.

The most effective way to ensure the rates are competitive is to ask the market to compete for your business, not the agent.

Sole Or Shared Solutions – Creating Effective Partnerships

Both sole agent and multiple agents are absolutely accepted practices and both have their absolute benefits.

One of commitment and trust, one of competition and reward. Your chosen style helps both your supply chain and your clients to understand the culture, vision and values of your company.

One of the most impactful questions you can ask yourself when building your programmes is what kind of relationship do you want with your agency partners. Have you chosen your style? Or has it happened through continual change, disruption or maybe natural revolution? Was it choice, habit or evolution?

Respectful Engagement

One thing is for sure - whether you are a buyer, a consultant, an operator or a third party, ensuring the chosen and trusted companies you work with reflects your company vision and values and will help to ensure that you have a long-lasting, effective, successful partnership.

If you would like to discuss your current programme, or are yet to create a formal serviced apartment solution and would like to review how to move this forward, please do not hesitate to contact Jo for any advice.

Email: jo.layton@apartmentservice.com.

Jo Layton

MD Group Commercial Sales, The Apartment Service. Jo Layton has joined The Apartment Service as Managing Director – Group Commercial Sales. She has successfully established The Apartment Service’s new Alliance brand as part of her overall remit to develop the company’s successful agency, network and Roomspace brands. Layton joined from BridgeStreet where she was responsible for sales and marketing throughout EMEA and APAC. 21

INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

How Important Is Access To Unlimited Mental Health Benefits Under International Health Insurance?

Since Regency for Expats launched Global Psychology Benefits in December 2016, around 5 per cent of worldwide policy holders in 120 countries have utilised these benefits, and it is growing.

Mental illness can manifest itself in many forms, ranging from anxiety to eating disorders and depression to name but a few, affecting the way people think and how they feel Mental disorders are extremely common in modern life. It was recently suggested by the Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman that around one in five Australians will experience mental health issues at some stage in their lives. Mental illness can manifest itself in many forms, ranging from anxiety to eating disorders and depression to name but a few, affecting the way people think and how they feel. This has an obvious impact upon their effectiveness in the workplace and society.

So, it stands to reason, if mental disorders are commonplace in everyday life, affecting people who are surrounded by familiar sights, sounds, family and friends, then these issues will be magnified amongst a globally mobile workforce.

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Helping HR Achieve Positive Mental Health At Work

By working with various organisations such as MIND (in the UK), HR departments are getting better at identifying and dealing with mental health issues at work. However, it is not enough to simply be aware of these issues and to deal with them when they arise, HR departments must ensure that access to practical assistance is in place before an employee takes up a position within their organisation.

A Holistic Approach To Health

A better understanding of the correlation between employee wellbeing and performance in the workplace has seen more and more HR departments looking towards private medical insurance policies to provide access to counselling, coaching and psychiatric services.

These benefits are designed to offer support to employees who are not coping mentally, be it due to anxiety, problems within their family or the pressure of performing in a new role. These types of insurance benefits are particularly valuable to both individuals and employers, particularly when access is unrestricted and they are available anywhere in the world.

The opportunity to work overseas is an exciting prospect but the reality is often extremely stressful. In fact, relocating, starting a new job and moving abroad, are three of the most stressful events for expats. So, imagine the pressure placed upon a new employee running a remote office in an unfamiliar territory.

International corporations often recruit for hard to fill roles from the wider global talent pool, which means that the successful applicant will start a new life in a new country, possibly in a different time zone, with the added expectation that they must instantly deliver results. However, without their usual support network around them, expats can often feel anxious, which means that they will need to find other ways of coping.

This is why the inclusion of unrestricted mental health provision under health insurance is vital. A lack of, limited, or inadequate support, could have a knock-on effect on their physical wellbeing, leading to absence or impaired performance at work. This situation would be costly for all concerned; for the employee and the company, and should a claim be made to cover medical treatment, it would have an

impact on the health insurance providerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bottom line. Alternatively, providing support at the right time can help prevent an unnecessary escalation.

Unrestricted Access

Mental health disorders can be treated effectively if discovered early enough.

The majority of health insurance providers understand that they must include this type of cover within their policies, yet the question is, do they go far enough and are there too many restrictions and exclusions?

Some policies include waiting periods, thereby rationing access to benefits until after a specified qualifying period. Another potential problem is that not all policies provide the required amount of cover, for example, many restrict treatment to a specified number of sessions regardless of the severity of the disorder or the on-going

The majority of health insurance providers understand that they must include this type of cover within their policies, yet the question is, do they go far enough and are there too many restrictions and exclusions?

INTERNATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE need for support. There is also the possibility that you may need to upgrade to a higher level of cover to gain access to treatment.

Regency for Expats is the exception to the rule. The company has the necessary infrastructure in place to provide these benefits via a range of wellness programmes, which are already offered to a number of large international companies with globally remote employees.

Increasing Mental Health Claims

The debilitating effect of mental health issues is an extremely hot topic for global corporations. Received wisdom suggests that the way forward is to adopt comprehensive employee wellness programmes.

Our company has seen an increase in the volume of queries dealing with stress, family relationships, learning to communicate with other cultures and even sexual performance.

In order to deliver the most useful benefits that reflect clients’ needs, be sure to seek a provider who provides unrestricted access to psychologists, counselling and coaching professionals, for whatever reason, as many times as required, anywhere in the world.

With the rising concern about expats’ exposure to mental health risks, it is a no-brainer that these services should be included across all international private health insurance plans.

The debilitating effect of mental health issues is an extremely hot topic for global corporations.

Received wisdom suggests that the way forward is to adopt comprehensive employee wellness programmes.

Kayla Hall

Similar to Regency’s client base, Kayla is citizen of the world; educated overseas before returning to her native Thailand to start her career with Regency for Expats. Kayla’s progression through the company includes a number client-facing roles and extensive interaction with brokers, providing an in-depth understanding of the specific issues faced by corporate clients and the globally mobile individuals which they employ.

In her capacity as Business Development Manager, she regularly liaises internally with stakeholders to ensure Regency’s continued evolution and its position as a market leader.

“Regency holds the gold standard for expat insurance policies.. We are the only insurer to offer fully unrestricted counselling and mental health benefits on a truly global scale”.

Visit www.regencyforexpats.com for further information.

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GLOBAL MOBILITY

Relocation In A Digital Age – Are You A Gate-Keeper Or Game-Changer?

“I personally relocated a few years ago and my experience was virtually the same as in in 1995 when I last moved. There were lots of forms to fill in. However, there’s no doubt now that the industry is in the midst of an indisputable process of change.”

“Technology is a game changer. It’s bringing Global Mobility into the modern age and aligning us to every other part of the business so we’re no longer lagging behind.”

Sound familiar? If you’re working in Global Mobility, your experiences probably lie somewhere between these experiences: Stuck shepherding assignees through a mire of timeintensive processes, while at the same time aware that the rest of the world is well into the 21st century. Indeed, both these opinions – from two of the heads of Global Mobility at major global corporations attending a Santa Fe Relocation Services event – capture the sense that relocation is a discipline that has yet to face the wave of digital transformation, which has already washed over other business functions. When the CFO demands real time data, can you respond if all the relevant information is scattered across multiple word documents and spreadsheets? When the CEO wants to see the return on investment of costly overseas assignments, how easy is it to pull that together? And at the other end of the spectrum, when assignees are accustomed to social media they expect their company to be able to give them quick access to all the details of their move in an instant, can the person answering the phone respond accordingly? Even better, can the assignee just look for their answers online?

Given how technology has already changed our business and personal lives, expectations have shifted. And yet in relocation – even at the comparatively sophisticated level of some global corporations – the reality is still falling short. For assignees, the challenges begin at the start with too many forms, too many points of contact and fragmented communication across the supply chain. Several Global Mobility heads have shared that this fragmentation then impacts the ability for Human Resources to maintain visibility of an assignee once they had been relocated. Rather than effectively cultivating talent and maintaining a career journey for assignees, all too often the continuity is broken – often leading to a

scramble several months before repatriation to a suitable position for a returning assignee.

As a result, it frequently proves very difficult for the business to track the costs and value of assignments.

Can Global Mobility Become A Strategic Partner To The Business?

Global Mobility can struggle to meet the expectations of stakeholders. And it’s clear that inefficient processes are also holding back professionals in the mobility team who are seeking to be more strategic. This was borne out by the findings of the 2016 Global Mobility Survey – the largest independent study of 1,122 mobility professionals across 64 countries worldwide. Conducted by Circle Research and commissioned by Santa Fe Relocation Services, the study found that a third (34%) of business leaders want Global Mobility to take on a more strategic role, desiring the function to include a long-term view of workforce planning. Yet, despite this, Global Mobility professionals themselves report that they are still spending the majority of their time on tactical, rather than strategic, activities. For example, on average only 14% of their time is spent on strategic workforce planning.

Indeed, our clients confirmed that a lot of resource in Global Mobility is still spent being operational – overseeing the various processes to ensure a successful deployment but, in doing so, being drawn into considerable amounts of tactical, time-consuming work.

How Can Technology Drive Transformation?

Global Mobility is clearly being pulled in two directions – aspiring to take a more proactive, strategic role, yet facing the daily demands of managing assignments. Ultimately, the solution will demand some degree of transformation and also an investment in technologies that can reduce the operational burden. Global Mobility and Human Resource leaders need to re-assess their mobility supply-chain to focus on where they can best deliver value to the business. Part of this will be to determine what their core internal mobility teams can offer and what could be optimally delivered by co-sourcing with partners.

Like so many other industry sectors and

business functions, technology is set to continue to revolutionise Global Mobility.

Services that can be accessed in real time from any location, will make it possible to bring all the data involved in relocation – from the back-end, to supply chain management to the customer portal – into a single platform. Multiple services catering to assignees and supply chain partners will connect to a single, standardised repository of data. This cuts the burden of information capture and ensures an improved customer experience through better communication, more effective case management and greater capabilities for self-service. All of which will help meet the demands of stakeholders, while freeing time for more high value activity.

Ultimately Global Mobility is at a crossroads.

Today, the focus on operations casts professionals in the role of gate-keeper. But technology offers the opportunity to step beyond this into the desired role of a strategic advisor to the business. To be a game-changer.

The question is, which are you?

John Rason

Global Head of Consulting, Santa Fe Relocation Services John Rason is a commercial HR professional specialising in International HR and Global Mobility. With 25 years senior management experience at global US and UK organisations, including nearly a decade as a global mobility consultant for a leading professional services firm, his career includes two international assignments in the Nordics and Middle East and short assignments in Europe, Pakistan and the Maldives.

For more information, visit us at www.santaferelo.com.

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

Can A Woman Run An Enterprise As Successfully As A Man? Business leaders all over the globe would widely agree that we operate in a VUCA world where volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity are commonplace. The challenge for leaders, therefore, is to make quick decisions and respond swiftly to change and demands in an arena that is increasingly challenging and competitive. However, amidst all that uncertainty and ambiguity, another critical leadership issue has risen to the surface: the majority of leaders within senior positions continues to be men, while women, however, are still struggling to achieve representation at just about every other level within business, let alone the senior level. This, of course, raises a fundamental question: can women run enterprise firms as successfully as men?

The direct and simple answer is: yes.

Women have made progress in leadership.

In fact, 2016 not only “almost” saw the first woman elected president of the United States of America, arguably the most powerful public office on Earth, but importantly - too, and here at home - it also saw Theresa May become the second woman Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, 21 years after Margaret Thatcher bore the same title. But, Clinton, Thatcher or May are not the only members of this exclusive, and elusive for many, club of women leaders. The chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, the Head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde and the chair of the US Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, are all women. As are the CEOs of General Motors (Mary T. Barra), IBM (Ginni Rometty), and Lockheed Martin (Marillyn Hewson), among others. And yet, strangely, the question still remains: why does the glass ceiling still exist?

Be Bold For Change

Unfortunately, the jury is still out on that one. Despite the myriad of studies showing that companies perform better when there is at least one female executive on the board (they deal more effectively with risk, do better at addressing concerns of internal

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and external stakeholders and have stronger focus on long-term priorities; according to the experts), the truth of the matter is, “promotion rates for women lag behind those of men, and the disparity is the largest at the first step up to manager. As a result, far fewer women end up on the path to leadership (McKinsey&Co. & Lean In, 2016)”.

So, can a woman run an enterprise as successfully as a man? Of course.

However, the question really should be “can a woman run an enterprise as successfully, without having to act like a man to get things done?” With that subtle change to the question, what would that look like?

This year’s theme for International Woman’s day 2017 was #Beboldforchange. The day typically celebrates the many achievements by women around the globe: cultural, social, economic or political. And sure, there’s no doubt that women need to be bold if they want change in their professional life, but they

need that boldness to state what they want, what they need and what they deserve. But, it does bring forth the question, how is this boldness actually manifested? Are women trying to assert themselves as leaders by mirroring male behaviours; or are they, on the other hand, comfortable enough to embody the feminine aspects of themselves?

So, can a woman run an enterprise as successfully as a man? Of course. However, the question really should be “can a woman run an enterprise as successfully, without having to act like a man to get things done”?

With that subtle change to the question, what would that look like?

Embracing Femininity

Whilst this International Woman’s day most certainly highlights and celebrates the progress women have made, there is still some way to go for women to be equally represented in the boardroom. This is where access to training and leadership development for women within enterprise becomes crucial in changing attitudes and standards in organisations. One powerful method to achieve this change is through mythodramatic training, which is a technique that has gained popularity over the past few years. This is because it encourages participants to evaluate traditional stories, from Greek Mythology to Shakespeare, and "act in" the desired behaviours and attributes and learn about themselves and their organisations so that they can grow and improve.

Demeter And Persephone

One such powerful story that is used to train women to take control of their feminine selves is that of the Greek Myth of Demeter and Persephone. The myth goes like this: Persephone is abducted by Hades (with her father’s, Zeus, consent) and taken to the underworld. Her mother, Demeter, goddess of Agriculture, must use her skills, wit and resources to rescue her, which she does. Although, Persephone will still have to go back to the underworld for a period of time every year. The outcome of this story represents the creation of the seasons and the reason they change; from Spring (Demeter gets Persephone back) to Winter (when Persephone must return to Hades).

By way of illustration, through Demeter and Persephone, women are encouraged to explore the different cycles they go though in their lives, from Maiden to Mother to Crone and the inner transformations through those stages.

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP The myth also addresses one of the biggest challenges, if not the biggest, for women: how can they maximise their potential and be effective in a patriarchal world that is not always open to incorporating women? More importantly, how can women not only survive but thrive in a masculine world without losing or compromising their essence?

The True Self

Today there is a tendency to confuse strength and power with learned behaviours that women have historically had to inhabit and often overplay. In doing so, women have created a gap between their “true self”, who they really are; and their “adapted self”, who they need to be to fit in.

Therefore, empowering women to reclaim their powerful feminine aspects has nothing to do with being weak, ineffective or “fluffy”.

There’s a lot of value for the business world in feminine energy, the “the right brain” approach: humanistic, emotionally intelligent, intuitive. And even more in finding a balance with the masculine: scientific, rational, fact based “left brain” approach.

Conclusion

Although there are many successful female leaders out there, women do still have a long

way to go before breaking the glass ceiling; however, with the right training, support and encouragement we can not only help women

break their own personal glass ceilings and embrace their feminine power, but also those restricting their professional growth.

Gemma Sanz de la Serna

Olivier Mythodrama Olivier Mythodrama uses the power of drama for transformative leadership training. Using techniques derived from theatre practice and informed by a profound understanding of psychology and contemporary organisational culture, Olivier Mythodrama works on brain, heart and body.

It recreates the environment of the rehearsal room to help participants explore key elements of their professional lives in creative, practical ways.

Developed by Richard Olivier, a member of one of the world’s most respected theatrical families, Olivier Mythodrama has been helping companies and organisations maximise their leadership potential since 2001.

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GLOBAL MOBILITY insight

Success Leaves Clues: Can HR’s Past Elevate Global Mobility’s Future?

The well known phrase; ’Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ was first penned in 1905 by Spanish philosopher and Harvard intellectual George Santayana. He explains that if we choose not to learn from history we’re more likely to repeat its mistakes.

Yet, how many of us utilise our knowledge of the past to improve our own future?

This is a question I recently put to an audience of Global Mobility and HR professionals at prestigious Summits in both Philadelphia and London. You see, I believe the Mobility profession is at a crucial tipping point with an opportunity to gain from the past or loose by not learning from it.

Allow Me To Explain

Not often do you get a specialist role at the heart of a collision of strategic initiatives such as; International expansion, entry into new markets, and increased compliance, yet this is where mobility is today. Recently, the UK Chartered Institute of Professional Development (CIPD) reported that Global Mobility had become “the fastest-growing area of opportunity for HR professionals” in 2015.

A pulse survey by Deloitte (The Changing Role of Global Mobility 2015) claimed the rising demand in this area had increased the importance of the mobility role changing it from a supportive function to an advisory ‘business partner’ within the organisation. It also stressed that global mobility will only

reach its full potential when its able to create this business partnership.

News like this would normally be cause for celebration, but a ‘tipping point’ can tip down just as fast as it can tip up. When speaking openly with Global Mobility professionals the response you often hear is that they require better visibility in their organisation to show their value and the opportunity to be ‘business partners’ remains illusive.

So how can learnings from the past help Global Mobility professionals in this exciting and most deciding time?

The first challenge in learning from Global Mobility’s past is actually determining its historical start point. You could say it has origins in the 1950’s or 1970’s or even 1980’s, some professionals say the role wasn’t really defined until the 1990’s. Therefore, to gain a sufficient timeline I’m going to focus on 2 positions I believe encompass the role of Global Mobility, HR and Finance.

Interestingly, when looking at HR’s past (figure 1) you notice it creates a cycle of change approximately every 40 years, signalled by a change in name. The change of name reflects the changing relationship the department has with the business. This relationship can be viewed in three phases, firstly 1900-50 ‘transactional’ (administrative focus) followed by 1950-00 ‘interventional’ (top-down, management led policies) and finally 2000+ ‘transformational’ (driving change), Current research by a number of consulting firms shows that senior level executives are focusing more and more on issues such as

strategy execution, leadership and talent. This means HR is in a prime position to capitalise, so, how are they doing?

A survey by Hay Group of 1400 global managers and HR leaders, only 34% of respondents thought HR is actively making a significant strategic contribution to the business.

Worse still, a report by McKinsey consistently found that whilst CEOs (worldwide) see human capital as their top challenge, they ranked HR as only the eighth or ninth most important function in the company.

It therefore appears that HR are having real difficulty in moving to this transformational relationship. In 1997 Dave Ulrich, known as the HR’s guru’s guru, set about helping HR by developing and launching an HR ‘business partner’ model in his acclaimed book, Human Resource Champions. The ultimate goal was to shift the role of HR from administration and function to strategy, and improve integration with other departments - sound familiar mobility professionals?

Unfortunately In 2015 a report entitled ‘Global Human Capital Trends’, stated that “HR organisations and HR skills are not keeping up with business needs.” which, put bluntly, means the business partnership model didn’t transform the HR industry as promised.

Leaving HR’s past aside, I want to turn our attention to the graph on figure 2 which demonstrates the growth of CFO’s. What we see is that the role of Chief financial officer barely existed 50 years ago, but today CFOs are at the heart of the world’s biggest firms.

They’re also the only corporate officers, other than the CEO, able to monitor every corner of an organisation.

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So what propelled the finance department to such accolade?

In the 1950’s the “financial manager,” (as it was known) was primarily responsible for three functions, creating the budget, bookkeeping, and overseeing tax reporting. As these functions were not tackled until after strategic decisions were made, the financial manager was largely removed from the decision-making process, that is until the 1970’s.

In the 1970’s regulatory bodies believed that, due to the inflationary conditions of the era, traditional accounting requirements were no longer a reliable source of information on business performance. Stock prices did not accurately reflect a company’s assets and cash flow, it was therefore decided by financial regulatory bodies that new reporting requirements were needed.

In order to deal with the legal ambiguity of these new requirements, many companies promoted their financial managers to the C-Suite Executive team.

Once on the board the CFO flourished as mergers in the 1980’s became popular which positioned the CFOs to identify the weakest performing business units to then help them grow and improve efficiently. The CFO model had integrated into the business and became popular for managing relationships with shareholders and investors to explain future implications of any changes.

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So, what’s the lesson mobility professionals can learn from this?

I believe the reason finance capitalised on their ‘tipping point’ and grew their influence was down to one critical factor, it was their skills-set. When the opportunity came finance professionals had already acquired the majority of competencies needed for the role.

However in the case of HR it seems the skills necessary to grow into a ‘transformational ‘business partner role have either not been obtained in the same degree. Substantial empirical evidence shows that when HR professionals are provided with such information and skills they quickly apply it and immediately add greater value to the business.

A clear example of this is when BAE Systems undertook a serious commitment to enhance the competencies of its HR professionals.

After significant investment into specific HR learning and development the HR department increased their perceived impact on business performance dramatically by 120%.

Therefore, acquiring the relevant skill-set is a fundamental deciding factor to success whenever opportunity presents itself. But, in the circumstance of mobility, and its opportunity to grow, it looks like HR history might be repeating itself.

‘The Changing Role of Global Mobility’ report whilst showing an improved future role for mobility also uncovered that 40%

of mobility professionals do not receive any training to support their role. And, of companies that do support global mobility professionals have only received 1-2 types of training, which indicates a serious gap in providing the support needed.

This information is further compounded by the fact mobility professionals in the US and EMEA sector openly stated that, ‘less developed skills’ was their top barrier and challenge in becoming a ‘business partner’ or even providing the necessary consultative services the business required.

Damian McAlonan

Damian is Managing Partner at The Boost Partnership, a professional learning and development UK ‘think tank’. He advises for international brands on how they can achieve positive, lasting change in behaviour. Contact: damian@theboostpartnership.com telephone +44 (0) 7552236925

Talent Acquisition

The Big Opportunities For Talent Acquisition: Strategy, Technology And Partnerships Talent is fundamental for any organisation. From entry level right up to the CEO, it’s what gets the job done, what inspires teams and prospects, where company culture is fostered and what differentiates you from the competition.

It would be logical to think that, given the clear importance of talent, it would be managed strategically, aligned with the wider organisation and reaping the benefits of widespread modern technologies.

Wanting to understand this situation further and to see what other insights talent acquisition leaders could tell us about tomorrow’s workplace, Korn Ferry Futurestep surveyed 1,100 hiring professionals from across the globe. Part Two of this survey, Talent Forecast, focused on ‘Improving talent acquisition through alignment, strategy, technology, and partnerships’.

The results revealed a number of opportunities to be grasped.

strategy and business strategy are not aligned, talent acquisition becomes tactical and ineffective. However, if companies get this alignment right, they give themselves a stronger long-term view on talent, achieve greater efficiency with personnel and, crucially, give themselves the best chance of meeting business objectives.

This misalignment sits in the context of fierce competition for skilled candidates.

Part One of Talent Forecast found that 48 percent of respondents in the EMEA region say it is harder to find qualified candidates compared to just one year ago, while new skills in a rapidly changing market was the top business issue impacting recruitment (23 percent).

Technology Underutilised In A Digital Age

With the stakes getting higher on attracting top talent, being able to interact with candidates

in the ways they expect is understandably important. These expectations start with connectivity – we live in a mobile-driven world, where jobs are searched for and applied for on smartphones and tablets.

Despite this, just 28 percent of respondents say they use mobile technology tools for recruitment – with EMEA the lowest region across the world (20 percent). Underlining this misalignment with candidate realities, just 46 percent of talent acquisition professionals use video interviewing, while only 46 use online assessment tools.

The reality today is that candidates expect to be able to use the technology they are used to utilising in everyday life to get through an application and interview process.

If businesses are to attract the best talent, they must adapt to this mobile first approach to talent. If not, they can expect to see the most desirable hires head to competitors with up-to-date technologies and processes.

Business Objectives Misaligned With Talent Acquisition

At present, only 39 percent of talent acquisition teams say they are aligned to meet their business objectives and 29 percent admit to not having a strategic workforce plan, which helps map future talent needs to business strategy. The absence of a long-term talent acquisition plan in most organisations is symptomatic of the separation between the talent acquisition team and the business leaders who develop and implement strategy.

The consequences can be severe, particularly when businesses are implementing new strategies or entering new markets. Consider a business about to expand their operations into Germany – it would clearly have a number of talent requirements, perhaps a country manager, a sales team that’s scalable, finance, and so on. Without understanding the plans for the expansion, talent acquisition teams can’t effectively plan for the hiring, onboarding and training of new team members.

There is a tremendous opportunity for organisations to bring business and talent acquisition closer together. When talent

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The reality today is that candidates expect to be able to use the technology they are used to utilising in everyday life to get through an application and interview process.

If businesses are to attract the best talent, they must adapt to this mobile first approach to talent. If not, they can expect to see the most desirable hires head to competitors with up-to-date technologies and processes.

RPOs Not Being Used To The Full Potential

While talent acquisition teams could be better aligned with both business objectives and candidate expectations, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partners do offer the expertise and services to help address these issues. However, as it stands, many businesses are employing RPO services at a tactical level â&#x20AC;&#x201C; only taking advantage of sourcing (88 percent) and screening (74 percent) services.

There is an opportunity through strategic partnerships for RPOs to help businesses make the most of their talent. A few key examples where services are underutilised include employer branding (13 percent), so critical in a competitive market, recruitment technology consulting (8 percent) and talent acquisition strategy consulting (7 percent).

RPOs can advise on recruitment strategy and technology, while helping organisations make sense of the data at their disposal to develop more a sophisticated and efficient talent acquisition function.

The Talent Opportunity

The survey results are clear; there is a huge opportunity for businesses to get more out

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of the talent in and around their organisations.

With competition at an all-time high for the best and skilled workers, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more important than ever for organisations to seize this opportunity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to better align business strategy with talent acquisition, and technology with talent acquisition, while taking advantage of the extended services provided by RPOs to help them on their transformation.

Ashley Mills

Head of Human Resources Centre of Expertise EMEA & Point of Contact, Search for Switzerland at Futurestep.

LINKING HR & FINANCE DEPARTMENTS

Bridging The Departmental Gap How Finance And HR Can Work In Tandem A strong relationship between the finance and HR departments is crucial to business success. The traditional roles of each department are shifting, and whilst these two parts of the business may have historically found themselves at odds, co-operation and collaboration between these teams is a vital part of the business engine.

Finance departments often deal with a number of HR-related costs, including salary, pensions, employee benefits and incentives when calculating budgets and planning for the next month, quarter or year ahead. The responsibility for making these payments also sits with the finance function, although these figures and data originally come from the HR team.

Whilst the focus of each of these two departments may appear fundamentally different, ultimately when both function in tandem, an organisation can move into a new era of efficiency, productivity and most importantly, profit.

The Evolving World Of HR

HR professionals are dedicated to a wellfunctioning team of employees, and indeed there can be no team without careful management of necessarily salary, benefit and tax-related expenditure. Modern HR departments are increasingly finance-savvy, and as a result of the increasing demand for competitive employee benefits, are taking more direct control over incentive and reward schemes, employment tax issues and incorporating the ‘human’ element into longer-term business plans.

Many organisations, particularly in the United States, now have a CHRO, or ‘Chief Human Resources Officer’ sitting at board level – a clear demonstration that Human Resources is an important, strategic part of the business. CEOs are becoming increasingly reliant on the collaboration between board members, leading to the CFO and the CHRO needing to align more closely.

Overlapping Responsibilities

Like many areas within a business, there must be a natural tension between needing

to invest and maintaining good financial discipline. To help the business make good decisions the finance team needs good quality information, and in this regard HR is no exception. The challenges around this delivery can be substantial, particularly where there are multiple geographies and payroll systems.

Finance and HR have a joint responsibility around financial planning, both in terms of head count and cost, and also around benefits and other staff costs. Both functions need to assume some responsibility for plan-to-actuals variance analysis, given that staffing costs are invariably one of the biggest costs a business will always have.

Whilst the focus of each these two departments may appear fundamentally different, ultimately when both function in tandem, an organisation can move into a new era of efficiency, productivity and most importantly, profit.

Bridging The Gap

It is clear that communication between finance and HR needs to work both ways, which has historically not always been an easy task. Some reasons for this are cultural HR and finance have arguably very different views of the world.

Technology also plays a part. Payroll systems, for example, are seldom “financefriendly” and it can be quite difficult to deliver good quality information to finance.

Add data confidentiality into the mix, and we easily find ourselves in a situation where the only people that can see the data do not (understandably) have the skills to transform it into a usable shape.

The HR department is being asked to add more value around financial planning processes. Financial projections and data analysis needed to gauge the impact of HR policies on the organisation’s profitability, and these discussions are inherently valuable for a business. Arguably, HR and finance have quite complementary skills and too often this is lost with the time spent dealing with data.

Planning

But forecasting and planning provides a springboard to bring finance and HR closer together. As is the case with any business function, the effective use of data will inevitably lead to better decision making and long-term strategic benefits.

A larger business may have thousands of employees, freelancers and contractors on its roster at any one time. Each of these individuals has an HR record containing numerous key elements – salary, pension, employee benefits – all of which need to be captured into the expenses plan.

Given that planning is a feedbackorientated and iterative process, any degree of latency on this transfer will hurt the effectiveness of the overall process. And, given the criticality of staff costs to the plan, it is advantageous to make HR updates to the plan as quick and accurate as possible.

Global HR Challenges

As if this wasn’t enough to contend with, global organisations have further complexities. Not only are there likely to be different core systems for each region, but

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just the statutory requirements themselves can be breathtaking in complexity.

Additionally, other items in large groups such as share schemes, commission calculations and employee expenses each need to be stored and analysed.

Using The Right Tools

Although the roles of HR and finance are constantly evolving, the technology used to handle these processes is often outdated, where - out of necessity - the humble spreadsheet prevails.

These solutions fall short of requirements, however, and in some organisations we find that they create barriers to full collaboration, and its potential value to the business. When sharing employee data between finance and HR, spreadsheets can add inconsistency and exposure into the equation, as well as leaving this confidential information open to a security risk.

Solving The Challenge

First, create some space by solving the data challenges. Automate data transfer between finance and HR for planning, actuals, reconciliations and other functions.

This will remove what is routinely a major headache for HR staff. Next, create a forum to analyse, design and assess other data

processes to ensure that they keep up with the wider business.

In order to do this, organisations must consider introducing new tools into the finance function to significantly reduce the time taken to update employee costs in actuals and plans. Automation will be key to these processes, as this model will enable finance staff to crunch the numbers more easily and eliminate the risk of any errors.

Now the two departments must grab the opportunity to work together as true partners to the business, to provide consistency and strategic value where it really counts. It is also interesting to consider that the challenges which beset the Finance-HR relationship happen elsewhere in the business.

HR teams should set an example to the wider business and use automation as a way of improving productivity, and engage positively with IT to make this happen. This is what true partnering is about – leveraging value.

Businesses where HR and finance do not work well together are missing a great valueled opportunity, and often we find these frictions elsewhere in the business. The benefits of these two departments working in tandem are extensive, as this joined-up approach will ensure that efficiency, employee satisfaction and profit can reach their maximum potential.

Robert Gothan

CEO and founder of Accountagility – a City of London based software and solutions provider that works with large multinational organisations across a wide range of sectors including, banking, insurance, leasing and more.

Robert has over 10 years’ experience working with businesses to address key process and system issues within their Finance functions. As part of this, he has developed desktop Business Intelligence product, ORYX, a technology impacting the way data and data-related processes are viewed.

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The 2017 Guide will contain content covering: Banking & Wealth • Clothing Conversion Driving & Transport • Dual Career Embassies & High Commissions • Expatriate Clubs Healthcare & Hospitals • Health Insurance Legal Issues • Pet Transportation Schooling in the UK • Serviced Apartments • Taxation The Guide has been published for 15 years, and each year we share over 25,000 copies with expatriates relocating to the UK. To register for your FREE copy please email: damian@expatsguidetotheuk.com

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WWW.EXPATSGUIDETOTHEUK.COM 34

TRAINING & COACHING

Managers Who Coach: An Alternate Approach That Really Works Let’s get something straight: managing employees and coaching employees are not the same. There is overlap between the two, but they have different objectives.

A manager’s main goal is to ensure an employee can do - and is effectively doing - their job. A coach, on the other hand, is focused on helping the employee develop a range of skills that will help grow, evolve, and meet new challenges throughout their career.

Still, many business leaders assume a great manager can also act as a great coach. Yet since a 2016 study from the International Coaching Federation found that 57 percent of managers lack formal coaching credentials, chances are they’re not fully prepared to take on that responsibility.

If you also want your managers to coach their employees, offer them the leadership coaching and development programmes and support they’ll need to succeed.

But first, let’s take a look at what obstacles managers will need to overcome as coaches.

Challenges Managers Face As Coaches Balancing Responsibilities

Whenever an employee faces a problem and needs some guidance, there are two ways for their boss to help them out: either as a manager or as a coach. It’s not always clear which is the best option for the situation at hand. Since most managers are more familiar with the managing role, they tend to overlook coaching opportunities.

In fact, a 2016 Blessing White study found that 41 percent of managers feel they don’t spend the right amount of time coaching.

This leads to an unbalanced and ineffective experience for the employee.

Here are a few ways a manager can seize more opportunities to offer coaching: • Develop interpersonal skills: Improving an employee’s communication and teamwork skills can not only help them in their current role, but also throughout their career • Focus on the positive when giving feedback: Instead of concentrating on mistakes or weaknesses, take time to provide advice on how employees can continue to improve their strengths • Help with their personal career goals: Discuss their individual goals and give them the resources and opportunities to reach them.

Maintaining Boundaries

There’s a difference between a manager/ employee relationship and one between a coach and an employee. The former is based on a hierarchy with an inherent power discrepancy; the manager gives directions, and the employee follows them.

A manager’s main goal is to ensure an employee can do - and is effectively doing - their job.

A coach, on the other hand, is focused on helping the employee develop a range of skills that will help grow, evolve, and meet new challenges throughout their career.

In a coaching relationship, there’s more equality. Both parties work together toward the employee’s development. It requires more trust. Given that, walking the line between boss and coach can be difficult, especially since a 2017 Officevibe survey found 37 percent of employees don’t feel close to their manager.

The trick to creating a relationship in which the manager is both trusted and retains their authority is to establish boundaries. This starts with a conversation about what falls under coaching confidentiality.

For instance, an employee’s goals and worries about their development should be kept private. There’s no need to discuss what roles they aspire to with anyone else in the company. Their performance in their current role, however, falls under the manager realm.

Making this distinction early on gives the manager and employee a sense of security with both sides of the relationship.

Seeing Progress

Most organisations have clear criteria to assess an employee’s performance, which makes it easy to track and see the progress they’ve accomplished.

Coaching, on the other hand, involves developing skills that are harder to quantify.

Not being able to point to something concrete, like increased sales or fewer customer complaints, can make managers feel discouraged as coaches.

One way to avoid this is to have each employee complete a 360 assessment. A 360 will provide a skill baseline and help identify the other skills a person should develop. It will reveal what areas the coaching should focus on and, when the coaching process concludes after a few months, the employee and manager can identify improvements.

Another important coaching tactic is to provide more in-the-moment feedback.

Instead of waiting for a formal meeting to discuss how things are going, a manager can see daily behaviours, switch gears to coaching mode, and give feedback.

They can then immediately see how the employee changes.

How To Set Them Up For Success

Now that you understand the challenges managers will face when they also coach employees, it’s time to learn the best way to lay the groundwork for success. If you give your managers the right tools and support, they’ll be effective in both roles.

Offer Them Coaching, As Well

Providing managers with leadership coaching gives them the experience and insight of effective coaching and provides them with the foundation for how they should coach others. They experience firsthand what

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types of coaching efforts work and which ones don’t.

In fact, the aforementioned BlessingWhite survey found that when managers themselves are coached by their superiors, 65 percent have a better idea of how much time to spend on coaching with their own subordinates.

If providing leadership coaching to managers who are expected to coach is not available, there are other options. Consider providing managers with coaching through: • Peer Coaching: Have managers with complementary strengths and weaknesses coach each other • Coaching Partnerships: Pair up with another organisation that wants to offer coaching to its managers and team up. The combined resources and leadership will ensure everyone gets the attention they need • Group Coaching: While perhaps not as effective as one-on-one coaching, one coach working with a group of two or three managers can provide a coaching experience that also will serve as a shared learning forum on how to best coach direct reports.

Remind Them It’s About The Employee

Chances are your organisation has its own preferred way to get day-to-day business accomplished. It’s a manager’s job to make sure everyone is playing their part in that process.

Their responsibility is to the company.

A coach’s responsibility, however, is to their coachee. That means it’s more important for them to focus on how the employee needs to go about their development than how the manager or the organisation would. Sometimes that means giving the coachee space to make their own mistakes and learn, which can be very difficult for a manager to do.

When managers have their coaching hat on, remind them to: • Allow the coachee to try things out their way: This will let them play to their natural strengths and, more importantly, develop less used skills • Let mistakes happen: Even if you see an issue that the coachee doesn’t, give them the chance to identify and respond to it themselves • Be patient: Learning new behaviours takes time and practice • Provide balanced feedback: Coaching is about building upon current abilities and developing new ones. Constructive feedback needs to be mixed with encouragement to be successful • Be open to different methods: Coaching entails employees discovering what processes help them succeed professionally. What works for one person might not be what works for them.

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Follow Up With Training

Acting as a coach for employees is a big change for many managers. It requires them to learn new skills and change their behaviours.

It takes time for those new coaching habits to form. By offering follow-up training, managers can be reminded of what they should be doing or what they forgot.

In fact, follow-up training is so important, it can make the difference between longterm success and failure. A 2016 Grovo report found that 80 percent of managers who change their behaviours temporarily after training go back to their old ways in less than six months.

Reinforce new behaviours by offering regular check-ins with managers, as well as refresher courses. During these sessions, ask individual managers what they’re struggling with so they can revisit relevant skills.

Through feedback and continuous practice with coaching skills, they’ll eventually become second-nature for managers.

Also, remember to ask the employees being coached for their feedback on how the manager is doing. This will provide a better perspective of what needs to be addressed further in the coach’s follow-up training.

After all, if the employee doesn’t feel their coaching is working, it serves little purpose.

But make sure employees know their feedback will be kept private and they don’t need to worry about anything negative getting back to their manager.

support they need. The coach role is very different from the typical manager role.

However, with the right training and support from you and your company’s leaders, your great managers can also be great coaches.

Here are some next steps for you to take to set your managers up as coaches: • Have a discussion about the differences between coaching and managing. Be sure to provide examples of how a coach and a manager might approach the same situation differently • Define the goals of your coaching programme and identify metrics you can track to judge its success • Start providing your managers with coaching. If you don’t have the resources to provide internal coaching research your external options • Schedule long-term coach training for your managers. Remember to include frequent follow-up developmental sessions • Provide managers with feedback on how well they’re doing as a coach.

Reassess Frequently

There’s always room for improvement. By regularly taking a look at your coaching programme you can see opportunities to make it better. As part of managers’ coaching, provide them with useful feedback.

Use the anonymous feedback you received from their employees as well as your own observations to give them suggestions. But don’t forget to applaud them for what they’re doing right. That will reinforce the behaviour and make it more habitual for the manager.

Also consider external factors that might be impacting their success as a coach. Here are some questions to ask and guide how you adjust coaching in your organisation: • Do you feel you have an appropriate number of employees to coach? Would having more or fewer coachees make you more successful?

• Do you feel like you have the resources you need to coach your employees? If not, what would you like access to?

• Are there any other skills you’d like to learn to improve your coaching ability?

Final Thoughts

Every employee can benefit from coaching, but it takes a specific approach and perspective to give individuals the coaching

Milo Sindell

Skyline Group Int. Skyline Group is the leading provider of scalable leadership solutions with a foundation built upon decades of executive coaching with some of the most recognised companies in the world. We are revolutionising the leadership development industry with our C4X coaching platform.

C4X is the only coaching solution that gives you the ability to develop all of your leaders consistently and systematically. C4X combines a flexible technology platform (integrated assessment, content, metrics, and coach management system) with the personalised impact and connection of 1:1 coaching. Learn more at: www.

SkylineGroup.com and www.C4X.com.

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Visit our website www.internationalhradviser.com and complete the online registration.

International HR Adviser is the leading, quarterly magazine for International HR professionals globally. It has been publishing for 13 years and covers topics such as International HR Strategy, Benefits, Tax, Global Tax, Technology, Compensation, Trends in International Assignments, Healthcare, Insurance, Surveys, Country Profiles, Immigration, Moving & Relocation, Spousal Support, Education, Property, Cross-Cultural Issues, Case Studies, and more.

For further information please call Helen Elliott on +44 (0) 208 661 0186 Email: helen@internationalhradviser.com Website: www.internationalhradviser.com

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diary dates

INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

APRIL

Worldwide ERC®

11 April, 2017 Virtual Communication Across Cultures 19:00 GMT, 2:00 pm ET Free Webinar, Sponsored by TRC Global Mobility – see www.WorldwideERC.org/Webinars

Worldwide ERC®

27 April, 2017 Employee Mobility Costs: Cuts, Controls and Innovations 16:00 GMT, 11:00 am ET Free Webinar, Sponsored by Aires see www.WorldwideERC.org/Webinars

MAY

Worldwide ERC®

2 May, 2017 Effective Use of Email and Email Etiquette Across Cultures 16:00 GMT, 11:00 am ET Free Webinar, Sponsored by Global LT – see www.WorldwideERC.org/Webinars

FEM Summit & EMMAs Americas – Denver

May 3-4, 2017 Marriott City Centre, Denver, USA Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the FEM Americas Summit & EMMAs in Denver and hear from leading global mobility professionals. Join us to share best practice and network with your peers while coming away with valuable insights and ideas for your own programme.

Find out m o re i n fo r m at i o n at www.americas.forum-expat-management.com

Duty of Care Conference Protecting Your Workers And Expats Overseas

May 3-4, 2017 Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London, UK Join the many corporate security, travel and HR professionals who have already signed up to attend. Now in its 5th year, Duty of Care Protecting workers and expats overseas has become a key networking event in the travel risk management calendar. This year, the conference remains as topical as ever. With global threat levels involving terrorism, extreme weather and civil wars rising, we have seen a dramatic shift in the corporate travel risk landscape over the past couple of years. Companies are now preparing for scenarios such as bomb threats in European hotels which not so long ago barely featured on the radar. Yet understanding the real risks and your travellers’ exposure to them can sometimes be confusing when the media has an impact on your travellers’ fear and anxiety, pushing the threat of terrorism as a traveller concern to the forefront of our minds. Sponsors include International SOS and Drum Cussac. Chaired by Sue Williams QPM, International kidnap response expert.

For information, please contact Caroline Fuller at caroline@contego-events.com, telephone +44 (0)797 440 6673 or visit www.contego-events.com.

Worldwide ERC®

17-19 May, 2017 Americas Mobility Conference Atlanta, Georgia, USA see www.WorldwideERC.org/AMC17

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20th Annual Financial Sector Compensation and Benefits

18-19 May, 2017 London, United Kingdom This marcus evans event will enable financial institutions to discuss the effective implementation of current regulation across local and international arenas while effectively sharing best practice in generating effective compensation and benefit schemes under these regulations. By effectively understanding all relevant regulation, policymakers will be able to cut through the multiple regulatory pieces and conceive competitively compliant and culturally relevant compensation schemes. For more information, please visit the event website: www.marcusevans-conferences-paneuropean. com/marcusevans-conferences-event-details. asp or contact Melini Hadjitheori at melinih@ marcusevanscy.com.

Worldwide ERC®

25 May, 2017 Beyond the Plateau – Adding Efficiencies and Refreshments to Your Mobility Programme 16:00 GMT, 11:00 am ET Free Webinar, Sponsored by SIRVA – see www.WorldwideERC.org /Webinars

JUNE

7th HR Minds Talent Management Forum

1- 2 June, 2017 Amsterdam, Netherlands In the ever-increasing pace of the 21st century, it is essential for all HR professionals to, apart from their traditional role, become familiar with various areas of the business. As the world is shrinking, talent needs to be identified both globally and locally by utilizing information technology and alternative approaches. While capturing talent becomes a more transparent and brand-based process, retaining talent becomes an ever more challenging task. Global trends are likely to influence organisations, the next generation coming into the workplace, and what they are going to expect. How to develop a strategy of Right Job for the Right Person at the Right Career Developmental Stage? What motivates people and keeps them engaged? What are the most successful and handy TECH innovations worldwide? How to promote the company brand within the employed colleagues hence creating a higher rate for retention? How can HR add value when anchoring a new business culture? At this event, we will be discussing answers to these and related pressing questions that various HR departments face across Europe.

For more details about the event and for the registration form please check our website: https://glceurope.com/7th-hr-minds-talentmanagement-forum-01-02-june-2017

Compensation, Benefits & Performance Management

5-6 June 2017 Moscow, Russia MSB Events is proud to bring together Rewards Directors and Heads of C&B from leading companies representing Russia, CIS and Europe to touch on the hottest topics of personnel management to achieve the aims of business.

How to connect C&B policy with performance,

talent strategy and interests of business?

Which motivation programmes work the best in challenging market conditions? How to use digital, big data and new technologies in HR? To answer these questions, please attend our conference. Find out more information msbevents.com/en/compensation-benefitsand-performance-management

Duty of Care: Understanding your Corporate Liability for Securing the Safety of Travelling Employees and Expats Abroad

June 14-15, 2017 Marines’ Memorial Club & Hotel, San Francisco, USA The duty of care owed to travelling employees is not a new concept for organisations, many of which have mature travel departments, policies and procedures in place to protect both employee and company in the event of a crisis or incident overseas. Yet for a growing number of organisations, non-compliance and traveller engagement is now starting to become an issue as they are finding their travel policy processes are no longer resonating with a growing number of their travellers. Is this just a generational issue or has the digital world created a new era of choice and control which has heightened the expectations and demands of the corporate traveller? Through case studies and scenarios, delegates will be able to assess how their own corporate culture and policies compare with those of their peers – and where they could be exposed. How do the young tech giants in Silicon Valley safeguard their travelling workers and expats stationed overseas?

What is the latest case law involving companies who have been deemed liable in incidents involving employees overseas? For information, please contact Caroline Fuller at caroline@ contego-events.com or telephone +44 (0)797 440 6673 or visit www.contego-events.com.

Worldwide ERC®

27 June, 2017 Trends in Relocation – What’s Hot, What’s Not, and What’s Just Not Going Away 19:00 GMT, 2:00 pm ET Free Webinar, Sponsored by Cartus – see WorldwideERC.org/Webinars

FEM Global Mobility Conference – Sydney

June 27 ICC Sydney, Australia Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the FEM Global Mobility Conference in Sydney and hear from leading global mobility professionals. Join us to share best practice and network with your peers while coming away with valuable insights and ideas for your own programme. Find out more information at www.sydney.forum-expatmanagement.com.

If you would like to advertise a conference or exhibition on our Diary Dates and on www.internationalhradviser.com please email damian@internationalhradviser.com

directory

BANKING SERVICES INVESTEC BANK PLC

2 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7QP, UK Contact: Tom Sykes Telephone: 020 7597 3532 Email: Tom.Sykes@investec.co.uk Website: www.investec.co.uk/privatebanking Twitter: @Investec LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/4483 Investec Private Bank is part of Investec Bank plc, an international financial services institution employing nearly 8 000 staff worldwide with an estimated £80.5 billion in funds under management in the UK (as at December 2015). In the UK, Investec Private Bank offers bespoke financial services designed to meet the needs of individuals earning £300,000 and above per annum.

LLOYDS BANK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

Telephone: From the UK, call: 0808 169 6411 Outside the UK, call: 033 3014 5287 Mon-Fri 8am-6pm and Sat. 9.30am-1.30pm UK time. Calls may be monitored/recorded Email: londonbdm@lloydsbanking.com Website: international.lloydsbank.com Registered Office and principal place of business: PO Box 160, 25 New Street, St. Helier, Jersey JE4 8RG. Registered in Jersey, number 4029. Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.

We abide by the Jersey Code of Practice for Consumer Lending.

The Isle of Man branch of Lloyds Bank International Limited is licensed by the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission and registered with the Insurance and Pensions Authority in respect of General Business.

Business Address: PO Box 111, Peveril Buildings, Peveril Square, Douglas, Isle of Man IM99 1JJ.

NATWEST GLOBAL EMPLOYEE BANKING

Eastwood House, Glebe Road, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 1RS, UK Contact: Craig Boe, Manager, NatWest Global Employee Banking Telephone: +44 (0)1245 355628 Email: craig.boe@natwestglobal.com Website: www.natwestglobal.com NatWest Global Employee Banking is a specialised department within NatWest who work with Company HR functions/ Relocation agencies to offer a streamlined account opening service for relocating employees. One of the main benefits of the service is that employees can apply for their account before they arrive in the UK so their account is ready when they arrive. This may also help if they want to transfer funds to their new account in preparation for relocation.

INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES ZURICH CORPORATE LIFE & PENSIONS Tricentre One, New Bridge Square, Swindon SN1 1HN Contact: Adele Cox

Telephone: +44 (0) 118 952 4253 Fax: + 44 (0) 118 952 4300 E-mail: adele.cox@zurich.com Website: www.zurichinternational.com Zurich International Life is a global provider of life insurance, investment and protection products. Our corporate range offers flexible, portable solutions, designed to suit multinational organisations with an internationally mobile workforce. The International pension plan offers a cost effective, bundled retirement benefits solution comprising of trust services, investment funds and online administration.

International group protection is designed to protect an employers’ most important asset – their employees – and offers a range of life and disability protection.

With a local presence in key global business hubs and over 20 years experience of implementing and administering plans world wide, we’ve developed our knowledge and understanding of key markets to meet the needs of our customers and business partners.

INTERNATIONAL HR CONSULTANTS DELOITTE LLP

Stonecutter Court, 1 Stonecutter Street, London, EC4A 4TR Contact: Robert Hodkinson, Partner Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7007 1832 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7007 1060 E-mail: rhodkinson@deloitte.co.uk Website: www.deloitte.co.uk Whether you are creating your first international mobility programme for employees or addressing fundamental changes to an existing programme, our International Human Resources team can help. Deloitte provides consulting support that has an appreciation for each company’s size, background and unique cultural environment, aligning your international programme goals with corporate business strategies. Our consultants have developed deep expertise in many fields based on first hand experience with many of the world’s leading organisations: international assignment policy and process design, benchmarking, service delivery modelling, improving vendor management and helping our clients become more compliant and their administration more cost-effective.

INTERNATIONAL MOVING DT MOVING LTD

49 Wates Way, Mitcham, Greater London, CR4 4HR Contact: Tim Daniells Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7622 4393 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7720 3897 Email: london@dtmoving.com Website: www.dtmoving.com DT Moving is a world leading international moving company. Founded in 1870, we serve corporate customers all over the globe with an award-winning* move management and destination service programme. Through our London and Paris headquarters and worldwide

network of global partners, we help clients achieve their workforce mobility goals.

Every employee we relocate receives a dedicated DT Moving team member as a central point of coordination, support and advice to ensure every part of their relocation runs smoothly.

Our goal is your complete satisfaction, and with a 97% customer rating for 2016, we offer unrivalled quality at competitive rates. *Awarded 11 global relocation awards since 2010.

RELOCATION CARTUS

Frankland Road, Blagrove, Swindon, SN5 8RS Contact: Nigel Passingham, Vice President, Strategic Business Solutions EMEA & APAC Telephone: +44 1793 756065 Email: Nigel.Passingham@Cartus.com Website: www.cartus.com Twitter: twitter.com/cartus LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cartus For more than 60 years, Cartus has provided trusted guidance to organisations of all types and sizes that require global relocation solutions.

Cartus serves more than half of the Fortune 50 and in 2016 moved employees into and out of 185 countries, providing the full spectrum of relocation services, including language and intercultural training. Cartus is part of Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY), a global leader in real estate franchising and provider of real estate brokerage, relocation and settlement services. To find out how our greater experience, reach, and hands-on guidance can help your company, visit www.cartus.com or read our blog www.cartus.com/en/blog/ for more information.

SANTA FE RELOCATION SERVICES

Central Way, Park Royal, London, NW10 7XW Contact: John Beck Telephone: +44 (0) 208 963 2520 Mobile: +44 (0)7500 091 708 Email: John.Beck@SantaFerelo.com Website: www.santaferelo.com Thinking Relocation?

Think Santa Fe Relocation Services.

Santa Fe Relocation Services provides the full range of relocation services to support businesses with international interests from diverse industry sectors. Santa Fe is conveniently located across six continents and offers holistic relocation solutions to support businesses and relocating employees.

Last year, we handled 120,000 relocations globally.

Our core services are Immigration, Moving, Relocation, Real Estate and Records Management.

We make it easy.

RELOCATION ASSOCIATIONS ASSOCIATION OF RELOCATION PROFESSIONALS (ARP)

9&10 Diss Business Centre, Dark Lane, Diss, Norfolk, IP21 4ND Contact: Tad Zurlinden Telephone: +44 (0)1379 651 671 Fax: +44 (0)1379 641 940 Email: enquiries@arp-relocation.com Website: www.arp-relocation.com The ARP is the professional association for

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INTERNATIONAL HR ADVISER SPRING

the relocation industry in the UK. The ARP’s activities include seminars throughout the year, an annual conference, the publication of an annual Directory of Members and a website, which is updated regularly.

THE EUROPEAN RELOCATION ASSOCIATION (EuRA)

9&10 Diss Business Centre, Dark Lane, Diss, Norfolk, IP21 4ND Telephone +44 (0)1379 651 671 Fax: +44(0)1379 641 940 E-mail: enquiries@eura-relocation.com Website: www.eura-relocation.com EuRA is an industry body for Relocation Professionals in both Europe and Worldwide.

EuRa have launched The EuRA Quality Seal, the world’s first accreditation programme for relocation providers. This pioneering initiative provides a straight forward, cost effective audit to reflect your company’s excellence in providing relocation services.

SCHOOLS

ISL Group of Schools ISL Surrey

Old Woking Road, Woking, Surrey GU22 8HY Contact: Marc Carter Telephone: +44 (0)1483 750 409

ISL London

139 Gunnersbury Avenue, London W3 8LG Contact: Yoel Gordon Telephone: +44 (0)20 8992 5823

ISL Qatar

PO Box 18511, North Duhail, Qatar Contact: Nivin El Aawar Telephone: +974 4433 8600 Website: www.islschools.org Email: hmulkey@islschools.org The International School of London (ISL) Group has schools in London, Surrey, and Qatar. The internationally recognised primary and secondary curricula have embedded language programmes (mother tongue, English as an Additional Language, and second language) which continue throughout the student’s stay in the school. A team of experienced and qualified teachers and administrators provides every student with the opportunity to grow and learn in an environment that respects diversity and promotes identity, understanding, and a passion for learning.

MARYMOUNT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL LONDON

George Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 7PE Contact: Mrs Cheryl Eysele Telephone: +44 (0)20 8949 0571 Email: admissions@marymountlondon.com Website: www.marymountlondon.com With an outstanding record teaching the respected International Baccalaureate for over 30 years, Marymount offers day and boarding to girls aged 11-18 who gain places at the world’s best universities.

Consistently ranked within the top 5% globally, Marymount also offers the pre-IB Middle Years Programme; this stretches students without the need for incessant testing. The nurturing, supportive Catholic Community welcomes all faiths and achieves a shared purpose for girls of more than 40 nationalities.

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TASIS THE AMERICAN SCHOOL IN ENGLAND

Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Surrey, TW20 8TE Contact: Karen House Telephone: +44 (0)1932 582316 Email: ukadmissions@tasisengland.org Website: www.tasisengland.org TASIS England offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma, an American college preparatory curriculum, and AP courses to its diverse community of coed day (3-18) and boarding (14-18) students from 50 nations. The excellent academic programme, including ESL, is taught in small classes, allowing the individualised attention needed to encourage every student to reach their potential.

Outstanding opportunities in art, drama, music, and athletics provide a balanced education.

Extensive summer opportunities are also offered. Located close to London on a beautiful and historic 46-acre estate.

SERVICED APARTMENTS THE ASSOCIATION OF SERVICED APARTMENT PROVIDERS (ASAP)

Suite 3, The Business Centre, Innsworth Tech Park, Innsworth Lane, Gloucestershire GL3 1DL Contact: ASAP Office Telephone: +44 (0)1452 730452 Email: admin@theasap.org.uk Website: www.theasap.org.uk Twitter: @ASAPThe LinkedIn: The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers ASAP is in the industry association representing, promoting and improving the serviced apartment sector. Our 124 members including serviced apartment operators and agents represent in excess of 25,000 serviced apartments in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada.

When booking your serviced apartment, look for our Quality Accreditation kitemark which confirms the operator is fully compliant with all the core legal, health and safety practices and means you can book with confidence.

BBF

Avenue de Roodebeek 78 box 9, Brussels Contact: Bernard Kerkhof Telephone: +32 (0)2 705 05 21 Email: info@bbf.be Website: www.bbf.be Twitter: @BBFBelgium LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bbfserviced-apartments BBF is specialised in the rental of serviced apartments since 1992.

Today we are leader in the market of temporary housing with a portfolio of over 1500 apartments in Brussels. We also offer corporate housing in other cities such as Budapest.

Our flexible rental packages include excellent solutions for short and long term accommodation for personal and business travellers. For long term accommodation, minimum one year, we can offer unfurnished apartments where one has the choice to install their own furniture.

TAXATION BDO LLP

55 Baker Street, London, W1U 7EU Contact: Andrew Bailey Telephone: 020 7893 2946 Fax: 020 7893 2418 E-mail: andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk Website: www.bdo.co.uk BDO LLP is the award-winning, UK Member Firm of BDO International, the world's fifth largest accountancy network with more than 600 offices in 100 countries.

We have a partner-led approach, which delivers the highest quality of service by using short, functional chains of communication to aid decision-making. Clients benefit from our fresh thinking, constructive challenge and practical understanding of the issues they face. Developing strong, personal relationships with our clients is at the forefront of our service approach.

Tax advice is just one of our award-winning services and our expatriate team give practical and direct advice, delivering solutions which suit your needs.

GLOBAL TAX NETWORK LTD

Norwich House, 14-15 North Street, Guildford, GU1 4AF Contact: Richard Watts-Joyce CTA Telephone: +44(0)20 7100 2126 Email: help@globaltaxnetwork.co.uk Website: www.GTN.uk Twitter: @GTN_Tax LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/globaltax-network Global Tax Network Ltd is the UK member of Global Tax Network (GTN), an international affiliation of professional firms in over 100 countries specialising in global mobility tax consulting. We provide assistance to employers with the tax administration of international assignment programs and private client services to high net worth individuals, non-domiciles, professional sportspersons and entertainers.

Our consultants include members of the Association of Taxation Technicians, Chartered Institute of Taxation, and US Enrolled Agents.

To advertise your services in this Directory the cost is £800 per annum (4 issues). Please email damian@internationalhradviser.com to be included.

To reach key decision makers in International HR management in order to promote your services or products in International HR Adviser magazine, please contact Damian Porter on +44 (0)1737 551 506, or email damian@internationalhradviser.com to request a 2017 Media Guide or discuss opportunities.