International HR Adviser Summer 2013

SUMMER 2013

ISSUE 54

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International HR Adviser The Leading Magazine For International HR Professionals Worldwide

Features Include: HR Across Borders - Let's Not Colonise Pensions & The Changing Face Of Global Mobility • Developmental Assignments - Enablers Not Solutions Global Talent Mobility • Ensuring Strategic Impact And Protecting New Investments International Assignment Policies: Mobilising Talent - The Global Mobility Challenge Global Immigration Update • Global Taxation Update Advisory Panel for this issue:

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CONTENTS

In This Issue Page 2

HR Across Borders – Let’s Not Colonise David Perry, Maitland

Page 4

Pensions & The Changing Face Of Global Mobility Stewart Allanson, Zurich Corporate Life & Pensions

Page 7

Developmental Assignments – Enablers Not Solutions Andrew Robb & Helen Odell, Deloitte Global Mobility Transformation Practice

Page 10

Global Talent Mobility – Modest And Marginal Or Significant And Strategic?

Helena Wennberg, Mercer

Page 14

Seven Myths Of Global Talent Management Dana Minbaeva, Copenhagen Business School & David Collings, Dublin City University

Page 17

Global Taxation Update Andrew Bailey, BDO LLP

Page 21

International Assignment Policies: Mobilising Talent - The Global Mobility Challenge Andrew Bailey, BDO LLP

Page 24

Ensuring Strategic Impact And Protecting Your Investment Peter Curran, Farnham Castle

Page 26

Keeping Calm In A Crisis Janice Haddon

Page 28

Survey – International HR Employee Mobility Programme Shows Growth In International Employee Transfers Fuelled By "Emerging Markets" Michael Brazier, Santa Fe Group

Page 31

Global Cost Of Living Survey ECA International

Page 34

A Healthy Global Workforce Dr Mark Simpson, Bupa International

Page 36

The IB Diploma, For University And Beyond Heather Mulkey, International Schools of London

Page 38

Global Immigration – Family Experience Kasia Pinska, Fragomen LLP

Page 40

Global Immigration Update Fragomen Global, LLP

Page 46

Diary Dates

Page 47

Directory

International HR Adviser, PO Box 921, Sutton, SM1 2WB, United Kingdom Publisher • Helen Elliott +44 (0) 20 8661 0186 • Email: helen@internationalhradviser.com Publishing Director • Damian Porter +44 (0) 1737 551506 • Email: damian@internationalhradviser.com www.internationalhradviser.com 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.

Cover Design by Chris Duggan

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HR across borders - let’s not colonise

HR Across Borders Let’s Not Colonise Managing employees in multiple jurisdictions is not exactly a new phenomenon but are we doing it the right way? A transnational HR team works best when it acts as a supportive matrix, where operational work is carried out locally by those best qualified to do so and central resources manage the needs of senior executives.

Yet it seems that many companies looking to expand internationally seem not to trust the capabilities of local managers and staff and so they expatriate lots of their own people to the new location. On the plus side, this embeds the company DNA, standards and expectations. Less positively, this does not empower or train up locals quickly and at worst can appear as a form of modern colonialism.

Picture the following scenarios: • Globalpowerhouse plc is headquartered in London with subsidiaries in New York, Johannesburg and Sydney.

The HR team holds a weekly conference call. To try and accommodate time zones, the London boss schedules the call at 12 noon GMT. Johannesburg is just one hour ahead, so that’s no problem. The New York colleague can call from home at 7am or come in early if that suits her better and the Sydney colleague dials in at 9pm. That’s just the way it is. Or is it? I have worked in an organisation where the time of the conference call was rotated fairly so that everyone had a turn in being inconvenienced. A small thing but it went a long way in creating a sense of equality.

• Globalisation S.A. has its registered office in Geneva. The company acquires an entity in Argentina and the process of merging cultures starts. The global head of HR, a Swiss, attends a meeting in Buenos Aires and notices that many of the team from various countries in Latin America, who had just met, very quickly loop arms, put their arms around one another or hold hands. He feels very uncomfortable as this would be quite alien in markets like the United States or most of Europe and Asia. Yet it clearly felt very natural for this group.

Just because our own cultural norms are different, it doesn’t mean that we are International HR Adviser Summer

right and they are wrong, especially as this meeting was in Buenos Aires.

• Big Apple Limited, based in California, acquires a small company in Lyons, France. After a few years it becomes necessary to downsize. Performance reviews have been held annually since the acquisition with US managers appraising French team members.

Ultimately the weaker performers are retrenched. The global head of HR is shocked when several retrenched individuals take the company to court declaring the process invalid. She did not know that French law requires documentation relating to performance reviews to be written in French. English may be the lingua franca of business but in some jurisdictions it is an offence not to deliver content related to an individual’s employment in the local language.

The examples are countless but they all point to the challenges of working across borders. From my years of experience in this area I have distilled a few key aspects which I hope could serve as signposts for others.

Global HR leadership HR leaders need to act as conduits of information, providing big picture, directional messaging out to the field while picking up on feedback from the ‘coal face’ and making sure that this information gets to where it needs to in the corporate hub.

Regular but not gratuitous communication is good, as stand-alone remote HR colleagues can feel acutely lonely. When bringing a disparate group of HR colleagues together for meetings, calls or conferences, make sure that the majority of the content is relevant for the majority of the delegates.

Make plenty of time for your remote colleagues and reports because no matter how much time you set aside for this, you will still always spend more time with colleagues in the same office.

Creating a sense of team HR leaders should aim to create a vision for the whole function so that everyone can see where the team is heading and

how it will achieve its objectives. This should be clearly linked to the commercial imperatives of the business. Ideally, each person should have a clear idea of how their contribution forms part of the delivery of the overall HR plan.

Promote a consistency of approach so that any business manager interacting with a member of the HR team in any location would have a similar experience.

Those HR people based away from the centre will often think that they are missing out on critical information and interaction simply by not being there, so no matter how busy you are, try to avoid cancelling scheduled calls and meetings with your HR colleagues.

Sensitivity to local differences, needs and expectations Think global, act local (sometimes called ‘glocal’). Consider whether your natural manner for expressing thoughts and ideas will work outside your own country. For example, some nationalities prefer the delivery of a clear message, followed by the context. Others, such as the English, like to provide the context and then explain the key message resulting from that context.

Relevance of communication It’s important to find a way to make all participants feel that that there is benefit in sharing information. Try to focus on the ‘what’s in it for me?’ Stand-alone remote HR colleagues can feel that they are required to give an account of themselves while other colleagues with a group or central role can question why it is useful for them to spend time educating the team on the ground. It may sound clichéd but everyone should remember to put themselves in others’ shoes. This can help avoid petty politics and rather create an atmosphere of trust, support and collaboration between HR colleagues.

Conflicts How flexible can you be when there is conflict between a global policy and local law, custom and practice or cultural norms? In this event, agreeing a set of principles which can be tailored to the local context is much more likely to work

HR across borders - let’s not colonise and gain acceptance than something imposed unilaterally from above Harmonisation can be very expensive if certain things are statutory in some locations. For example, managers and leaders from countries with less protection for the employee can struggle to understand how employment works in locations where the employee has more rights. Typically, when first confronted with a workers’ council or employee representatives, inexperienced managers will take an adversarial position, seeing the relationship and any dialogue as winlose. However, when treated as allies and partners, such bodies can often be helpful to management in the implementation of difficult initiatives, such as downsizing a workforce.

In conclusion, HR maybe needs to ‘do its own HR’ in the area of cross-border business. I have so often seen people in group or central roles misunderstand their sphere of responsibility and think they rule the world, especially if they have the word ‘global’ or ‘international’ in their job title.

As an industry, we should consider offering training to managers who take

on global or international roles. Let’s collaborate and develop best practice. As the world continues to globalise, such an initiative could go a long way.

David Perry, Head of Human Resourses, Maitkland

David Perry joined Maitland on 1 May and will be based in London.

David is a highly experienced international HR practitioner and he has coordinated HR teams across as many as 42 different countries. He brings 19 years of financial services experience, including inverstment banking, insureance broking, private exquity, M&A and global markets knowledge to the firm.

Davis joined Maitland from Marsh and McLennan Companies Inc., a global professional services firm providing advise and solutions in the areas of risk, strategy and human capital, where he was Head of International HR and Centres of Expertice.

Prior to that he was Head of HR for Global Banking and Markets Products in the combined entitiy following the acquisition of ABN ANRO's investment banking businesses by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

David has a BA in French and Business Studies from the University of Sheffield.

Maitland is a multijurisdictional legal, fiduciary and fund services group with $165 billion under administration. It employs 700 people in 14 offices across 13 countries.

For more information please contact: david.perry@maitlandgroup.com

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Pensions

Pensions And The Changing Face Of Global Mobility Both global mobility and employersponsored pension schemes are undergoing great change. Overseas assignments have increased by 25% in the last ten years and, according to the PWC survey Talent Mobility 2020 and beyond, are predicted to rise a further 50% by 2020. And it’s not just that global mobility is on the increase – origins and destinations are also changing, as is the nature of the benefit package for mobile employees. Here I’d like to take a look at some of these changes and the implications they may have for employer-sponsored pensions and long-term savings plans.

European nations have been sending their people overseas on long-term assignments for hundreds of years. The Spanish, English, Portuguese and Dutch in particular reached out to Africa, the Far East and the Americas in the 17th Century and the connection with overseas travel and pensions starts around then too, with the first known pension scheme being established for Royal Navy Officers in the 1670s.

By the 1970s international assignments were largely about multi-national companies based in Europe and the USA sending their most highly skilled and senior employees to the Middle East and Far East to develop and manage their burgeoning business operations there. Typically these assignments would be for two to five years, incentivised by a very attractive expatriate benefit package, after which the employee returned home. Also typical would be membership of a defined benefit pension plan which the employee would remain in while overseas. Membership of defined benefit pensions peaked around this time with, according to a 2012 Pension Policy Institute (PPI) report, around 8 million active members in these plans in the UK in 1967. By 2011 this had declined to just 1.6 million active members.

Until A Day (6 April 2006, the introduction of so called ‘pensions simplification’), membership of UK occupational schemes for expatriates was restricted to 10 years, but few overseas assignments lasted this long and they were often interspersed with long periods back in the UK. And if longer assignments were envisaged, UK companies had International HR Adviser Summer

the option of offering membership of a scheme established under Section 615 (6) Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988, commonly referred to as a Section 615 plan. In the run-up to A Day, the Government did consider scrapping Section 615 plans as the ten-year limit on membership of occupational plans was removed under the simplification changes, but this would have been a great loss given the rapid decline in occupational pensions in the UK. For many European and US-based companies the traditional expatriate model still exists, but for a number of reasons it is on the decline and a new era of global mobility has begun. That is not to say that expatriate numbers are declining, indeed as mentioned at the start, these are very much on the increase, but the trend, at least among US and Western European companies, has been away from short-term assignments to longer-term placements.

The main drivers of the changes in the face of overseas assignments are cost reduction and the rise of talent from the emerging markets.

The cost challenge Companies are increasingly reluctant to fund traditional expatriate packages and often now opt to localise their overseas assignees, with salary, pension, healthcare and other benefits being set at levels similar to the local market. Increasingly members of occupational pension schemes are unable to remain in them, instead they are offered membership of inappropriate local pension schemes.

Withdrawal from the home pension scheme can be for more complex reasons – for example to avoid creating a crossborder pension scheme. Under the EU cross-border regulations, occupational pension schemes based in an EU country with members in another EU country must apply for cross-border status.

They must then create separate country sections and meet the social and labour laws of each of these country sections. In addition, defined benefit schemes must be 100% funded if cross-border, a very significant problem for many schemes as, after years of relatively flat markets and the global economic crisis, the average

defined benefit scheme in the Western World is currently 20% underfunded.

Setting aside this particular challenge, occupational pension schemes, especially defined benefit schemes, are in sharp decline anyway due to improving mortality rates and the increasing legislative burden. They are rapidly being replaced by group personal pension plans, in reality individual pension plans which bring their own problems for overseas assignees, such as the five-year limit on making contributions after leaving the UK. While this may seem to be a particularly UK perspective, many other countries have their own restrictions, limitations and pressures within their pensions systems – for example, 80% of Irish defined benefit schemes are underfunded and the position is little better in Canada and the US. So, we have the traditional expatriate model under pressure due to cost and the changing shape of pension provision across Europe. Despite this, multinationals still need to send their experienced and skilled people to countries where their business is expanding. While comprehensive expat packages may not be what they once were, benefits remain high on the agenda of these mobile employees and pension needs must still be met by the employer, whether this is driven by employment contracts, a global benefits strategy or recruitment and retention issues. And local pension solutions are often not the answer as, particularly outside of Western Europe and the US, they may have low contribution limits and investment restrictions such as statutory requirements to invest in local Government bonds or investment funds. In addition, building up a pension in countries other than where you intend to retire, perhaps in a weak currency, is simply not attractive. For international HR and compensation and benefits teams, these trends and challenges are making it increasingly difficult to provide good quality pension benefits for overseas assignees. But there are solutions available.

The rise of the developing world The other major factor impacting the issue is the rapid growth in talent and

Pensions mobility from the emerging market economies such as India, China and Brazil. The model here is very different to the traditional expat and raises many new challenges for the HR department of a multinational company.

This employee is typically younger than the traditional expatriate and sees working overseas as an essential part of their career development. They are likely to be more nomadic, readily expecting and happy to move from country to country throughout their career, many with no intention of ever returning home. They are likely to be highly skilled, much sought after and less likely to be committed to one employer, being as readily mobile between employers as they are between locations. Many will target Western Europe and the US to develop their career, but will equally look to the developing world for opportunities, whether that is the South and Central Americas, Africa or the Far East.

This new emerging global talent is unlikely to have membership of an occupational pension and is very unlikely to be in a defined benefit arrangement.

They will be younger and may be from a background where it is traditional and expected that the younger generation will support the older generation back home and so cash may be a much stronger driver than benefits. This makes retention more difficult as they move on for the promise of more ready income. Importantly, though, they will fare badly from local pension and social security systems, which typically lack portability, resulting in a string of small deferred benefits across a number of countries. Pensions should therefore remain one of the key elements of a good benefit package, not just for the employee’s sake but also to satisfy the increasing pressure on multinationals to be socially responsible and to have a globally consistent approach to benefits.

Interestingly, it was the retention of experienced employees that was one of the biggest drivers in the growth of defined benefit occupational pension in the West in the 50s and 60s, but their demise looks highly unlikely to be reversed as longevity continues its upward trend. Even those multinationals that still operate defined benefit schemes have largely closed them to new members. The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) Annual Survey of 2011 quotes that just 19% of UK defined benefit schemes are still open to new members and increasingly such schemes are ceasing future accrual

for existing members. It seems unlikely then, that occupational pensions, particularly defined benefit schemes, will be the answer to retaining this emerging mobile talent. Instead, companies will need to be increasingly flexible and creative in the design of reward and benefit packages.

Flexibility and Creativity So what would an ideal solution that could meet the needs of the new world of talent and the more traditional expatriate model look like? Perhaps it would allow membership of any nationality, living and working in any country. Contributions would be in any currency and investment could be made into a world-wide range of investment funds. Contributions would attract tax relief in the country of residence, growth would be tax-free and the entire proceeds could be withdrawn as a tax-free lump sum on retirement or withdrawn as a regular income, again in any currency.

Perhaps up to 50% of the fund could be drawn down earlier, to pay off a mortgage, for school fees or whatever the individual wishes. There would be no limits on what the employer or the employee could contribute to the plan and no lifetime allowance restrictions. Payments in would also avoid local social security charges and proceeds would avoid any form of inheritance tax. The only restriction would be that employers could build in vesting scales to enable them to use the plan as a recruitment and retention tool – so, for example, the employee would only become entitled to the company’s contributions after five years of continuous service.

Is this pure fantasy? No - in fact it already largely exists, at least for our intrepid overseas assignees, and it’s called an international pension plan. Okay, tax relief on contributions doesn’t apply, although in fact it might. For example, if the company has a UK arm and sets up the international pension plan under Section 615 (6) of ICTA 88, as mentioned earlier, then contributions are deductible against Corporation Tax and no National Insurance contributions fall due. Growth is certainly tax-free and a lump sum is possible instead of the taxable income that applies under many pension systems. The lump sum may also be free of income and inheritance taxes, depending on when and where the benefits are withdrawn. Again, Section 615 plans can create this for people retiring in the UK, and other international plans may create a similar result for people living and retiring elsewhere. Everything

else suggested in my ideal solution is actually entirely feasible under an international pension plan. You may know these plans as international retirement plans, or perhaps just as offshore savings plans, but they are a much underrated, flexible tool in the HR armoury.

Returning to the new generation of globally mobile people, let’s consider again the main problems. These people are younger and more likely to be attracted by cash than tying up money in a series of pensions as they move from country to country. The employer, however, needs a way to retain them other than by simply increasing pay. The international pension can be positioned as similar to cash in that benefits can be taken as cash in the future. The company can create its own rules around withdrawing cash, perhaps, as suggested, allowing up to 50% to be withdrawn at any time, or by stipulating a relatively young age when access is allowed. Remember, these plans are not restricted by complex pension legislation, so creativity is entirely allowed. Retention is then achieved by building in vesting, say five years with a sliding scale allowing vesting at 20% of the fund each year.

I started out by looking a little at the history of overseas assignments and the changes now taking place to these and related pension planning. The many pressures on occupational pension schemes mean that they are less likely to offer a complete solution in the future, except perhaps for the largest multinationals with well-funded schemes. As the world of overseas assignments evolves, it is essential that compensation & benefits and HR professionals consider all the available options. In some cases a PanEuropean occupational scheme will be the best solution, slow as these have been to develop. In others, a series of local pensions may be the answer. But for many, it will be flexibility and creativity that will provide the edge when hunting for the talent now emerging from the developing economies.

Stewart Allanson Zurich Corporate Life & Pensions is a leading provider of International Pension Plans.

For more information, email stewart.allanson@zurich.com or telephone on +44 (0) 1242 664443 Summer International HR Adviser

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International HR Strategy

Developmental Assignments Enablers Not Solutions Global Mobility is witnessing an increasing number of assignments initiated for development purposes (see figure 1); yet reports suggest that return on investment from these types of assignments is often limited. In this article we will look at the roots of this phenomenon, and outline some strategic principles followed by organisations which successfully optimise return on investment from these assignments. Finally, we will look at some best practice examples of how different organisations have embedded these principles within their Global Mobility programmes.

Figure 1: In the Deloitte 2011 Strategic Moves survey, over one third of participants rated global leadership development and pipeline as the global mobility issue considered most critical to the success of the participating organisations, and in the 2012 survey 54% of participating companies rated this as a top global mobility challenge. Likewise, the recent Peer Perspectives – Global Mobility Trends Survey Report 2012 from Deloitte found a 14% increase in the number of companies using Development Assignment policies compared to the 2011 results.

gaps. This is largely driven by the need for the future leaders of these organisations to have a ‘global mindset’ gained through exposure to the business, operations and markets in multiple jurisdictions.

Little return on investment?

Despite the focus on development assignments, evidence suggests that organisations may not be fully capitalising on the knowledge and skills development that their employees experience. Findings from the Deloitte Peer Perspectives report show that only 26% of companies feel that the knowledge and experience gained by the repatriated employee is used effectively.

This is a surprising statistic given that leadership development is the main business justification for the additional cost in these cases, and suggests that many organisations are getting little to no return on investment from these types of assignments.

How can organisations capitalise on development assignments?

The fact that some organisations do effectively utilise the knowledge and experience gained by their employees on assignment demonstrates that it is possible to optimise the return on investment from development assignments. Organisations that succeed in doing this tend to adhere to three strategic principles:

1. Understand the value proposition of development assignments Look at whom you are sending on assignment and why, and how this aligns to long-term business and talent objectives.

This requires strong candidate selection procedures and appropriate business case justification and approvals processes.

Depending on the business context, some organisations may find that largely domestic-based development programmes are more appropriate for some candidates and will achieve the same desired effects in the long-term. Likewise, local talent development, acquisition and retention strategies may be a more cost-effective way of developing future leaders for local overseas operations.

2. Put in place effective career pathing, career development and succession planning strategies Knowledge and skills development will be lost to the organisation if the assignee leaves the company, and likewise will be made redundant if the individual is subsequently put in a role where they cannot make use of their development. For development assignments to be most effective, career development and succession planning decisions should be made before the individual has started the assignment, so that there is a clear goal for development

Assignments as development opportunities International assignments have been used by companies and organisations for a number of decades as part of their global resourcing and talent management toolkit. However, we are seeing a shift in the usage of international assignments. As organisations expand and globalise, operations in overseas locations become more developed and local staff begin to fill roles, there is an increasing focus on using international assignments for employee development or leadership development purposes, rather than to fill local skills Summer International HR Adviser

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International HR Strategy and a relevant position secured for the individual post-assignment.

Long-term succession planning also ensures that the assignment value-proposition is clarified upfront, and sends a clear message of commitment to the individual thereby mitigating the risk of post-assignment attrition.

3. Recognise that global mobility is an enabler and not an outcome An international assignment offers employees a multitude of new experiences and learning opportunities, but the fact of having completed an assignment does not automatically mean that an employee will have fulfilled their development objectives. Rather than mandating an international assignment as a pre-requisite for leadership positions, the most effective leadership development programmes keep development objectives at their core and utilise global mobility as one of a suite of tools to achieve these.

How can these principles be applied in practice?

Although many organisations are still using global mobility for employee development in a relatively ad-hoc manner, more and more organisations are putting in place structured programmes which utilise global mobility to achieve their talent development objectives. (see figure 3 below).

The common thread to the majority of successfully implemented talent mobility programmes is that they enable the organisation to meet their talent

objectives by having clear goals around the type of development they want to see in their staff, which is supported by a structured programme which offers a clear career path to scheme participants and is supported by mobility as opposed to a simple talent mobility policy construct.

One such organisation, a UK based company, has recently put in place a new development programme for its management grades. Under the programme the top 20% of performers from the graduate scheme are given the opportunity to develop through roles in a number of the organisation’s mature and emerging markets. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate their investment in these ‘future leaders’ and motivate them towards high performance, the organisation has put in place a discretionary share award scheme which vests over the 3 years of the programme.

Rotational programmes are also frequently used for development schemes, such as that of a UK based engineering company. Under their 5 year fast-track management scheme graduates rotate through a number of domestic and overseas project placements, using the different roles as an opportunity to add to their skills portfolio and develop a broad knowledge of the business. Although graduates on this scheme have responsibility for finding their next role for each move, the importance placed on the scheme by the company means that a number of such project roles are always made available.

Additionally, all scheme members have a senior level mentor within the company

to help guide them through the process and offer career management support.

International assignments can be one of the most effective ways to develop globally-minded and globally-experienced professionals capable of leading global organisations, and this is evidenced by the increasing use of international assignments for development purposes. However, as demonstrated above, organisations need to be clear on the value-proposition of these assignments to ensure that they are the best method of obtaining the desired results. Prior to having made the decision to invest in a developmental assignment, organisations also need to ensure that they have the appropriate career pathing, workforce planning capabilities and employee retention practices in place to keep these employees within their organisation and put them in appropriate positions postassignment, where they can use their new knowledge and skills, in order to capitalise on this investment.

Andrew Robb Andrew leads Deloitte’s Global Mobility Transformation (GMT) practice across EMEA. He has extensive experience in leading large mobility transformation projects which includes global workforce planning, mobility strategy, policy design and implementation, best practice process design, vendor rationalisation, organisation and role restructuring.

Andy can be contacted at anrobb@deloitte.co.uk or +44 20 7303 3237 Helen Odell Helen is Manager within Deloitte’s Global Mobility Transformation (GMT) practice in Switzerland where she has extensive experience leading and managing global mobility projects in a range of industries. Her key areas of focus include programme assessment and benchmarking, strategy, policy development, service delivery structuring, process design, and global mobility talent management.

Helen can be contacted at heodell@deloitte.ch or +41 58279 7303

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Global Talent Mobility

Global Talent Mobility - Modest And Marginal Or Significant And Strategic?

In today’s global economy, human capital ingredients such as knowledge, experience, competencies and skills need to be sustained and increased, not only in service organisations or in knowledge intensive industries but across all types of organisations and all industry sectors. Academic research papers and consultant survey reports have during the past decade over and over again reinforced the notion that strategic talent management is – or at least ought to be - at the top of the HR agenda within multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, despite a widespread acceptance among business leaders of the fact that managing talent matters, corporate HR functions are still struggling to emerge as talent leaders within their organisations.

If HR professionals in the future want to move from being modest and marginal to significant and strategic as talent leaders, then they will need to effectively address the challenges of lack of ambition, lack of buyin, lack of ownership, lack of collaboration, and lack of situational (and organisational) adaptation within their organisations.

The Role of Global Mobility within Global Talent Management From an organisational perspective, global talent management can be defined as the processes aiming to attract, grow, reward, and retain an organisation’s human capital (Hogan, 2009). Talent management processes such as performance management, compensation management and recruiting are often cited by HR decision makers as top priorities of their organisations. Simultaneously these HR decision makers highlight that succession planning, goal management and recruitment are still in fact weak points within their organisation (Forrester, 2008). Within these organisations the business case for strategic global talent management has probably not been properly formulated and/or implemented.

According to a 2012 Conference Board survey of 776 executives, talent was identified as a key factor addressing other top business challenges such as business growth, innovation and cost International HR Adviser Summer

optimisation. (Conference Board, 2012).

Although talent management is increasingly seen as a critical issue, many of the organisations that have increased their investment in human capital question whether it is paying off. Earlier this year the results from Mercer’s new Talent Barometer Survey indicated that 60% of organisations worldwide report increasing their investment in talent in recent years. However, a much smaller percentage of respondents, 24%, say their plans are highly effective in meeting immediate and long-term human capital needs (Mercer, 2013). These types of results bring into question whether the right type of human capital investments are being made by organisations.

During the economic downturn the shift of Global Talent Management from focus on overall talent reviews of entire employee populations to a streamlined focus on key strategic roles and the identification of high potentials became even more pronounced. The organisational talent strategies developed under these circumstances often lacked breadth as it focused primarily on activities for one segment of an organisation’s entire workforce. More long-term talent approaches aiming at “building” talent internally versus “buying” talent from the global talent market were significantly downsized by many organisations. What this means is that organisations today find themselves with global talent strategies and processes that are suboptimised. While an organisation’s existing talent management approach may successfully address the leadership development needs of its top leaders in the organisation, it may ignore the fact that its HR processes are still developed in professional silos that coexist but do not necessarily collaborate.

Due to an ageing population in most industrialised countries, most organisations will face an increasing skilled talent shortage in the future. In order to attract, develop and retain the talent needed, organisations will need to ensure that their entire workforce is appropriately segmented, and that appropriate strategies catering to both organisational and individual needs across identified talent categories are developed. All organisations need a mix of talent characteristics

to be successful, and future global talent management strategies should therefore ensure that the right talent mix is successfully sustained. It is important to note, that, although a crucial component of a strategic talent management strategy, the needs of an organisation’s high potentials will by itself not bring about a total global talent mobility transformation within the organisation.

An IBM research study from 2008 made it transparent that “only 13% of organisations believe they have a very clear understanding of the skills they will require in the next three to five years”.

In addition, only 13% of organisations believe that they are very capable of identifying individuals with specific expertise within the organisation (IBM, 2008).

Lack of integration within the HR function greatly impedes the possibility of creating and implementing a coherent global talent strategy. Even within HR processes such as global mobility management, many organisations still find it a challenge to effectively link and align the various elements required for the efficient management of its expatriate population, as responsibility for the component parts often resides in different parts of the business.

Effective global mobility management requires co-operation between the business unit leaders, talent management, compensation and benefits, process and communication, third-party providers (including outsourcing) and, of course, the employee and his/her family (Mercer, 2010).

The Global Mobility field has become increasingly complex due to the emergence of an array of international assignment types (long-term assignments, short-term assignments, developmental assignments, project assignments, inter-regional assignments, commuter assignments, rotational assignments etc.). Assignment types are often governed by separate policy documents and they have separate compensation models to regular local employment in locations. However, depending on the maturity of an organisation’s overall talent strategy, the act of sending employees abroad on international assignments still in many ways remain simply a way to “get a butt in the seat”, rather than an integrated sub-process to an organisation’s overall

Global Talent Mobility global talent management strategy put in place to ensure that the right talent is indeed selected for the right international assignment opportunity.

Many international assignments are thus still filled in an ad-hoc fashion, but implementing appropriate linkages between assignment selection and overall organisational talent review and succession planning processes could help to ensure that the right candidate with the right skills is offered the right international assignments at the right time.

An area that needs further development and sophistication in many MNEs is the initial assessment and selection phase of potential international assignees. For this to occur, better internal HR coordination and collaboration is required and a close cooperative relationship needs to be established with the business. More sophisticated assessment and selection processes in conjunction with better defined international assignment objectives would also result in a better fit between the role to be filled and the selected candidate.

Unclear expectations of an incumbent in an expat position will inevitably make it hard to identify what the key skills and competencies of a potential incumbent should be. In many organisations the selection process also needs to expand to include both the potential assignee and any accompanying family members.

Organisations also need to look into how they can best fulfill the differing needs of international assignees. One-size-fits-all global mobility processes have a hard time appropriately addressing the diverse needs of assignees across assignment types and family situations.

However, it also needs to be stressed that there is of course much more to global talent mobility than the management of international assignments, which makes the process of developing an appropriate global talent management strategy tailored to an organisation’s particular needs an even more complex undertaking. At the societal level, mobility of talent takes many forms, including movement of employees within and across organisations as well as migration of people within and across sectors and regions of the global economy. It also encompasses organisational investments in the development of required skills and knowledge and decisions on where to locate future jobs (World Economic Forum, 2012).

Addressing global talent management aspects on this societal level requires

organisations to reach out and establish necessary relationships with new types of stakeholders.

Global Talent Mobility - What Is Stopping Us? I would like to offer up the following reasons why organisations continue to struggle with implementing effective global talent mobility: lack of ambition, lack of buy-in, lack of ownership, lack of collaboration, and lack of situational (and organisational) adaptation.

Several studies have indicated that there in fact is a lack of ambition among organisations, and among HR professionals in general, to build the necessary capabilities to be able to work strategically and collaboratively with global talent management.

As long as a few talent management initiatives and/or a written policy document or two exists, for instance regarding senior leadership development, it is in many organisations belief that strategic talent management can be ticked off the organisational to-do-list. The ambition level however, needs to be raised significantly if we are to bring about real change.

There seems to be a lack of buy-in, especially at higher leadership levels, regarding the necessity of a coherent global talent management strategy within the organisations which often results in sub-optimisation as some aspects of talent management receive a lot of attention while other aspects simply are not addressed at all.

Corporate HR functions need to build a stronger business case outlining how global talent mobility transformation will add value, and get better equipped to discuss with business leaders which type of global talent mobility approach would best suit the specific needs of their organisation. The HR professional's role is changing and new types of skills and abilities will be required to act as internal talent leaders.

Even in cases where a global talent management strategy has been developed and a decision regarding worldwide implementation has been taken, the roll-out phase often suffers from a severe case of “it’s not my job” attitude. Such lack of ownership makes it extremely difficult to bring about sustainable change within any organisation. Business leaders look to the Corporate HR function to ‘just do it’ and HR professional's in turn struggle to gain the breadth of knowledge and insight into business reality that is needed to develop a global talent management approach that

builds upon an already existing alignment between the organisation’s HR and business strategies.

Lack of collaboration within the HR function, or between different departments or business units of the same global organisation, effectively hinders successful strategic global talent management. Successful development and implementation requires the active involvement of a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders that are willing to engage in new ways of collaborating across departments and regional boundaries. While ‘divided we stand’ remains the status quo within Corporate HR functions, we will continue to see a business reality where there is insufficient collaboration and internal alignment between HR professionals working with talent management issues regarding recruitment, performance management, succession planning or international assignments. The end result of such internal misalignment is often a parallel development of competing HR initiatives rather than collaboration towards a common goal.

In general there also seems to be a lack of situational adaptation of strategic global talent management approaches. Stahl et al. (2007, 2012) emphasise the importance of the alignment of talent management practices and activities with the internal and external environment of the organisation. ‘Practices are only “best” in the context for which they were designed’ (Stahl et al. 2012, p. 26). The question is whether organisations in general have sufficiently mapped out the current and future talent needs of their own organisation before trying to implement a “onesize-fits-all” talent management solution.

International HR professionals now need to decide what future role they want to play as talent leaders within their organisations – remain modest and marginal, or become significant and strategic?

Modest and Marginal The current role of the HR function is overall both modest and marginal when it comes to strategic talent management today. HR professionals express little interest or ambition to move outside of their comfort zone, which is a must in order to create the necessary internal and external relationships needed to be an effective strategic business partner. HR professionals need to actively seek support from their employers to gain further insight regarding business strategy in order to ensure that the HR strategy really Summer International HR Adviser

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Global Talent Mobility takes its starting point in the organisation’s business strategy and actively supports the organisation’s vision of what it wants to be able to accomplish from both in a shortterm and a long-term perspective.

If HR professionals do not demand their place in strategic discussions regarding strategic global talent management, they might as well have been ‘benched’ for the rest of the game.

Significant and Strategic The aim of a successful global talent management strategy should be that it offers a global platform developed according to your organisation’s needs which allows your organisation to segment its global workforce populations and enables the organisation to differentiate its talent management processes and tools according to diverse needs.

Becoming significant and strategic is all about HR professionals applying enhanced skills regarding active listening and timely response to developments within the field of strategic global talent management. The saying ‘if there is a will, there is a way’ certainly holds true here.

Unless HR professionals in fact show an active interest in business strategy and a willingness to be the one to reach out and initiate the necessary conversations with business leaders, I have a feeling that within ten years from now we will still be discussing missed opportunities and lack of strategic global talent management maturity within organisations.

Global Talent Mobility A Window of Opportunity So why should we care about Global Talent Mobility? Organisations seem to be doing okay whether or not they have implemented state-of-the-art strategic talent management practices. My answer would be that handling global talent mobility appropriately makes good business sense in more and more types of organisations.

Multinational enterprises need to have a strategic plan for how to handle global talent mobility, because otherwise they will simply not succeed in attracting, developing and retaining the right mix of talent they need to support future business growth. Traditional talent channels are ‘drying up’ and organisations need to identify new and innovative ways to ensure that the right talent is put in the right position at the right time. In order to create a strong value proposition to International HR Adviser Summer

business leaders, integration and collaboration will need to be core guiding principles within every HR function.

Global talent mobility can in addition, no longer be seen as something that only matters for multinational enterprises with worldwide operations. As the use of an ever increasing range of information and communication technologies (ICT) continues to help expand the global reach of small and medium-sized niche companies worldwide, the traditional view that organisations internationalise or “go global” in an incremental fashion is no longer valid.

Smaller, entrepreneurial organisations that are in fact global from the very start are growing in numbers worldwide. Many of these fast growing companies have an immature HR function (if they have one at all) and in fact often grow organically utilising social networking and informal headhunting to begin with. The global economy has created a need to handle diversified global talent mobility regardless of the stage of organisational (and HR) maturity across all types of organisations.

This means that global talent mobility all too often is handled in an ad-hoc fashion rather than professionally through a structured and strategic approach.

Moving forward – one step at the time My advice would be to break down the seemingly gigantic undertaking that is strategic talent management into manageable pieces. The first step as an International HR professional would be to familiarise myself with my organisation’s business strategy. Do I really understand what the business strategy in fact will require of the HR function and me as an HR professional? If not, is there someone I can turn to in order to get that clarified? Once that direction is set, then it is time for the second step that involves self-reflection both at the level of the HR function and at the level of each HR professional. What are our/my own strengths and weaknesses in the talent management field and how can we/I best address them? Finally, knowing what needs to be done, the next step would be to identify the internal and external stakeholders that can help us/me realise the vision of becoming a significant and strategic partner regarding global talent mobility.

All HR professionals wishing to be significant and strategic should as soon as possible initiate the conversation with

business leaders: “How can I partner with you (regarding global talent mobility) to ensure business success?”

References The Conference Board (2012) The Conference Board CEO Challenge 2012: Risky Business – Focusing on Innovation and Talent in A Volatile World (March 2012), http://www.conference-board.org.

Forrester Research (2008) HR Professionals Prioritize Talent Management But Lack Proficiency.

Hogan (2009) Global Talent Management and Global Mobility, Mobility Magazine, February 2009; http://www. worldwideerc.org/resources/mobilityarticles/pages/0209hogan.aspx.

IBM Global Business Services (2008) Unlocking the DNA of the Adaptable Workforce.

Mercer (2013) Organisations investing more in talent, but is it paying off?, Mercer Global Website, http://m.mercer. com/summary.htm?idContent=1515975 Stahl, G.K., Björkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S.S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., Trevor, J., and Wright, P.M. (2007), ‘Global Talent Management: How Leading Multinationals Build and Sustain Their Talent Pipeline,’ Faculty and research working paper, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

Stahl, G.K., Björkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S.S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., Trevor, J., and Wright, P.M. (2012), ‘Six Principles of Effective Global talent management,’ MIT Sloan Management review, 53, 24–32.

World Economic Forum (2012) Talent Mobility Good Practices – Collaboration at the Core of Driving Economic Growth; http://www.mercer.com/WEF-Full-Report Helena Wennberg, GMS, HRMP, HCS has recently been appointed as the Nordic & Eastern Europe Mobility Lead within the Talent Business at Mercer. She has previously been a Global Mobility Research Associate at King’s College London and also served on the Worldwide ERC EMEA Leadership Board 2010-2012. Since 2007 she has held in-house Global Mobility specialist roles within Statoil, Sandvik Tooling and Maersk Oil.

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GLOBAL TALENT MANAGEMENT

Seven Myths Of Global Talent Management After a group of McKinsey consultants proclaimed a “War for Talent” in the late 1990s, “talent management” became one of the most common terms in the managerial lexicon. Initially, the war for talent was driven by intense competition among leading US organisations to attract key talent, as demand for talent far exceed its availability due to demographic trends. While the demographics in key emerging economies, such as China and India, may be more favourable, organisations in such countries face similar challenges related to the availability of talent with the skill sets that organisations require. Therefore, the focus is again on labour quality.

In the European context, a study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group identified talent management as one of the five key challenges facing human resources (HR) during the last decade (Boston Consulting Group, 2007). Notably, talent management was the one challenge that the surveyed executives felt least prepared to handle. The challenge is even more extreme for multinational corporations (MNC) as many of those are struggling to effectively manage talent globally.

We believe that the challenges associated with global talent management (GTM) are related to the fact that GTM is poorly defined. In addition, we contend that a number of key myths regarding talent management have the potential to undermine talent management’s contribution to MNC effectiveness and to retard the development of management practice. Therefore, our aim is to unpack some of those myths and present some ideas for advancing the practice of talent management.

Myth 1: Talent Management is not an HR responsibility A survey of CEOs in the European context finds that most CEOs feel that talent management is “too important to be left to HR alone” (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2006). Furthermore, the majority of those CEOs surveyed report that they spend more than 20% of their time on these issues. Former Senior Vice President of GE, Bill Conaty, argues that the first principle of mastering talent management is ensuring the support of an enlightened International HR Adviser Summer

leadership team, starting with the CEO, as “the enlightened CEO recognises that his top priority for the future is building and deploying the talent that will get it there”. As Murray Dalziel, Group Managing Director of Hay Group, explains: “These issues aren’t HR issues anymore.

They are line management issues. There’s been a profound shift”.

Although we do not doubt the critical roles played by the CEO and other senior leaders in setting the tone for talent management within the organisation, we argue that corporate HR should retain a central role in GTM. Talent management initiatives should be aligned and integrated with other HRM systems, policies and practices implemented in different units of MNCs. GTM should become a joint responsibility of top management and corporate HR, as it is owned by management but governed

by HR. How exactly can HR govern GTM? We argue that it should be done via the use of a differentiated HR architecture. In this case, the selected group of employees included in the GTM pool are managed on a differentiated basis, while other employees remain outside the talent system. However, there must be enough fluidity within the system to enable emerging talent to gain entry to the differentiated architecture and those who perform poorly to be removed from the differentiated architecture.

Myth 2. It is all about people Central to much of the early thinking about talent management was the idea that talented people were critical to organisational performance and success.

However, organisations that place too much emphasis on attracting the “best” may fail to think strategically about how that talent can best be deployed in the organisation.

We argue that the focus of GTM should switch from evaluating the importance of jobs based on the inputs required to handle those jobs (such as qualification or experience) to evaluating the importance of jobs based on the potential outputs from the job combined with the potential for differential performance within the job’s role.

The focus of the differentiated architecture should be on the human-capital attributes

required for resourcing A-level positions, which are strategic positions. These positions: (1) relate to company strategy and have a direct impact on the effectiveness of strategic implementation, (2) exhibit high variability in the quality of the work carried out by the people who occupy them, and (3) require unique, firm-specific know-how, tacit knowledge and industry experience that cannot be easily found in the external labour market.

A popular example that used in this connection is the one of Mickey Mouse vs.

Sweeper: in which of these two positions improvement in job performance make the biggest differences in the customer satisfaction? As Boudreau and Ramstad (2007) explain, the variation between bestperforming Mickey Mouse and the worstperforming Mickey Mouse is not that large as the Mickey Mouse role has been engineered and standardised to the extent to make errors virtually impossible. On the other hand, a helpful street sweeper could significantly change customer experience from the whole Disney visit as sweepers are the ones whom customers often contact when they have questions or need help.

Myth 3. All positions should be filled by “A players” Closely linked to the preceding myth is the opinion pervasive in the literature that all positions should be filled with star employees, or “A players”, and that “C players” (consistently poor performers) should be managed out of the organisation. This approach calls for talent to be managed on the basis of performance, with a resultant emphasis on forced performance distribution. Forced performance distributions, or “rank and yank” systems, became pervasive after they were pioneered by Jack Welch at GE. In such systems, only a set percentage of employees (perhaps 20%) can be identified as top talent, while the largest cohort (perhaps 70%) of employees makes up the core group of average performers. A residual group (perhaps 10%) of low performers is targeted for development or termination. This approach results in the pursuit of “top-grading”, or the filling of all positions with star performers.

While we agree that talent matters

GLOBAL TALENT MANAGEMENT and that key talents might contribute disproportionately more to organisational performance, we suggest that all the positions do not require “A players”. Companies simply cannot afford to have “A players” in all positions. Indeed, there is a growing awareness that many organisations overinvest in non-strategic employees and fail to invest enough in strategic ones. We argue that resources are wasted when a star performer is in a position with little potential for differentiation between an average and a top performer.

Accordingly, we suggest that “A players” should predominantly occupy strategic positions, while their presence in nonstrategic could be smaller.

For example, in the airline industry, people who negotiate landing rights, with higher variability in their performance, and unique and often tacit industry knowledge, are more critical to the success of the firm than the pilots who are more replaceable, as they are all well trained and qualified (Evans, Pucik and Bjorkman, 2011). Consequently having a “B player” in the strategic position of negotiator of landing rights will result in loss of revenue opportunities, while having a reliable, stable B-perfomer as a pilot may not necessarily be costly.

In this regard, the clear challenge for MNCs is to ensure internal equity in the global performance management and rewards for “A players” in strategic positions regardless of their location. While global companies such as Schlumberger, Novartis and Microsoft are insistent on strict global consistency in performance evaluation and rewards, especially for top performers, they also acknowledge the need to vary appraisal and feedback processes according to local cultures. Such variation may be negatively perceived by “A players” and create retention problems for the MNC. An even greater cultural challenge arises when dealing with “C players” – those whom the “top-grading” perspective suggests should be replaced. Along this line, another remarkable story: In a speech to Japanese industrialists, Jack Welch’s remarks on leadership were frequently interrupted by applause, but his advice on how to deal with “C players” was met with stony silence.

Myth 4. Talent is portable This myth questions the “G” in GTM. When organisations speak of GTM, their discussions are generally premised on

the assumption that their internal talent systems and markets operate on a global, coordinated basis and that talent is portable. Consequently, relocating top talent within MNCs will result in immediate improvements in performance. However, individuals are often reluctant to relocate internationally, as such relocations disrupt family and personal lives, and many individuals harbour some scepticism regarding the potential career benefits of a sojourn abroad.

Indeed, even when individuals who are viewed as top talent choose to relocate internationally, there is no guarantee that their high performance will be maintained in the foreign context. For example, technical competence is often emphasised in selection for an international role.

However, technical competence in the home country is no guarantee of success in an international role, where “softer” skills and adaptability emerge as central to performance. This demonstrates the importance of effective selection systems and effective cross-cultural preparation for assignees and their families in advance of their taking on international roles.

A star’s performance is not solely a function of individual capabilities. That performance also relies on a range of factors and resources, some of which are clearly firm specific and therefore lost when these employees change employers. “The talent myth assumes that people make organisations smart. More often than not, it is the other way around”, writes Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker. Consequently, when relocating top talent within MNCs, GTM systems should strive to offer access to social and physical contexts that are similar to those from which the talent comes.

Myth 5. Talent turnover is always bad for the organisation Ever since the war for talent was declared, firms have constantly promoted people deemed “top talent”, moved them into new jobs and trained them to be globally mobile. These firms assume that it is only a matter of time before their top-talent assets cash in on their global experience in the external labour market by joining another organisation. Nevertheless, the reality of the twenty-first century is that employee mobility has become – and is likely to remain – more pronounced.

Therefore, the crucial issues for MNCs are determining when they should strive to retain talent that is otherwise intent

on leaving and when to allow that talent to leave quietly. If the position in question is clearly not strategic, the MNC may wish to consider allowing talent to leave the organisation – even when an “A player” is leaving. In such cases, instead of the old “war” mentality, which frames all employee turnover as a win-lose scenario, companies should adopt a more holistic perspective by considering other implications of employee mobility.

To resolve the myth, attrition levels should be monitored in terms of the quality, and roles of departing employees and their destination organisations should also be carefully monitored. As the effect of an employee’s departure on turnover may not be negative, expensive retention efforts may be misguided. Instead, investments should focus on maintaining positive relationships with departing employees, as those relationships may benefit the MNE in the future.

Myth 6. There is a clear line of sight between GTM and organisational performance Some recent analyses by Ernst & Young suggest that organisations that align talent management with business strategy achieve a return on investment that is 20% higher over 5 years than competitors who do not. However, establishing the cause and effect in this performance link is exceptionally difficult because the distance between the actual investment in an individual HR practice, and organisational effectiveness, is significant.

Creating a line of sight between investments in talent management and corporate performance is therefore undoubtedly a key challenge for the HR function, especially in MNCs. Many scholars suggested the use of data analytics to ensure top talent’s productivity, engagement and retention. However, particularly the MNC context stresses the importance of going beyond the numbers provided by HR analytics to include qualitative measures of return on talent (ROT). For example, top managers articulate, nurture and utilise values to achieve desired organisational goals more than ever before. In that regard, top managers rely on global talents that live the corporate values and bring those values to every corner of the MNC. Accordingly, a well-designed ROT measure could include a measure of whether the key talents exhibit behaviours that reinforce the values that are central to the organisation’s core values and mission.

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GLOBAL TALENT MANAGEMENT Consequently, a holistic ROT measure should combine quantitative and qualitative measures, subjective employee perceptions and objective indicators of talent performance.

Myth 7. Talent decisions are “fair” An assumption often pervades organisations that talent decisions are fair, as they are based on performance management systems that have been developed at great expense in order to ensure consistency. In reality, talent management often fails because top managers do not always have accurate information or enough time to collect and analyse info. Furthermore, they have limited cognitive capabilities to make a judgement using all pertinent information. The situation is even more complicated in MNCs, as there are at least three types of distance – structural, geographical and social – that limit managers to “good-enough” decisions rather than ideal ones. In MNCs, it is important to recognise the limitations of systems and processes aimed at standardising ratings of performance and potential across the global organisation.

In reality, organisations must ensure that talent decisions are based on a number of different inputs, such as performance reviews, 360 degree feedback, assessment and development centres, and other culturally appropriate inputs. These should be combined with talent discussion forums in which senior leaders assess talent in a more qualitative way.

Conclusions and implications While global talent management may have entered the mainstream practitioner context, a number of misguided myths prevail. Our consideration of these myths is in line with recent calls for the development of evidence-based HR, a call for the inclusion of critical thinkers in the GTM function. The following of fads and fashions, and the uncritical adoption of “best practices” must take a back seat to critical reflection and the evaluation of tools and techniques to advance the GTM agenda.

This approach also has some practical implications for those MNCs considering investments in GTM. MNCs should: 1. Align their GTM with global strategy 2. Establish a differentiated architecture for GTM 3. Differentiate among the strategic positions 4. Place 'A' players in strategic positions International HR Adviser Summer

and establish policies for dealing with 'B' and 'C' players for every strategic position 5. Review the role of the corporate HR function in GTM. In this regard, corporate HR should be responsible for: (a) developing, implementation and measuring the effects of GTM; (b) balancing global and local talent needs; and (c) making GTM a basis for global employer branding through differentiation.

References Boston Consulting Group (2007), The Future of HR: Key Challenges Through 2015, Düsseldorf: Boston Consulting Group.

Economist Intelligence Unit (2006), The CEO's Role in Talent Management: How Top Executives from Ten Countries Are Nurturing the Leaders of Tomorrow.

London: The Economist.

Boudreau, J.W., and Ramstad, P.M. (2007), Beyond HR: The New Science of Human Capital, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Evans, P., Pucik, V., and Bjorkman, I. (2011), The Global Challenge (2nd ed.), London: McGraw Hill.

Acknowledgement We thank the participants of the Global HR Seminars on Global Talent Management organised by Copenhagen Business School and Confederation of Danish Industries in December 2010. We are especially grateful to Maria Pejter, A.P. Møller- Mærsk for inspiration and support. The full version of this paper is published in the International Journal of Human Resource Management, volume 24, issue 9.

Dana Minbaeva is a Professor of Strategic and Global Human Resource Management at the Department for Strategic Management and Globalization, and the Head of the Ph.D. school in Economics and Management, Copenhagen Business School. Her research on strategic international HRM, knowledge sharing and transfer in multinational corporations has appeared in such journals as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Review, Management International Review, etc. Dana is on Editorial Boards of Human Resource Management and Human Resource Management Journal. Previously, she has taught in Kazakhstan, Russia, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, and Finland as well as having held visiting research positions in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada.

David Collings is Professor of HRM at Dublin City University, Ireland and Visiting Professor of HRM at King's College London where he teaches on the International HR Academy. He is also the editor (joint) of the Human Resource Management Journal and Irish Journal of Management.

David’s teaching focuses on human resource management, international human resource management, talent management and international management. He has taught and delivered executive education in the US, UK, Iceland, France and Denmark. He also actively consults with a number of global organisations.

International HR Adviser is pleased to announce our Media Partnership with

Attend The Corporate Education & Learning Innovation Summit 2013 September 18-19, 2013 – Chicago, IL, United States of America More information on the event can be found at www.cross.americanleaders.com/CorpEdLearningInnovSummit

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Global Taxation Update Belgium Social Security Updates There have been some important changes in Belgian national legislation that will impact international employment conditions. Furthermore, the scope of the European Regulations on the coordination of social security schemes has been extended.

Limosa obligation for self-employed suspended Belgian law imposes the requirement of prior notification when foreign employees, self-employed individuals and apprentices who are not subject to Belgian social security come to work on a temporary or part-time basis in Belgium. Exceptions are available depending on the duration or nature of the work in Belgium.

In 2009, the European Commission informed Belgium that the requirement of a prior declaration with such broad scope appeared to be incompatible with the freedom to provide services within the EU. Failure to convince the Commission that the measure was necessary to combat social security fraud meant that the case was brought before the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”).

In its decision of 19 December 2012, the ECJ confirmed the Commission’s findings and declared that the administrative procedure and detailed information to be provided by the self-employed individuals goes beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives and is therefore deemed disproportionate.

The impact of the judgment is still to be assessed. It seems that there is political pressure to adhere to the Limosa notification and as a result the procedural and administrative obligations will be adapted.

On the official Limosa website it is stated that “the notification for selfemployed persons is temporarily no longer compulsory. The absence of a declaration does not give rise to any penalties. The same applies for the control requirement by the Belgian customer. The judgment is of immediate application”.

Anti-abuse measure against secondment fraud From 10 January 2013 a new measure came into force to tackle abuse in relation to the applicable social security regime.

The new provisions allow the Belgian

courts, social security institutions and social inspectors to disregard an A1 form and apply the Belgian social security legislation from the first day of the abuse of the coordination rules. Abuse is defined as intentionally circumventing the application of the Belgian social security scheme by incorrectly applying the coordination rules.

There is however extensive case law by the ECJ regarding the binding nature of the A1 form and the non-contestability of the form by the national courts and social security institutions, as long as it has not been withdrawn by the issuing authority. As a result, the anti-abuse provisions are unlikely to be deemed compatible with EU law.

Stricter application of the prohibition of putting at disposal of personnel In Belgium, in principle, employers are not allowed to put employees at the disposal of another company (the user).

This strict prohibition had been moderated in the past and certain instructions given by the user were allowed. Again, within the framework of tackling social security fraud, the definition of exercising employer’s authority has now been restricted.

The receiving company is now only allowed to give instructions regarding the health and safety regulations applicable in the company or instructions that are explicitly detailed and described in a written agreement concluded between the employer and the user. Furthermore, this agreement cannot reduce the employer’s authority and the practical execution of the agreement must be in line with the details as listed in the agreement.

When these regulations are not complied with, putting employees at the disposal of the user is forbidden. In such cases, the user and the employee are considered to be bound by an employment agreement of undefined duration. Both the original employer and the user are jointly liable for the social security contributions, the salary and any other benefit included in the agreement. In addition, criminal and administrative sanctions can be imposed.

Taking into account this new provision as well as the above described anti-abuse measure, where there is an international employment, it is important to have a well structured written service agreement

and ensure the seconded employees are in possession of the necessary A1 forms.

Failure to comply with these rules may result in the application of the Belgian social security.

The European Court of Justice rules on the irrefutable presumption of self-employed activity for company directors in Belgium At present, Belgian law states that persons designated as agents of a company or association which is liable to pay Belgian corporate income tax, or Belgian non-resident income tax, shall be irrefutably presumed to perform Belgium professional activities as self-employed persons. This presumption had already been declared as unconstitutional by the Belgian court for company directors living in Belgium. Foreign directors were still considered to exercise their duties in Belgium so that Belgium could levy social security contributions.

The ECJ was asked whether an EU Member State may presume that the “management from abroad of a company which is liable to tax in that State” means that the duties must be physically performed in that country.

In its ruling of 27 September 2012, the ECJ ruled that the national legislation of a member state cannot determine the place where an activity is carried out.

This is considered to be a matter for EU law. The location of the activity is the place where, in practical terms, the person concerned effectively carries out the actions connected with that activity. The practical consequence is that directors of a Belgium company residing abroad cannot automatically be considered as exercising a self-employed activity in Belgium and therefore be liable to Belgian selfemployed social security contributions.

It remains uncertain whether the Belgian legislation will be adapted and/or whether the authorities will issue new guidelines in this respect. Belgian companies with directors managing the company from abroad should be aware of this new development as the judgment might effectively impact the social security liability of their directors.

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GLOBAL taxation Belgium has a favourable tax regime for highly qualified expatriates working temporarily in Belgium whilst keeping their economic, social, personal and financial interests abroad. The expatriate is taxed on his worldwide income but the taxable amount is reduced by two additional deductions: the deduction for costs to the employer ("tax-free allowances") and the "travel exclusion".

The tax free allowance is capped at EUR 11,250 per year for executives employed in regular companies and at EUR 29,750 per year for executives employed in recognised headquarters or research and development centres. Both caps are accepted by the National Social Security Office (NSSO) as exempt from the social security calculation base.

At the end of 2012 the NSSO introduced a new policy (applicable as of January 2012) increasing the tax free allowance for social security purposes when companies apply the so-called technical note to executive expatriates employed in regular companies (cap of EUR 11,250).

The NSSO office has increased the tax free allowance to take into account the effective Belgian presence however this is capped at a maximum EUR 29,750.

BDO’s view The Belgian authorities have long been concerned by claims for exemption from Belgian social security. The relatively high level of contributions, particularly for employers means that many would, if given any choice, prefer to pay contributions in another EU country. Do expect further disagreement between Belgium & the EU on this issue.

Germany The German Statutory Notice on Employment Abroad – Infringement upon Freedom to Provide Services According to the German Statutory Notice on Employment Abroad, wages paid by a German employer to employees who are taxed on their worldwide income in Germany, or to employees who are non-resident taxpayers, are not subject to tax if the wages are paid for privileged work abroad.

The employment abroad has to be carried out without interruption for at least three months in a country where no double tax treaty regarding employment income exists. A certificate issued by the country abroad regarding the tax paid in that country is not necessary for the tax exemption in Germany. Therefore International HR Adviser Summer

in certain circumstances the privileged income remains completely untaxed.

The purpose of this exemption is for the promotion of the German export economy.

On that basis the German Statutory Notice on Employment Abroad is restricted to income paid by German employers.

However, on 28 February 2013, the European Court of Justice decided that the restriction to German employers is contradictory to the European law of freedom to provide services. Therefore, the income of privileged employment abroad will not be taxed if the state of residence of the employee and the state of residence of the employer are both member states of the EU/EEA. Therefore it is recommended that employees apply for tax-exemption on income that relates to all years that are not irrevocably assessed. Either the employer or the employee must request a certificate of exemption from the local tax office where the company is located. A wage tax deduction will not occur in this case. If the income tax has already been paid to the tax authority, the employee should apply for tax-exemption at his or her local tax office of residence.

to remain subject to the domestic legal provisions of the sending state for Social Security purposes.

The Convention requires that insurance periods which are completed in both contracting states have to be taken into account in order to fulfill the conditions of an entitlement for a pension. The agreement provides unrestricted pension payments in the respective contracting state. Pension amounts determined before the Convention on Social Security went into effect can be reassessed on request if an amendment is specifically required in respect of the provisions within the agreement. Pensioners cannot be treated less favourably as a consequence of such a reassessment.

BDO’s view Tax authorities within individual EU member states do need to be fully cognizant that national laws will be challenged if not compliant with EU law.

Netherlands

Germany and Brazil Convention on Social Security between Germany and Brazil The German-Brazilian Convention on Social Security came into force on 1 May 2013. This agreement is relevant to companies and employees located in one of the contracting states, most notably, in the context of extending and increasing foreign economic relations between Germany and Brazil.

The purpose of this convention is to avoid a double social insurance liability while employees are working within the respective contracting state for a limited time-period of 24 months or less. The regulations of the Convention on Social Security affect statutory pension insurance, accident insurance and unemployment insurance. The corresponding social security provisions of the sending state remain applicable for the employer and employee. In the case of a deployment for a period of more than 24 months, the employee can apply for an exemption

BDO’s view Do expect further social security agreements as global trade expands. The number of social security agreements lags significantly behind double taxation agreements but social security can be a significant cost for employees and employers. Additionally, expect further agreements involving Brazil as its economy and international influence continues to expand.

Employment tax for higher income individuals In the 2013 Dutch Budget, agreement measures were taken in respect of the economic crisis in the Netherlands. One of these measures is the introduction of employment tax of 16% payable by employers for higher income employees.

As a result, for wage tax returns submitted for the period to March 2013 a tax of 16% should have been paid to the Dutch tax authorities by every employer for employees with taxable income in 2012 exceeding EUR 150,000. This tax is payable in addition to the regular monthly employment tax amounts for 2012 which had already been paid to the Dutch tax authorities. This tax cannot be reclaimed from the employee.

The same rules may be applied in 2014 in relation to employment income received during 2013. Please note that this employment tax may not be in line with EU-regulation, based on a recent court case as set out below: Court Case On 12 February 2013 the court in Arnhem decided in a similar tax case regarding exceptional severance

global taxation payments that this legislation had been in force retro-actively to the beginning of a tax year. This is not in line with the EU-regulation according to the point of view of the Court (Article 1 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights) as the amount of taxes due regarding this income was not foreseeable at the moment the income was earned. In other words, the income will be taken into account as taxable income even though this income has been earned before the regulation has been in force.

It is expected that the Dutch tax authorities will appeal against this decision however, it is necessary to wait for the decision of the Supreme Court.

BDO’s view It is clear that adverse economic circumstances are driving tax authorities to seek additional taxes. Legal challenges are likely where income raising measures contravene national/EU regulations or are poorly drafted.

Singapore Personal tax rebate For the 2013 tax year only, a personal

income tax rebate of up to SGD 1,500 will be granted to Singapore resident individuals. The rebate will be 30% for individuals aged below 60, and 50% for individuals aged 60 and above.

Accommodation benefit Tax on the benefit of housing accommodation provided to employees will be increased from 2015. The tax charge will be based on the annual value of the premises, less rent paid by the employee, and the taxable value of furniture and fittings will be based on a percentage of the annual value of the housing accommodation. The taxable value of hotel accommodation will be the actual cost of the hotel stay benefit provided to the employee.

The IRAS will provide further details by October 2013.

BDO’s view It is pleasing to see tax authorities rebating surplus funds/taxes to individuals!

Employer provided accommodation has long been tax efficient in comparison with cash allowances. It will be interesting to see to what extent this advantage will be eroded.

Andrew Bailey is national head of human capital at BDO LLP. He has over 30 years’ experience in the field of expatriate taxation. BDO 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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Expatriate Adviser Summer

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Mobilising Talent - The Global Mobility Challenge Our recent two articles have focused on international assignment policies – the best policy for your company and the different types of assignment. This article continues the theme.

Let’s assume you now have an outline policy for your assignees and you are fully aware of the different types of assignments available. Your approach and procedures are known and you now want to be able to utilise your employees in different locations – will they move where you want them? What’s their view and how do you incentivise your employees to move?

Mobilising Talent – The Global Mobility Challenge – report ascertaining views Most surveys seek the views of the employer regarding mobility and the barriers or incentives facing the business. An alternative, relatively novel approach, is to ask the employees – would they move, where do they want to go, and what would encourage them to do so?

This article is based on a report written

by Ipsos on the findings from the 2012 Employee Mobility study, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Canadian Employee Relocation Council. In 2012, Ipsos partnered with the Canadian Employee Relocation Council (CERC) to launch a tracking study about employee mobility.

The global poll is co-sponsored by BDO. The survey was conducted in 24 countries around the world with approximately 18,500 respondents every month.

The need for international assignees In today’s global marketplace there is a continuing and in some cases an increasing need to be able to move individual employees to different countries. Naturally most people will move if they are offered enough money to do so, but the business and economic climate prevailing does not permit organisations to throw money at potential assignees. Whilst it may help matters, increasing an employee’s compensation is often not the incentive required to encourage an individual to agree to an international work assignment.

Historically, the main concern for the employer has been the cost of moving an

employee abroad. It has been often stated that the costs of utilising an assignee is between two to five times the costs of a local hire. With additional issues ranging from reconciling tax and payroll issues, to compensation incentives and assignment structuring, the survey reveals that understanding employee sentiment may help alleviate some employer concerns and encourage the right employee to make the move, whilst potentially saving money.

Incentives such as a pre-assignment visit, additional home leave, and language training together with immigration assistance for the assignees partner, can often entice an employee to move abroad. These incentives that employers can offer may actually reduce the cost of international relocation to the company, increase the return on investment and make for a much happier and more productive employee. Knowing what drives employee behaviour is the only way for an employer to effectively determine what those alternative incentives may be.

By focusing on what people are looking for businesses will be able to make better decisions regarding their international and expatriate policies.

Relocation is an investment in the employee and it is important that assignees are as effective as possible from the outset of their assignment. If the right compensation package and support structure is present employers will get the best return.

Top five incentives for employees to be more likely to take an international assignment The survey showed that the top 5 incentives to encourage mobility by ranking were: (see figure 1).

Fear of the unknown is clearly impacting employees’ willingness to work abroad, from language barriers to job security after taking an international assignment. The retention of international assignees, post assignment has long been an issue facing employers. The number of assignees who either have no position to return to or leave shortly after an international assignee is significant. In more buoyant economic times many employees have no fear for their position or future post assignment.

They are confident that their enhanced skill set and experiences will benefit businesses that are thriving and most would see a return to their old job/position as a distinct backward step. When economic times are difficult, job security and what the future may hold becomes of far greater significance. Job security naturally features very highly today given general economic woes but how many employers could realistically offer a former assignee their previous position on their eventual return from assignment?

Finding common ground The survey finds that employees from every geographic location overwhelmingly selected English speaking countries as their desired work relocation destination, with the United States (34%) ranking first, followed by the United Kingdom (22%), Canada (20%) and Australia (20%).

Assignees clearly want to understand more about the destination location – preassignment visits - and wish to enhance their ability to fit in by being able to speak the local language and have their partner work in that location. With the English language being a common language in which to converse wherever an individual is in the world arguably this just further drives the numbers

Figure 1

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international assignment policies of assignees wishing or being able to move to English speaking countries.

Global willingness to move Willingness to take a foreign work assignment is not the same around the globe.

There are certain geographic locations that have a concentration of employees who are eager to work abroad. The survey shows that employees from Latin America (34 per cent) and the Middle East and Africa (32%) are the most likely to relocate internationally for work. However, employees who say they are very likely to take the assignment are significantly less in Asia Pacific (24%), Europe (21%) and North America (20%). Perhaps some individuals see better economic opportunities elsewhere, whereas others may have stronger family or cultural/regional ties and wish to remain in their home location. Additionally, the issue of dual careers may be more prevalent in Europe & North America where the barriers to mobility that this creates may often just be too significant to overcome.

Not all employees are resistant to an international work assignment. Not surprisingly, the survey finds that there is a group of people who are eager to take foreign work assignments. This demographic consists of a mixed group, which includes senior executives/decision makers (30%), people under the age of thirty-five (28%), men (27%), low income earners (27%) and those who are not married (27%). Again, the existence of dual careers and the career progress/ income of the non assigned partner is a barrier as is the existence of children of school age – meeting the needs of the family is essential – and where neither of these two factors needs to be addressed individuals are typically more inclined to move.

Employees in different industries show a varied amount of eagerness to work aboard. People working in telecommunications and information technology (28%) and construction (28%) are most disposed to consider an international move for work, while only 25% of employees in commercial/retail and 23% of employees in education and medical sectors are very likely to consider international work relocation. There appears to be no significant percentage differences based on industry sector.

Despite industry or sector, companies need to be flexible in their approach to dealing with specific individuals, as well as put in place broad HR policies that address employee concerns.

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Summary The above comments provide a general overview of the report and the thoughts of employees about the possibility of an assignment. Addressing employees’ requirements and perspectives and blending these with the needs of the business helps to shape and direct an employers’ policy. An amalgamation of employers and employees views and requirements is likely to result in the best policy.

Do remember that policies should not be static documents. Business entities change

as does the economic and political climate in individual countries or regions.

Andrew Bailey is global leader for BDO International’s expatriate tax services and national head of human capital at BDO LLP. He has over 30 years’ experience in the field of expatriate taxation. 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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Cross-Cultural Experiences

Ensuring Strategic Impact And Protecting Your Investment Protecting your investment You would not put a key person into a new job or an important negotiation without the context, the ‘rules of the game’, or the necessary preparation, skills, and knowledge. It wouldn’t make business sense. It could be detrimental to both the organisation and the individual.

Yet we often do this with expatriates or those on overseas assignments.

We put people into a country they know nothing about, a culture that may have values very different from their own, with attitudes and etiquettes that elude them.

They may arrive ignorant of the local norms and ways of doing business, without knowledge of the language, or appreciation of the importance of relationships or hierarchies or whatever is central to that culture. And we are surprised that there are difficulties, or the work stalls, or that the assignment fails with deep personal trauma and at great cost to the organisation. So, when sending your staff overseas, you need to protect your investment if they are to have strategic impact.

Avoiding an expensive faux pas I had started an assignment in Angola.

All seemed to be going well when, unexpectedly my opposite number on the project (a senior state company manager), objected to an action I’d been pursuing and raised it with the Chairman.

Suddenly the whole $6m project was at risk. I found out that my ‘management by objectives’ and task-driven approach to get things done had inadvertently caused my Angolan colleague to lose face, and that I had subverted the hierarchy by my active networking up, down and across the organisational structure. I had to apologise, backtrack, rebuild bridges, and invoke senior management support – it was hard work restoring the damaged relationship.

So, it is not enough to be well meaning and simply apply a standard western approach, expecting everyone else to just do it your way. We have to understand the ways that things may be done differently, find out how we can adapt our approach as well as getting tasks completed, and discover a modus operandi that is acceptable and works in that organisational and cultural setting.

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Recognising power structures Cultures have different attitudes to hierarchy, position and status. Many are more hierarchical than our own, where those at the top are very much in charge, and who you know and have a relationship with is very important.

And often the line between personal and business matters is more blurred than we are used to. Where hierarchy is important, it is key to acknowledge status and titles, roles and responsibilities, power lines in the organisation (often vertical), approvals and permission. Such cultures require respect to be given appropriately, sometimes through gestures such as eye contact, through addressing senior people first, and ensuring appropriate protocols are followed. Undertaking a speech to launch a project in South Sudan at which the Vice President was present meant I had to take advice on how to address His Excellency and other senior figures in the audience. Clearly, showing appropriate respect is crucial if you are to achieve clarity and goodwill rather than misunderstanding and offence.

Communicating and building relationships When I arrived as an expatriate in South Africa, I sent out an email to my new network across thirteen African countries requiring urgent action. There was not one response. I followed up with an even more urgent request, which achieved the same result; electronic silence. A similar communication at my base in the UK would have been responded to almost immediately. On consultation with my boss, she asked ‘Have you met any of them, or spoken to them on the telephone?’ I replied, ‘No, I’ve not had the time.’ She advised, ‘That’s what you need to do.’

I quickly learnt that in such cultures, people do not deal with those who they don’t know, and that where possible I had to meet people face-to-face first, that I had to invest some time in getting to know them before I could expect them to respond to my urgent requests. Learning how things get down in a particular setting and what forms of communication work best is fundamental.

Communicating well across cultures

means recognising when ‘yes’ actually means ‘no’ and finding another way to get accurate information. It is understanding that in some cultures forming and maintaining relationships is viewed as more important than undertaking tasks, and in fact is the only way of getting tasks done.

Managing expectations and time When I saw the tight project plan that my western based organisation had put in place, I was sceptical. I knew they hadn’t left enough time for the key decisions that would have to be made within the partner state organisation in Angola, where many decisions had to be pushed right to the top, in this case the country’s President. Learning from the frustrations I had experienced with the project I was running – everything took longer, logistics were more difficult than at home, skill levels more varied – I realised that I had to build in more time, contingency time, in the schedule since people’s view of time here was more flexible than my own, and the unexpected frequently happens in developing country contexts.

Dealing with awkward requests On more than one occasion, there were requests (quietly made) to divert project funds. ‘I would like us to use some of the project fund to make a trip to…’ was one such approach, where the intended excursion had no relevance to the work.

To say ‘no’ directly can cause offence or damage a key relationship. But to say ‘yes’, if it’s a questionable or corrupt practice, is not tenable. On this occasion the response was, ‘Let’s discuss at the next Steering Committee meeting’ which met monthly and where project and financial issues were debated openly by all the partners. The request went away. In such situations, the solid and transparent processes of your organisation and its values can help you deliver a reasonable and ethically defendable response.

Showing respect and avoiding offence Acting disrespectfully and causing offence, even if done unintentionally, can disrupt or

Cross-Cultural Experiences damage business. This can be caused simply by being ignorant of customs or protocols – actions that may be seen as inconsequential or harmless in your own culture, may be a big issue elsewhere. For example, a few years back I was preparing to run some training in Sharjah, a conservative emirate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The organiser advised me; ‘Be careful with contact and whatever you do, do not shake hands with the women.’ I needed to be mindful of unspoken rules about physical contact, of gender relations, and also of religious needs such as time for people to pray. Such situations do not require us to change our own values, but rather to adjust our behaviour out of respect for the values of others and to avoid causing offence.

Transferring skills and knowledge An important role of many expatriates or assignees is to transfer skills and knowledge to local staff – to coach them.

But comments I have often heard from such expatriate coaches are: ‘It’s just quicker to do it myself.’ ‘The person I allocated the task did not deliver.’ ‘I don’t know if they really understood,’ ‘He took offence when I gave him some constructive feedback.’

Being an experienced technical expert is not enough; coaching across cultures requires skills where you are able to transfer knowledge clearly without belittling the other person and in an appropriate style to that culture. You have to check understanding in ways that get an honest answer, to tease out the real issues or difficulties without making someone lose face. And when you give feedback, it has to be done very sensitively, mindful of the on-going relationship.

Staying safe and healthy The site manager, upon my arrival in a remote part of South Sudan, gave me my induction/security briefing: ‘You’ll need a torch at night because of the snakes, zip the tent door up and sleep under the net if you don’t want to be eaten by mosquitoes, don’t touch the dogs as three local people have died of rabies this month, beware travelling on the roads because of bandits, take care in the bush due to landmines…’

Leaving the compound for some exercise the following morning, I was perturbed when chased off the path by a dog!

Your arrival in a new country or a new setting is when you are most vulnerable – it requires someone with good local

knowledge to show you what’s safe and to introduce you to the ‘rules of the game’ as quickly as possible. Then you can stay safe and healthy. Organisations have a duty of care to ensure such induction and support.

Preparing and supporting So what can your organisations do to help your expatriates and oversees assignees become culturally fluent as quickly as possible?

Firstly, prepare them adequately through cultural awareness, language training, country knowledge, and cross-cultural communication skills. The aim is to equip your expatriates with at least some of the cultural knowledge and skills they will need. Promote positive, open and curious attitudes to other cultures, and encourage (even select) people who are flexible, adaptable and resilient.

Secondly, provide on-going support, such as management and HR support from the home base and locally, and the advice of local managers and other expatriates/ assignees in country.

Doing the above will help your expatriates avoid faux pas, build relationships and communicate clearly, show respect to power structures and culture, coach others effectively, and stay safe and healthy. Ultimately, you will help ensure their strategic impact for your organisation, and protect your investment.

Peter Curran Peter Curran is a Training Consultant who works with Farnham Castle and organisations worldwide to enhance management skills and support leadership and HR teams to achieve organisational goals. Peter has over twenty years of experience with a multinational energy company, having undertaken Technical, Project, HR and Training roles. His last corporate job was as Learning and Development Manager for Africa, during which time he lived with his family as an expatriate in South Africa.

Peter has spent the last ten years working as a consultant mostly in developing countries such as Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan, with other projects in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. He consults with commercial, development and public sector organisations on capacity building, management and HR practices. He works alongside expatriate and national staff to enhance skills and performance, improve communication across cultures, and contribute to organisational and country development. www.farnhamcastletraining.com

Save The Date

Monday 3rd February 2014

The 2014 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition will be held at Hotel Russell, Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London Please put the date in your diary as this free one-day conference & exhibition is a must for all those involved in Global Mobility.

There will be six free seminars and over 35 companies and organisations with products and services to help you in your role of International HR Management.

For further information please email: helen@internationalhradviser.com

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Keeping calm in a crisis

Keeping Calm In A Crisis For those of us old enough to remember the television series Dad’s Army – “Don’t panic Mr Mannering” was one of Spike’s main lines – and one of my favourites! But how do we keep calm in a crisis? And how do we deal with the stressful things that come our way?

Stress is a tricky thing – it means different things to different people. And what is motivating to one person can be stressful to someone else. Put simply, stress is an emotional reaction to physical, psychological or emotional demands that are placed on us, and is often visible in the world of global mobility, both for the families relocating and those managing challenging assignments.

There are so many symptoms for stress – if you did a search on the internet you would get quite a long list – physical symptoms, behavioural, emotional and cognitive.

Symptoms can include increased irritability, severe mood changes, lack of concentration, black and white thinking, difficulty making decisions, being argumentative, losing your temper quickly, feeling overwhelmed, catching frequent colds or illnesses, trouble sleeping, tiredness, low or depressed mood, lack of energy, headaches, muscle tension, trouble relaxing, using stimulants such as alcohol to wind down etc., etc., etc. The list goes on.

So what happens to us in times of stress?

The stress response triggers adrenaline in the body – it is what gets us going – it stimulates the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ reaction in the body. Appropriate all those years ago maybe when we were running across the fields searching for food being chased by a rather large animal - but not so appropriate now.

It can actually lead us to do or say all sorts of things as a reaction to what is going on around us.

The stress response is basically there to keep us safe – to protect us. To stir us into an appropriate reaction.

If you feel like you might be experiencing high levels of stress in your life at the moment - the key is to understand what stress feels like for you – when things start to tip into overwhelm or you are feeling a little bit out of control.

Understand what that feels like to you – and the trick to that is getting out of your International HR Adviser Summer

head and recognising the feelings in your body. Not easily done when we spend so much time in our heads – particularly if you are in a very busy period in your life with lots of demands being placed on you.

Recognise the symptoms and how you are feeling. And recognise them before they get to a level where it is all too much.

So if the stress response triggers adrenaline – it is adrenaline that gets us going – it is adrenaline that gets and keeps us motivated to do things.

So if we look at it a different way stress is actually motivation!

Things only become stressful when we exceed our personal capacity to be able to cope.

So how do we learn how to cope? The key to boosting our resilience levels is to get regular exercise, have a healthy diet – including drinking plenty of water – and to keep our mind in a calm place! Here are three quick tips…

1. Relax Relaxation – some of us are good at it – some of us not. I know several people who just ‘don’t do’ relaxation.

It is an essential element in building up our resilience levels and our capacity for coping – for managing the stresses and strains in our lives.

Finding yourself with nothing to do – or an opportunity to sit quietly is a fantastic thing to experience. Out of sitting in boredom – without things planned in – can allow the space in our lives for new things to enter.

2. Breathe We all have to breathe – it’s what keeps us alive! But surprise, surprise – most of us don’t do it properly. Most of us keep our breathing at the top of our chest – a shallow breath. Particularly when we are busy, anxious or just caught up in ‘stuff ’ – we take shallow breaths.

Learning how to make full use of the breath is an incredible way not only to relax but also to boost your energy levels, control your emotions and achieve a sense of calm and peacefulness.

So try a different approach – try a deeper breath and see how you feel – experience the difference.

There are a few parts to this that build up – give it a go:

Full belly breathing Place your hands on your belly – now take a deep breath in through the nose. As you breathe in – feel your belly rise and as you breathe out – through your mouth – your belly will go back down.

By doing this you are opening up your diaphragm – and allowing all your organs to get a lovely stretch and loads more oxygen into the bargain! Which means an increase in energy and vitality. Silly not to really!

7:11 breathing 7:11 breathing is a great way to relax – great to practice at all times – also great to calm the nerves before a meeting, presentation, interview, or in a crisis!……

Breathe in for 7 and out for 11 – easy!

Find a count that is comfortable for you – maybe in for 4 and out for 6 or 7 but make sure that your out breathe is longer than the in-breathe. Added benefits are that counting distracts your mind away from its problems! And by breathing out for longer you will automatically induce the relaxation response in your body – your body will have no alternative than to calm down.

3. Visualise Many people don’t rate visualisation – but many people do.

Most athletes and top sports people are very open about how they practice their events in their mind – how they keep practicing – visualising – seeing themselves doing well – getting better – stronger – winning!

Visualisation is a great way to support yourself in bringing things into reality and coping with stress! Start by picturing what you want to achieve – then see yourself achieving it.

Seeing yourself achieving things – even in your minds eye – will boost your motivation – your brain will record and recollect it – you will be improving your belief in yourself.

Janice Haddon has over 25 years’ experience in strategic and operational Human Resources and management consultancy.

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GLOBAL MOBILITY SURVEY

Survey Shows Growth In International Employee Transfers Fuelled By "Emerging Markets" The 2013 Global Mobility Survey, the largest annual analysis of international mobility programmes, reports continued growth in the number of international employee assignments undertaken by international businesses and their HR departments, and 41% of businesses expecting the number of international employee transfers to increase in the coming year.

The study surveyed HR departments and their employee mobility functions in 1,273 companies across a range of industry sectors in 70 countries.

The report found significantly more growth in employee mobility programmes that involved countries that are classed as “emerging markets”, compared to programmes relating to non-emerging markets. In addition to this, International HR Adviser can share the following summary of some of the highlights from the survey:

Growth drivers are changing The results show a 30% net increase in the number of organisations reporting that they had grown their assignment activity over the previous year (those reporting increased activity less those reporting decreased activity). These organisations also expect this trend to continue in the next 12 months. There are two drivers of this growth: • Emerging markets – more mobility programmes managed from these locations reported assignment growth than in non-emerging markets • Expansion – most of the organisations experiencing growth put it down to expanding operations within existing markets (57%) or expanding into new markets (52%).

The Rise and Rise of Emerging Markets ‘Emerging’ markets is a term which many find out-dated and potentially misleading.

There’s an argument that some ‘emerging’ markets have well and truly emerged.

Indeed, one-in-eight of those companies International HR Adviser Summer

surveyed for this report are organisations with programmes managed in an ‘emerging’ market. Far from following in the wake of developed economies, these organisations are leading the way and becoming a key source of investment into other emerging economies. However, ‘emerging markets’ is undoubtedly a useful concept, especially if a relatively objective definition such as that employed by the IMF is adopted (based on GDP per capita, diversification of industry and level of economic integration). It’s also clear that however we define these markets, they continue to be the key driver of growth in international mobility. Organisations are continuing to expand into destinations

that would historically never have been considered. It is therefore important that organisations and their HR and mobility teams understand the unique conditions of each destination; infrastructure, culture, politics and security. This section of the survey looks in more detail at changes in assignment destinations and origins, which destinations pose the greatest challenge and examines the nature of these challenges. So is it true?

Are emerging markets really as important as we’re led to believe? In short, yes.

Three quarters of companies say that emerging markets are important to their mobility programme; one third go so far as to describe them as “very important.”

Emerging markets are both a source of growth and beneficiaries of it too. 78% of organisations report that emerging markets are important for their upcoming mobility plans with mainland China, Brazil and India benefitting most from this investment. Over the coming 12 months this pattern continues with ‘second tier’ cities in China set to become the most targeted destinations. These markets are not only the highest growth locations, they are also felt to be the most challenging. Cultural differences need to be overcome (48% identify this as a challenge), there are concerns about security (45%), and the ‘state’ presents a number of challenges – differences in legislation (41%), complicated tax systems (35%), and the political climate (33%).

Lack of local family related facilities was also a notable trend.

Emerging Markets as Destinations Unsurprisingly, mainland China represents the most significant destination globally in terms of pure numbers. However, in mobility terms, it helps to consider China as a collection of micro markets. There is a clear distinction between centres such as Beijing and Shanghai that operate sophisticated mobility programmes and assignee populations. And those 2nd and 3rd tier centres which are still very much

GLOBAL MOBILITY SURVEY assignment destinations and considered as emerging economies.

As the original BRIC countries continue to develop we expect these 2nd and 3rd tier centres to become the next hot destinations, these can be considered ‘Micro Emerging’ Markets. This trend defines these centres as a focus for 2013.

Looking ahead, the Top 5 emerging market destinations for the coming 12 months are China Mainland (2nd Tier) 19%, Brazil 14%, India 11%, China Mainland 8% and Indonesia 5%.

Challenging Destinations If we look at the assignment destinations felt to present the greatest challenge, emerging markets presented the greatest headaches for HR and mobility departments. Within these markets mainland China, India and Brazil take a clear lead as the most challenging assignments (as they did in 2012). The destinations felt to present the greatest challenge reflect continued expansion into emerging markets. China (17%), India (10%) and Brazil (7%) take a clear lead as the most challenging destinations. But that’s not to say that developed economies are necessarily any easier. 6% name the USA as a challenging assignment destination which is marginally ahead of the proportion saying the same about Russia (4%).

“The world is changing and its centre of gravity is moving east. Today’s economic powerhouses of India and China are increasingly becoming headquarter locations rather than the far-flung outposts of yesteryear.” said Brian Friedman, Founder and CEO of the Forum for Expatriate Management.

Adapting Assignment Packages Results show that not all emerging markets are classified as hardship locations, however, all those identified as hardship locations are emerging markets. Organisations operating in hardship locations offer enhanced assignment packages to meet the challenges associated with these locations. 52% offered a special hardship allowance as an incentive, in recognition of the perceived reluctance for assignees to take positions in hardship locations. Furthermore, 45% offered emergency evacuation, and 44% offered a vehicle with driver as security issues were highlighted as a significant challenge for hardship locations. For example, 96% of organisations identified security as a key concern for assignments to Nigeria.

Change in how organisations manage the control of their mobility programmes from 2012 to 2013

Do you expect your organisation to become less focused on reducing the cost of its mobility programme over the coming 12 months?

Managing costs not forgotten as assignment activity grows…

As in previous years, effective cost management topped the list of priorities for mobility programmes. Two thirds (69%) report that they expect to be more focussed on cost reduction over the next 12 months. Three actions dominate these attempts to cut costs: • Seeking process efficiencies (46% identify this as an area of focus) • Tighter supplier management (43%) • Changes to benefits packages within mobility policies (33%).

Although Programmes managed from emerging markets are less likely to be cost sensitive, an important difference between emerging markets and the rest of the world emerges here. Those mobility programmes managed from emerging markets are less likely to seek cost reductions by doing anything that might negatively impact employees.

A Delegation of Control The report also showed that for those organisations who regularly transfer their employees internationally, more of their HR departments were decentralising the way that they manage global mobility operations away from a single global centre of control. Between 2011 and 2013, 8% less organisations now

manage their programmes centrally and 9% more organisations decentralise the management of their mobility programmes (i.e. either regionally or locally). The report showed more had adopted regional approaches to how they manage their mobility programmes in order to focus on increased growth in assignments to emerging market countries in Asia, South America and now Africa.

“This has especially been seen in international mobility programmes where practices between locations have differed for no good reason and this inconsistency has become apparent for serial expatriates.

Delegation control of mobility programmes to a regional unit makes sense when either movement is confined to a region, or where there is a regional scheme (with different terms and conditions) running in parallel to a global scheme,” said Peter Reilly, Director HR Research & Consultancy, Institute for Employment Studies.

Experts interviewed in conjunction with the report cite reasons for this trend including a changing marketplace, improved skillsets in emerging markets, economic challenges in the West, accelerated growth in Brazil, India and particularly China, and sheer volume of assignments in and out of regional locations.

“Often organisations have regional global mobility teams where there is a critical mass of employees moving into or out of a region. This justifies the headcount and allows the Global Mobility Managers face-to-face time with employees, removing the challenges posed by time zone differences,” said Emma Gibbs, Director, The Expat Academy.

“For companies unfamiliar with a region in which they wish to do business, outsourcing provides a number of Summer International HR Adviser

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GLOBAL MOBILITY SURVEY advantages, that might include payroll and benefit administration, recruiting and hiring support, employee assignment coordination, immigration, transportation, and communication. But one of the most critical areas where outsourcing supports the company is to provide a ‘boot on the ground’ representative to address company needs and to communicate issues back to the corporation,” said Peggy Smith, SCRP, SGMS, President/CEO, Worldwide ERC.

Conclusion The Global Mobility Survey analyses key trends relating to international employee mobility and HR. The report also investigates trends in terms of how companies manage their employee mobility programmes, how they structure their assignment packages, critical aspects of managing mobility programmes such as cost management, compliance and management of risk, key tools used to manage employee mobility programmes, “HR departments within international organisations are seeing an increase in the number of employees that work internationally”.

International HR Adviser Summer

Andrew Dalglish, Director of independent research company Circle Research, commented “the subject of emerging markets has dominated the headlines and has prompted additional research into this area. The results of the Global Mobility Survey research show that traditional growth

markets still present significant challenges to mobility programmes and that new frontier locations in Asia, South America and Africa look set to bring their own set of unique circumstances.

Copies of the report can be requested from www.globalmobilitysurvey.com Mike Brazier Global Mobility Survey Research Editor, commented “The Global Mobility Survey continues to provide new and detailed insight into key mobility trends. We hope everyone finds the information, the Report and the Web Portal useful for benchmarking their own programmes.”

T: +44 (0)7765881649 About the Global Mobility Survey The Global Mobility Survey is the most robust review of multinational mobility programmes. The results are collected from 1,273 company respondents from across North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Asia and the Pacific region and span a wide range of industry sectors.

The Global Mobility Survey is conducted

by Circle Research and commissioned by Santa Fe Group. Copies of the report can be requested from www.globalmobilitysurvey.com

global cost of living survey

Tokyo Knocked Off The Top Spot In The List Of The World's Most Expensive Cities For Expatriates Oslo, Norway tops the cost of living ranking For the first time in three years, Tokyo is no longer the most expensive location for international assignees. The city has been overtaken by Norway's capital Oslo, and now lies in sixth place in the ranking. These were among the findings of the latest cost of living research by ECA International.

At the top of the global list, Oslo is followed by the Angolan capital of Luanda, where the goods and services commonly purchased by expatriates are difficult to access and command a premium.

Stavanger (Norway), Juba (South Sudan) and Moscow (Russia) are also now more expensive than Tokyo. These cities make up the top 5 most expensive locations for expatriates globally.

"Tokyo has always been an expensive place for global companies to send staff, and, despite its five-place fall since last year, that remains the case," said Lee Quane, ECA's regional director, Asia.

"The significant depreciation of the Yen against other major currencies in recent months is the primary reason for this drop. It means that for many companies, the cost of maintaining their assignees' purchasing power while posted there has fallen. But it's important not to exaggerate the position – Tokyo is still the world's sixth most expensive city, and the most expensive in Asia."

Companies sending employees on international assignment will often pay an allowance to ensure that their assignees' spending power is not compromised.

To help multinational companies calculate these allowances, ECA carries out two Cost of Living Surveys per year, comparing a basket of consumer goods and services commonly purchased by assignees in more than 400 locations worldwide.

Living costs for assignees are affected by inflation, availability of goods and exchange rates, all of which can have a significant impact on assignee remuneration packages. Certain living costs such as accommodation rental,

utilities charges, car purchases and school fees are usually compensated for separately in expatriate packages, so this data is not included in this survey.

Round the world highlights Europe Oslo not only has the most expensive cost of living for international assignees in Europe, but also the world. Norway has among the highest standards of living in the world, largely derived from oil revenue.

While prices there have increased little in the last year, the free-floating Norwegian Krone has remained strong, reflecting the country's relative economic resilience.

Within Europe, the Norwegian capital is followed by Stavanger (3rd globally) and Moscow (5th). The Russian Rouble has weakened between surveys against major currencies but the cost of goods and services in ECA's basket in Moscow has nevertheless increased more than 10% again this year.

Despite falls in prices and the Swiss Franc weakening against other major currencies over the past year, Swiss locations remain among the top ten most expensive locations for expatriates in the world.

British locations are among those in the region to have fallen most in the ranking.

Central London dropped 21 places and is currently in 87th place globally, largely as a result of the pound depreciating against other major currencies.

The Eurozone debt crisis still affects much of Europe and cost of living in many locations across the region fell as a result of the weak euro and low inflation compared with other regions.

Chisinau, capital of Moldova, is the cheapest European location in terms of cost of living for international assignees.

It ranks 225th globally.

Asia Within Asia, Japanese cities still dominate the top of the cost of living ranking - 4 of the region's top 5 most expensive locations are found there. Seoul joins them, having jumped from 7th to 3rd most expensive Asian location (and from 29th to 14th

globally). Not only have the prices of goods and services there increased at a faster rate than the previous year, but the Won has also strengthened against major currencies thereby pushing up costs there for many international assignees.

Beijing (24th globally), Shanghai (26th), Singapore (36th) and Hong Kong (38th) complete the list of the top 10 most expensive locations in Asia. On average, prices of items in ECA's cost of living basket for Chinese locations have increased little or even seen small decreases this year. As a result, Chinese locations have fallen slightly down the ranking but the on-going strength of the Yuan against major currencies has prevented them from dropping too far.

Indian locations continue to be among the region's cheapest in terms of cost of living for international assignees. New Delhi, ranked 200th globally is followed

by Mumbai (215th).

Karachi, ranked 256th globally, is the least expensive Asian location for expatriates.

Americas Despite dropping down the ranking, Caracas, ranked 33rd globally, remains the most expensive location in the Americas for international assignees. Manhattan and Vancouver follow, ranking 43rd and 51st respectively.

The weakening of the Brazilian real against many major currencies over the year has more than offset the 6% price increase overall of items in ECA's cost of living basket for Brazil and locations there continue to drop down the global ranking. While Rio de Janeiro is the 4th most expensive location in the Americas, it has dropped 20 places globally to 52nd spot.

The economic situation in Argentina remains complicated. Despite showing signs of slowing, inflation there is still above 20% while the black-market peso exchange rate in Argentina has soared.

Buenos Aires has risen from 76th to 64th position in the global cost of living ranking. Two years ago it ranked 130th.

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global cost of living survey Australia For the first time in recent years, all the Australian cities have seen slight falls down the global ranking. While the Aussie dollar remains a strong global currency, it has weakened against some major currencies. Additionally, the rate at which prices have increased has slowed since a year ago.

Sydney remains the most expensive of the Australian locations surveyed. It is in 17th position globally followed by Canberra (23rd).

Middle East Tel Aviv ranked 37th globally remains the most expensive location for assignees in the Middle East. Dubai has gained 8 places and is positioned 174th worldwide.

Despite rampant inflation, the introduction of a floating exchange rate in Iran has seen Tehran plummet down the cost of living ranking to become the cheapest location listed. At the official rate, however, the city would be among the world’s top 10 most costly, illustrating the dramatic impact of currency value on the global ranking.

Africa Four of the world's 20 most expensive expatriate locations are in Africa: Luanda (2nd globally), Juba (4th), Brazzaville (18th) and Kinshasa (19th). The cost of exporting and transporting items commonly purchased by international assignees in these locations are likely to be high. In addition, the commodity boom in recent years has led to currency appreciations in commodity-exporting markets like Angola. South African locations Durban (253rd globally) and Cape Town (251st) are among some of the cheapest locations in the world while locations in Malawi are those to have seen the continent's biggest falls down the ranking. Cost of living there has fallen significantly following the devaluation of the kwacha after the government was recommended by the IMF to float the currency.

About ECA's Cost of Living Survey ECA International's cost of living indices are calculated based upon surveys carried out annually in March and September using a basket of day-to-day goods and services. The data used above refers to year-on-year movements between ECA's March 2013 and 2012 surveys.

International HR Adviser  Summer

For further information or to interview an ECA International spokesperson about these findings, please contact: Lee Quane Josephine Woolley Regional Director - Asia PR Manager T: +852 2121 2388 M: +852 9330 2570 T: + 44 (0) 207 351 5000 E: lee.quane@eca-international.com E: josephine.woolley@eca-international.com

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Tier Cities In 3rd And Even 4thFeat Challenges For HR - Investing ures include: Features include: China Order London 2012 • Salaries: The New World Olympic and Nurturing Global Leaders Paralympic Employment: nal Mobility Management Games: Help Of The Possible In Internatio To Boldly ing You To Data Analytics - The Art Go Where Relocation: Update Taxation Overcome Global No Employe • What WalThe Hurdles e Has Gon Global Immigration Update Mart Has Taug Global Mob e Before Management ht Us About ility Strategy: Talent • Surveys Global Trends Expansion It Is Time Into Europe To Treat Mob Retaining Expatriate ility Like A Staff: How Business Imp To Keep Expa Advisory Panel for this issue: erative Global Imm triates From igration • Leaving Global Tax Update

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Health

A Healthy Global Workforce We live in a globalised world.

Organisations large and small can do business across continents.

International businesses have increasingly diverse workforces. The HR challenge remains the same, of course: making sure employees are at their best, whether they’re based in Singapore or Sydney, Manchester or Mumbai.

The idea that a healthier workforce leads to improved profit margins is nothing new. Healthier employees take less sick leave and tend to be more productive. Employees value their health – working for an employer that takes a genuine, proactive interest in their wellbeing can lead to greater engagement, work and loyalty.

In truly international organisations, your approach to employee health might need to be different from region to region.

Regardless, being proactive is important.

You need a well-rounded, relevant and engaging offer.

Offering the right health benefits package should be part of that. But a more personal approach looking at wider wellbeing, preventative measures and your employees’ individual circumstances will be most meaningful.

Here’s some food for thought for HR professionals working with international, and internationally-mobile employees.

Health for frequent flyers Employees that are regularly on the move need to make very specific choices about their health. Here are some tips on guidance you can offer colleagues to help them make healthy ones.

1. Maintaining good blood circulation while flying Sitting still for long periods of time can put people at risk of developing deep vein thrombosis, a condition where a blood clot forms in a deep vein, usually in the leg. It can lead to serious complications.

Remind frequent flyers regularly about reducing the risk of DVT by exercising their legs at least once every hour. Consider boosting awareness of the issue by purchasing flight socks for these employees.

need to take more care over what they eat and drink. Contaminated food and water could lead to diseases like cholera, typhoid and hepatitis, but is easily avoided through: • Drinking bottled or boiled water • Ordering drinks without ice • Washing hands before eating • Peeling fruit and raw vegetables • Eating freshly cooked and piping hot food.

3. Protecting skin from the sun Employees spending time in a warmer climate than they’re used to should be extra vigilant. They should take extra care to protect their skin in the sun if they have: • A family history of skin cancer • Moles or freckles • Pale skin and/or fair or red hair and/or blue eyes • Skin that burns easily or if it’s been badly sunburnt before.

4. Regular check-ups before travelling abroad Getting ill when you’re far from home can be a stressful experience. Regular health and dental check-ups can nip any minor complaints in the bud before they get more serious – and provide peace of mind for regular travellers. Longer-term problems can also be avoided if they are caught early and will mean less time spent away from work in the long run.

Health insurance is most often associated with access to critical care in times of emergency or distress. However, it’s worth checking what your company’s cover includes as your staff may be able to access free health and dental check-ups as standard – and your employees are more likely to take advantage of them if they know it’s free or a low-cost co-payment.

Health and the workplace Instilling good habits in the workplace early on will have significant, long-term effects for your employees and your business. Advice for employers on dealing with issues like repetitive strain injury (RSI) and back-pain is widely available, but there are a broader range of issues to consider.

2. Eating and drinking safely

Mental wellbeing

When travelling on business to certain parts of the world, employees may

Stress can act as a gateway to other, more serious health problems such as depression

International HR Adviser Summer

and heart disease so it’s important to address it in its early stages. Of course, work isn’t always the origin, but wherever it comes from stress can affect attendance, performance and team morale, so it’s important to have mechanisms that allow you to spot and address it wherever possible.

Signs of stress in colleagues can include: • Reduced work performance • Child-like behaviour like sulking, crying or arguing • Aggression • Poor timekeeping • Absenteeism • Physical signs such as tremors, stomach problems, weight gain or loss • Increased drinking or smoking.

If you notice any of the above among your employees, there are a number of ways you can help to reduce this stress: 1. Consider how demands on the employee could be better managed, including workload and working environment 2. Offer the employee more influence over how they carry out their role 3. Consider what resources, encouragement or sponsorship could be provided 4. Promote a positive working environment to avoid conflicts 5. Be clear about the employee’s role, giving them defined duties that match the organisation’s broader objectives 6. Consider whether organisational changes should be better dealt with and communicated to staff.

Stress can easily be overlooked as an inevitable part of working life. But failing to spot the signs and tackle them early can lead to it becoming embedded in your culture. A stress-free workforce is more committed, productive, and serves its customers better.

Obesity Obesity carries serious health risks, increasing the likelihood of a range of diseases including diabetes, heart disease and several forms of cancer. It also increases the risk of high blood pressure, osteoarthritis and strokes. It contributes to back problems – a major cause of absence from work.

Obesity has also been linked to sleeping problems. Not only is this another cause

health of falling productivity, but it can even be dangerous if your employees are driving or operating heavy machinery.

It’s a sensitive subject for employers to approach, but there are ways to offer guidance to your employees without making them feel uncomfortable. For most employers, the best way to tackle obesity is to encourage a healthy diet and active lifestyle among employees. You could do this through: 1. Introducing policies that encourage physical activity. Your travel expenses policy could encourage walking to and from work, for example 2. Encouraging cycling to work by providing showers and secure parking spaces for bikes. Make the most of any government initiatives that allow employers to loan cycles to employees as a tax free benefit 3. Supporting and encouraging lunchtime walks and local leisure activities 4. Encouraging staff to walk over and speak to colleagues face to face rather than phoning or emailing

5. Thinking about the nutritional value of canteen meals and the contents of vending machines. Could you provide free fruit?

6. Providing gym facilities, or contributing towards gym membership. If your staff are already covered by a provider, they may have access to preferential rates at health and fitness clubs.

Health insurance as a benefit In many countries around the world healthcare cover is considered as important as a company pension. It is becoming increasingly common in benefits packages for employees posted overseas and can play a big part in hiring and retaining the most talented people.

Selecting the right health cover is therefore crucial, and this revolves around making sure it matches the individual needs of your employees.

Although only a handful of places currently require all expats to have private medical cover in place, such as Abu Dhabi, there is a growing likelihood that

it will become compulsory, particularly in the GCC region.

But while offering the right private medical cover is important, there is a bigger job to be done than just offering a benefits package alone.

To offer a tangible and valued benefit to employees, a health insurance plan should ideally be one part of an organisation’s broader efforts to engage employees on their health. Done well, educating and encouraging your workforce to look after their own wellbeing, both inside and outside of the workplace, will make a real difference to them – and to your business’ bottom line.

By Dr Mark Simpson, Medical Director, Bupa International.

For further information about Bupa International and its business healthcare plans, call +44 (0) 1273718308 from 8am-6pm Monday to Friday and 9am-1pm on Saturday, or visit us online at www.bupa-intl.com/for-business.

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education

The IB Diploma, For University And Beyond Internationally-mobile families have been at the forefront of recognising the many advantages international curricula offer their children. But it’s not just international families enjoying the benefits of such programmes. Increasingly, universities worldwide are seeking International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma graduates and now employers, recruiting 21st Century talent, are also discovering the combination of academic rigour and the valuable ‘soft’ skills embedded in the programme.

At a recent event at the International School of London (ISL) Surrey, partnered with Families in Global Transition (FIGT) UK, business leaders, relocation and education consultants, plus head teachers from across the UK attended a forum on the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP) and discovered how well it prepares students not just for university, but for life in the 21st Century Innovation Economy.

The IB Diploma was originally founded to give both breadth and depth to preuniversity study. Offered as a two-year course of study prior to university, the diploma is a truly international diploma, offered in 135 countries. The ten major countries for IB students are: the US, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Mexico, India, Spain, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Sweden. Students are required to study six subjects – three at higher level which is like a British A-Level or US Advanced Placement Course – and three at standard level. The six subjects must include two languages, maths, science, humanities (history, economics, business studies, etc), and a sixth subject which can either be another course from the previous categories or some form of the arts. Additionally, students are required to complete a 4000-word extended essay which is like a university-level research project, a Theory of Knowledge course which is like a beginning philosophy course, and a range of creative, active and service projects.

Paul Morris, IB Coordinator and Deputy Head of ISL London, noted that universities worldwide are increasingly seeking Diploma graduates. He cited recent research showing that the IB DP is gaining increasing credence with the International HR Adviser Summer

better Higher Education Institutions (HEI). 44.2% of all IB graduates attend the Top HEIs, compared with 20% of A-Level students. Additionally, Oxford extends offers to 7% of all applicants, but nearly 6% of offers are made to IB candidates even though they represent less than 1% of the applicant pool.

But it isn’t just UK universities which like the IB. The five colleges and universities which accept the highest number of IB international student enrolments are Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, New York University, University of Southern California and Colby College.

According to Morris, “Universities like the IB because the students are well-rounded, independent learners and good critical thinkers. They are impressed by the consistency of grading; there has been no grade inflation. Finally, universities single out the extended essay because they feel it prepares them for university level study.”

Whilst the academic rigour is an important part of the programme, what universities and, increasingly, employers are looking for are the embedded values.

According to Professor Tony Wagner of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, speaking during a presentation in the Davos World Economic Forum, “tomorrow’s school-leavers will need critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, the ability to collaborate and work in a team; advanced oral and written communication skills, agility and adaptability.”

These skills are at the heart of the IB Programme in its Learner Profile. The curriculum, from the primary years through the IBDP, develops learners who are critical-thinkers and problem-solvers; communicators who speak more than one language with excellent written and verbal communication skills, adept at working in teams. They are principled and openminded, accustomed to considering and understanding differing viewpoints from around the world. According to Professor Wagner, where once HR departments hoped to discover such traits five years ago, now it is a prerequisite even to get a job interview.

Referring to research on future work skills, Claire Snowdon, Co-Chair of Families in Global Transition UK, presented

information on the key competencies needed in the world of work. She cited eight critical competencies for graduates which included: 1. Global mindset 2. Global knowledge 3. Cultural agility 4. Advanced communication skills 5. Management of complex interpersonal relationship 6. Team working and collaboration 7. Learning agility 8. Adaptability, flexibility, resilience, drive and self-awareness.

Tying in with the IB programme, she noted that employers were looking for “the ability to work collaboratively with teams from a range of backgrounds and countries, excellent communication skills both speaking and listening, an ability to embrace multiple perspectives and challenge thinking, and an ability to influence clients across the globe from different cultures. Time and again, we find that some of the key skills and competencies are the focus of the IB programme.”

These points were reinforced by Regional HR Manager for the Europe Division of the American Bureau of Shipping, Kimberley Blasingame, GPHR, who picked up on this research. “This morning, we’ve been hearing about the IB programme and what research is telling us and we’re all saying the same thing. You can pretty much take that IB programme and put it in the corporate world. We use those same skills. We want kids to go to college and get good grades, by all means, I want someone who’s done well academically, but I also want someone who has been on a sports team, has done some community service and gets on with a barrage of people from different cultures because they’re going to need to think and work as a team and fit into our diverse and global corporate community. With the IB programme, the skill set we need is embedded in it, so those students are already one step ahead.”

Tarek Mouganie, ISL IB graduate and CEO and founder of Affinity, a financial institution that provides loan and financial literacy programmes to entrepreneurs in Ghana, echoed these points

education based on his recruitment experience.

Previously, he was an investment manager at GLG Partners and Man Group, the second largest fund in the world, where he managed an equity portfolio before joining the executive management's strategy team. He recalls recruitment sessions at Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College for the 100 billion hedge fund. “We did back-to-back interviews for three days and everyone had four As at A-level or over 40 points on the IB. It’s going to get harder for

future generations who will need to differentiate themselves. The people who did the best in our interviews had the most diverse and holistic backgrounds.

But they also had good experience, support from their families and teachers and they worked really hard.”

In summary, talks focused on skills sought by multi-national employers, current research on the drivers that will reshape the landscape of work, and future key work skills. Corporate speakers discussed what they are looking

for in the “talent pool” and it closely mirrors the IB Learner profile. In short, today’s internationally-mobile child being schooled through the IB programmes, could be tomorrow’s global leader.

Heather Mulkey is the International Schools of London (ISL) Group Marketing and Admissions Officer. The three ISL Schools in London, Woking and Doha offer international curricula with integrated mother tongue language programmes.

You are cordially invited to

The 2014 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition on

Monday 3rd February 2014 10.00am - 5.00pm at

Hotel Russell, 1-8 Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1B 5BE

This event is FREE TO ATTEND

Come along and meet our exhibitors who have products and services that support expatriates and their families.

There are also free seminars running throughout the day.

You will need to pre-register for the seminars as places are limited so please email helen@internationalhradviser.com For further information on this event please call Helen Elliott on 020 8661 0186

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immigration

Global Immigration - Family Experience Studies show that relocation is rated as one of the most stressful events in life following death and divorce according to the Employee Relocation Council.

That comprised with the complexities of bureaucratic and frequently compound formalities may affect the scheduling of a move considerably. Furthermore, the entire experience may have an impact on the seconded workers whilst they are being torn between new duties and ensuring that their family can join the assignment without interruptions and settle in their new location. This requires extensive planning which cannot be completed without taking into account the legal formalities of the stay in the destination location. In order to ensure this part of the transition is smooth, it is extremely important to prepare in advance, based on a proper assessment not only for an employee but also for the entire family.

Procedures for family members will vary depending on their nationality.

Applicable steps across Europe will differ considerably, and will not be consistent in terms of steps required, timing of the procedure and the documents needed.

Family Definition: General definition of family refers to a group of relations defined by local laws which determine further relations and responsibilities towards those members.

Immigration regulation narrows this definition further and therefore, while preparing for the relocation, it is important to look into the legal implications for every family member, as each country will have a different definition as to who is recognised as a dependent of the main applicant. Usually governing laws will identify only the closest family members such as a wife and children, step-children (in case of custody) or adopted children (provided applicable documentation is in place). Children above a certain age will also not be recognised as dependents in some countries, as immigration regulations indicate an age limit which is usually set at 18 years old, as it is for example in Spain. In such cases the child will have to apply for their independent permits, for example, study permits if they are university students. Within each legislation there will also be exemptions to set rules, like for example in Italy, law International HR Adviser  Summer

also allows obtaining permits for other relatives under special circumstances (e.g. children older than 18 if they are disabled, etc.). There are countries such as the United Arab Emirates where for female children there is no limit of age to recognise them as dependents.

In Russia, the terminology of dependents has been expanded for one of the employment categories – Highly Qualified Specialists – and foreigners who obtained permits under this type can bring to Russia not only their closest family members, but also parents, parents of their spouses, grandparents and grandchildren.

More restrictions in terms of family definition will appear in cases of partnerships and same-sex marriages as only very few countries within Europe will legally recognise these types of unions, for example, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland and Denmark. Similar rights to marriage are given to the same-sex civil unions in a number of other European countries, for example, in Hungary new legislation came into force on 1 July 2009 which allows same-sex couples to register their relationships so they can access the similar rights, benefits and entitlements as opposite-sex couples. However, the legislation does not allow opposite-sex couples to register their relationships, possibly due to fear that there might be duplication under the law, therefore partnerships still have to be reviewed independently. Europe will see further developments in regards to legal changes on recognition of same-sex marriages and partnerships, therefore this may in the future impact existing immigration regulations as well.

EU to EU Procedures: Most of the countries within Europe will have simplified procedures for groups of various nationalities. For example, family members of European Union nationals, coming from outside of the Union, benefit from simplified immigration procedures and usually require less documents and have less restrictions in obtaining necessary permits to legally stay in a destination country. Furthermore, those family members benefit from work permit exemption in most of the EU countries, as it is in Slovakia for example, and can start

working upon issuance of the respective registration or residence permit.

Permits Sponsor: Family permits are usually supported by the main applicant who is typically a working spouse. Many countries though have put further restrictions and conditions based on which such support can be provided. For example in Greece, Portugal and Romania, seconded workers who received permits for up to one year will be limited in sponsoring permits of family members, and they will not be able to join them as dependents on this short-term assignment. In such cases family cannot permanently accompany a foreigner and therefore other options may have to be explored within the legal boundaries for each individual case.

Forced separation: Applications for the main applicant and family members in most of the countries are submitted simultaneously. Especially in case of EU nationals and their EU family members, there is no separation of application, and it is advisable to complete the procedure together. Non-EU family members of EU nationals in some countries, as it is for example in Romania, have to wait for their spouse to first register so that they can further file their residence permit application for approval.

Regulations of many countries such as for example, laws of Slovakia and Ukraine, allow application for family members only once the permits of the main applicant are complete, which considerably extends the processing time, and contributes to delays in family members joining an assignee in the destination location, therefore contributing to forced separation which can last a couple of months. When applying for an extension family members can apply together with the main applicant before Residence Permit extension of the principal is approved. However, it has to be before the expiration of the valid Residence Permit.

Process Steps: Procedures differ depending on local regulations, therefore it is imperative to understand all the required steps of the process and identify action points.

Regulations of multiple countries such

immigration as for example, Russia or Kazakhstan, require that a foreigner receives an invitation letter before applying for a visa in their home country. This procedure can be time consuming, and for example in Russia, may take at times, up to a month. If applied for separately from the main applicant, it may also require the completion of the principal’s case first, in order to continue with the family’s application. The entire procedure requires very careful planning, as it can coincide with scheduled holidays before the new assignment, while it maybe required for the family to file for a new visa at the consulate in the country of their residence or citizenship which is for example, mandatory in case of applications to Romania. In such cases it maybe required that family members have to give up their passports for a couple of days in order to have a visa endorsed, so they should plan their travels accordingly.

Timelines: Immigration procedures are time consuming, therefore it is important to understand from the beginning, the time involved for every step of the process.

In some countries procedures may be quite straightforward in the case of some nationals, as it is in Poland. US citizens for example, can enter the country on the visa waiver status for up to 90 days within 180 days in the Schengen area and file for a residence permit application within the first 45 days of entering Schengen. Based on this application they will be granted with a residence permit which will be issued within approximately 45 days, and within approximately 1 month an ID card will be issued which will allow the family to travel easily in and out of Poland and Schengen areas for up to 90 days within a 180 day period. In the case of visa nationals, procedures are more complicated, as they require a visa process to be completed prior to arrival to the Schengen area. Such visas can be granted only based on an invitation letter approved by respective immigration authorities in the destination country, which is the case for example, in Slovakia.

Presently, obtaining such invitation letters takes approximately 1-2 weeks, but authorities are considering extending the application time. In the case of Slovakia, a visa is not the last step of the process, as after arrival to Slovakia, family members have to apply for a residence permit which may take another 45-90 days to be issued.

Only once this final permit is granted will

family members be eligible to fully legally reside in Slovakia and travel in and out of the country. The processing time can be quite extensive in Italy and in some of the cities it may take up to 6 months, which may restrict the ability of family to travel outside of Italy into the Schengen zone.

High Migration Risk Countries: Local regulations try to restrict entering the country by nationals coming from so called high migration risks zones, and in such circumstances the processing time of the application can be considerably extended. This can be the case for example in Israel, when certain nationals from Islamic countries (e.g. Malaysia) could face problems entering Israel and could be asked for security clearance which extends the processing time by an additional 2-3 months. Also Russia and some of the CIS countries do require extra checks for nationals of such countries, and therefore they run additional checks through their Department of Migration Police before approving the invitation required for the visa application.

Documents Eligibility: Once the immigration assessment is provided, the foreigner should be advised on how each of the required documents has to be prepared. All personal documents should be available at all times and preferably up to date, for example passports which in most of the countries should be valid for at least 6 months beyond the intended stay. Many countries will require newly issued vital documents, such as marriage and birth certificates like it is in Spain, but others like for example, Poland, will only settle for original certificates. Vital documents are also extended to obtaining criminal records from the country of residence or countries where foreigners were residing during the last couple of years, which maybe time consuming, and may add a considerable amount of time to an initially designed timeline. Further such documents must be quite often legalised, and require additional verification through various authorities and ministries as well as consulates, before they can be used in the destination location. Quite a common form of legalisation is an apostille, which is internationally recognised by member countries of the Hague Convention.

Procurement of all documents has to also be very carefully planned, as in many countries there is a limitation on validity of obtained documents, like for example, in Slovakia, where documents on the day of application cannot be older than 90 days.

Working Spouse: While on the assignment spouses are quite often looking into their own career development and therefore would like to consider undertaking a job as well. In most countries spouses will be required to obtain their own independent permit supported by the newly identified employer and will have to convert their status from dependent to employment. Conversion of the status in some countries will require travel to the country of origin in order to file for a work permit based visa, as only very few countries such as for example, Poland or Slovakia, will allow conversion in country.

Only spouses of EU Blue Card holders can benefit from work permit exemption in some of EU countries which is applicable for example, in Spain.

Strategy: Obtaining permits for family members can be as challenging as the entire relocation itself, therefore it should be very carefully reviewed in conjunction with the principal’s procedure. The lead time should be considered at the same time for both principal and family members in order to guarantee the smooth transition of the entire family to the new location.

As every immigration case is individually designed, and in most of the circumstances not comparable to other applications, it is imperative that the outlined plan is followed, as any deviations from the plan may contribute to unnecessary delays.

Kasia Pinska is a Manager - Eastern & Central Europe based in the Fragomen London office.

Her role includes supervising a team of experienced immigration consultants that coordinate international personnel transfers into the region, assist clients with all matters relating to inbound immigration and monitor quality standards of partner law.

Prior to joining Fragomen, Kasia was a Regional Manager for over 7 years, with extensive expertise in Eastern & Central Europe, the Balkans, Russia & CIS and the Middle East immigration processes for the well renowned privately owned firm with its offices in over 30 locations.

For further information please contact Kasia at : Fragomen LLP, 4th Floor, Holborn Gate, 326 - 330 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7PP, United Kingdom (t) +44 (0) 203 077 5209 kpinska@fragomen.com Summer International HR Adviser

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Global Immigration Update

Global Immigration Update United Kingdom New Immigration Bill Proposes Tougher Penalties for Noncompliant Employers and Unauthorised Workers (May 8, 2013) The UK government announced a new immigration bill that seeks to curb unauthorised immigration through tougher employer compliance measures and new restrictions on access to public services by immigrants. The bill was presented in a speech by Queen Elizabeth II at the opening of the new session of Parliament.

The bill would increase fines for businesses that employ unauthorised foreign workers. Fines for foreign nationals who work in the UK without authorisation would also increase.

There would be new limits on appeals of immigration decisions, and immigration officers would be given broader enforcement powers.

The bill would also make it easier for the UK government to deport those without valid immigration status, prohibit unauthorised immigrants from obtaining driving licenses, compel private landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants, and prevent immigrants from accessing public services to which they are not entitled. Temporary migrants would be required to pay for some health care.

Turkey New Law Will Streamline Work Authorisation Process, Toughen Penalties for Noncompliance (May 8, 2013) A new immigration law took effect in April 2014 streamlining Turkey’s work permit process by allowing foreign nationals to apply for residence permits at consular posts abroad. It will also create new categories of residence permits, including options for those who will open a business or buy real estate in Turkey.

Residence permit application deadlines have been extended, giving those opting to obtain a residence permit from within Turkey 90 days to apply after entry, up from 30 days. Residence permit renewal applications will be accepted 60 days prior to expiration, up from the current 15 days.

Business visits will be limited to a maximum cumulative stay of 90 days in International HR Adviser Summer

a 180-day period. Currently, there is no such restriction.

There will be a new government office to oversee the admission of foreign nationals and harsher penalties for foreign nationals who are out of status or violating the terms of their stay.

Until the government finalises its interpretation of the new law and issues implementing regulations, the specifics of the reforms and their effect on employers will not be fully known.

China Longer Processing Times for Immigration Applications at Shanghai Labor Bureau (May 8, 2013) As of May 2, the Shanghai Labor Bureau is more strictly adhering to its stated processing times for immigration-related applications, taking two to ten working days longer than before to complete adjudications. Previously, the Bureau typically worked faster than the official processing times published on its website.

The current processing time for employment license applications is 15 working days, up from five.

The current processing times for new work permit applications are as follows: • Standard applications on behalf of individuals who entered China with a Z visa - five working days, up from three days.

• Applications from Asia-Pacific regional headquarters offices (which do not require an employment license) – 15 working days, up from five days.

• Applications from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau passport holders – ten working days, up from five.

Standard work permit renewal applications are being processed in five working days, up from three days previously. Work permit renewals from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau passport holders are taking five working days to process, up from three.

Applications to amend an existing standard work permit are being processed in five working days, up from three, except for applications to change sponsoring employer, which are taking 15 days to process, up from five. Applications to change sponsoring employer from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau passport holders are being processed in ten working days, up from five.

The processing time for some application types may be reduced to the prior timeframes at the adjudicating officer’s discretion.

United States Foreign Students and Exchange Visitors Face Closer Scrutiny, Delays at U.S. Ports of Entry (May 9, 2013) F-1 and M-1 foreign students and J-1 exchange visitors are facing additional questioning and entry delays at U.S. ports, after a change in Customs and Border Protection procedures following the April 15 bombings in Boston.

CBP officers must now verify the status of each F-1, M-1 and J-1 non-immigrant in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) before admission.

Not all border officers are equipped with access to SEVIS, however, so after preliminary processing, most students and exchange visitors are referred to secondary inspection, where their SEVIS record is reviewed and where they may be questioned further about their U.S. activities.

There are reports that CBP may use airline manifests to verify SEVIS records in advance of a foreign national’s travel to the United States, but it is not yet known whether or to what extent this practice is in use.

F-1 students and J-1 exchange visitors should be prepared for the new entry procedures and for the possibility of long waits at U.S. ports of entry. They should be patient and answer all questions clearly and fully.

CBP plans to equip all border officers with SEVIS access in order to streamline F-1 and J-1 admissions, but it is not yet known when this will occur. Entry delays are likely to continue until SEVIS access is more widely available to border inspectors.

The change in CBP procedure was prompted by the discovery that an individual charged with destroying evidence in connection with the Boston bombings is a foreign national who was admitted on an F-1 student visa even though his status had been revoked in SEVIS.

China New Medical Report Requirements for Employment Licenses in Shenzhen (May 10, 2013)

Global Immigration Update The Shenzhen Labor Bureau now requires employment license applications to be accompanied by a medical report for the foreign national being sponsored. The new requirement, which took effect May 2, 2013, will mean that foreign nationals must undergo a medical exam at the beginning of the Shenzhen work authorisation process.

Previously, a medical report was not required until the submission of the work permit application, which occurs after the foreign national arrives in Shenzhen using a Z visa.

Foreign nationals can obtain the necessary medical report overseas after a medical exam conducted abroad, or in China from a qualified International Travel Healthcare Center supervised by the Chinese Quarantine Bureau. The medical report required for work permit applications must be issued locally by the Chinese Quarantine Bureau.

The new requirement means that some foreign nationals sponsored for Shenzhen work permits will have to undergo two medical exams – one conducted abroad to obtain a medical report for the employment license application and one in China for the work permit application. However, this might not be the case for all individuals. For example, some foreign nationals may only need one exam if they are able to travel to China to complete the medical certification there before the employment license is filed. Please consult with your immigration China professional for the options suitable to your specific circumstances.

The Shenzhen Labor Bureau is currently accepting employment license applications without a medical report if accompanied by a letter from the sponsoring employer explaining why the report could not be obtained. However, the Bureau could end this accommodation without notice. In addition, the Bureau retains full discretion over the sufficiency of an employer’s explanation. The Bureau is expected to strictly enforce the new medical report requirement for all cases as the July 1 implementation date for China’s new Exit-Entry Law draws closer.

Canada CIC to Limit Immigration Benefits for Children, Lift Hold on Parent and Grandparent Cases (May 14, 2013) Effective January 2, 2014, children over the age of 18 will no longer qualify for immigration benefits as dependents under any Canadian immigration programme.

On the same day, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will resume accepting new applications to sponsor parents and grandparents for permanent residence, with an annual cap of 5,000 applications for 2014.

Currently, Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor a dependent child for permanent residence up to his or her twenty-second birthday, and foreign temporary workers may be accompanied or later joined by a child under the age of 22. CIC will continue to consider children aged 19 to 21 as dependents for applications submitted before January 2, 2014. After that date, children over the age of 18 will be able to qualify for benefits as dependents if they are financially dependent due to mental or physical disabilities. Current exceptions to the maximum age for full-time students will be eliminated.

CIC has not accepted new parent and grandparent permanent residence applications since November 2011, when it instituted a two-year moratorium to reduce backlogs. New applications will be subject to increased financial responsibility requirements. The minimum income requirement will increase by 30 percent, and sponsors will be required to demonstrate that they met the requirement for three years prior to applying, up from one.

CIC will also make permanent the Parent and Grandparent Super Visa, a 10-year multi-entry visitor visa for the parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents that allows holders to stay in Canada for up to two years per trip without the need to renew their status.

Colombia Government to Restructure Visa Regime (May 15, 2013) The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a new law that will restructure the current visa regime. Changes include new names for visas and a total of three visa categories, down from the current six. The new law took effect on June 24 but is not expected to affect document requirements or processing times for employers and foreign workers.

The current six visa categories will be consolidated into three: Temporary TP, Business NE and Resident RE. The three categories will each have several subcategories.

Temporary TP Category. This category will include subclasses for temporary

workers, interns, students, religious workers, volunteers, property owners, pensioners, refugees, individuals involved in adoption proceedings, and participants in academic, artistic, scientific and cultural events.

The temporary worker visa will be the TP-4 visa, which will be valid for up to three years. The current temporary worker visa is valid for just one year.

Short-term technical workers will seek the new TP-13 visa, which will allow stays of up to 180 calendar days per year.

Business NE Category. Business visa options will expand with the creation of several new subcategories.

The multiple-entry NE-1 visa, valid for up to three years, will be available to entrepreneurs and investors establishing new business in Colombia.

The NE-2 visa will be open to foreign nationals engaged in business dealings related to treaties, including the Pacific Alliance trade bloc, of which Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru are members. Representatives of foreign government institutions will be eligible for the NE-3 visa. The NE-2 and NE-3 visas will allow foreign nationals to receive local remuneration and establish residence in Colombia for up to two or four years respectively.

The NE-4 visa, valid for up to five years, will be available to high-level executives of multinational corporations seeking to invest and promote business in Colombia.

Resident RE Category. The Resident RE category will provide a path to permanent residence for the following groups: • Parents of children who were born in Colombia; • Former Colombian nationals who renounced their citizenship; • Temporary residents who have remained in Colombia under a TP visa (subcategories 3 through 9) for at least five years; • Partners or spouses of Colombian nationals who have resided in Colombia for at least three years under the TP-10 visa; and • Individuals who have registered an investment with the Bank of the Republic of at least 650 times the Colombian monthly minimum wage.

Visas in this category will not be tied to a local employer and will be valid for five years.

Resident RE visa holders who remain outside of Colombia for two continuous years will lose their residence.

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Global Immigration Update Australia Federal Budget Will Increase Visa Application Fees, Make Other Immigration Changes (May 16, 2013) The visa application charge for subclass 457 visa applications will nearly double for applications submitted on or after July 1, 2013, the Australian government announced Wednesday in its 2013-2014 budget. The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) will receive additional funding for subclass 457 compliance activities.

The overall number of permanent migration visas available in 2013-2014 will remain at 190,000. The total number of employer-sponsored migration visas will be 128,550, a decrease of 700 that will be reallocated to family-sponsored programmes. More Work and Holiday programme visas will be available for applicants from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Visa Application Charge Increases The visa application charge for subclass 457 visa applications will increase to AU$900 (from AU$455). This will be the second significant increase in 457 application fees this year; in January, the fees increased 30 percent.

Significant fee increases are also expected for other temporary and permanent visa categories, though the exact amounts have not been announced. Later this year, the government is expected to implement a fee for each dependent included in a principal applicant’s visa application, across all visa categories. The amount of the dependent fee has not been announced.

The new fees are part of a government effort to shift costs of the country’s visa system onto applicants and away from taxpayers.

Additional Funding For Fair Work Ombudsman The FWO will receive additional funding of AU$3.4 million over the next four years to accommodate its new 457 programme monitoring powers.

The FWO is an independent agency responsible for ensuring compliance with national workplace relations laws and that all workers in Australia receive correct wages and entitlements. In March 2013, it was announced that the FWO would be given powers to monitor and enforce compliance with 457 visa regulations, particularly whether sponsored foreign employees are working in their International HR Adviser Summer

most recently nominated position and are paid the market salary rates specified in their visa applications. Fair Work Inspectors have the power to enter business premises at any time during work hours and request to inspect any relevant documents or interview any person.

workers. Intending immigrants would not be included in the workforce calculation if their employer had filed permanent residence petitions for at least 90 percent of the labour certifications for which it received approvals within a given timeframe.

More Subclass 462 Work and Holiday Visas for Malaysia and Indonesia The number of places available in the Work and Holiday programme to applicants from Malaysia and Indonesia will increase to 1,000, from 100, as part of the Australia in the Asian Century programme. The Work and Holiday visa programme allows young individuals to take extended holidays in Australia and authorizes them to work for any one employer for up to six months. The number of visas available in this programme are capped based on reciprocal country arrangements.

Recruitment Employers would be required to post H-1B jobs on a DOL website, engage in good faith recruitment using industrywide standards, and offer compensation at least equal to that offered prospective H-1B non-immigrants. DOL would be required to facilitate the posting of H-1B jobs on the websites of state workforce agencies (SWAs). H-1B skilled-worker dependent employers would be required to offer a job opening for which an H-1B worker is sought to any to any equally or better qualified U.S. worker who applies for the position.

United States Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Immigration Reform Bill (May 22, 2013)

Non-displacement An H-1B employer, other than one who is H-1B dependent or skilled-worker dependent, is prohibited from displacing a U.S. worker if the employer is: (1) filing an H-1B petition with the intent or purpose of displacing a specific U.S. worker from the position to be occupied by the beneficiary of the petition; (2) providing services to worksites operated by federal, state or local government employer entities that would direct and control the work of the prospective H-1B employee; or (3) a public school.

H-1B skilled worker dependent employers would need to attest that they did not and would not displace a U.S. worker 90 days before or after filing an H-1B petition. For H-1B dependent employers, the non-displacement period would remain 180 days before and after filing.

After several weeks of hearings and markup, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved S. 744, the comprehensive immigration reform package, by a vote of 13 to 5. The bill now proceeds to the full Senate for debate, which began in June.

The last hours of mark-up saw several amendments to the provisions of the bill affecting non-immigrant workers. These are summarised below.

The H-1B cap The final version of the bill includes a higher H-1B cap baseline of 115,000 and a new formula that will allow for quota increases of 5,000 to 20,000 within a fiscal year if demand exceeds the cap and the unemployment rate for managerial, professional and related occupations is less than 4.5 percent.

H-1B skilled worker dependency Amendments to the bill introduce enhanced recruitment and nondisplacement obligations for the “H-1B skilled worker dependent employer,” which is defined as an employer whose skilled workforce – comprising full-time equivalent employees in occupations within Zones 4 and 5 of the Labor Department’s O*NET database – is made up of 15 percent or more H-1B

Outplacement restrictions on H-1B dependent employers The amended bill retains the prohibition against outplacement by H-1B dependent employers, but clarifies that dependent employers who are non-profit institutions of higher education, non-profit research organisations or health care providers petitioning for physicians or other health care workers would not be not subject to the restrictions, though they would be required to pay an outplacement fee.

H-1B spousal work authorisation The amended bill eliminates a provision

Global Immigration Update that would have granted H-1B spousal work authorisation only if the principal H-1B’s home country provided reciprocal benefits to similarly situated spouses of U.S. citizens. However, the bill allows the Department of Homeland Security, at the request of the State Department, to suspend H-1B spousal employment authorisation for nationals of countries that do not provide reciprocal benefits.

L-1B outplacement The amendment prohibits the outplacement of L-1Bs if 15 percent or more of an employer’s full-time equivalent workforce is made up of L-1Bs, including intending immigrants. Otherwise, employers would not be permitted to outsource or outplace an L-1B unless: (1) the worker is controlled and supervised by the petitioning employer; (2) the placement is not an arrangement to provide labour for hire; and (3) the employer pays a $500 STEM education and training fee.

Covered employers For purposes of the H-1B dependency and skilled-worker dependency calculations, intending immigrants are not included in the calculation if their employer is a “covered employer.” The amended bill redefines covered employer to mean an employer who has filed I-140 petitions for at least 90% of current employees who were beneficiaries of applications for labour certifications that were approved during the one-year period ending six months before filing the H-1B or L-1 petition for which the number of intending immigrants is relevant.

Adjustment of status portability The amended bill clarifies that, for purposes of adjustment portability, approved I-140 petitions remain valid even if withdrawn by the petitioning employer, provided that the adjustment applicant has a new job in the same or a similar occupational classification.

Adjustment filing before visa availability. Under the amended bill, a foreign national would be eligible to file an adjustment application concurrently with an immigrant petition or at a later point whether or not a visa number is available.

If a visa number is not available at the time the adjustment is filed, the principal applicant would be subject to a supplemental fee of $500; dependents would not be liable for the fee.

Effective date The provisions of the bill would affect all petitions and applications filed on or after the date of enactment, but the H-1B recruitment and non-displacement provisions would not apply to extensions or other petitions or applications filed on behalf of existing employees.

What Is Next for S. 744?

The Senate immigration bill has several hurdles to overcome before it becomes law. The package approved by the Judiciary Committee is subject to additional changes on the Senate floor. If the bill is passed in the Senate, it will need to be reconciled with legislation passed by the House of Representatives. The House is at the early stages of crafting its own immigration bill, and it is not yet clear how much it will resemble the Senate’s approach.

Brazil Government Streamlines Work Visa Application Procedures, Creates Work Visa for Graduate Students (May 23, 2013) The Brazilian government has established electronic filing procedures to streamline work visa applications and cancellation requests, per two new resolutions. The new laws lengthen the period for foreign workers under local contract to enroll in local payroll. The government also created a new local contract visa that allows graduate students to work in Brazil for up to 90 days.

Electronic filings and eased rules for original documents. The government has established streamlined electronic procedures for all work visa applications submitted to the Ministry of Labor - a change from the former procedure of in-person filings at this government office.

Unless out-dated, corporate documents already on file with the Ministry of Labor no longer need to be presented for subsequent work visa applications. Local documents will no longer need to be notarised except in special circumstances when required by Brazilian law. Original, legalised documents from abroad do not need to be presented simultaneously with the electronic Ministry of Labor application; instead, they can be presented within 60 calendar days of filing.

If the documents are presented after this time frame, the application will automatically be denied.

Electronic cancellation procedures.

Requests to cancel a foreign worker’s visa

can now be submitted electronically; the foreign worker, employer or authorised representative is no longer required to file the request in person at the Ministry of Labor.

A foreign national’s work visa will automatically be cancelled if a request for a new visa is filed and approved. Previously, a formal cancellation request had to be submitted before a new visa request could be filed. Cancellations will be transmitted to the Ministry of Justice and will be no longer published in Brazil’s Official Gazette.

Changes to local contract rules and payroll start date. Employment agreements for foreign workers under local contract are now required to include a clause stipulating that the employee must commence work within 30 calendar days of arrival in Brazil under the work visa. As such, foreign workers will no longer need to be enrolled in local payroll on the same day as their arrival in Brazil, but will instead have a 30-day window to enter local payroll.

New short-term local contract visa for graduate students. A new local contract visa allows graduate students to work in Brazil for up to 90 days. The main supporting documents for the application are proof of enrollment in an overseas graduate degree programme of at least 360 credit hours and a limited-duration employment contract with a Brazilian company.

European Union Croatia Expected to Join EU on July 1 (June 6, 2013) Croatia will become the newest EU member state on July 1, 2013, provided all EU members ratify the accession treaty by that date. A handful of EU member countries have yet to do so, though they are generally expected to ratify before July 1.

Once Croatia is an EU member, other EU countries can choose to lift work restrictions altogether - treating Croatians as they do nationals of existing EU countries - or they can opt to impose temporary work restrictions for up to seven years, provided certain conditions are met.

Though the governments of many EU members have yet to finalise rules for Croatian nationals, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia are expected to remove all work restrictions for Croatian nationals.

Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom are expected to impose temporary work restrictions on Croatian nationals, though Summer International HR Adviser

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Global Immigration Update work rules may be less strict than those for third-country nationals. Switzerland, which is not an EU member, is expected to treat Croatians in the same way the country treats Bulgarian and Romanian nationals, with work permit quotas separate from those for third-country nationals.

Croatia is expected to lift its work restrictions for nationals of other EU countries, though it can choose to impose restrictions on nationals of countries that will maintain restrictions on Croatian nationals.

Germany New Regulations Broaden Permissible Activities for Business Visitors (June 11, 2013) Business visitors to Germany will be permitted to engage in a wider range of activities when a new Employment Regulation takes effect July 1, 2013. There will also be a new immigration option for workers with vocational training but no university degree, and restrictions on inter-European transfers of third-country nationals will be eased. The new law is aimed at promoting skilled migration to Germany.

Expanded Options for Business Visitors Foreign nationals sent to Germany by their employers to establish, audit, or control a subsidiary in Germany will no longer require work authorisation. They will be able to conduct these activities as business visitors for up to three months per year, as will foreign nationals seeking to draft contracts for clients and supervise contract implementation.

Leading executives of companies will be allowed to work for up to six cumulative months per year as business visitors, provided no individual stay exceeds three consecutive months. Upper-level managers and partners are considered “leading executives” under the rule.

New Options for Vocational Workers Germany will introduce a new immigration option for skilled workers with vocational training but no university-level education.

Though details of the new programme have not been announced, applicants are expected to be required to demonstrate that they have sufficient qualifications in a profession that is recognised by the German authorities. Their qualification must be comparable to a qualification obtained through German vocational training for the specific profession.

German labour authorities will International HR Adviser Summer

designate specific occupations open to foreign vocational workers. Certain occupations and nationalities may be subject to annual quotas.

Van der Elst Visa Requirement to be Eliminated for the Visa-Exempt Van der Elst visas will no longer be required of visa-exempt third-country nationals working in a European Economic Area (EEA) country and seeking to enter Germany to provide services to a customer on behalf of their employer for less than three months per year. The visa requirement still applies to nationalities requiring a visa to enter Germany.

The Van der Elst process derives from a 1994 ruling by the European Court of Justice regarding the right of an EU company to provide services within the EU. It generally allows a non-EU national who is employed by a company in one EU country to provide services to a company in another EU country for a limited period without the need for a work permit. It has been incorporated into Germany’s national immigration law for some time.

Canada Further Restrictions on Temporary Foreign Worker Programme Are Proposed (June 11, 2013) Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) recently published proposed regulatory changes to tighten standards for labour market opinion (LMO) applications, impose new conditions on employers with regard to their LMO and nonLMO foreign workers, and increase the government’s investigative and enforcement powers. The proposed rules are expected to take effect in the near future.

CIC and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), the country’s labour agency, will have increased authority to impose one or more new conditions on employers hiring foreign nationals in positions for which an LMO is required. The specific condition that would apply to a particular case would depend on the terms of the employer’s LMO, as negotiated with HRSDC. Potential conditions include requirements that a foreign national’s employment will result in direct job creation or job retention for Canadian citizens or permanent residents, or result in the development or transfer of skills and knowledge for the benefit of Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Employers might be subject to

a condition requiring them to make reasonable efforts to hire or train Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Employers will also be subject to certain conditions regardless of whether an LMO is required for a specific case.

Employers will be required to be actively engaged in the business in which the offer of employment was made, and to comply with federal and provincial employment laws in the province where a temporary foreign worker works.

Employers will be required to meet all conditions set out in the job offer, LMO and work permit. Employers will also be required to provide each temporary foreign worker with employment in the same occupation as that set out in his or her offer of employment and wages and working conditions that are substantially the same as those in his or her specific offer. Currently, an employer’s compliance is determined by examining its previous employment offers.

Employers will be required to maintain records to demonstrate compliance with programme conditions for six years from the end of a temporary foreign worker’s employment. Currently, employers are only required to maintain compliance records for two years.

New Inspection Powers for CIC and HRSDC HRSDC and CIC will be authorised to verify the information provided by the employer at the time of the LMO request or work permit application was accurate. CIC and HRSDC will also have the authority to compel employers to produce relevant documents, and to enter and inspect any premises or place in which a temporary foreign worker performs work. They will have the authority to conduct inspections at any time during and up to six years after the employment of a temporary foreign worker.

Random verification inspections will be authorised, as will inspections when an official has reason to suspect that the employer is not complying or has not complied with programme conditions.

The content herein is provided for information purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact Fragomen Global Immigration.

Fragomen Global, LLP +1 (212) 688 8555 (direct) globalknowledge@fragomen.com www.fragomen.com

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To apply for your free subscription please either complete the enclosed subscription card or 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.

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diary dates SEPTEMBER 2013 Global Mobility Summit – Asia-Pacific Region September 11, 2013 Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore Staying up to date is key to ensuring a productive and successful experience for your international assignees.

The annual Asia-Pacific Global Mobility Summit is where global mobility professionals from across Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the remainder of the region join to benefit from a top-level conference featuring expert speakers and a series of panels, plus a networking exhibition to assess leading suppliers and learn about the latest advances in global mobility.

For more information please contact Iyla MacIntyre on +44(0) 20 7943 8027 or email iyla.macintyre@centaur.co.uk In-house global mobility/HR professionals – book your free conference and exhibition place at: www.totallyexpat.com/summits2013

Expatriate Management and Mobility Awards (EMMAs) - AsiaPacific Region September 11, 2013 Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore Dedicated to celebrating excellence in global mobility worldwide, the 2013 series of EMMAs will take place in three glamorous international settings to recognise and reward the determination and successes of those at the forefront of our industry – Singapore, Las Vegas and London. Winners of the Asia-Pacific EMMAs will be announced on September 11 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore.

Consisting of a dazzling drinks reception, gala dinner and ball, enjoy this momentous occasion at a fabulous waterfront location!

Find out more and book your table at www.totallyexpat.com/ emmas2013 or contact Iyla MacIntyre on +44(0) 20 7943 8027 or iyla.macintyre@centaur.co.uk

Corporate Education & Learning Innovation Summit September 18 & 19, 2013 Chicago, IL, United States of America The Corporate Education & Learning Innovation Summit, presented

by American Leaders, is a 2-day Summit for HR Professionals who want to LEARN about new trends in learning, SHARE ideas and best practices, and NETWORK with C-Level Executives.

This summit will focus on Platforms and tools which make learners savvier than ever and therefore challenge companies’ learning structures.

Corporate learning leaders will have the chance to learn how to create and maintain new Knowledge ecosystem in order to ensure a successful merger of higher touch-corporate education, higher education and learning technologies.

More information on our event can be found at www.cross.americanleaders.com/CorpEdLearningInnovSummit

OCTOBER 2013 Global Mobility Summit – The Americas October 3-4, 2013 JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa, United States of America Staying up to date is key to ensuring a productive and successful experience for your international assignees.

The annual Americas Global Mobility Summit is where global mobility professionals from across the entire US join to benefit from a toplevel conference featuring expert speakers and a series of panels, plus a networking exhibition to assess leading suppliers and learn about the latest advances in global mobility.

For more information please contact Iyla MacIntyre on +44(0) 20 7943 8027 or email iyla.macintyre@centaur.co.uk In-house global mobility/HR professionals – book your free place at: www.totallyexpat.com/summits2013

Expatriate Management and Mobility Awards (EMMAs) – The Americas October 3-4, 2013 International HR Adviser Summer

JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa, United States of America Dedicated to celebrating excellence in global mobility worldwide, the 2013 series of EMMAs will take place in three glamorous international settings to recognise and reward the determination and successes of those at the forefront of our industry – Singapore, Las Vegas and London. Winners of the Americas EMMAs will be announced on October 3 at the glamorous JW Marriot Las Vegas Resort & Spa. Consisting of a dazzling drinks reception, gala dinner and ball, enjoy this momentous occasion at a fabulous waterfront location!

Find out more and book your table at www.totallyexpat.com/ emmas2013 or contact Iyla MacIntyre on +44(0) 20 7943 8027 or iyla.macintyre@centaur.co.uk

Worldwide ERC – Global Workforce Symposium 2013 October 23-25, 2013 Hilton Anatole Hotel, Dallas, Texas, United States of America First-time Corporate HR Attendee? Come as our guest.

Learn more and register at www.WorldwideERC.org/Pages/ GlobalSymposium2013.aspx

BDO International Expatriate Client Conference October 24, 2013 Montreal, Canada The Global Mobility Challenge - Further details about the conference can be obtained from Arenda.Kuschke@bdo.co.uk

NOVEMBER 2013 Global Mobility Summit – Europe November 8, 2013 Lancaster London, United Kingdom Staying up to date is key to ensuring a productive and successful experience for your international assignees.

The annual European Global Mobility Summit is where global mobility professionals across Europe join to benefit from a top-level conference featuring expert speakers and a series of panels, plus a networking exhibition to assess leading suppliers and learn about the latest advances in global mobility.

For more information please contact Iyla MacIntyre on +44(0) 20 7943 8027 or email iyla.macintyre@centaur.co.uk In-house global mobility/HR professionals – book your free place at: www.totallyexpat.com/summits2013

Expatriate Management and Mobility Awards (EMMAs) Europe November 8, 2013 Lancaster London, United Kingdom Dedicated to celebrating excellence in global mobility worldwide, the 2013 series of EMMAs will take place in three glamorous international settings to recognise and reward the determination and successes of those at the forefront of our industry – Singapore, Las Vegas and London. Winners will be announced at the Lancaster Hotel in London on November 8. This prestigious gala dinner and ball promises a delectable dinner, comedy, casinos and dancing. Make sure you don’t miss out by booking your table now!

Find out more and book your table at www.totallyexpat.com/ emmas2013 or contact Iyla MacIntyre on +44(0) 20 7943 8027 or iyla.macintyre@centaur.co.uk

FEBRUARY 2014 SAVE THE DATE The Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition 3rd February 2014, Hotel Russell, Russell Square, London Our annual Conference & Exhibition for International HR & Global Mobility professionals – FREE to attend. www.internationalhradviser.com

DIRECTORY Assignment Management Services

Total Reward Group Chart House, 10 Western Road, Borough Green, Kent, TN15 8AG Contact: Simon Richardson Telephone: +44 (0) 1732 780777 Fax: +44 (0) 1732 668284 Email: simon.richardson@totalrewardgroup.com Website: www.totalrewardgroup.com Total Reward Group is a ‘boutique’ employee owned reward practice, providing consultancy, search, interim managers and professional training for analysts.

The Global Mobility division of TRG provides both advisory services on policy development, as well as fully outsourced assignment management services, which provides a ‘virtual’ in house Global Mobility HR service.

BANKING

LLOYDS TSB INTERNATIONAL Address: Waterloo Place, PO Box 1400, London, SW5 9RE Contact: Cliff Govender Telephone: +44 (0)1624 657762 Email: cliff.govender@lloydstsb.co.uk Website: www.lloydstsb-offshore.com/ employeebanking Lloyds TSB International is part of Lloyds Banking Group, one of the UK’s largest retail banking groups with strengths and resources that extend worldwide. With a network of offices spanning four continents and dedicated English speaking customer service teams available 24-7, we are well placed to meet the financial needs of international employees and customers wherever they are in the world.

As expatriate banking specialists we understand that a new life abroad comes with a host of different opportunities and challenges. Our extensive local knowledge and international banking expertise will ensure that employees and customers have what they need to make the most of this exciting time in their life.

NatWest Global Employee Banking Address: Eastwood House, Glebe Road, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 1RS Contact: Neil Barsby, Head of NatWest Global Employee Banking Telephone: +44 (0)1245 355628 Email: neil.barsby@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.

BUSINESS ASSOCIATION J-1 VISA PROGRAMME

BRITISHAMERICAN BUSINESS (BAB) 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, 20th Floor New York, NY 10017, USA Contact: Tamra Eker Telephone: +212 661 4060 Fax: +212 661 4074 Email: teker@babinc.org Website: www.babinc.org BritishAmerican Business’s J-1 visa program assists companies in offering US training and work experience to qualified employees of any nationality and from anywhere in the world, for a time period of up to 18 months. Sectors covered by our J-1 Visa designation include management, business, commerce, finance, law, industry, sciences, engineering, architecture, information media & communications. Using the J-1 Visa helps companies overcome cross-cultural differences and improve communication between US and overseas offices; enhance employee recruitment/retention efforts by offering US assignments; and meet global mobility challenges. Please call to discuss the program with our J-1 Visa Program Administrator.

HR SERVICES

ASSOCIATION OF RELOCATION PROFESSIONALS (ARP) PO Box 189, Diss, IP22 1PE, UK Contact: Tad Zurlinden Telephone: 08700 737475 Fax: 01379 641940 Email: enquiries@arp-relocation.com Website: www.arp-relocation.com The ARP is the professional association for 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 ASSOCATION (EURA) PO Box 189, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 1PE Telephone +44(0)8700 726 727 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.

IMMIGRATION

FRAGOMEN 4th Floor, Holborn Gate, 326-330 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7PP Contact: Caron Pope, Partner William Foster, Partner David Crawford, Partner Telephone: +44 (0)20 3077 5000

Email: londoninfo@fragomen.com Website: www.fragomen.com As the world's leading provider of immigration legal services and advice, Fragomen has served the immigration needs of clients ranging from individuals to the world’s leading multinational corporations for 60 years. With 42 offices in 17 countries worldwide, Fragomen has the resources and the reach to provide strategic and effective immigration solutions for over 140 countries around the globe.

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 96% customer rating for 2012, we offer unrivalled quality at competitive rates. *Awarded six global relocation awards since 2010.

Summer International HR Adviser

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DIRECTORY RECRUITMENT

RED GROUP OF COMPANIES The Bower, Langford Hall, Witham Road, Maldon, Essex, CM9 4ST Contact: Caroline Frostick-Seear and Amie Cutts Telephone: +44 (0)1621 840600 Fax: 01621 856062 Email: amie.cutts@redrecruit.com Website: www.redrecruit.com Red Recruit was founded in 2002 and specialises in the Relocation and mobility industry. We are a very professional, friendly and reputable company who have extensive knowledge within the industry.

We have access to a large volume of potential candidates all seeking work in your industry all over the UK, we will be able to find you a suitable candidate to enhance your business.

We personally understand the importance of finding the right calibre of staff for an organisation. By using our service we will take the pressure off you of finding a suitable candidate for your company, saving you time, money and effort, giving you the best attention at all times.

RELOCATION HCR Relocation UK Head office - Belvedere House Basing View, Basingstoke, RG21 4HG, UK Contact: Sally Kelly - HCR Business Development Manager, EMEA. Telephone: +44(0)1256 313780 Email: skelly@hcr.co.uk Website: www.hcr.co.uk Twitter: @relochatter LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/ company/hcr-group-limited We look after people, your people. We have a dedicated, high performing and professional team to deliver our award winning relocation service. Our knowledge, experience and empathy ensures that each of your relocating employees and their families are carefully managed and that their specific needs are considered. HCR has a true ‘one point of contact’ philosophy; One dedicated, cross trained Account Manager and Lead Relocation Consultant who will manage, co-ordinate, deliver and provide comprehensive support for every relocation case.

INTERDEAN RELOCATION SERVICES Central Way, Park Royal, London, NW10 7XW Contact: Barrie Gilmour Telephone: +44 (0)208 961 4141 Fax: +44 (0)208 965 4484 Email: London@interdean.com Website: www.interdean.com Thinking Relocation? Think Interdean.

Whether looking to expand into new territories or to leverage your human capital in core international markets, Interdean has the relocation service to support the needs of your business and your relocating employees. Interdean provides the full range of relocation services to support businesses with international interests. We make it easy. Our Services: Relocation Management, Visa & Immigration, Area Orientation, Temporary Housing, Home Finding, School Search, International HR Adviser Summer

Settlingin Assistance, Tenancy Management, Household Goods Moving, Intercultural & Language Training, Relocation Expense Management, Moving & Relocation Insurance and other services available – please ask.

SCHOOLS

International Community School 21 Star Street, London, W2 1QB Contact: Matthew Cook, Director of Marketing with Admissions Tel: +44 (0) 20 7402 0416 Web: www.icschool.co.uk Email: marketing@icschool.co.uk Twitter: @icslondon Youtube: ICSLondon An international school located in the centre of London. We offer all three International Baccalaurate Programmes (PYP, MYP, and Diploma) to children aged 3-18yrs. ICS has a diverse community with 45 different nationalities, and boasts a strong tradition of working with students who need support with learning English and also Special Educational Needs. Students at ICS benefit from a wide ranging activity programme during term time and also during school holidays. We have an outdoor education centre located in Bawdsey, Suffolk and an extensive Travel and Learn programme that has taken students as far afield as Brazil, South Africa and the Galapagos Islands.

ISL Group of Schools ISL Surrey Old Woking Road, Woking, Surrey GU22 8HY Contact: Claudine Hakim 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 Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2012, 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 Address: 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.

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.

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.

Entries in this Directory cost £175 per issue or £700 per annum.

For further details email helen@internationalhradviser.com