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series Keep pace with the evolution of talent mobility in the new world of work! Join our free Talent Mobility Masterclasses to hear about the latest trends. Register today Digital mobility tools Create efficiencies with digital tools! From calculators for building pay packages, to comprehensive program management solutions, to educational tools for helping international assignees succeed while working and living abroad. Explore Need help? Whether your organization is looking to create a global mobility program, enhance the one you currently have, or get answers to any issues or concern you're facing,
we can help. Contact us Expatriate compensationDetermining the proper compensation approach can be challenging. Our guide to compensation approaches provides a detailed analysis of the three main compensation methods to help you choose the right solution based on your specific needs Learn more Developing a new mobility policyFar more than just a simple document with a list of allowances and benefits, a mobility policy is setting the key principles and philosophy used to manage assignees. This step-by-step guide explains the considerations involved. Download whitepaper Before replacing a traditional expatriate package with a localization arrangement, weigh the options. In the early 1990s, a U.S. multinational company sent a highly compensated American employee to France under the company’s “permanent transfer” policy. It was understood that the employee would not be an expatriate but instead would be treated as a French local hire. The employee received a buyout of his U.S. pension as well as relocation assistance and a local French salary. He began making regular contributions to the French social security system and local pension plan. Ironically, because of the high cost of French benefits and social security, the employee’s new local package did not represent a substantial savings for the company when compared with the original expatriate package. Seven years later, the company determined it needed the employee back in the United States. Since he was now a French employee, this meant an international assignment to the United States from France. The result? The American began working in the United States but has been treated as an expatriate from France, complete with a French base salary, French social security contributions (these are substantial), a cost-of-living allowance, housing assistance—and all the other assignment-related benefits normally offered to expatriates. Now, the employee is planning for retirement—in the United States. So the organization has decided to “localize” the American employee in his own country! The complications and the costs are enormous. HR directors, under pressure to trim the costs of international assignment programs, are increasingly turning to localization. The KPMG International Assignment Policies and Practices Survey from 2003 showed that 78 percent of participants had some form of localization policy. And a recent Cendant Mobility survey showed that, in 2004, 63 percent of participants expected an increase in the number of “localized transfers,” up from 51 percent in 2002. The general idea of localization is to remove the many expensive allowances and perks that normally go along with an international assignment and to set the employee’s remuneration on a par with local standards and practices. Given that a local compensation package is often perceived as less costly than an expatriate one, it’s believed that localization always reduces costs and is easy to implement. In fact, the appeal of near-term reductions in assignment program costs can lead to shortsighted decisions that can come back to haunt the company, the employee or both. A Definition With a Difference The term “localization” has various meanings. For some, it means removal of expatriate allowances but retention of the home-country base salary and long-term benefits such as social security and pension plans. For others, it means not only removal of expatriate allowances but also the shifting of the employee’s base salary to host-country levels, with long-term benefits remaining tied to the home country. A third approach to localization involves removing the allowances and shifting not only the salary but also the employee’s long-term benefits—and the employment relationship itself—to the host country. While the first two approaches to localization appear simplest, they do not address complexities and nuances that can lead to substantial problems. The third approach is closest to what is arguably the most appropriate definition of localization. To clarify the approaches, it can be helpful to regroup them under the terms “localization” and “host-based compensation”:
The fundamental distinction between the two definitions is whether or not it is intended that the employee return to the home country. The answer not only affects participation in benefit plans but also impacts important personal financial decisions such as retirement and estate planning, and whether to purchase a home in the host location. (See “Terms of Deployment”.) A typical localization policy consists of a few paragraphs at the end of an international assignment policy, calling for a phaseout of expatriate allowances and benefits once the assignee has spent four or five years at the host location, and the American expatriate would be switched over to a local base salary. Presumably, during a transition phase, expatriate benefits would be eliminated gradually, leaving the employee on a local package.
But consider some of the factors this approach does not address:
Failure to address those and other questions can make localization policies of little value. The answers are tied to the employee’s circumstances and assignment, including the home and host countries involved, and the employee’s personal financial concerns, retirement plans and family situation. The question of permanence—whether the employee intends to return to his or her country of origin—is crucial because it affects long-term benefits and therefore the reversibility of the decision. Host-based pay, under which the assignee is expecting to return home eventually, generally includes some form of ongoing participation in long-term benefits in the home country via vehicles such as “shadow salaries” or “notional pay.” This facilitates repatriation in that only the near-term compensation elements, such as base pay and incentive compensation, have been changed during the assignment. The employee has continued to participate in pensions, social security and other long-term plans on a basis similar to what would have occurred had he or she stayed at home. Uneven Compensation Both localization and host-based compensation also face the simpler challenge of dealing with variations among compensation levels around the world. A majority of expatriates on assignment today hail from North America, Western Europe, Australia or Japan. Their compensation levels, relative to those in most of the rest of the world, are quite high, and their benefit plans are usually sophisticated and reliable. Except for those regions and countries, however, where would an employee from an advanced industrial nation agree to be localized? Is it plausible to envision an employee from a high-paying country agreeing to localization or host-based pay in a place where the total compensation is substantially lower than at home? One important factor affecting this issue is whether it’s the employer or the employee who is the driving force behind the localization. An expatriate employee with a strong desire to remain in the host country beyond the planned length of assignment (perhaps because he or she married a local) is much more amenable to localization and the remuneration changes that accompany it than an employee who perceives that he or she is staying at the assignment location for the benefit of the company. Putting these self-driven localizations aside, it is easy to envision a list of more than 100 countries where most North Americans and their European counterparts would simply refuse to “go local.” Faced with such a refusal, the organization may be forced into a choice of either ignoring policy or risking the loss of the employee altogether. How To Go About It This does not mean that localization has no place in the expatriate dialogue today. But it does mean that it must be approached in a disciplined fashion, one that is focused on each individual employee’s situation and allows for the many complexities to be addressed and resolved. Among the major steps:
Raising the Bar For Everyone While it can be useful in specific situations, localization is not the cost-saving panacea that so many have made it out to be. In a sense, it is in the employer’s and the employee’s best interest to set the bar high and make sure that all involved understand that localization is not to be entered into lightly. Employee and employer are forced to make some tough decisions and to confront the questions of whether the long-term goal is localization or eventual return to the home country, and whether it will ultimately result in cost savings. But in the long run, the result is better for both the employee and the employer when the right decision is made at the outset. Timothy Dwyer is the national director (U.S.) of KPMG LLP’s International HR Consulting Group within the firm’s People Services practice. He focuses on international program design, policy development, re-engineering and training. What is an expatriate assignments?Expatriate is a term used to describe an employee who is temporarily or permanently assigned to work in a foreign country. Expatriates may be assigned to work in a foreign country by their company, or they may be sent to work in a foreign country by their government.
What is expatriation in business?An expatriate is an employee sent by his or her employer to work in a foreign country. The firm is normally referred to as the parent company, while the country of employment is known as the host country.
Which of the following best explains why MNEs often employ more locals than expatriate managers in foreign facilities?Which of the following best explains why MNEs often employ more locals than expatriate managers in foreign facilities? Failure rates for overseas postings between 30 & 50 percent, and usually reduce performance, sidetrack careers, and corrode morale.
Which of the following accurately describes a difference between jobs in the home office versus those in a foreign subsidiary?Which of the following accurately describes a difference between jobs in the home office and jobs in a foreign subsidiary? Employees in foreign subsidiaries typically have broader job responsibilities than employees in the home office.
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