Employers Face Challenges in Expatriate Benefits Provision

This causes challenges for employers when it comes to providing expatriate benefits, according to Mercer. Mercer’s 2011/2012 Benefits Survey for Expatriates and Internationally Mobile Employees found 85% of survey respondents have specific procedures in place to monitor the success of expatriate benefit programs. 

The number of global nomads (employees who move from country to country on multiple assignments) has risen from 6% to 10% of the expatriate population, while the percentage of short-term expatriates (those assigned to a project for less than a year) has fallen from 17% to 11%. Long-term expatriates as a percentage of the total assignee population increased from 21% to 40% between 2008/2009 and 2011/2012.  

The most common retirement approach for all internationally mobile employees is to maintain coverage in home country plans, based on the assumption that assignees are more likely to retire in their home countries. Some 63% of traditional and long-term expatriates are maintained in their home country retirement plans.   

One solution is to establish an international retirement plan, providing a single solution across assignments and the potential for a common scheme design. The survey results show that only 12% of companies have established international retirement plans to ensure continuity of benefits. Such plans, often offshore, are used across a variety of expatriate types. They are most common where there is no pension plan in a particular country or membership in a host country pension plan would adversely impact the employee.   

Offshore plans may not address all concerns, such as taxation or facilitating exclusion from host country pension arrangements, depending on the jurisdictions concerned, but do go some way to allowing for continued pension plan membership under a single arrangement whilst employees are on various assignments.   

“While 12% appears low,” said Price, “it is indicative of the market and we’re actually seeing an increase in the use of such vehicles outside Asia Pacific. They are very effective in providing consistent cover for mobile populations and in jurisdictions where no appropriate plans exist.”  

Nearly all respondents (98%) currently provide private medical insurance for their globally mobile work force compared with only 57% in 2005. Medical benefits and the quality and standards of medical health care vary significantly from country to country, so the main challenge for companies is to provide expatriates with a broadly equitable system of health care while managing costs. Other factors that may be driving uptake of international medical plans include an increase in local health insurance compliance and also the increasing demand by employees for medical benefits to be in place prior to the commencement of the assignment.

According to Price, an international medical plan provides equality among expatriates and reduces administration effort and time resource constraints. But challenges remain, particularly around costs. Fifty-three percent of respondents have experienced increases of 6% or more in their international medical plan premiums at their last renewal. Twenty percent of companies have seen their premium increases by between 11% and 15%.  

The survey indicates traditional cost-containment options remain popular, with a large proportion of respondents adopting the use of cost-sharing approaches such as employee deductibles (up 8% from 2008/2009), co-insurance and annual benefits limits.