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New forms of cross-border transfer emerging

INTERNATIONAL REWARD

New forms of cross-border transfer emerging

Instead of packing up and moving abroad for three years, tomorrow's global executive may commute more often, live in a new nation for less than a year or permanently relocate to a new country, according to a large-scale survey by Cendant Mobility.

Cendant Mobility gathered a slew of information from more than 180 human resource executives responsible for some 200,000 globally mobile employees in a dozen industries in north America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific region

Decline in long-term assignments forecast

Co-sponsored by the US-based Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Global Forum and the National Foreign Trade Council, the study offers some fascinating quantitative evidence on the emerging forms of cross-border activity.

Nearly half of all those surveyed (45%) expect a decrease in long-term assignments and significant growth in less traditional transfers, such as short-term assignments and frequent international business travel. Long-term assignments currently account for about half of all transfers.

Broken down by region, the figures are as follows:

  • Americas

  • Two-thirds of respondents (67%) expect the use of short-term assignments - relocating to another country for less than one year - to increase.

  • Europe, the Middle East and Africa

  • International commutation     - where employees work in the assigned nation and frequently commute to their home country - is predicted to increase by 63% of respondents.

  • Asia Pacific

  • Exactly half of respondents feel that localised transfers - a cross-border move in which employees are ultimately moved to permanent local status - will increase.

Benefits and challenges lie ahead

The study found that while there are benefits created by these changes, they also present new challenges. For example, respondents indicated that short-term assignments and other new forms seem to offer cost savings, but the majority of respondents - almost six in ten - fail to conduct a cost analysis for short-term assignments. Only a tenth track costs for international commutation and business travel.

Reasons for transferring people abroad

According to the survey results, companies engage in cross border activity mainly to:

  • transfer skills and knowledge (85%)
  • develop global competencies (49%)
  • complete projects (46%).

Less popular reasons include:

  • managerial control (30%)
  • start-up operations (22%)
  • maintaining corporate culture (19%)
  • joint ventures/mergers/divestitures (18%)
  • new product introductions (11%)
  • restructuring (5%).

Obstacles to global mobility

From the assignee perspective, challenges and obstacles of the international assignment differed among respondents, primarily based on the region where they were assigned:

  • Middle East

  • Half of the respondents cited family/partner issues as the number one obstacle for global mobility.

  • Americas

  • As many as 45% felt the economic climate was the biggest obstacle to global mobility, followed by the desire to be near family (30%).

  • Asia Pacific

  • The desire to be near family ranked highest (34%) with concern about regional safety close behind (29%).

A final word

"HR professionals are definitely feeling the heat to systematically track and quantify these less traditional forms of global mobility - not always an easy venture when their expenses span across many cost centres. It will be interesting to see how that will be balanced with the need to develop global competency, which traditional long-term assignments help to develop." - Brian J Glade, SHRM vice president - international programmes.

Want to know more?

Title: New Approaches to Global Mobility: 2002 worldwide benchmark study, by Cendant Mobility.

Methodology: More than 180 human resource executives responsible for upwards of 200,000 globally mobile employees in a dozen industries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific region were surveyed.

Availability: If you are a SHRM member, you can download the survey for free from the SHRM web site . . .http://my.shrm.org/surveysIf you are not a member, you can purchase the survey from the SHRM Store . . .http://shrmstore.shrm.org/shrm/

  • The SHRM Global Forum, a division of the Society for Human Resource Management with close to 7,000 members in 70 countries, "provides information and support to help meet the challenge of managing a global workforce". Members have online access to over 22 global HR publications, country reports, employment laws, survey data, twice-monthly email newsletters and US benchmarking data.
  • www.shrmglobal.org
  • Cendant Mobility is a provider of "global mobility management and workforce development solutions". Through its industry leading outsourcing, consulting, language and intercultural training, logistical support, and supplier management, it "helps organisations and their mobile workforces achieve success worldwide". Cendant Mobility has nearly 2,100 global clients. It assists over 130,000 transferring employees annually, represented by cross-border activity in over 140 countries.
  • www.cendantmobility.com
  • The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) is a US trade organisation whose primary objective is to "promote trade and export policies assisting global businesses to compete effectively in global markets".
  • www.nftc.org

Posted 17 September 2002