Companies expect to increase overseas assignments in 2013: Mercer

NEW DELHI: International assignments both short-term and long-term are likely to increase in 2013 amid companies promoting employees with international experience more quickly, according to a Mercer report on expatriate policies and practices.


Over 70 per cent of companies expect to increase short-term assignments and 55 per cent expect to increase long-term assignments in 2013, according to Mercer's Worldwide International Assignments Policies and Practices.

"International assignments have become more diverse to meet evolving business and global workforce needs," Mercer APAC Global Mobility COE Leader Phil Stanley said.

Priority destinations in their respective regions for expatriates include China, United States, Brazil, United Kingdom and Australia.

Around 39 per cent of participants reported that generally employees with international experience were promoted more quickly, Mercer said.

According to Mercer, the top five reasons cited for international assignment programmes are -- to provide specific technical skills not available locally, to provide career management/leadership development, to ensure knowledge transfer, to fulfil specific project needs, and to provide specific managerial skills not available locally.

The duration of long-term assignments is trending down with average duration of a long-term assignment now slightly less than three years. Average age of long-term assignees is between 35 and 55 years.

For short-term assignments, the average duration worldwide stands at 13 months. The average age of short-term assignees tends to be younger.

"Relatively low pay increases in some regions and pressure to attract and retain talent have spurred many firms to embrace a wider range of global mobility strategies to incentivise their high performers," Stanley added.

MNCs continue to source most (57 pc) of their international assignees from the country in which they are headquartered and assign them to foreign subsidiaries.

However, there has been an increase in the percentage of subsidiary company transfers (51 pc) indicating subsidiary to subsidiary transfers, as opposed to HQ to subsidiary transfers, have risen since 2010, the report said.

Likelihood of expatriates being female has marginally increased, with average percentage of female assignees standing at 13 per cent, just 3 per cent more than 2years ago.

Latin American and Asia Pacific companies show female average percentages lower than those of North American and European companies.

Family-related issues, such as concerns over children's education in a new location, remain a major obstacle to employee mobility. Partners and spouses of employees asked to work abroad may also have successful careers in their own right that they may not want to compromise, Mercer said.