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Over 70% of companies across the world are expected to increase short-term assignments of expatriates in 2013, says a report on expatriate policies and practices by Mercer.
The report shows that 55% of companies expect to increase long-term assignments and highlighted that, for the last two years, there has been an increase in the overall number of international assignments. The report found that China, United States, Brazil, United Kingdom and Australia are the priority destinations in their respective regions for expatriates
“International assignments have become more diverse to meet evolving business and global workforce needs. Relatively low pay increases in some regions and pressure to attract and retain talent have spurred many companies to embrace a wider range of global mobility strategies to incentivise their high performers. Mobility and HR directors now face great complexity in the number and type of international assignments that need managing," said Phil Stanley, APAC Global Mobility COE Leader.
The information comes from Mercer’s Worldwide International Assignments Policies and Practices report which found that more than half of companies reported an increase of long-term (52%) and short-term assignments (53%) in 2011 and 2010. The report presents the latest trends in international assignment programme management, policies, and practices data.
Mercer says the top five reasons cited for international assignment programmes are: to provide specific technical skills not available locally (47%), to provide career management/leadership development (43%), to ensure knowledge transfer (41%), to fulfil specific project needs (39%), and to provide specific managerial skills not available locally (38%).
The report also points out that the duration of long-term assignments is trending down. The average duration of a long-term assignment is now slightly less than three years (2 years, 10 months). The average minimum duration is 1 year, 5 months, and the average maximum duration is 5 years, 4 months.
The average age of long-term assignees is between 35 and 55 years (see Chart 2). For short-term assignments, the minimum and maximum average durations worldwide, stand at respectively 4, 8 and 13 months. The average age of short-term assignees tends to be younger, with a similar proportion of companies in the below 35-years old bracket and in the 35-to-55-years old bracket.
The likelihood of expatriates being female has marginally increased, with the average percentage of female assignees standing at 13%, just 3% higher than two years 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. “Career management” ranks as the next most important issue, except for European and Asia Pacific companies, which rate lack of “package attractiveness” as the second-biggest obstacle to mobility.
Multinational companies continue to source most (57%) 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%) indicating that subsidiary-to-subsidiary transfers, as opposed to HQ-to-subsidiary transfers, have increased since 2010.
"This evolution is most significant among European companies, with six in ten (61%) reporting an increase of this pattern of assignments, indicating the growing competencies of staff in other parts of the world," the report adds.
Host countries where companies expect highest increase in assignments
| % of Companies | |
| United States | 55% |
| Brazil | 43% |
| China | 41% |
| Australia | 39% |
| United Kingdom | 28% |
| Mexico | 28% |
| United Arab Emirates | 23% |
| Russia | 23% |
