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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. “The benefits of keeping expatriates in their home country retirement plan is alignment with employee expectation as they remain in a plan that is known prior to the assignment, and avoidance of benefit fragmentation as benefits continue to accrue under a single plan,” said Mark Price , principal in Mercer’s International Consulting Group . “However, while this is suitable for short-term and traditional assignees, problems can occur applying these plans to global nomads. Employers can run into problems when it is no longer possible, for a variety of reasons, to maintain assignees in the home country plan. In these circumstances, many employers look for alternative, more flexible solutions.”
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.