While the number of employees on international assignments has remained relatively stable over recent years, the percentage of “global nomads” and long-term expatriates has increased, causing new challenges for employers when it comes to providing benefits to this important employee population. Mercer’s 2011/2012 Benefits Survey for Expatriates and Internationally Mobile Employees provides an overview of expatriate policies within 288 large multinational firms worldwide that collectively have 119,000 expatriates.

“More than ever, multinational organizations face challenges in providing benefits to mobile employee populations,” says Mark Price, a Principal with Mercer. “There are often conflicting objectives of cost containment, governance and control versus the need to motivate globally mobile employees and treat them fairly.

“There is, understandably, a continued preference for maintaining home-country benefits irrespective of the assignment type,” he adds. “This option reduces benefits fragmentation and administrative difficulty against a backdrop of changing legislation and the complexity of providing equitable packages across borders.”

Learn more about benefits for expatriate employees.

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For more information about this survey, visit www.imercer.com/expatbenefits.