What is Required for a Successful International Assignment Policy Plan?

For many companies, carrying on a successful international assignment had come down to either reducing costs or simply adjusting goals. This can ensure specific budget constraints and adjusted assignment goals are met. However, industry trends and competition strongly indicate a strategic approach must be utilized in order to construct a type of international assignment plan that is tailored to fit to the company‘s organizational goals and maximize return on investment.

Several key factors drive the strategy behind a tailored policy plan. Some of these factors include the company’s corporate vision, mission, goals, objectives, values, and culture, as well as the business plan, market competition, global talent development, benefits administration, and global mobility benefits vs. costs.

The corporate culture serves as a firm foundation for the business, impacting its overall operations, outcomes, and growth. Policies and procedures of international assignments should be established based on the founding principles of the company and in close alignment with its strategic goals and objectives. It is crucial to build a global mobility philosophy that reflects the corporate culture of the company fostered by its value system, ethics, and integrity.

Assignment policies should be structured in a way that would support the business plan and suit the future direction of the business. This requires HR practitioners to identify key strategic initiatives for expanding the company’s operations abroad, to redefine the management approach for global project implementation, to outline the percentage of profit generation from global assignments, and to increase the return on investment in global mobility.

Over the past decade, market competition has increased the need for alternative approaches to doing business internationally. Companies now use short-term or long-term international assignments, localization, extended business trips, and cross cultural teams to stay ahead of industry competition. While some companies have built internal global mobility teams to handle international assignments, others have found it more effective and efficient to collaborate with a global mobility management company to carry on the full relocation, expatriation, localization, training, and repatriation process.

HR practitioners now face domestic talent shortage for handing global assignments. A successful assignment plan should have proven strategies for global talent acquisition, retention and development. Developing global talent often requires benchmarking the policy, incorporating industry trends, research findings, and survey data, and adopting new strategies for talent development, cross-cultural teamwork, and succession planning.

A careful analysis of benefits and costs associated with global assignments would create a need for establishing a customized international assignment policy plan tailored to the business goals of the company. In some cases, the assignment policies may also be modified to meet the region-specific goals and objectives. Instead of reducing costs or lowering goals, companies should adopt a more strategic assignment policy plan – one that exceeds the company’s strategic objectives and maximizes return on investment in global mobility.