Towergate Employee Benefits’ new research shows that only 35% of companies who have employees overseas benchmark their benefits in order to comply with the law.
In almost every country, the laws governing what benefits are required to be provided vary. It can be difficult for employers to ensure that they are in compliance with the laws of each country, especially since these laws may change frequently. Some countries only grant working visas if they have the correct healthcare coverage. It is important that employers benchmark their benefits to make sure that they are in compliance with the legislation.
Sarah Dennis is the head of international for Towergate Employee Benefits. She says: In order to ensure benefits compliance, benchmarking can help companies align their benefits packages with legal and regulatory requirements of each country.
Benchmarking helps identify the gaps between industry standards and regulatory requirements by country. Employers can reduce the risk of non-compliance by identifying any gaps and correcting them.
Benchmark for avoiding over- and under-compensating
It’s good to know that 79% employers who have overseas employees benchmark their benefits to make sure they are competitive. Employers should take care to make sure that the benchmarking is solid. When comparing benefits across countries, employers must not only consider the benefits that are necessary to remain competitive but also those that are required. These benefits must also be included.
Some benefits are not required to be included. As more employers hire locals instead of recruiting overseas, they will have access to state-funded assistance. These benefits don’t need to be added to a package of benefits. Many people can save a lot of money by understanding the details.
Emerging Trends
Benchmarking helps employers identify the best practices, emerging trends and new ideas to implement into their own program. The company will be able to stay up-to-date with ever-changing regulations.
Sarah Dennis, explains that “in Italy,”, “many benefits are traditionally covered by the government system. However, with more companies moving employees to the country, local employers must now implement benefits to match those offered by multi-national companies.” It can lead to a domino-effect of increasing benefits packages. Employers should be careful not to overcompensate and offer benefits that already exist through government schemes.
Growing Needs
Some companies expand into new countries even with just one employee. Even though benchmarking is important, employers have a responsibility to make sure that the support provided to even just one person is compliant. The number of employees on overseas assignments can also quickly increase, so employers need to ensure that they have the basic requirements in place.
Employers should benchmark by sector, size, region, and country. Criteria must be flexible and adaptable. Because the USA is so vast, benchmarking should be done by industry sector, not by country. Working with local experts who have specialist knowledge of the area is important because employers cannot be experts on every situation.
Sarah Dennis concludes “International benefit packages are becoming increasingly complex. This reflects changing trends in recruitment, such as the employment of local nationals. Benchmarking is a process that should be ongoing to ensure continuous improvement. Benchmarking is a valuable exercise that can yield great results, but only if it includes the right elements.
The original version of this article Only 35 percent of employers with overseas workers benchmark their benefits to ensure compliance with legislation appeared first on Human Resources News.
