Research revealed by Jelf Employee Benefits today from their 2015/2016 survey shows that 83% of companies have been exposed to international HR challenges in the last 12 months. Yet only 34% regularly review international employment law, and 40% don’t know when it was last reviewed in their company.
Perhaps more worrying still is that no company rated their current policy to manage security and international risk as excellent, in fact 75% rated it as ‘poor’ or ‘average and probably needing some improvement.’
Managing a workforce abroad has its own unique challenges. The world can seem an increasingly uncertain place and over the last 12 months there have been particular challenges in the areas of disease and conflict.
Doug Rice, managing director of Jelf International Services says,
“Many international risks are exposed daily in the media, but the actual facts of crises and issues rely on local knowledge and specialist expertise. We’re particularly worried by the 40% that don’t know when their company last reviewed their international risk and law.”
Rules and regulations specific to individual countries change frequently, and Jelf explains it’s imperative that companies keep up to date to ensure adequate and appropriate cover for staff abroad. If companies don’t regularly review their risk practices and international employment law they are potentially exposing themselves to risk unnecessarily.
Rice continued,
“I’m not surprised that the majority of companies rate how they manage security and international risk as average or poor, this is exactly what we see in practice. International employment processes inherently have more complex challenges and there has never been a greater need for an international centre of excellence for employers. As ever, we would urge companies to speak to specialists to ensure they comply with all relevant legislation.”
The above figures were part of the wider 2015/16 Jelf Employee Benefits Survey which includes employer views on many aspects of employee benefit provision and can be viewed here.
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