Extract from IDS Executive Compensation Review 313

Short-term expatriate assignments increasing

As businesses become increasingly global, companies are focusing more on managing mobile workforces on international job assignments. There will be a 70 per cent increase in short-term assignments for expatriates by spring 2007, says Pricoa Relocation, an international relocation company. This view is echoed by another relocation company, Homesearch Group, which states that there has been a huge growth in the last five years of short-term transfers as a number of companies focus on project-based assignments.

Drawing on recent surveys as well as our contacts with international relocation companies, this article look at these emerging trends in expatriate programs and relocation policies, and includes tables detailing different compensation approaches taken by companies to overseas assignments.