International HR Adviser Winter 2015/2016

WINTER 2015

ISSUE 64

Free Subscription Offer Inside

International HR Adviser The Leading Magazine For International HR Professionals Worldwide

Features Include: Cyber-Crimes: The Role That HR Departments Can Play In Defeating Insider Attacks International Business Travellers – Recognise The Issues & Deal With It Employee Travel Security : Why Travel Safety Training For Employees Is Increasingly Important How Effective Compliance Management Gets A Seat At The Top Table Global Leadership • Big Data Global Taxation Update • Mobility Is A People Business – Do You Care?

Advisory Panel for this issue:

Expatriate Adviser Summer

Autumn International HR Adviser

You are cordially invited to

The 2016

Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition on

Monday 8th February 2016 10.00am - 5.00pm at

Hotel Russell, 1-8 Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1B 5BE

This event is FREE TO ATTEND

Come along and meet our exhibitors who have products and services that support expatriates and their families.

There are also free seminars running throughout the day and these are listed overleaf.

You will need to pre-register for the seminars as places are limited so please email helen@internationalhradviser.com For further information on this event please call Helen Elliott on 020 8661 0186

The 2016 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition Monday 8th February 2016 from 10.00am - 5.00pm

Hotel Russell, Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1B 5BE

FREE SEMINAR PROGRAMME 10.30am - Understanding Third Culture Kids

The experience of international mobility presents advantages and disadvantages for children whose routines, friendships, schools, and linguistic and cultural environments are disrupted because of the career path of a parent. With a better understanding of what these benefits and challenges are, parents and professionals working with expatriate families can help children negotiate the complexities of international relocation. This session will draw on research to offer insights into Third Culture Kids and provide a forum for discussing strategies that can help children and their families embrace the exciting positive and life-changing advantages that can be gained while growing up abroad.

Hosted by Mary Langford whose own international journey began at the age of two, and who has worked with international schools and families as an educator, researcher, writer, speaker, independent consultant and trainer for over 35 years. She is currently Director of Admissions for Dwight London School and Director of Langford International Education Consultancy Ltd which is providing support in 21 mother-tongue languages to students in international schools worldwide.

11.15am - Dual Career and the Importance of Creating a Powerful Network

Understanding the importance of networking is essential to succeed in any business. The rules and styles can be unique to the UK and can pose a challenge to dual career families as they relocated. Join FOCUS who will share effective networking advice and tips to help overcome these challenges and will uncover how to take full advantage of any networking situation in the UK.

12.15pm - Tax Seminar

This seminar will cover tax issues that affect expatriates living and working in the UK, and will highlight issues that expatriates need to know about in order to keep their finances in check. Topics that will be covered include Federal and State Tax Return Preparation and Filing, FBAR filing (reports of foreign bank and financial accounts) and bringing expats into IRS compliance.

This seminar is hosted by Roland Sabates, a tax attorney and Director of Operations for H&R Block’s Expat Tax Services business. Roland has a wealth of experience in international tax preparation and helping clients navigate through their unique tax situations that exist as a US expat.

His area of specialisation is resolving international tax issues for individuals and small business owners, such as FBAR and foreign information reporting, IRS voluntary disclosure programme participation, and US taxation of foreign trusts and retirement arrangements.

1.15pm - UK Immigration Update & Compliance

Ferguson Snell will present an overview on the effects of the recent policy changes, the results of the recent MAC survey on Tier 2 migration and skilled labour shortages, as well as the possibility of a skills levy on sponsor organisations and the effects of increased costs in bringing migrant workers to the UK, including the NHS surcharges for Tier 2 ICT assignees. We will also cover compliance and due diligence in running an efficient corporate immigration programme in today’s competitive market.

2.15pm - Building a Strategic Vision of Global Mobility for Your Organisation

This session will explore that challenge from a new paradigm; how would the focus and priorities of a mobility leader change if that role was truly in the C-suite? As much as any enterprise process, effective cross-border deployment relies on working across functional silos.

Mobility leaders orchestrate across HR specialties in talent, reward and business HR as well as Finance, Accounting, Payroll and Tax, all in support of business strategy. This session aims at developing an enterprise approach that considers all the priorities and stakeholders in this complex and strategically critical endeavour. Presented by Deloitte LLP.

3.15pm - Key Trends In Global Mobility

Andy Piacentini will explore some key emerging themes from research within the RES Forum and their membership of 750 mobility professionals.

The presentation will focus on policy, workforce planning, talent and the future of the mobility function.

Hosted by Andy Piacentini, Standard Life & RES Forum.

4.15pm - Documenting Expatriate Reward

Juliet Carp, employment law specialist at Dorsey & Whitney (Europe) LLP, and author of “Drafting Employment Documents for Expatriates” will explore tips and traps associated with documenting expatriate reward. With a focus on risk reduction, discussion will cover areas such as retaining discretion; links to policy documents; variable remuneration; documenting high value benefits such as housing, schooling, pension and share plans; and approaches to tax equalisation.

If you would like to register for any or all of these free seminars, please email helen@internationalhradviser.com with the times of the seminars you would like to attend.

We look forward to seeing you there!

CONTENTS

In This Issue Page 1

Your Invitation To The 2016 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition

Page 4

Cyber-Crimes: The Role That HR Departments Can Play In Defeating Insider Attacks Chris Pace, Wallix UK

Page 6

International HR Strategy: International Business Travellers – Recognise The Issues & Deal With It (Best Practices) Philipp Klewitz, SAP SE, Sebastian Frenkel, SAP SE, Scott McCormick & Klaus Heeke, Deloitte & Touche GmbH

Page 10

Employee Travel Security: Why Travel Safety Training For Employees Is Increasingly Important Saul Shanagher, beTravelwise

Page 12

Global Mobility HR Insight: Delivering Excellent Customer Service In Global Mobility – Insights From Old Mutual Max Newbigging, Global Mobility Manager, Old Mutual Group

Page 14

Global Mobility: How Effective Compliance Management Gets A Seat At The Top Table Heather Hughes, The RES Forum

Page 18

Global Taxation Update Andrew Bailey, BDO LLP

Page 22

Taxing Issues: International Assignments – Get It Right, You Have Everything To Gain!

Andrew Bailey, BDO LLP

Page 25

Mobility Is A People Business – Do You Care?: Show-Me-The-Money!

Jason Waite, CornerstoneLondon Relocation

Page 26

Global Benefits: A New Perspective On End Of Service Gratuities Peter Cox, Zurich International Life

Page 28

Big Data: Man Went To The Moon In 1969. 46 Years Later What Technological Advances Have Driven The Global Mobility Industry Forward?

Mark Rising, Santa Fe Relocation

Page 32

Serviced Apartments In The LATAM Region: Skyline Worldwide Highlight Mobility Trends In The LATAM Region, With Focus On The Local Accommodation Requirements Cinthya Caggiano, Skyline Worldwide

Page 35

Global Leadership: The Global Leadership Development Dilemma Or How Best To Develop Your Global Leaders Cathy Wellings, London School of International Communication

Page 38

Diary Dates

Page 39

Directory

International HR Adviser, PO Box 921, Sutton, SM1 2WB, United Kingdom Publisher • Helen Elliott +44 (0) 20 8661 0186 • Email: helen@internationalhradviser.com Publishing Director • Damian Porter +44 (0) 1737 551506 • Email: damian@internationalhradviser.com www.internationalhradviser.com In Loving Memory of Assunta Mondello While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of information contained in this issue of “International HR Adviser”, the publishers and Directors of Inkspell Ltd cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions.

Neither the publishers of “International HR Adviser” nor any third parties who provide information for “Expatriate Adviser” magazine, shall have any responsibility for or be liable in respect of the content or the accuracy of the information so provided, or for any errors or omissions therein. “International HR Adviser” does not endorse any products, services or company listings featured in this issue.

Cover Design by Chris Duggan

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Cyber-crimes

The Role That HR Departments Can Play In Defeating Insider Attacks Are senior management becoming more distrustful of their staff or are they simply reacting to an undeniable fact: that 81% of all cybercrimes are carried out by insiders? And if this is the case, what are the implications for HR departments around the world?

A recent survey published in the Financial Times (31st October 2015) entitled ‘The Global State of Information Security’ found that in six major geographies around the world, including the UK, Germany, China, the US, Brazil and Europe, the respondents all listed ‘current employees’ as being the most likely source of a cyber-attack on their company, followed by ‘former employees’ in second place and then either ‘unknown hackers’ or ‘competition’.

This finding is significant as it highlights the widening gulf between perception (that most cyber-crime is carried out by criminal gangs or rogue nation states) and reality (that most of it is, in fact, committed by current employees).

This growing perception is probably the result of the disproportionate amount of press coverage given over to stories about external hackers and the financial and reputational damage that they can cause to companies. The recent TalkTalk hack here in the UK being one such example, with the company still counting the considerable costs of that attack including the CEO yet to go before a House Of Parliament Select Committee where she can expect a - very public – grilling from the MPs. Statistics published by a recent CPNI Insider Data Collection Study show that of these attacks, 88% are committed by permanent members of staff, 7% by contractors and 5% by agency personnel.

The same organisation’s definition of an ‘insider threat’ gives an indication as to why HR departments need to take the lead in combating this growing phenomenon or, at the very least, work more closely with their colleagues in the IT department.

An insider threat, according to the CPNI, can be defined as “the threat posed to an organisation from high risk behaviour of one or more employees, International HR Adviser Winter

including contractors and business partners”. If high risk behaviour by a member of staff presages a possible attack on his own her own company, then what steps can the HR department take to prevent this happening?

My recommendation is that it has to work in a much more collaborative way with the IT department. And here’s the main reason why. For an attack to take place, the attacker must have the means, the motive and the opportunity.

Addressing the ‘motive’ aspect belongs firmly to HR departments which need to better understand why people commit these crimes and look out for the behaviours that could trigger them.

The ‘means’ and ‘opportunity’ belong squarely to IT departments which need to put in place more robust access management systems that prevent staff from going where they’re not allowed to go, and cuts them off from the system when they themselves have left the company.

IT departments have much ground to make up in this area. For example, my company carried out some research recently into an important aspect of information security, namely identity and access. 50% of the respondents (who were IT professionals) that took part in our survey felt that it would be either ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ to identify whether any ex-employees still had access via accounts to resources on their network. The same percentage (50%), thought the same about ex-third party providers accessing their network and an even bigger proportion (55%) thought the same about ex-contractors accessing their networks.

Managing ‘orphan accounts’ for businesses is clearly problematic. Research

by YouGov found that 39% of of IT decision makers from large corporates took anything from a few days to a month to close a leaver’s dormant account. But a disgruntled employee is unlikely to wait anything like that length of time before they start helping themselves to confidential company information.

In other words, their IT systems are simply not able to cope appropriately (i.e., swiftly) with staff leavers. So who’s

to blame here? Is this a problem with the IT Department’s system, or the HR department’s processes and procedures?

A truly effective solution is only achievable if the two departments work in tandem. The IT department’s job is to put in place appropriate IT security systems and the HR department’s job is to put in place the appropriate processes and procedures and create the right culture regarding the workforce’s compliance or observance of them.

Compliance is key here and this area could prove to be the most difficult to achieve. A report by Raytheon (2015 Global Megatrends in Cybersecurity Report) found that one key attribution that was expected to ‘worsen’ (i.e., the security risk rating will increase) over the next few years was an ‘inability to enforce compliance with policies’. In other words, companies will find it increasingly hard to make their staff follow their rules. And the tougher, more onerous or more strict the rules become, they less likely staff are to follow them.

Here are my six tips to help HR departments and IT departments jointly create a more ‘holistic’ approach to managing employee risk:

Work More Closely Together It sounds obvious, but having a better understanding about each other’s day to day work can help to identify and resolve many of the issues addressed in this article, e.g., leavers. Forming joint steering committees or creating other fora may help stimulate dialogues between the two departments leading to a more collaborative and effective way of working.

Re-Assess And Upgrade Existing Security Processes And Procedures Many of these will have been in place for many years and will not address the relatively new phenomenon that cybersecurity represents. When assessing them, ask yourselves these questions: Do they work in this new environment? Are they practical? Will they be observed? What are the consequences if they are not observed?

What are the risks of non compliance and

Cyber-crimes is the organisation prepared to bear them?

Training Make employees aware of the risks, and penalties, of a data breach and teach them how to spot it. Naturally, this training should involve both departments and should serve to demonstrate the new found cohesiveness between the two.

Forget The Dichotomy Between Insider Threats And Outsider Threats

FREE SEMINAR

This demarcation line is rapidly blurring and is, in fact, disingenuous. Although the Talk Talk attack was carried out by external hackers, once they were ‘in’, they were able to make use of some lax internal controls to gain greater access.

The 2016 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition, Hotel Russell, London 1.15pm

Create A More ‘Vigilant’ Culture Most frauds are revealed by whistleblowers and an important preventative measure is to encourage a system and culture whereby employees can report anything unusual.

Although unusual behaviour does not always presage a full blown cyber-attack, it might indicate that something is wrong.

Regularly Test Existing Systems, Processes And Procedures Many former hackers are now gainfully employed trying to test the defences of companies that they formerly hacked into.

(After all, they’re best placed to know where the weaknesses are). The same approach can be adopted internally too.

Chris Pace, Head of Product Marketing at Wallix UK Chris can be contacted at cpace@wallix.com www.wallix.com

Monday 8th February 2016

UK Immigration Update & Compliance Ferguson Snell will present an overview on the effects of the recent policy changes, the results of the recent MAC survey on Tier 2 migration and skilled labour shortages, as well as the possibility of a skills levy on sponsor organisations and the effects of increased costs in bringing migrant workers to the UK, including the NHS surcharges for Tier 2 ICT assignees.

We will also cover compliance and due diligence in running an efficient corporate immigration programme in today’s competitive market.

To register please email helen@internationalhradviser.com

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International HR Strategy

International Business Travellers Recognise The Issues & Deal With It (Best Practices) The times when international business travellers (IBTs) were able to travel around the globe without having to fulfil numerous regulatory requirements have long gone. Multiple countries are evaluating multi-national companies in general and IBTs specifically, in order to collect taxes that are perceived to be payable due to the work performed in the country or to control and protect the domestic labour market and standards.

There is a clear tendency by governments of introducing more stringent, and, or, enforcing existing regulations on tax, social security and labour law compliance as well as to concentrate on respective reporting obligations.

Recent examples on IBT related regulations are: • Taxation where the work is performed versus taxation in the country of residence: a. Austria BMF-010221/0362VI/8/2014 (from 12.06.2014) b. Australia: ATO ruling published TR 2013/1 • Labour law and immigration reporting obligations for companies: a. EU: Directive 2014/67/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on the enforcement of Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services b. Austrian Act on Employment regarding contracts and adjustments which prohibits salary dumping and regulates all respective conditions with regard to transboundary Assignments and Labour Staffing. (“ArbeitsvertragsrechtsAnpassungsgesetz”, hereinafter referred to as “AVRAG”).

While the government’s intention might be reasonable from a domestic revenue collection and labour protection aspect, it correspondingly restricts international business capabilities. IBTs usually travel on short notice and upon customer demand, which makes planning, tracking and reporting as requested by the regulations administratively burdensome and costly.

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Companies that have no existing processes in place to track and control their IBTs, should start to identify existing compliance gaps and implement necessary processes to mitigate them.

Failure to comply with existing legislation may result in a variety of sanctions such as fines and penalties for the individual or the corporation, limit the ability to qualify for public tenders, trigger a permanent establishment or reputational damage.

Dealing with a multitude of different topics such as personal income tax, immigration, social security and corporate tax exposure, can be a major challenge for companies trying to control their IBT population.

Furthermore, governments are interlinking different legislative areas which means that risks can no longer be mitigated in isolation, but must be looked at from a holistic view. A very recent example is Singapore, where an active exchange of information is taking place between the immigration and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).

There are examples of IRAS asking businesses about employees in respect of whom Employment Pass applications were made but no Singapore tax returns filed. In some cases these enquiries have dated back 10 years.

Start Develop Implement And Lead Successfully implementing a companywide programme to control critical IBT populations, starts with establishing corporate ownership. It is only when corporate ownership has been formally defined and signed off by the executive board, when sound risk decisions can be taken in a joint approach. There are various methods to define this ownership, but best practices have shown that a joint approach between GRC (Governance Risk & Compliance), Finance and HR has proven to be most effective.

The evaluation of historic travel data can be a good basis to analyse how IBT populations “behave” in terms of travel pattern, trip duration, or frequency of

the trips, as well as to prioritise the risk assessment for certain countries, country combinations or individuals within the IBT population.

A detailed legal analysis should be conducted that takes into consideration all aspects which are relevant for IBTs such as immigration, social security, transfer pricing issues, corporate tax exposure and personal income tax. In many countries the economic employer concept can be prevailing and strongly influence the available risk mitigation scenarios. Countries such as Austria, Australia, Denmark, Norway and UK are of relevance here, just to mention a few.

In order to identify the economic employer the IBT population should be defined as such and be segregated into different groups: Best Practice Examples from an SAP perspective:

Definition: • International Business Travellers (IBTs) travel into the host country on business from a variety of different home countries • IBTs are defined as employees working abroad for less than 183 days • The duration of stay in the host country may be continuous or intermittent, but will not exceed 183 days in any 12-month period. There is no formal assignment agreement in place • Once an IBT exceeds the 183 days threshold a formal assignment is set up and taxes are remitted • IBTs remain on home country payroll, there is no active shadow payroll in the host country • IBTs are split in several groups: Group 1 a): activities in the host country will include revenue generating activities and/ or implementation of proprietary products on the customer’s premises. Customer contract and billing is set up between the host company and the customer in the host country (IBTs are requested by the host company to leverage margin or to get special expertise). Average realised market rates are cross-charged to the host company

International HR Strategy for the services performed by the IBTs (indirect cost charge).

Group 1 b): Same as Group 1a, but the customer contract and billing is setup between the home company and the customer in the home country (IBTs are sent to host country to conduct a project onsite at customer’s subsidiary).

In this case the host company is not involved and there is no cross-charge of costs. This group will typically be at risk in terms of creating a PE for the home company Group 2: activities will be restricted to non-revenue generating work (attending meetings etc.). No crosscharge of costs • Home company and host company in host country are related parties, subsidiaries of the headquarter located in country XYZ • When travel to the host country is required, the employee will work be supported with a third party immigration provider to obtain the necessary visa or work permit.

Companies will also need to decide whether they are willing to implement a one size fits all scenario, e.g. assign all employees in substance and form after 30/60/90 days of presence, or if they are willing to establish a country specific risk profile. Following the latter strategy has proven to be more effective for us since setting up an assignment is not always the solution. In some countries a registration process is sufficient, and in other regions (e.g. MENA) the assignment set up is not recognised and all efforts to mitigate potential risks - such as integrating the employee into the host entity to mitigate PE exposure - are in vain if such an approach is followed. Furthermore, a country specific risk profile can help to optimise the staffing procedure for international projects if high risk country combinations can be excluded upfront. If an assignment set up is chosen to mitigate PE exposure it is also important to implement a global employee exchange policy that sets clear rules and guidelines of how intercompany recharges are operated.

Examples for this are country combinations where no work permit may be required, or corporate tax exposure is limited due to a lack of a service PE clause in the double tax treaty.

The risk decision process will be influenced by the internal risk tolerance, historic audit results and industry trends amongst peers. Once this has been

thoroughly examined a risk decision can be taken on a country combination level which should balance risks, business needs and employee requirements to ensure compliance for the company.

Please note: Some companies apply certain thresholds before compliance processes are triggered and executed with regards to taxes, PE exposure etc.

We strongly recommend not to apply a threshold approach for immigration matters, but to ensure compliance as of day one since non-compliance can be considered a criminal offence and might have a severe impact on the company’s reputation and the ability to obtain work permits in the future. Companies should evaluate if a pre-travel assessment is required to achieve immigration compliance.

Global Mobility Compliance Calendar: Monitoring IBTs movements and informing employees about compliance regulations in specific countries is critical to obtain control of the IBT population.

This is why SAP has developed the Global Mobility Compliance Calendar (GMCC) which extracts trip data from the travel expense system and informs employees about critical thresholds via email workflow based on the country risk profile. The employee is asked to validate trip data and provide further details such as the revenue classification (revenue enabling / revenue generating), type of activity (work, travel, training etc.) and the state/province if required.

The country specific email alert also contains a short summary about the legal background and why an action is required for the employee including a dedicated contact for follow-up questions.

All trips are pre-filled with a start and end date, as well as the country of destination, to ensure the additional administrative effort for the employee is minimal. Validating a trip typically takes less than one minute. The intuitive SAP Fiori Interface and mobile first experience (same look and feel from any device) has been key to get the employees’ buy in to participate in the process.

The data which is captured through GMCC can then be used for follow-up processes, such as automatic tax withholding and remittance through an in-house shadow payroll system. It also serves as a database to identify employees which have become taxable (accidental IBT expats) or that require country

specific compliance services (town-hall registration, tax-id number etc.).

Roll-out Training etc.

Critical to the success of rolling-out a global compliance programme for IBTs is the ability to segment and successfully communicate the right messages at the right time to stakeholders. Taking the programme at SAP as an example:

Employees The entire compliance programme rests on the ability for us to gather and accurately assess travel information from affected employees, whilst minimising their input and administration. The implementation of our GMCC, being linked also to expense records, means we can accurately identify who needs to provide information and why, and thereby minimise the communications and rollout training to only this group. Looking at other organisations, there have even been incentive programmes put in place to reward full compliance with the reporting requirements and, conversely, penalties against individual per diem allowance entitlements for non-compliance. This is likely to be a company-specific decision on how the programme is to be rolled out.

Project And Line Managers Regardless of the chosen roll-out method and programme, it is key to obtain the buy in and support of project managers and line managers. Ultimately, the tax costs of any compliance programmes will hit their project codes or cost centres, whilst any risk of noncompliance will fall similarly. Educating and communicating with this group can help to improve employee compliance with reporting requirements later on.

Payroll Leaders Downstream reporting of IBT taxation falls largely upon the payroll department.

At SAP, we have a global payroll governance structure which allows us to distribute reporting and allocated income for taxability down to the local payroll level, but there is still a level of local reporting, registrations and some external tax adviser assistance required.

Roles and responsibilities for taxable and non-taxable IBTs should be established up front in line with the legal/tax review process and clearly communicated during the roll-out phase. Periodic checks and audits should be made to ensure the programme is working as intended.

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International HR Strategy Staying On-Top And Ahead Of The Game Actively monitoring the IBT population through reporting and analytics enables the company to monitor and mitigate known risks as well as to develop policies with respect to internal risk tolerance.

Developing an internal database which summarises country specific compliance requirements in an easy to consume format, enables project managers to stay on top of rules and regulations and plan mobility costs in advance.

Having access to the data running through such a compliance programme can also enable project managers to add much more value to the business.

In relation to effective workforce deployment, being able to cross reference all tax and immigration rules (together with, for example, typical immigration processing lead times) could enable a faster deployment of staffing to a project. For example, if a project requires 10 engineers to travel to the US at short notice, it is very valuable to be able to select not only the engineers with the right skills set and willingness to work overseas, but also the amount of time it will take to clear their US visa processes and/or take into account the likely tax outcome of a particular engineer’s move (for example based on home/host country combination).

Adding this kind of foresight is only possible based on a robust data collection and compliance programme but can transform the economics and commercial side of a project. This truly enables a business traveller compliance programme to add value back to the business.

Deloitte Commentary On Minimum Wage Application How “international” is the German Statutory Minimum Wage?

Business travellers and seconded employees are subject to the German Minimum Wage Act. Employees seconded from abroad, temporary overseas project workers and business visitors from overseas group companies – German groups are certainly asking this question already: Do we have to ensure these categories of employees are paid the German statutory minimum wage?

Basically, the answer is yes. According to the German Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz, Mi-LoG), every employer having its business seat in Germany or abroad, is obliged to pay the statutory minimum wage to all employees International HR Adviser Winter

being employed in Germany, i.e. on German territory. In this context, the German Minimum Wage Act does not provide for any exceptions for employers having their business seat abroad which assign employees to Germany. Likewise, the German Minimum Wage Act does not make any difference in terms of the assignment period. Hence, the minimum wage requirements even apply for business travellers who visit Germany only for a relatively short-term (e.g. in terms of a one-day business trip). Correspondingly, the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has confirmed upon request that the German Minimum Wage Act has to be applied to employees who work only short-term in Germany, provided that the employment takes place in German territory.

Even in cases where business travellers enter Germany only for the purpose of attending a seminar or training, the applicability of the German Minimum Wage Act seems to be inevitable. Although there is an opinion in legal literature – referring to the concept of working time according to the German Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, ArbZG) – which expresses a different opinion, the competent German authorities (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Customs Office) have confirmed that seminars as well as trainings are to be considered as working time and have to be remunerated based on the minimum wage.

It goes without saying that this does not only lead to the financial implications of the minimum wage (currently EUR 8.50 per hour), but also makes relevant other provisions of the German Minimum Wage Act, such as liability rules and various reporting and documentation obligations.

Philipp Klewitz is Director for Mobility Compliance at SAP SE philipp.klewitz@sap.com Sebastian Frenkel is Employment Tax Director at SAP SE sebastian.frenkel@sap.com Scott McCormick Partner, Global Employer Services, Tax, Deloitte & Touche GmbH e: scottmccormick@deloitte.de Klaus Heeke Partner, Employment Law, Deloitte & Touche GmbH e: kheeke@deloitte.de

FREE SEMINAR Monday 8th February 2016 The 2016 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition, Hotel Russell, London 2.15pm

Building a Strategic Vision of Global Mobility for Your Organisation This session will explore that challenge from a new paradigm; how would the focus and priorities of a mobility leader change if that role was truly in the C-suite? As much as any enterprise process, effective cross-border deployment relies on working across functional silos. Mobility leaders orchestrate across HR specialties in talent, reward and business HR as well as Finance, Accounting, Payroll and Tax, all in support of business strategy. This session aims at developing an enterprise approach that considers all the priorities and stakeholders in this complex and strategically critical endeavour. Presented by Deloitte LLP. To register for this free seminar please email helen@internationalhradviser.com

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EMPLOYEE TRAVEL SECURITY

Why Travel Safety Training For Employees Is Increasingly Important In the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks, the subsequent Brussels lock down and travel warning issued by the US Government, any manager with responsibility for travellers should rightly question the risks employees may be exposed to and review what support they need to help keep them safe. Many managers may find it difficult to determine what the real risk is versus people’s perception of risk and how do you protect against the former and relieve the latter?

Background Risk It is worth bearing in mind that very few countries rate as having no travel risk, there is always a chance that something may happen. Extreme weather or natural disasters are increasingly common phenomena, crime invariably poses an issue and extreme violence will always exist when there are disgruntled groups.

Islamic terrorism currently gains huge amounts of press coverage, however many western countries have had an ongoing risk of terrorism from separatists, extreme religious or political groups and activists (particularly animal rights groups).

Most people who commute and work in major western cities are exposed to a risk of terrorism every day. We trust that the state security apparatus is doing everything in its power to reduce this risk to an acceptably low level whilst working with the transport and infrastructure companies to ensure we are kept as safe as can be. Those of us who appreciate this risk make a conscious decision to go about our daily lives, because it is highly unlikely that we’ll be caught in an incident. When such an employee travels to another low risk destination the risk doesn’t significantly change, they are still incredibly unlikely to become a victim of extreme violence, however now their employer has a responsibility to ensure their safety.

risk assessment should factor in two important considerations; what is the risk at the destination and what is the risk profile of the traveller.

Most country travel risk rating systems use 4 to 5 categories that range from low to extreme risk, a quick internet search will show several commercial companies and government sites that can be referenced.

For travel risk this usually factors in a range of inputs likely to affect a traveller such as health, security and transport and allows an organisation to have measures for these different rating levels rather than having to look at countries individually.

LGBT Corporate Travellers Personal risk can be a more complex issue and needs a more personal approach. Sex, race, gender identity, experience, language skills, appearance and health all contribute to personal risk and different countries may pose different personal challenges dependent upon these factors. For example, there are currently 7 countries in which homosexuality is punishable by death, and a further 70 with laws against homosexuality that frequently hand out lengthy prison sentences.

Which Department Is Responsible For Business Traveller Safety?

Most companies understand the need for a robust travel risk management process and appropriate policies and procedures to support their travellers. However, few companies have a single department that has overall responsibility for their travellers - with responsibility split between HR, security, business continuity, travel, insurance and finance (to name a few).

Whilst all care about traveller safety, no single department may have the budget, resource and, importantly, board backing to implement a company-wide travel risk management process.

Risk Assessment

Travel Safety Training

All organisations must have a reason for sending their employees on business travel and prior to any trip it should have a system to establish whether the business benefit outweighs the risk. This

Travel safety training is an important part of any travel risk management process to educate the travellers in the risks they might face, how to mitigate them before travel, how to behave on the ground

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to reduce their likelihood, and how to respond if something unexpected should happen. The benefit of implementing a training programme prior to writing policies and procedures is clear: It can empower the employee to keep themselves safe, while the organisation puts their travel support structure in place.

For the average business traveller to any destination, the most likely risks are the everyday risks; travellers’ diarrhoea, petty crime, road traffic incidents and losing items. The net result of any of these things happening to the traveller is going to be an increase in the stress they experience and a corresponding reduction in productivity.

Most of these everyday risks can be largely avoided through making the traveller aware of safe practices and behaviours on the ground.

If a traveller has had relevant training, they should be in a much better position to take responsibility for themselves. If you as the employer / manager have provided them with a course that shows them what to watch out for, they can take measures to mitigate that risk. For example, in some locations, hotels are booked due to their proximity to offices or factories and may not have the appropriate level of security.

Is it not much better for the employee to make the case to move hotel, than wait for an incident to happen?

What are their transport options? It may be that public transport isn’t a safe option at their location but to use a private hire vehicle contravenes policy; if you have provided training that shows them how to stay safe, you are allowing them to make decisions on the ground, based on safety first and not finance.

Flexible Modules Travel safety training shouldn’t be one size fits all and should be toned appropriately for the business traveller. Often experts like educating the audience in their expertise and not tailoring their messages to keep the learning points pertinent, practical and easily applicable. All employees should start with a foundation course that is short and promotes safe travel. The risks a traveller may face will probably increase as they venture into developing markets

EMPLOYEE TRAVEL SECURITY and the support and training being offered should increase proportionally.

To put death by terrorism into perspective, pre-existing medical conditions are the biggest killers of business travellers and road traffic incidents are the largest non-natural cause of death. These can largely be avoided through pre-travel medical check-ups, appropriate medical support and road safety training. There is the awareness amongst travellers of serious tropical diseases, but actually it is more important to make sure that routine western vaccinations are kept up to date as these diseases are far more prevalent in the developing world than their exotic counterparts.

In locations where tangible security risks exist, for example kidnap for ransom, training and physical security measures can significantly reduce the risk for the traveller, whilst also providing reassurance to them and allowing them to concentrate on the task at hand.

Terrorism by its very nature is designed to sow fear, and this fear often outweighs the real risk a traveller may face. The fear can be debilitating however, and a good education process with a support structure for the traveller can give them the peace of mind they deserve and allow them to travel safely.

There are over 75 countries where homosexuality is currently illegal or highly restricted as illustrated in the map above Saul Shanagher, Director, beTravelwise, developed a flair for travel safety training working as Global Head of Travel Security Training for International SOS, the world's leading assistance company. He and co-Director, Andy Prior, launched beTravelwise to offer a new, innovative approach to corporate travel risk management compliance, with cost effective blended training, appropriate for health, security and travel risks faced by employees on business trips abroad.

About beTravelwise: Launched in Autumn 2015, the company won the ‘Next Big Thing Award 2015’ at Business Travel IQ event, October 2015. It is a member of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) and is a partner in the UK Government Foreign and Commonwealth Office initiative ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign www. gov.uk/knowbeforeyougo. For more information about beTravelwise, please contact the London Office: +44 (0)20 7183 4757 email: hello@betravelwise.com www.betravelwise.com Linkedin - www.linkedin.com/company/betravelwise Twitter - twitter.com/betravelwise Google + - google.com/+Betravelwise

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GLOBAL MOBILITY HR INSIGHT

Delivering Excellent Customer Service In Global Mobility – Insights From Old Mutual Delivering excellent customer service to employees when they move internationally can be challenging to achieve on a consistent basis given the complexity and interdependencies involved when moving employees overseas. Whether your business manages this activity by an in-house mobility team, or outsources this to a third party provider or leverages a combination of both, focussing on the following three areas can help deliver a great customer experience to your employees.

About Old Mutual Old Mutual was founded in South Africa 170 years ago and provides investment, savings, insurance and banking services to more than 17 million customers in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. We employ more than 61,500 people around the world and are listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.

We have a simple, focused strategy based on growing in our chosen markets where we have a competitive advantage. We are looking to build an African financial services champion, build the leading retail investment business in the UK, and grow our multi-boutique asset management business in the US. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, so we aim to be their most trusted financial partner, helping them to achieve their financial goals.

Mobility At Old Mutual From a global mobility perspective we also look to keep our strategy simple and focused on the customer (the relocating employee and their family). Our mobility mission is to ensure we are able to move the right people, to the right place, at the right time, as effectively as possible, and to leverage mobility as a useful tool to help develop Talent and deliver business objectives. We have a small in-house team based in the UK and South Africa who manage 100 international transfers each year. Managing our global mobility effectively is a key part of the organisations strategy to ensure our continued success, providing a number of benefits to the organisation.

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• It supports Old Mutual in achieving its business strategy (as we move employees internationally to growth and emerging markets) • It makes life easier for our relocating employees. If we can transfer employees effectively it enables them to focus on achieving their business objectives without being distracted by issues created by the mobility process • It provides great opportunities for our employees and can enhance employee engagement. Building a business where employees feel valued and have opportunities to live and work in other countries, broadening their skills and experiences can benefit both the employee and the business. Engaged employees contribute more of their capability leading to improved business results • It also enables us to leverage our diversified workforce, both in generational terms and in relation to business expertise to transfer skills and knowledge around our businesses.

Delivering Excellent Customer Service – 3 Key Areas Of Focus 1. Start with the Employee’s Needs The first step to making the employee feel valued and delivering excellent customer service is by taking the time to listen and understand their personal requirements and needs and then deliver to those specific needs. This extends beyond understanding their logistical requirements but understanding how they feel about the move. Is this their first move? Are they looking forward to it? Is their family on board with moving to a new country? Do they have any concerns? Asking some simple questions can provide a very useful insight into how the employee and their family are viewing the opportunity and what is important to them. By showing a genuine interest it demonstrates the organisation is equally invested in the process, and the necessary support structure is in place to achieve a successful outcome. Once you have a

good understanding of your employees requirements you can start delivering to those requirements.

2. Effective Communication Establishing the protocols for effective communication is a key step in managing the relocation process smoothly: • Make it clear from the start how the process will work, who will be contacting the employee and when • If you are offering a high touch service or expect the employee to manage the move themselves, make it clear from the outset.

Don’t just manage their expectations; clearly establish them from the start • Understand their preferred method of communication and be flexible to their requirements • Understand when they like to be contacted • Understand how they like information to be communicated. Do they like to have all the detail or simply prefer the headlines?

• Be responsive, agile and accessible • Establish accurate timelines and stick to them • Have a fix it first approach • Nobody likes surprises. Keep the employee and all stakeholders updated and informed of what is going on • Clearly define roles and make sure the employee is clear on who is responsible for each aspect of the move. With many elements of the process in the hands of decision makers outside the immediate control of the mobility team (for example, immigration or tax authorities), it can help to provide clarity to the employee so they understand what areas you can control and what areas you can’t – either way you are likely to experience the impact • Make sure whoever is interacting with your employees on a daily basis to facilitate their move is empowered to make quick decisions and agree employee requests without having to go through a lengthy approval process.

Having a policy framework that has the flexibility to operate a consistent

GLOBAL MOBILITY HR INSIGHT policy but with the ability to tailor the package to fit the specific requirements of the employee can be beneficial • If you have third party providers working directly with your employees, make sure they have a good understanding of your business culture and values to ensure they are aligned to how you like to do things • Don’t be afraid to request feedback on a regular basis and be open to make changes where improvements can be made.

3. Keep It Simple – It Makes Delivery Easier It can be very useful to put yourself in the relocating employee’s shoes and walk through the different steps in the relocation process the employee has to experience. Are they only doings tasks that are critical to the process? Is there any duplication where they are providing the same information more than once to different providers? Identify where the process can be simplified and the number of touch points streamlined to make the relocation process simpler and easier to navigate. What do you want the employee to feel and say after they have interacted with the mobility process? Was it easy?

Did they feel valued? Did the process work well? Look to shield the employee from the mundane and administrative tasks as much as possible to enable them to focus on the activities that add the most value to the organisation, namely doing their day job.

Final Thoughts The modern day mobility function has a number of competing priorities, tasks to deliver and stakeholders to keep happy. It can often feel like the focus is on everything other than the relocating employee and their family. It’s also important to recognise that mobility functions have a number of customers to keep happy. Although in Old Mutual the relocating employee is our primary customer, we are very cognisant to the fact we have to balance the needs of the employee with the needs of the business to deliver cost effective solutions which are competitive.

Whatever approach you adopt to manage your relocating employees, keeping the employee at the heart of what you do can pay dividends. Focusing on these three key areas can help deliver excellent customer service making it a positive experience for both the employee and the organisation.

Max Newbigging is the Global Mobility Manager at the Old Mutual Group since May 2011. Max has worked in global mobility for over 15 years and has lived and worked in a number of locations including the UK, US and in Asia.

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GLOBAL MOBILITY

How Effective Compliance Management Gets A Seat At The Top Table In the current business and tax ecosystem the impact of mega trends, changes in employee cross border working and the ever-changing compliance context have put a new lens on employee Global Mobility. In this changing world, new stakeholders, new dynamics and new requirements have become a changing yet defining part of the landscape.

It is on this change in the international compliance context which PwC and the RES Forum were keen to shine a light - how are companies coping with these changes, are they cognisant of the risks and opportunities and, dare we say it, do they even care? How does this awareness (or lack thereof ) impact the global mobility team’s contribution to the business and talent agenda? What could this mean for the global mobility function of the future?

In summer 2015, the RES Forum and PwC instigated a research project with the aim of investigating these very themes, the findings of which are captured in their report entitled report, “Developing Global Mobility for the Future – Will your tax compliance strategy lead you there?”. The research and analysis set out in the report is based on a survey of 86 professionals from multinational organisations across the world, who are involved in managing or leading Global Mobility programmes within their organisations. Here we share an insight into the report's findings, and provide perspective on how solid, high

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performing and organisationally wellpositioned Global Mobility functions can prepare themselves for the future.

How Can A Global Mobility Function Be Effective?

Exactly where a mobility function's focus should be to enable it to add value to an organisation's mobility programme and to operate strategically, is a topic that is much talked about by those involved in the mobility value chain.

Professor Michael Dickmann went further than this in the RES Forum annual reports in both 2014 and 2015, categorising the four areas of effectiveness of the practitioner (and the key areas of focus in the function) as Strategy, Compliance (being a tax & NIC expert), Workforce planning and Talent management. Whilst this PwC-RES Forum joint study focuses on the mobility function’s contribution to the first two areas, there are interfaces between all four aspects and one could argue that a lack of effectiveness in one area could lead to limited impact elsewhere.

As the results of this study show, ultimately many organisations have a long way to go to reach a point where they are truly thinking about Global Mobility (GM) in a strategic way, and likewise GM practitioners are struggling to make an impact (and will continue to do so) when there is limited strategic or value add contribution.

There is hope though as we see through analysis of the survey results,

the foundations for making a strategic contribution to the business, and getting a seat at the top table, rely on getting the basics right. If GM leaders and their teams can become subject matter experts on those areas of compliance which can cost the company a lot of money should there be a failure, this will help them to achieve their ultimate goal. In many ways, ‘failure demand’ can open the door to a more value- add conversation with the organisation on GM, which may in turn lead to that desired seat at the top table for an organisation's senior GM team.

Strategy - Is Your Gm Function Aligned With The Strategic Objectives Of Your Organisation?

As with other HR functions, mobility and HR commentators propose and encourage the mobility function to demand its place as a strategic contributor to the business and people agenda. What is clear though is that in practice, the right to sit at that top table has to be earned rather than given. Once this seat is earned, value has to constantly be added to maintain that position.

Looking at the survey results it is clear that mobility still has some way to go in terms of influencing the HR agenda, never mind the business agenda. Only 25% of GM teams are involved in creation of the people strategy linked to the business strategy.

Members who responded cite that their engagement with the business is often through the HR function and therefore as a filter is effectively applied, their impact is limited: "Sometimes I think that HR pick and choose what they share with the customer, and mobility therefore becomes an island."

Despite the lack of involvement, several respondents saw the value in being involved, described as: • More appropriate candidate selection • Better education to managers on complexities rather than just seeing the function as a ‘blocker’/bureaucracy • Cost for assigning better understood and more effective deployment.

Recognising that direct involvement is the key to better engagement with

GLOBAL MOBILITY discussion. Education on the pitfalls can then be positioned appropriately: "A current project is underway to better educate the business on the impact of cross border activities and their impact, and also align GM more effectively with other functions."

"I am working on a GM fundamentals session for HRDs and HRBPs so that I can raise awareness of GM issues and barriers."

Finally it is worth noting that when respondents were asked what their biggest achievement was with respect to their global mobility programme, several companies cited better integration of their work into the broader HR function and/ or business operations. Perhaps then there is hope after all...

Business Tax Operations. Does Your Organisation Maintain (Pro)-Active Relationships With Internal And External Stakeholders About Global Mobility (Tax) Compliance?

the business and their (international) deployment of employees, it might be worth considering the emerging trend in HR of specialist HR areas expanding their own expertise and positioning themselves as ‘business partners’ who have more direct contact with the other areas of the business. Indeed one respondent implied this when they stated: "GM closely interacts with the whole finance community so not specifically seen as an island."

Could this direct relationship with the business and non-HR support functions be the key to a more strategically effective mobility function?

The final word on strategy and strategic involvement comes from one respondent who summed up the challenge for GM perfectly: "You need to earn a place at that table... showing up as a transactional function with no value add means you will never earn the invite."

Business Operations- How Is Global Mobility Embedded In Your Organisation’s Business Operations?

Moving on from business strategy to business operations, given the limited strategic focus that GM has, it does not come as a surprise to see that GM is not involved when decisions are made to undertake cross border activities (45%).

Again we come back to the ‘island’ analogy as being both a consequence and outcome of the lack of strategic impact of GM departments: "The involvement of global mobility is at the mercy of HR or Finance – this usually works but is reliant on collaboration and understanding and is not guaranteed to catch all."

Whilst many GM practitioners are confident in their knowledge (if not their influence), an expensive mistake or compliance failure can often be the key event, which brings them into the

55% of respondents stated that GM is aligned with other internal tax functions in their organisations.

Throughout this survey, many respondents cite their programmes as being too small to achieve scale and strategic value within their mobility programme, and this lack of alignment with other internal tax functions is arguably a consequence of that same scale factor.

Interestingly though, some respondents realise that they need to speak the language of corporate tax, transfer pricing and permanent establishment to integrate themselves as well as being integrated.

This two-way street is maybe the key to success of integration with other departments including tax.

When asked about the biggest improvement in relationships with tax departments GM practitioners cite: • Better communication • More regular meetings • Understanding their requirements and vice versa.

By following the above key steps and improving interaction and integration, Global Mobility can contribute value as the need for tax transparency and reporting grows.

Tax Risk Management- Is Your Organisation Well Equipped To Manage The Key GM Risks?

Survey results demonstrate that it would appear that a small majority of Winter International HR Adviser

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GLOBAL MOBILITY organisations are comfortable with living with the risks of a mobility programme which may be triggering compliance issues. 44% of respondents do not monitor the identified key risks for Global Mobility (tax) compliance and 12% ‘do not know’ if they monitor the identified risk for GM (tax) compliance, (which we can assume means they do not).

Failure to monitor risks is mainly due to the absence of a robust GM control framework and a lack of resources or systems, but smaller companies with smaller programmes seem comfortable that their informal means of identifying risk will suffice, using methods such as expecting individuals in relevant departments (HR or corporate tax) to recognise risks based on their own experience.

Monitoring And TestingCompliance And GM Budgets PwC and the RES Forum were keen to ascertain how companies with limited or no formal alignment with other functions, and no formal GM control framework, were then able to monitor exposure to compliance issues.

In the absence of integration, a manual approach to reviewing days or recharges may in some cases be the trigger point; however, this is dependent on individuals and sometimes whether they accidentally find out about a situation as opposed to a structured process or systemisation – a risk in itself: "When international tax or I hear of a situation that raises a risk we let the other side know."

It is interesting that a lack of resource or budget for a system is repeatedly given as the reason why no formal integration and tracking exists. Will it take an expensive penalty or compliance failure to push monitoring up the ladder in terms of the attention it should be given?

Moving on to monitoring compliance with external requirements, when asked about whether regular discussions with authorities would be beneficial, feedback was mixed with only 21% of respondents having proactive conversations with the tax authorities.

The size of a programme seems to determine whether this would be relevant. One responding organisation found tax authorities generally to be ‘reactive only’ as opposed to immigration authorities where “authorities foster more cooperative relationships.”

This may be a factor of programme size; are you big enough to be relevant and are the issues big enough to cause the organisation problems? Yet where International HR Adviser Winter

good proactive relationships and beyond that agreements exist there are identified benefits, and these benefits are not restricted to small programmes.

"This has resulted in fewer worries about compliance and over regulation around submission of data."

There are opportunities, however, like Short-Term Business Visitor regulations in the UK or Modified PAYE in the UK; this requires quid pro quo in giving the authorities what they need when they need it, otherwise the agreements fall apart and so does any good will from the tax authorities.

There is another area of ‘monitoring’ worth commenting on and that is monitoring of assignment costs versus what was budgeted at the assignment costing stage. The RES Forum has worked on programmes where they have seen first-hand the benefits of proper assignment costing up front. In a slightly strange way, a measure of success in this regard can be when assignments are rejected due to cost where this might never have happened before due to poorer quality cost modelling.

Sadly, our survey illustrates that GM teams generally struggle to make this costing data available up front or if they do have it, they do not compare actual spend with budgeted spend, which in turn can undermine the strategic impact of the function and how it is perceived.

Reasons cited are: • “Lack of centralised data” • “Difficulty in collecting data from multiple sources and recognising the costs” • “Management not wanting to know even when the information is made available.”

The benefits of having such structures in place are that it can, "bring to life immediately the cost to company"; can it be put any better than that?

The final indictment of GM and their relevance to compliance and monitoring is evidenced by how few respondents received the outputs of internal audit findings. Is the GM function so passive in the internal audit process that it is not identified as a key stakeholder in the audit findings, or does the absence of a robust GM control framework limit the opportunity to report on the status of GM compliance?

Tax Assurance So where does your organisation go from here? Adding a framework and a methodology to managing compliance control will help organisations to achieve compliance control. Much talked about,

but much less frequently implemented, GM departments who keep abreast of global trends in this area and who are well prepared to proceed may finally be recognised as being strategic contributors. Perhaps then the goal of being at the top table and contributing towards the organisation's future may be within reaching distance?

About This Article This article is based on the joint research collaboration published by PwC and The RES Forum, in November 2015 entitled "Developing Global Mobility for the future - Will your tax compliance strategy lead you there?" To request a copy of the report, please contact The RES Forum or PwC (contact details below).

About The RES Forum The RES Forum is an independent, highly engaged and international community of senior in-house International Human Resources professionals with members in over 40 countries. We are not influenced by external parties or third party vendors. We share information to make our working lives easier and to assist in solving difficult work challenges. We collaborate on shared projects and initiatives, and we learn together. Our agenda, set entirely by our membership, is delivered through a spectrum of services including member information exchange, custom research, professional consultancy and training and a full schedule of events held around the globe. For more information please visit www.theresforum.com Heather Hughes General Manager The RES Forum T: +44(0)2071278075 E: office@theresforum.com Article author

About PwC PwC is the brand under which the member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwCIL) operate and provide professional services. Together, these firms form the PwC global network.

Visit: www.pwc.com/globalmobility Iris Tuinstra People and Organisation Senior Manager, Global Mobility Cooperative Compliance and Process Specialist T: +31(0)88 792 75 29 E: iris.tuinstra@nl.pwc.com Henk van Cappelle People and Organisation Partner T: +31(0)88 792 63 53 E: henk.van.cappelle@nl.pwc.com

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GLOBAL taxation

Global Taxation Update Australia Data Matching Programme – Visa Holders, Sponsors and Migrant Agents In October 2015, the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) issued a ‘Notice of Data Matching Programme’, announcing that it will provide the Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’) with names, addresses and other details of visa holders, their sponsors and migration agents for the 2013/14 to 2016/17 financial years.

It is estimated that records relating to approximately one million individuals will be provided. The data items that will be provided include; Visa Applicants And Sponsors • Address history for visa applicants and sponsors • Contact history for visa applicants and sponsors • All visa grants • Visa grant status by point in time • Visa subclass code and descriptor • All international travel movements undertaken by visa holders (arrivals and departures) • Sponsor details (subclass 457 visa) • Education providers (educational institution where the student visa holder intends to undertake their study.

All Migration Agents • Address history for migration agents • Contact history for migration agents.

How The Data Will Be Utilised The records will be electronically matched by the ATO with certain sections of its data holdings to identify non-compliance with registration, lodgement, reporting and payment obligations under taxation laws.

Purpose Of The Data Matching Programme 1. Ensure that taxpayers are correctly meeting their taxation obligations 2. Ensure compliance with registration, lodgement, correct reporting and payment of taxation and superannuation obligations 3. Improve intelligence on the overall level of compliance with taxation obligations by target group 4. Assist in developing and implementing administrative strategies to improve International HR Adviser Winter

voluntary compliance 5. Test the veracity and strengths of existing risk detection models and treatment systems 6. Identify areas for improvement in the ATO’s suite of compliance models and treatment systems 7. Identify potentially new or widespread fraud methodologies and those entities controlling or exploiting those methodologies.

BDO’s Comment Expatriate employees working in Australia, as well as their employers - whether locally based or overseas, should of course be conscious of their tax obligations in Australia and act accordingly. This move is likely to result in cases of non-compliance being exposed which may result in extra and unbudgeted costs to the employee and/or employer.

Employers of expatriate employees should consider reviewing their internal protocols to ensure that they are tax compliant in Australia and encourage their expatriate employees to do the same.

Canada Taxation of allowances for board and lodging in, or transportation to, remote worksites or remote work locations.

Under the Canadian Income Tax Act (the Act), all amounts received by a taxpayer in the year in the form of an allowance for any purpose must be included in income, unless otherwise exempted by the law. One such exemption deals with employment at a special work site or a remote location. This states that ‘an allowance (not in excess of a reasonable amount)’ in respect of board and lodging or transportation, may be excluded from income in certain circumstances. Board and lodging allowances received for work ‘at a special work site, being a location at which the duties performed by the taxpayer were of a temporary nature’ will be exempt.

A recent Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) document clarifies their position in regards to allowances that would otherwise qualify but seem unreasonable. When an allowance is determined to be in excess of a reasonable amount, the entire amount will be taxable. The reason for that is that if an allowance is higher than a reasonable amount, it tends to include expenses other

than board and lodging or transportation.

This position is consistent with the CRA’s position regarding other higherthan reasonable allowances received by employees (e.g. motor vehicle allowances).

In regards to the temporary nature of the duties performed, it was the longstanding position of the CRA that an assignment that lasted less than 2 years would be considered temporary in nature. Should the assignment be over two years, it could still be considered temporary depending on the facts. The CRA would consider allowances received during the assignment to be eligible for exemption as long as the contract between the employer and the employee was not expected to be for more than 2 years.

In recent audits we have seen a shift of interpretation from the CRA restricting the availability of relief. The new position can be summarised as follows: ‘It is the view of the CRA that the duties to be performed by an employee at a particular work location will not be considered to be of a temporary nature where the employer requires the duties to be performed on an ongoing basis, even though the particular employee’s contract is for a short-term’.

This view has been used increasingly in audits by the CRA in order to deny the application of the exemption when employees, having important duties with the company, were put on assignments that lasted short periods of time (e.g.

CEOs, CFOs). In summary, the CRA will look at the temporary nature of the role of the employee within the company, as opposed to the duties undertaken by the specific employee.

BDO’s Comment It is our view that the CRA is looking to limit the cases where allowances for board and lodging would benefit from exemption.

Where an employer has previously taken the position that an allowance for board and lodging was not to be included in the compensation of employees coming to Canada for short periods of time, the position should be reviewed to determine if this tax treatment is still sustainable.

Germany New Income Tax Rates and assessment ceilings in the German Social Security System (From 1 Jan 2016)

global taxation

between 8,653 - 13,669

14

between 13,670 - 53,665

24%

between 53,666 - 254,446

42%

over 254,447 (Married Couple = EUR 508,894)

45%

Social Taxes On top of the wage tax, a solidarity surcharge of 5.5% and church tax (if applicable) of 8%/9% of the income tax due, will also have to be withheld.

Social Security Contributions 19.325% is the employer portion and 19.325 % is the employee portion, for a total contribution of 38.65%. These amounts are broken down as follows: Employee Employer 1. Medical insurance

7.3 %

7.3 %

2. Health care insurance

1.175 %

1.175 %

3. Pension insurance

9.35 %

9.35 %

4. Unemployment insurance

1.5 %

1.5 %

Depending on the insurance provider an extra payment is due (generally around 0.8 % or 0.9 %) towards medical insurance.

This extra payment is borne only by the employee. For employees with no relevant children (over the age of 23) 0.25 % has to be paid additionally towards health care insurance by the employee. There is a contribution ceiling for the pension and unemployment insurance amounting to EUR 6,200 per month in 2016 (for individuals who live in the western part of Germany) and EUR 5,400 per month in 2016 (for the eastern part of Germany).

For medical and healthcare insurance the contribution ceiling is EUR 4,237.50 per month in 2016.

BDO’s Comment Please review the changes, and consider what impact they may have. Do remember that whilst German social security rates might, at first glance, be higher than in other countries the impact of capping can be beneficial for those in receipt of high levels of earnings.

Income tax rates for resident individuals The following rates have increased for 2016: All other bands remain unaffected.

600,0001,000,000 1,000,001+

Increase (%)

0%

Budget 2016 Highlights The 2016 Budget introduced personal tax changes as listed below:

Proposed Tax Rate (%)

8,652 and less

Malaysia

Current tax rate (%)

Min. Withholding Rate

Chargeable Income (RM)

Annual Employment Income (EUR)

25

26

1

25

28

3

Income tax rates for non-resident individuals Income tax for non-residents is to be increased from 25% to 28% for 2016.

Personal Tax Relief for taxpayers whose spouse has no income and/or pays alimony to former spouse Personal tax relief for a taxpayer who fits the above criteria is increased from RM3,000 to RM4,000 from 2016.

Personal Tax Relief for Parental Care Parental care relief is introduced whereupon the taxpayer is allowed to claim RM1,500 relief for a mother and RM1,500 relief for a father.

This relief can be equally shared with other siblings provided that the total relief claimed shall not exceed RM1,500 per mother and RM1,500 per father.

The claim is subject to the following conditions: • Such taxpayer does not claim expenses on medical treatment and care of parents • Parents are the legitimate natural parents and foster parents in accordance to the respective law subject to a maximum of 2 persons • Parents aged 60 years and above • Parents reside in Malaysia in the current year of assessment; and • Parents have an annual income not exceeding RM24,000 per annum for each parent.

Personal Tax Relief for Children below 18 years of age Personal tax relief for children below

18 years of age is to be increased from RM1,000 to RM2,000.

Personal Tax Relief for Children Studying at Tertiary Level Personal tax relief on fees for tertiary education is to be increased from RM5,000 to RM7,000 per annum.

Personal Tax Relief on Employees’ Contribution to Social Security Protection Scheme (SOCSO) Personal tax relief on employees’ contribution to SOCSO pursuant to the Employees’ Social Security Act 1969 up to a maximum of RM250 per annum.

Personal Tax Relief on Gratuity on Retirement or Termination of Employment Contract With the introduction of the new paragraph 25D in Schedule 6, the Director General extended the exemption under that Schedule to any sum received by way of gratuity on retirement from an employment under any written law or termination of an employment contract other than paragraphs 25, 25A, 25B or 30A of that Schedule.

The sums shall not exceed an amount ascertained by multiplying the sum of RM1,000 by the number of completed years of service of that individual.

Employment Gross Income The proposed amendment provides that any gross income from an employment which is receivable in any year of assessment is taxed in the year it is received. It also provides that any income receivable by an employee who will be leaving Malaysia is deemed to have been received for the period before the employee leaves Malaysia.

BDO’s Comment Do familiarise yourself with the proposed changes and consider how this may affect individuals taxable in Malaysia.

The Netherlands Dutch Crisis levy 2014 contrary to European Convention of Human Rights, according to Advocate General.

Crisis levy In March 2013 and March 2014 a oneoff employer’s levy of 16% was levied on employee’s salaries that in preceding years, respectively 2012 and 2013, exceeded EUR 150,000. Many employers filed objections against the crisis levy. A number of these cases are now being brought before the Dutch Supreme Court as test cases.

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GLOBAL taxation Proceedings concerning 2013 and 2014 In a specific test case, the Advocate General concluded on 17 November 2015, that the crisis levy for 2014 did have a retroactive effect and furthermore that the government had failed to justify this. He argued that the crisis levy for 2014 in fact defies two fundamental expectations of taxpayers.

Firstly, the expectation that the government would adhere to its announcement that the crisis levy would only be levied in 2013 and, secondly, the expectation that past time periods would not be taxed again. This is contrary to the European Convention of Human Rights. The Advocate General concluded that the scope of the 2014 crisis levy therefore should not go further back than 17 September 2013, as it was only then that the one-off extension of the crisis levy was adequately announced to the public. The 2014 crisis levy of 16% cannot therefore be applied to salaries received before 17 September 2013, to the extent that these exceeded EUR 150,000. The salary received before 17 September 2013 should however be taken into account to determine whether the employee’s salary for 2013 exceeds EUR 150,000.

Please note that in proceedings against the crisis levy for 2013, the Advocate General concluded on 18 June 2015, that retroactive effect is also present for 2013 and that this cannot be justified for a number of reasons. The scope of the crisis levy for 2013 therefore should not to go further back than 25 May 2012, the date on which, in the opinion of the Advocate General, the crisis levy was adequately announced.

BDO’s Comment We now have to await the judgment of the Dutch Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court follows the Advocate General’s Opinion, in some cases this could lead to a refund of part of the crisis levy for those employers who filed a notice of objection against the crisis levy.

Sweden Gross salary calculation requirements to benefit from the rules for expert tax relief An individual who moves to Sweden to work for a Swedish company (or a foreign company with a permanent establishment) can under certain circumstances be covered by the ‘expert tax regime’.

The expert tax regime applies to foreign experts, executives, key personnel, scientists, researchers and others whose skills are difficult to find in Sweden. Furthermore employees with a monthly gross salary International HR Adviser Winter

including benefits exceeding two basic amounts (SEK 89,000 for 2015) are automatically eligible for expert tax status.

The Supreme Administrative Court has, in a ruling in November 2014, stated how the net salary should be calculated to gross in order to determine whether an employee on a net contract fulfills the salary level requirement to be taxed under the expert tax regime. The ruling implies that the tax relief should be taken into consideration when calculating the gross salary. Hence, the monthly gross salary should be equivalent to the threshold of minimum two price base amounts after the tax relief has been deducted from the gross salary.

The expert tax regime is beneficial since income tax and social security contributions are based on only 75 % of the employment income. Furthermore, a number of benefits (moving costs, children's schooling, home travel, etc.) are tax exempt.

The tax relief can however, only be granted for three years, and a condition to be covered by expert tax is that the employee is not expected to stay in Sweden for more than five years. Furthermore, the following criteria should be fulfilled; • The employer must be a Swedish company or a foreign company with a permanent establishment in Sweden • Individuals who have been a resident in Sweden during any of the five years prior to the start of the assignment in Sweden cannot qualify • Application must be filed within 3 months from starting work in Sweden • The salary should preferably be paid from the employer’s Swedish bank account.

Ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court There have been uncertainties in how the gross salary should be calculated for an individual on a net contract in order to reach the threshold of a gross salary of SEK 89,000 per month. The Supreme Administrative Court ruling states that for an employee with a net contract to be able to be taxed in accordance with the Expert Tax Regime, the net salary should be at least as high as the net salary for an employee with a gross contract. Hence, the tax relief of 25% should be taken into consideration when determining if an employee with a net agreement is entitled to the expert tax relief.

The above implies that the formula Gross salary = Net salary + preliminary tax withholding based on standard tax tables.

This formula should be used regardless of whether there is an agreed net salary or gross salary.

It should be noted that if the requirement for monthly gross salary is not fulfilled there could be a possibility to be taxed in accordance with the rules for expert tax relief if the employee is a specialist, researcher or part of the board of the company who he/she works for. This applies if there is no possibility to find the same type of expertise/skills in Sweden.

BDO’s Comment The ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court has clarified the rules for expert tax relief based on salary levels and it is of great importance for future applications for expert tax relief. Given that the final deadline for applying for the relief is three months from the start of the work, if the salary level is not reached in accordance with the above, an application based on special skills should be filed at the start of the work in Sweden in order not to miss the three month deadline.

USA New IRS Form 1095 – Affordable Care Act US employers with at least 50 full-time US employers must ensure they are complying with the Affordable Care Act and file the correct forms, reporting details of the health coverage they provide. U.S. based assignees should be notified that they will be receiving Form 1095-C in early 2016 and may need information from Form 1095-C to complete their 2015 U.S. income tax filing. Do note that an international assignee may be eligible for exemption from the individual penalty if a resident of a foreign country, or if a nonresident of the United States.

Prepared by BDO LLP. For further information please contact Andrew Bailey on 0207 893 2946 or at andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk

Autumn  International HR Adviser

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taxing issues

International Assignments – Get It Right, You Have Everything To Gain!

As little as twenty years ago, a phone call from the Netherlands to Belgium, two neighbouring countries, cost a small fortune and had to be limited to keep costs down. A trip to a faraway country meant leaving a forwarding address behind to keep in touch, where mail could be sent to for you to pick up when you arrived, providing it arrived before you did.

Today with the internet at our disposal, VOIP, Skype, social media etc., the world has become a smaller place for individuals and businesses.

Businesses are increasingly expanding across the globe, making use of the opportunities and assets each location has to offer them and with that expansion comes the challenge of moving people.

The increased ease and speed of communication is however not only available to individuals and companies.

The authorities also have these options at their disposal and they are sure to make use of them and talk with one another.

When you move employees across the globe, don’t forget that the authorities generally know at all times who is where and to what end they are there.

For example, the Australian tax and immigration authorities have recently agreed to share data. You therefore have every incentive to get it right when moving your people in order to avoid any unwanted setbacks, both for your assignees and for your company.

So what are the key concepts you need to think about when moving employees around the world?

1. Immigration Entrepreneurs want to get on with business. You often hear people saying ‘It should have been done yesterday’ or that a person ‘should have been here yesterday’.

Although reaching your goals as quickly as possible is a good ambition to have, when it comes to immigration, it pays to pause, think and get it right first time.

Several years ago, a company had won a large contract to provide its services in an African country. It meant an equally large amount of revenue for the company and it would permanently put that company ‘on the map’ for years to come in their International HR Adviser Winter

field of expertise. The champagne was already flowing when the news came in that the contract had fell through, why?

The company had not done its homework or sought advice. They had gone ahead and put people on the ground only to be found to be non-compliant with local immigration regulations. Employees were arrested and deported and the company itself was banned from operating ever again in that country. The contract which could have been their greatest success had they gotten it right, had become their greatest downfall because they didn’t.

Each individual also needs to be looked at carefully. Europe generally (and currently) has open borders for its inhabitants, but only as long as these individuals are also nationals of another European country or are married to an EU national. For example, moving an employee from France to Belgium does not guarantee that you do not need to consider immigration formalities such as work permits or other immigration documents. When this person is not a European Union national (e.g. an Indian or Australian national), the paperwork has to be right or your employee will not be able to live in Belgium, much less perform the duties you are expecting them to perform for you and why you sent them over there in the first place.

2. Labour Law Labour law requirements both international and domestic, are often forgotten when organising an international move. It is often assumed that you can pick and choose which labour law rules you can apply to your employment relationship and that all others can be ignored, when in fact, your employee will generally always be able to call on the strongest protection available to them in home and host location as well as the choice of applicable legislation included in their contract.

For example, an American company has sent an employee to Belgium. The employment contract stipulates that Canadian labour law applies. A dispute arises between employer and employee.

The employee will be able to bring their employer before a Belgian labour court and call on the stronger protection that

Belgian domestic labour law provides for employees. As an employer you may find yourself in the position where you have to defend yourself in an overseas country before an overseas court in light of legislation you are not at all familiar with.

Individual countries may also have specific labour law requirements and formalities which employers have to fulfil when putting their personnel on the ground in those countries. For example, a foreign employer who wants to put members of their personnel on the ground in Belgium to perform specific duties there will need to submit what is known as a ‘Limosa-notification’ to the Belgian labour law authorities. When an overseas company wins a service contract for a Norwegian client and wishes to send people to Norway to perform duties there, the contract will have to be registered in Norway, and each time an employee is sent to Norway they will have to be registered and linked to that contract. Each, and every country has their own particularities which, when not complied with, can lead to nasty surprises, which can be at best financial penalties, and at worst a ban on performing further services.

3. Social Security An equally important concept to consider is social security, often described as the ‘forgotten tax’. As a cost for both employer and employee, it is (or can be) a significant cost-element which you cannot afford to ignore.

As a rule of thumb, countries will claim the right to apply their domestic social security legislation to all individuals who perform their services within their territory. For an individual who lives and works in the same country, that makes perfect sense. But for someone who does not live and work in the same country, or who works in multiple countries at the same time, maybe not so much.

Depending on the facts and circumstances, different rules will apply to determine the claims staked by different countries.

Within Europe, EU-Directives will mostly govern these discussions, based on the principle that although the basic rule should be that an individual’s income

taxing issues should be subject to social security where they work, people also prefer to contribute to the social security scheme where they live. As such, extremely simplified and exceptions notwithstanding, as soon as an individual performs more than 25% of their duties in their country of residence, that is where they will typically contribute. If they do not perform at least 25% of their duties in their home country, it is possible that the right to levy social security contributions will revert to the country where their employer is located.

When other non-EU countries are involved, each case needs to be analysed individually. Which countries are involved, have these countries entered into bilateral agreements or not, and if so, what do these agreements cover (contributions, benefits, or both)? Sometimes there may be no such agreements, resulting in there being no referee to stop one country from claiming contributions and as an employer you may have to pay contributions in both or more than two locations.

The contribution rates in different countries can vary from 45% employer contributions on an uncapped base to no contributions at all. To benefit from available ‘referee-rules’, the right paperwork will need to be in place. When planning to send an employee overseas, you need to consider what the rules are and what you need to do to be compliant with those rules. For example, when sending an employee from the UK (13.8% employer contributions) to France (45% employer contributions), you do not want to find yourself in the position where you assumed you would only have to pay 13.8% and then get presented with an additional social security cost up to 45% and penalties because you did not apply for a Form A1 or because the intended secondment scenario which you had in mind, turns out to in fact, be a multi-state worker resulting in the application of a different social security scheme.

4. Tax The tax implications of an international assignment are many, not just for the individual but for the company as well. a) Individual Perspective Countries tax in different ways, mostly they either tax an individual because they are resident or because they have earned income which has its source within the domestic territory. Some countries also tax all individuals who are nationals of that

country (e.g. the USA) regardless of where in the world these individuals are located.

When two countries or more claim the right to tax the same income, your first reaction should be to consider whether the countries involved have signed a Double Tax Agreement (DTA).

When this is the case, the DTA will act as a referee forcing one of the countries to give up their right to tax that income. For employees, the typical rule will be that the country where the duties are performed is entitled to tax the income, unless: • The individual spends less than 183 days in that country AND • The cost of the individual’s employment is not borne by an employer in that country AND • The cost of the individual’s employment is not borne by a permanent establishment the employer has in that country.

However, the wording of each treaty may vary, so the relevant treaty always needs to be consulted.

There is a myth that circulates which states that when an individual is present in a country for less than 183 days, their presence there has no tax implications.

Please note the AND after each of the first two bullet points above. There is a myth that circulates which states that when an individual is present in a country for less than 183 days, their presence there has no tax implications. This is a dangerous assumption and almost always not true!

Some countries have also added specific agreements in their bilateral agreements with regards to individuals regularly crossing the border between the two nations.

For example, at the beginning of 2015 Belgium and Luxembourg agreed to add a Protocol to their DTA stating that where an individual resident of Belgium, who has a contract with a Luxembourg employer

and who normally works full time in Luxembourg (i.e. subject to income tax in Luxembourg for duties performed in Luxembourg) will not be subject to tax in Belgium on income relating to duties performed in Belgium instead of in Luxembourg for up to 24 days (and vice versa for Luxembourg residents with a contract with Belgian employers). As long as the individual performs a maximum of 24 days in Belgium, the two countries have agreed to pretend that the individual worked in Luxembourg full-time.

When there is no DTA available, the individual will have to depend on the domestic legislation of each country to provide for relief for double taxation of (a part of ) their income. This will not always be available.

Once it is determined which country is entitled to tax the income of the individual, you may also wish to consider optimising the salary package. For example, providing a benefit in kind instead of a cash allowance may be more advantageous from a tax perspective, and some countries (e.g. Belgium, France, the Netherlands & Luxembourg) have special ‘expat regimes’ which provide for a more advantageous taxation of income in comparison to the ordinary rules of taxation. Some of these regimes have to be applied for within a certain term, so you do not want to miss this deadline! b) Corporate Perspective Payroll It is often assumed that keeping assignees on the payroll in their home countries means there are no withholding obligations in the host country. Unfortunately this is often a dangerous assumption.

More often than not there will be local obligations to report and account for local taxes from day one and on a regular basis, even though ultimately the individual may not be (fully) taxable in that location.

When there is a dual withholding obligation, this causes a cash flow disadvantage. Local rules should therefore always be analysed, and potential options for optimisation/relaxation explored.

Corporate Residence & Permanent Establishments Although your company is located in and is a resident of a certain country, sending people to another country may create a local presence to such an extent that the company also will be subject to local corporate taxation. Whether or not this is Winter International HR Adviser

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taxing issues the case will depend on their purpose of being there, as well as their authority to act on behalf of the company, does it or does it not create a ‘fixed place of business’ is usually the criterion to analyse. This whole area is currently under particular scrutiny by the OECD and tax authorities so do look out for future changes.

When operating in an international environment, you need to get things right.

When you don’t it could prove quite costly, not just financially but also commercially, both internally and externally.

Please do your homework and seek advice before you start, you have everything to gain!

Recharge Of Cost From a business perspective, cost and benefit go together and should be located in the same place. However, this relatively simple business rule can have far reaching consequences. As mentioned above it can jeopardise potential treaty exemption for the individual.

In certain circumstances it can also trigger a non-recoverable VAT-liability and you will have to ensure that you are compliant with both international and domestic transfer pricing regulations.

International assignments have to be approached holistically and are surrounded by far more points to consider than those only from an HR perspective. All department teams (HR, Tax, Finance, etc.) need to keep in touch at all times with one another and work together.

Andrew Bailey Andrew Bailey is National Head Of Human Capital at BDO LLP. He has over 30 years’ experience in the field of expatriate taxation. He is indebted to Alexandra Martin for her assistance with this article. BDO has offices in 154 countries and is able to provide global assistance for all your international assignments. If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article or any other expatriate matters, please visit our website at www.bdo.co.uk/services/tax/humancapital/expatriate-tax-advice or contact Andrew Bailey on +44 (0) 20 7893 2946, e: Andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk

International HR Adviser Winter

FREE SEMINAR Monday 8th February 2016 The 2016 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition, Hotel Russell, London 12.15pm This seminar will cover tax issues that affect expatriates living and working in the UK, and will highlight issues that expatriates need to know about in order to keep their finances in check. Topics that will be covered include Federal and State Tax Return Preparation and Filing, FBAR filing (reports of foreign bank and financial accounts) and bringing expats into IRS compliance.

This seminar is hosted by Roland Sabates, a tax attorney and Director of Operations for H&R Block’s Expat Tax Services business.

Roland has a wealth of experience in international tax preparation and helping clients navigate through their unique tax situations that exist as a US expat. His area of specialisation is resolving international tax issues for individuals and small business owners, such as FBAR and foreign information reporting, IRS voluntary disclosure programme participation, and US taxation of foreign trusts and retirement arrangements.

To register please email helen@internationalhradviser.com

MOBILITY IS A PEOPLE BUSINESS – DO YOU CARE?

Show-Me-The-Money!

It may not have been your cup of tea (I’m British…), and it’s now synonymous with the very amusing one-liner "Show-me-the-money!", but I liked Jerry Maguire and still do. Why? Because of its core message. We can change things, let’s make it better, it’s not just about business. So let’s put a little heart back into it…

For corporate giants and SMEs worldwide, it’s all business. However, the one thing that every successful company relies on, is built upon, is their people and those people are usually very difficult to find and hire. Once you’ve got them, you definitely want to make sure you hold onto them. Good people, your people, are not only the foundation on which a company is built, but also what will help it evolve, develop and grow; without them, you’re going nowhere. And let’s face it, they’re often tough to hang on to, and that’s why caring is so essential when it comes to moving them around the world.

Caring, in my opinion, is a word that is well and truly under-utilised in the world of mobility, relocation and frankly many other industries; people are seemingly scared to use it. But it’s at the very essence of what good service should be based upon, and caring makes all the difference when it comes to delivery. Your team, your employees, your “family”, whatever your corporate culture may be, it is your people that make it happen. And guess what? We’re in a people business!

In fact, we’re in the people business; people services, human resources, mobility management, etc. Call it what you will, but ultimately we’re not just moving boxes! Our business is all about people and the corporate world is very much aligned with us. Think about it.

Over the last 5 years or so the dynamic has noticeably shifted quite seriously towards people in the business world, more so than ever before. We’re in an age where some of the most successful companies of today, including Uber, Facebook, AirBnB and Alibaba have little else other than their people. And it’s trending! Yes, they have technology, of course, but guess what?

That’s developed, built and managed by people, too.

Another trending development is the growth in mobility, because by all accounts it’s set to soar, not least within the

technology sector of course, but generally across industry. Mobility is very much at the fore for today’s leading businesses and it is becoming a serious consideration for them when it comes to making strategic decisions. The days of just shooting from the hip and fixing the problems later are numbered. Global regulations are getting tighter and fines are getting greater. $400,000 was a disclosed fine recently imposed upon a major corporation for a failure to adhere to protocol in moving a critical business team. Never before has it been more important that detailed planning along with consideration for the employee, and of course their family, is undertaken to ensure a successful move. As a consequence, companies are becoming more and more conscious of the impact a move has on both the business and the employee's life, and we need to meet the demand accordingly. Times are changing!

So that old-school attitude of “just get the job done” simply doesn’t wash anymore. It never did to be honest, but somehow when globalisation took grip, and with it mobility exploded, that awful word snuck in and took root: “Complacency”; it’s just another move, a number, a file, etc. It was that very attitude that I observed just a few years back whilst working as a homesearch consultant which spurred me on to start up my own relocation company; together with much encouragement from many of the 400+ employees I personally assisted over those early years.

I felt it could be done better, there was clearly scope in the marketplace for an improved offering and now 3+ years in the making I’m proving it can!

Similarly to what we’ve seen on the high streets in the UK these last 5+ years, and worldwide to be fair; I travel quite a bit for work these days. The local butchers, the greengrocer, the fishmonger, Charlotte’s café, Dean’s deli, they’re all back, and back by demand!

The resurgence of the high street; local goods and local people, I feel has been driven through people wanting less of the “the computer says no”, and more of the genuine “How may I help you?” Like I said, we’re not just moving boxes. It’s not just a service order, a reference or purchase order number. We’re not making sausages here, or ‘bangers’ as we say in the UK! It’s

not a production line, etc.

What an employee undertakes when relocating, often together with their family, can only be described as a seismic event. Their world as they know it alters overnight. We pick them up, turn their everyday reality inside out and put them down again, somewhere new, whilst challenging and changing everything that underpins one’s life, and I mean the fundamentals: food, water and shelter.

Not to mention the cultural change, the local system to comprehend, family considerations such as schooling, absence of family and friends, etc. It’s a very long list as you are no doubt already well aware. So to say that they need support is an understatement.

Putting ourselves in their shoes, in my opinion, is essential. How would you feel? So going the extra mile to listen, understand, guide, help and ensure that the employee / family have the best chance of making a successful move and settling in quickly is imperative. And that’s not to mention the business case, the investment of both time and money and strategic importance of the move to the business!

After all, it’s long proven that happy people are productive people and ultimately that’s what a successful business needs to be successful!

All in all, I’m so pleased I watched that movie, so thanks Jerry. And I’m sure that it isn’t just me on a “caring” crusade, and no, I’m not scared to use the word. Let’s do it better!

Jason Waite, CEO & Founder of CornerstoneLondon Relocation, the relocation service provider with a difference, we’re not scared to care.

Passionate about what we do, and we do it right! Jason’s expertise has been garnered over 9+ years in relocation services and 12+ years in technology recruitment, with both careers affording him significant exposure to the evolving worlds of 'people services' and ‘mobility' within the corporate sector.

CornerstoneLondon, services that go beyond borders. We move the talent!

Contract Us: @: jason@cornerstonelondon.com W: www.cornerstonelondon.com Winter International HR Adviser

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Global Benefits

A New Perspective On End Of Service Gratuities "You're gonna need a bigger boat" Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) - Jaws 1975 For your employees, doing more than simply staying afloat through retirement means making financial preparations during their working life.

However, UAE employers’ ambivalence towards addressing the need for retirement savings means employees will have to fend for themselves, assisted to some extent by the End of Service Gratuity. So, in the absence of employer-facilitated savings, will they sink, swim or get eaten alive by the increasing cost of living in retirement?

For the majority of expatriate workers in the UAE, the occupational retirement plans found in western countries do not exist. Instead, employers are obliged to make a lump-sum payment known as the End of Service Gratuity.

But what is the value of this gratuity payment in the context of adequate retirement provision? Let's start by looking at some figures.

The amount of the gratuity payment depends on the employee's salary at the time they leave service and how long they have been with their employer – it is, therefore, a 'defined benefit' (DB) payment.

The rate at which this benefit accrues during their working life is 21 days’ salary for each year of service in the first five years and 30 days’ salary for each year of service after that.

The maximum an employee could potentially receive through this benefit, within the UAE, is two times their basic annual salary – or to put it another way 730 days’ salary.

To accrue this amount, the employee would have to work for the same employer for just short of 26 years! If they left and joined another employer, the lower accrual rate (during the first five years) would come into play again. This means an employee working for three employers during their working life would take about 30 years to earn the maximum entitlement.

However, this doesn't take account of another important factor – that if an employee leaves during the first five years of employment, the gratuity entitlement would be reduced by one third or two International HR Adviser Winter

thirds. For our purposes here we’ll keep it simple and assume that our hypothetical employee stays with each of their three employers for at least five years.

So if an employee retired today on a final basic salary of USD 20,000, having worked for three employers during their 30-year working life, they would be entitled to a USD 40,000 lump sum.

(Incidentally, I'm aware that in practice an entitlement would have been paid by each employer on leaving, but please bear with me – the important thing is the USD 40,000 total.)

Now let’s put this benefit into perspective.

In other developed economies, a company-sponsored retirement savings plan comes as an accepted part of an employment package. In Europe and North America workplace savings are facilitated by the employer in recognition of the fact that employees place a great deal of value on being helped to secure their financial future.

A fairly average DB plan in the UK for example, may be an 80ths plan. This means that the employee would accrue 1/80th of final salary as a pension for each year of service completed.

So, an employee with 30 years’ service would have built an entitlement to 30/80ths of final salary at retirement. If the final salary is USD 20,000, (as above) then this would equate to a pension of USD 7,500 a year for life.

We now need to calculate a cash equivalent amount to enable direct comparison to the lump sum payable under the gratuity model.

This is not an exact science, but bearing in mind the average DB plan would include a spouse’s pension on the death of the retiree and there would be some indexation to the pension in payment, the accepted multiple to use is 25 times. This means the cash equivalent amount of the annual pension would be USD 187,500.

An important point to consider in addition, however, is that the final salary definition would be greater than just basic salary. Pensionable pay would include other elements of remuneration that are not taken into account in the gratuity calculation.

It is safe to say, therefore, that the average DB plan in the UK is about five times more generous than the gratuity benefit.

"But,” you might say, “a lot of defined benefit plans are closing."

And you would be making a fair point – so let's make a defined contribution (DC) comparison.

To build up a benefit of USD 40,000 today over a 30-year period would require a 4% contribution rate, assuming 3% annual salary inflation and annual investment returns of 6%, on a final salary of USD 20,000. How does that compare with other DC plans?

A survey by Towers Watson (a leading global professional services company) in May 2013, found that FTSE 100 companies with DC plans were prepared to pay an average of 10% of pensionable salary – and don't forget, pensionable salary is likely to be higher than basic salary!

It also found that many employers offered to match employee contributions in order to encourage workplace savings, thus producing a more generous overall contribution rate.

In many developed economies, employees would also be accruing an entitlement to a state pension. The DC plan benefits would be in addition to this foundation level.

Whichever way you look at it, the gratuity entitlement is simply not enough in terms of delivering the desired sum to fund retirement and is a very poor substitute for a properly structured savings plan. A recent survey by Zurich showed that the vast majority of employees in the UAE (83%) believe that the gratuity is an inadequate method of saving for their retirement years.

To add to an employee’s lack of security, the vast majority of employers don't set assets aside in relation to their growing gratuity liabilities. A survey, again by Towers Watson in December 2015, shows that 83% of companies settle employees’ benefits as they become due from company assets. A company facing a downturn or efficiency pressures, which lead to it making redundancies, may then have to find the cash to make gratuity payments to a large number of employees.

The timing could not be worse. The

Global Benefits implication here is that the employees’ 'assets' may be at risk if their employer faces financial problems and cannot make the payment - not very comforting to supposedly valued employees. This could tarnish the employer’s reputation and affect their ability to recruit in the future.

Therefore, isn't it about time that responsible employers faced up to the fact that in order for their employees to cruise comfortably through retirement, they're going to need a bigger boat?

Those companies that provide a retirement savings solution for their employees will find that they will become an employer of choice with significantly improved recruitment and retention results. The same survey by Zurich found that nearly two thirds of respondents (58%) said that they would be more inclined to stay with their current employer or join another company if they were provided with a corporate retirement plan.

Evidence shows that individuals are not saving enough for their later life - a problem compounded by the fact that they will be living longer than previous generations.

They will face a difficult choice of either saving more or working longer.

To encourage a savings culture,

companies should set up a corporate savings plan for their employees that moves beyond making a simple promise to pay a gratuity to providing a true employee benefit. It can incorporate the existing gratuity obligation and do so within a more structured savings vehicle that acts as a retirement fund and very effective employee retention tool.

Either put the power of corporate savings plans to work or find that your employees are financially out of their depth – and running the risk of falling into the jaws of an unfulfilled retirement life.

Peter Cox IMC Head of International Pension Plan Sales Asia Pacific & Middle East Zurich International Life Office Telephone: +971 (4) 425 2427 Dubai Mobile: +971 (0) 56 179 2376 Email: peter.cox@zurich.com

FREE SEMINAR Monday 8th February 2016 The 2016 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition, Hotel Russell, London 4.15pm

Documenting Expatriate Reward Juliet Carp, employment law specialist at Dorsey & Whitney (Europe) LLP, and author of “Drafting Employment Documents for Expatriates” will explore tips and traps associated with documenting expatriate reward. With a focus on risk reduction, discussion will cover areas such as retaining discretion; links to policy documents; variable remuneration; documenting high value benefits such as housing, schooling, pension and share plans; and approaches to tax equalisation.

To register please email helen@internationalhradviser.com

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Whilst you work hard to help your employees move to and settle into the UK, a number of their questions may well be answered in this Guide.

You Can Now Pre-Order Copies Of The Guide For Your Employees

To order your free copies (first batch only is free), please email damian@internationalhradviser.com with the quantity of copies required and your full mailing address. To mail more than 5 copies to an address outside of the UK, there is a mailing charge (please email Damian) or telephone +(0)1737 551 506 with any questions. The Guides will be despatched in early April 2016.

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BIG DATA

Man Went To The Moon In 1969.

46 Years Later What Technological Advances Have Driven The Global Mobility Industry Forward?

Man went to the Moon in 1969. 46 years later, the global mobility industry is firmly focused on technology as the game-changer. Big data is the word used de rigueur at HR and Global mobility conferences.

In this article, we consider the role of technology in modern international mobility from the employer’s and employee’s perspective.

“What reports can it do?” This was the first question asked by a prospective client at a recent presentation when the slide on the topic of technology popped up on the screen. In the eyes of some, the ability to deliver the full range of services in an effective and competent way is now a given. Now the differentiator is technology.

We now live in an era where if its recorded it can be reported, in a myriad of formats with the potential to support a multitude of decisions and give the comfort that for those that need to know, they are but a few clicks away from the answer.

Experience shows a rather different reality when it comes to customers using cutting edge systems, often customised for their specific needs and bespoke training provided to excited but sometimes bewildered HR departments across the globe. That said, the technology industry have taken advantage of global mobility systems and use them to drive a strong competitive advantage, for example creating global talent heat maps to source cost optimal candidates, attract and then relocate to another part of the world to high cost economies, where the ability to lure away the competition’s talent becomes greater than the predicted payback from the investment.

There is no doubt about it, there are some really neat global mobility specific systems to deliver holistic technology solutions that will deliver compensation, compliance, work-flow tools, dashboard widgets and systems integration with other HR systems used for performance International HR Adviser Winter

and talent management and so on.

From a service provider perspective, there are clients who are superb at leveraging technology that they focus on pre-engagement with their prospect service partners. Their organisations have a clear digital agenda and it underpins the way that the global mobility team and their assignees wish to interact. At the other end of the continuum, whilst the intention and desire is there to use technology, culture, old habits and the rate of change adoption is often slower than expected and the all-important ‘on-line assignment initiation portal’, is replaced by emails lacking the core information; reports that seemed mission critical, such as a minute by minute account of expenditure remain un-accessed; detailed file notes on trials and tribulations of an overly demanding assignee ignored.

C: Drive Management – Managing The Global Mobility Programme Without A Dedicated System Indeed, managing a small global mobility function may seem much easier to do using MS Excel than investing capital and people resources in licensing a software system.

The Santa Fe commissioned 2015 Global Mobility Survey1 reveals some surprising insights given the appetite for demanding technology’s input to the relocation and assignment management process; of those that know the number and location of their assignment population, globally c. 31% use excel spreadsheets as the main platform for their expatriate data (higher percentage in some regions). Another recent Survey from RES Forum2 ‘The Next Frontier of HR Excellence: Talent Mobility for the 21st Century Organisation’ highlights ‘ Even though 25% of respondents said talent mobility was the most time consuming and complex HR functions, our survey shows that just 28% of respondents use cloud technology to manage their global

mobility programme.’ Having created the platforms that give transparency, data, information and analysis that are largely under-utilised yet at everyone’s fingertips, how can these be optimised for the greatest benefit; reduce administration and increase the strategic input, support the decision making process and help assignees make the right choices? How can technology optimise its contribution to the relocation and assignment process to be more efficient, rather than record how it was conducted?

So what’s holding global mobility teams back from marching forward? If we put a man on the Moon in 1969, why is there an almost Luddite approach to embracing technology in some organisations?

Promoting the use of technology needs to account for the enthusiasm or suspicion the end user has for embracing the benefits.

The view that automation can take the grind out of even the most senior professional roles is supported in a recent McKinsey publication November 2015 ‘Four fundamentals of workplace 3 automation’ www.mckinsey.com/ insights/business_technology/four_ fundamentals_of_workplace_automation An extract from their article; ‘Our work to date suggests that a significant percentage of the activities performed by even those in the highestpaid occupations (for example, financial planners, physicians, and senior executives) can be automated by adapting current technology.’

Addressing The “Squeeze” Within Global Mobility The pressures on the Global Mobility (GM) function today are a perennial discussion topic, and the recurrent themes and findings – often referred to as the Global Mobility “Squeeze” - reported in the leading annual industry surveys.

For instance, the 2015 Global Mobility Survey Report shows that the GM function is tasked with:

BIG DATA • The need to be a strategic partner to the business • Demonstrate and improve the ROI of the mobility programme • The elevation of the duty of care to the relocating assignee.

With all industry indices suggesting a net increase in assignment activity in 2016, especially in the Engineering, Consulting and Technology Sectors, it’s no surprise it’s called the ‘Global Mobility Squeeze’.

The increased use of technology is increasingly seen as one of the solutions to these challenges. For instance, improved systems will enable better tracking of costs against the assignment cost estimate (today, this exercise is not completed by the majority of respondents according to recent industry surveys), as well as linking Global Mobility to business performance KPIs. (This is cited as either difficult, or not taking place today because of a lack of connectivity between systems by a majority of respondents to the 2015 Global Mobility Survey.

Make Or Buy Decisions Deciding whether or not to buy, licence and implement a software system or have it delivered via an out-sourced/ co-sourced global mobility specialist partner is a circular decision that has been debated since the early 1990s when predominantly the Big Four professional service firms decided to broaden their tax services practices to include assignment management services, underpinned by their own proprietary software. The market has radically changed over the past twenty years with new players, new software providers and a burgeoning market of ‘disruptors’ challenging the status quo of service delivery in the traditional global mobility industry.

In our experience, the biggest hurdle for many global mobility teams is the ability to demonstrate sufficient commerciality to their business leaders to garner sufficient Executive support to invest in either funding a technology solution (which based on the size of the Programme can be a six figure investment) or make the case to out-source/ co-source some or all of the elements of the Programme, releasing the Global Mobility team to focus on business partnering in a different, more strategic way.

Case Study: A Crisis Situation Accelerates The Need For Robust Systems This is also critical if there is a decision to proceed based on either a planned or

reactive way. Consider this: a client shared that during a natural disaster where there was limited data on who was in Country during a tsunami. The CEO called the Head of Mobility late on a Friday night ‘Who do we have in country and what family members are there too?’ The Head of Mobility was unable to provide such data but even with the telecommunications down, they were eventually able to establish a roll call. This focused the mind of the Executive team and stimulated the funding to invest in a global mobility system.

Case Study: Leveraging Technology To Include Global Mobility In The Talent Agenda Technology can also provide vital data to understand the demographics of the assignee population, as part of the employer’s total talent pool. Another client in the financial services sector shared that they have used their global mobility systems to undertake a three year profiling; • Diversity/demographics • Assignment types • Total cost profile against assignment types • Assignment duration.

Interrogating their data, they were able to demonstrate that positive diversity had seen the female assignment population from c.15% to a current level of 23% and an overall reduction in assignee numbers from 2,000 to a current level around 1,700 based on greater focus on the purpose of the assignments and local talent solutions.

They have also identified greater diversity in the deployment of non HQ country nationals as their business activity shifts to address market conditions.

The head of mobility is now invited to the monthly HR executive leadership meetings as a recognition of the increasing value delivered by the global mobility team.

Disrupt Or Complement?

New market entrants - regarded as “disruptors” - have introduced their own industry-specific technology platforms over the last couple of years with increasing success, as an alternative to the traditional relocation management company.

While their technology offers support to the in-house mobility user, it also offers a single platform for assignees to interact with all the vendors and stakeholders involved in the move process under the lump-sum / self-service model; it provides the relocating employee with the ability to manage their move and gain information and support in their new destination

while providing control of costs and visibility from a mobility perspective.

These platforms tick all the boxes when considered against the continual focus on cost cutting and improving ROI within Global Mobility, which was again one of the key trends arising from the 2015 Global Mobility Survey commissioned

by Santa Fe, with increased reliance on technology seen as one of the solutions.

They also seem to be targeted at the ‘millennial’ employee who requires minimal hand-holding as is able to make informed decisions about their move with the support of on-demand technology.

Employees – All Technologically Savvy?

Typically the ‘Millennial’ generation are more likely to put their faith in the on-line approach, sometimes to the exclusion of human input. This presents a great opportunity to develop interactive ‘apps’ that can utilise the experience of other assignees, steer people toward approved vendors and provide real time data of expenditure against a set budget.

A current example is the growing interest in offering lump sums as the employer’s contribution to a relocation, increasingly used for less complicated short term or permanent moves.

The attraction for the employer is clear; a fixed budget, limited administration and minimal involvement.

To the assignee, they are empowered to spend the budget as they see fit, use the services and suppliers they choose and prioritise according to their needs. Of course, when devolving the ability to spend the budget to the assignee will lead to inappropriate purchases and no guarantee the relocation will be completed, which in turn leads to increased management time from the employer.

Access to ‘apps’ can help exert some degree of control by limiting the scope of potential suppliers, allocating portions of the budget to specific types of spend and using triggers to release stage payments rather than delivering the budget all at once. In addition, transferees can benefit from destination specific health advice and security alerts, and online cultural training assessments to help families understand some of the cultural differences they will encounter when moving to a new destination (and how their home country behavioral norms will differ).

In our experience, a proportion of assignees have always been prepared to Winter International HR Adviser

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BIG DATA conduct their move with minimal support from a relocation management company – typically these are younger, single assignees with an “explorer” nature – but more often than not on shorter-term assignments where accommodation is usually provided.

In these situations, social media and local networks help the assignee to get settled into life in the new destination with informal lifestyle advice and support.

While some of these informal networks are equally useful when relocating permanently or on a longer-term basis, the level of support required also increases: a permanent home needs to be identified and a rental agreement reviewed and signed; for a family, identifying suitable school places will always be the key priority in planning a move, as well as a myriad of other legal and administrative tasks that need to be completed wherever in the world the assignee is moving to.

Can The Lump-Sum/SelfService Model Support These Type Of Moves Effectively?

All of these products are designed to complement the services of a relocation management company or destination service provider; they are not intended to be standalone alternatives to the full service programme of orientation, home search, education consulting and settling-in usually provided to a relocating family to help them transition smoothly to life in the new location.

Full Service vs. Self-Service One of the unknowns in our sector today, as raised at the recent Worldwide ERC event in Boston, is how millennials needs will change as they get older. While they may favour the self-service approach today, will they be looking for the full service from a traditional relocation management company when they have a family and need help finding a school?

In our view both the new technologydriven model, and the traditional relocation management company approach supported by increasingly useful and intuitive technology, have a role to play in our vibrant sector (which continues to expand year on year according to indices such as the Global Mobility Survey, with 25% of respondents expecting growth in their assignee activity in 2016).

The new market entrants’ technology offerings are undoubtedly matching a specific need in the sector, with the increasing use of lump-sum policies. However, one International HR Adviser Winter

size rarely fits all; for every millennial who is happy to navigate the myriad of cultural and compliance challenges presented by relocating to another country using only their smart phone, there is another who relies on the friendly support and expert advice offered by a Relocation Consultant acting as their advocate, offering local knowledge (for instance when negotiating a lease, or opening a bank account) and providing creative solutions when problems are encountered.

Our view is that relocation management companies, however they have developed, will need to be able to offer effective support for assignees of all types, whether full service or self-service, to successfully meet the changing needs of our industry, and the new products introduced by the disruptors will lead to the existing relocation management companies revisiting and reinvesting in improved technology offerings for all assignees.

Ironically, this lack of connectivity as a barrier to tracking ROI within the GM function is almost certainly a contributor to the continual focus on cost-cutting. If GM teams were able to make the investment in systems or people to track these measures effectively, it would be far easier to demonstrate to the business their value rather than being viewed simply as a cost centre.

2050 – Assignments On Mars?

11 December 2015 marked the 43rd anniversary of the last man on the Moon. Looking forward as companies seek to expand their markets, we might be talking about inter-stellar relocation management! I for one, hope to remain on Earth to see this occur.

We have taken an overview of the use of technology in global mobility and seen that whilst the tools and smart technology are available, the full advantage of these resources remain an opportunity for many organisations.

Global Mobility remains a vibrant sector with a fast pace of change, with a variety of technology solutions targeted at the customer end-users: assignees and in-house Global Mobility teams – to streamline process, improve connectivity between departments and deliver cost or efficiency savings.

The challenge is for these solutions to be easy to navigate, scalable for use globally, address the requirements of both Global Mobility and the assignee, and to be able to connect with other technology platforms (i.e. to track ROI and risk). Not

an easy brief to satisfy, particularly when the brief changes regularly as our industry continues to evolve.

Enhancements in technology are welcome, and the influence of the disruptors will raise the bar across the board with traditional relocation management companies revisiting their approach to, and investment in, technology. Ultimately this can only benefit the customer.

From the business perspective, there has to be greater commerciality around the need for investing in and applying technology to leverage meaningful data that drives competitive advantage.

This comes from taking a more holistic approach to how global mobility positions itself within their organisations and identify the analytics in a business language that will secure engagement with executive management.

From the employee perspective, technology will continue to play a key role in educating and engaging an increasingly diverse global talent pool. It is highly unlikely to be a complete substitute for human support in interventions.

As we said at the beginning technology and systems are available now for use by corporates or through partnering with their global mobility service providers.

Many companies, we know, have already invested and continue to do so, in driving meaningful information, automation to better manage their risk, compliance and reporting to create valuable stakeholder/ shareholder value.

For others who are still on this journey, will 2016 be the year when you reach for the stars?

1 The Santa Fe commissioned 2015 Global Mobility Survey 2 RES Forum ‘The Next Frontier of HR Excellence: Talent Mobility for the 21st Century Organisation.

3 McKinsey November 2015 ‘Four fundamentals of workplace automation’

Mark Rising, Commercial Director, Santa Fe Relocation Services Telephone: +44 (0) 208 961 4141 Email: Mark.Rising@SantaFeRelo.com Website: www.santaferelo.com

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SERVICED APARTMENTS IN THE LATAM REGION

Skyline Worldwide Highlight Mobility Trends In The LATAM Region, With Focus On The Local Accommodation Requirements There has been a noticeable shift in where assignees are going to, with assignments in emerging markets, such as the LATAM region, becoming more frequent. This is something that many companies have identified and have started responding to.

Where In The Region Are The Key Hubs?

There has certainly been an increased demand and popularity in mainstream LATAM countries including Brazil – Rio and Sao Paulo; and Argentina – Buenos Aires and Rosario. However, the most significant growth has been recorded in more remote locations such as Colombia and Panama. This growth demonstrates a shift in demographics within our client’s industries, due to diversification and an emphasis on cost savings.

The growth of Latin America over the last few years, and what this has already set for the next 5 years, is very important for our industry in the region. Places

International HR Adviser Winter

like Brazil, Mexico, Panama, and other countries are attracting international companies and bringing a lot of new investments, and we believe that we will see this reflected in the real estate and in corporate housing industries.

We should see an increase of standardisation within the region bringing standards in line with the global centres, and also seeing new global brands operating in these countries and existing local ones having to ‘up their game’ to meet international demand requirements.

This should mean that our industry becomes more sustainable and ensures better quality standards are achieved in the majority of the main destinations, offering better corporate housing options across different countries. With all of these changes, the serviced apartment industry needs to continue to work on organising key information, consulting with, and educating new and existing clients, trying to distinguish between products and showing a more organised

product portfolio.

Increasingly, we are receiving temporary accommodation requests from India, Africa, EMEA and the United States.

Notable industries moving employees into the region include Oil and Gas, Pharmaceutical and Automotive.

Security And Apartment Types As with any region, in today’s modern society, security is always a priority and key focus, and should be a primary focus for every organisation. Our own company is fully committed to assisting guests during their stay and ensuring that their safety and security is of paramount importance and we have a rigorous due diligence process in place when selecting and onboarding suppliers and partners.

Key security features include: • Secure locations • 24 hour concierge • CCTV • Gated communities • On site security staff.

SERVICED APARTMENTS IN THE LATAM REGION The average size of an apartment in the region is 60m², but the minimum would be circa 40m². The minumum stay requirement from our persepective, is 15 days, and occupancy runs in the region of 80% – 90% with seasonal fluctuations.

Most apartment providers offer fully furnished and fully equipped serviced apartments throughout LATAM. Services include internet, cable TV, utility bills, and housekeeping.

With regards to rates, the current rate for a studio apartment in the region starts from USD 50 per night plus taxes. The average length of stay is approximately 30 – 60 nights.

As the industry knows, serviced apartments continue to be popular with assignees and their families looking to be more independent and to integrate into local ways of life. The industry will continue to expand and develop to meet these demands, and as we believe we are prepared to meet the demand in this emerging market, we expect many providers and clients to follow suit.

Cinthya Caggiano is the Executive Director for the Latam region at Skyline Worldwide, a leading serviced apartment provider for the EMEA and LATAM regions. She has over 21 years of experience in the hotel – serviced apartment industry. Her key responsibilities at Skyline includes to oversee all commercial aspects of the company and manage the reservations, inside sales/account management and supply chain departments.

Visit www.liveskyline.com In 2012, Skyline Worldwide opened our very own LATAM Headquarters in São Paulo, closely followed by an office in Rio de Janeiro.

We recognise the importance of having an experienced team with local knowledge present to make the serviced apartment booking process much simpler in these more challenging markets. In our case, this also helps with any problems or escalations when a guest is in-house as they are dealing with someone who knows the market well, someone who is in the same time zone as them and also someone who speaks the local language.

In addition to this, Skyline Worldwide has also introduced our first of a many hub offices. These hubs will be in keys areas in order to assist with on the ground issues, site visits and to be a local representative should the assignee require one. This programme has already started in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and will be expanded in Q2 2016 into Mexico City. This will enable us to understand the impact and improvements that this will bring to our day-to-day operations and it will possibly be rolled out in other areas from next year. It is hoped that this will achieve, first and foremost, much stronger supplier relationships, which in turn will help with problem solving, rate negotiation and due diligence.

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Expatriate Adviser Summer

Autumn International HR Adviser

GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

The Global Leadership Development Dilemma Or How Best To Develop Your Global Leaders Many global organisations are citing significant gaps in their leadership pipeline as a major concern. It seems the leadership challenge, or perhaps more specifically the global leadership challenge, remains as urgent as ever.

Spending on corporate training is on the up with studies1 suggesting over $130 billion worldwide and approximately 35% of that investment is on leadership and management. So why are companies not always getting a good enough return on this investment? Are they investing in the right training for the right people?

Do leadership programmes provide the right inputs for the global leadership agenda? What should companies be doing differently? And what should they be doing instead of, or as well as, training? This article aims to address these questions, dispel some of the myths and suggest how organisations can best develop their global leaders of the future.

Hire The Right Global Talent “We just need to hire people with innate leadership potential and previous international experience, don’t we?” Yes, this has some truth as hiring ‘ready-made’ talent offers advantages. It can certainly speed up the development process but it won’t automatically provide the right global leadership capability for your context, your sector, your strategy or your markets. Nor will an innate aptitude for leadership necessarily see an executive through the complex challenges of a global career.

Candidates who have completed part of their education overseas or have already taken academic studies in global management may well bring a more open and flexible approach, greater cultural knowledge and perhaps a working knowledge of another language. However, they probably won’t have all the skills required to be a leader in your organisation and nor will they necessarily have the ability to apply pre-existing knowledge and skills to their new and future roles or to the organisational strategy.

Numerous tools, models and

methodologies now exist for assessing leadership capability and these can be useful at the recruitment stage. However, recruiters need to make sure that they choose the right one for their context and also select a framework that includes the appropriate global and cultural dimensions.

Take away 1 - Valuing prior international experience and including global leadership competency assessment as part of the recruitment process can play an important first step in building a global leadership pipeline.

Give People International Experience “People learn by experience so if we give our future leaders plenty of international exposure they will become more globally competent, won’t they?”

Yes, relevant, sustained experience of working internationally is undoubtedly a requirement for successful global leadership, but not necessarily enough on its own. Expatriate experience seems to be significantly more useful than other more sporadic types of international experience but even lengthy periods spent managing projects or operations in other parts of the world do not automatically deliver the required global leadership capability. Organisations need to consider how the international assignment is set up and managed as well as well as how the assignee is prepared and supported.

Many global mobility teams are now working more strategically with HR and Talent Management teams to ensure that international assignments provide maximum value to both the company and the individual employee.

Stretch - First of all, the international assignment should offer the future leader the right developmental opportunities rather than simply plugging an operational gap. Consider whether the employee will get the right level of stretch to develop their leadership capability. Does the assignment have a broader regional rather than a purely national remit? Will the assignee have the chance to develop new knowledge and skills? Will they build relationships with a wide range of stakeholders including local

staff, government representatives, suppliers or clients?

Support – It goes without saying that the assignment needs to be a success for all concerned: operationally, strategically and developmentally – and companies can support their international assignees to ensure this happens. Providing expatriates with quality language and intercultural training before they leave and on arrival can help them to maximise the opportunities their new environment has to offer. Global communication skills and cultural understanding can help them to integrate more quickly and more fully, avoid making personal and reputationdamaging mistakes and build stronger and longer-lasting relationships. It is important that the international assignment allows the employee to reflect and to learn.

Offering in-country mentoring and coaching programmes can help assignees to evaluate their experiences, work through challenging situations and initiate changes in mindset and behaviour. Ongoing support from the home country or head office can also be critical in ensuring the assignment is a success.

Re-integration – An international assignee may acquire new expertise, learn new skills and develop a more global perspective but if these are not put to good use on their return then the assignee may become disillusioned and, in the worst case, either leave the organisation completely or look for another overseas posting. Ensuring that the returning expatriate has a welldefined role that integrates and builds on their new skills and knowledge is essential in maintaining a strong talent pipeline of future global leaders.

Take away 2 - International assignments are a key component in developing global leaders, but the assignment must be wellstructured and the expatriate supported and given the right learning opportunities.

Invest In Leadership Development Training “We send our best people on leadership courses, is that not enough?” Yes, formal education plays an important Winter International HR Adviser

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GLOBAL LEADERSHIP part in global leadership development and there is a vast array of leadership development offerings on the market from very expensive executive education programmes to off-the-shelf short courses to in-house development programmes, all promising to give your future leaders the skills they require to succeed. Companies that make a sustained investment in the right type of global leadership development do appear to perform better than those that don’t.2 What are some of the key elements of a successful global leadership development programme?

Content - There are numerous frameworks and lists of competencies all focusing on the complexity of managing local and global priorities and on the ability to engage with diverse stakeholders.

Identifying which competencies are essential is more important than presenting a long list of non-specific skills and attributes. In addition to greater self-awareness and global competencies, leaders also require an in-depth understanding of the socio-economic factors impacting their organisation’s global expansion. Perhaps the most important, but also the most challenging part of global leadership development is the ability to adjust mindset and shift firmly-held assumptions, feelings and beliefs. The Thunderbird School of Global Management describes global mindset as ‘the ability to influence individuals, groups and organisations with a different cultural perspective in the host country to achieve the company’s goal.’ Development programmes that give leaders the opportunity to reflect, evaluate and ‘try on’ other perspectives are more likely to be successful in effecting behavioural change.

Context – Customisation is key to successful global leadership training. Clear priorities are required in terms of which competencies need to be developed, which markets are crucial and what the overall objectives and desired outcomes of the programme are. Where possible real-life projects can link classroom learning to on-the-job challenges, 360 feedback can highlight how participants show up within their organisation and individual coaching can dive deeper into the challenges of each specific context.

Consistency - Short infrequent training events for a select few will not deliver results. Leadership development needs to be sustained rather than sporadic and part of the organisational culture.

International HR Adviser Winter

Take away 3 - Formalised training needs to be customised and ongoing to be effective.

Self-reflection, competency development, country knowledge and global mindset are all important components.

Getting The Strategy Right The development of effective global leaders should be firmly embedded within the organisational context and embraced from the very top. Maintaining a strong leadership pipeline should be a priority through recruitment, training and career planning initiatives and development should be available across all levels rather than something accessible only to a minority. Organisations and their employees need to a have a clear understanding of their global strategy and then make an assessment of the specific knowledge, behaviours and competencies required by current and future leaders.

No Easy Solution There is no easy solution, no one-size-fitsall but several messages are clear: • Global leadership development needs to start early and be inclusive – it is no longer a luxury item but an essential component for strategic growth • Successful global leadership development is multi-faceted including training, coaching, mentoring, overseas rotations and on-the-job projects • Context is everything – sector, organisational strategy and culture, key operating markets and individual capability will all help determine the focus of a successful global leadership development programme.

1 Bersin at Deloitte, 2014 2 Deloitte University Press, 2015 Cathy Wellings is the Director of the London School of International Communication which helps organisations and their people to work more effectively across borders and cultures. LSIC provides practical intercultural, communication and leadership training and coaching to individuals, teams and organisations anywhere in the world. Cathy is an intercultural and global leadership trainer with many years’ experience of working with corporate and public sector clients.

Contact Cathy at cathy.wellings@ lsictraining.com or find out more at www.lsictraining.com

FREE SEMINAR Monday 8th February 2016 The 2016 Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition, Hotel Russell, London 3.15pm

Key Trends In Global Mobility Andy Piacentini will explore some key emerging themes from research within the RES Forum and their membership of 750 mobility professionals.

The presentation will focus on policy, workforce planning, talent and the future of the mobility function.

Hosted by Andy Piacentini, Standard Life & RES Forum.

To register for this free seminar please email helen@internationalhradviser.com

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DIARY DATES JANUARY Worldwide ERC® Hong Kong Summit 19 January 2016 Regal Hongkong Hotel, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Learn from and connect with HR thought leaders within such organisations as Citi, Hasbro and Morgan Stanley as Worldwide ERC® hosts a one-day, in-depth programme in Hong Kong. Corporate mobility practitioners will present real-life global mobility policy challenges and their solutions, including the key lessons they learned, and a guide for successfully implementing changes.

Registration is complimentary for corporate HR mobility practitioners.

Learn more and register at www.worldwideerc.org/HongKong16.

Worldwide ERC® Strategic Talent Mobility Course 20 January 2016 Regal Hongkong Hotel, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Competition for skills is fierce, and successful recruitment, development and retention efforts are vital for an organisation’s success. With talent mobility becoming an increasingly important part of those efforts, management and mobility functions must be well aligned, and clearly integrated into overall business and strategic goals.

The Worldwide ERC® Strategic Talent Mobility course equips participants with the tools to achieve that alignment, in a one-day, interactive programme that focuses on needs assessment and measurement; identifying the key drivers of mobility and when/how it can best be used to accomplish business and talent development goals.

Learn more and register at www.worldwideerc.org/HongKong16.

FEBRUARY The Corporate Relocation Conference & Exhibition 8th February 2016 Hotel Russell, Russell Square, London, UK There will be seminars dedicated to educating and up-dating International HR professionals on key developments and current leanings relevant to the industry, running throughout the day. The free seminar programme is as follows: 10.30am Understanding Third Culture Kids – Hosted by Mary Langford 11.15am Dual Career and the Importance of Creating a Powerful

Network – Hosted by FOCUS 12.15pm Tax Seminar – Hosted by Roland Sabates, H&R Block 1.15pm UK Immigration Update & Compliance – Hosted by

Ferguson Snell 2.15pm Building A Strategic Vision of Global Mobility for Your

Organisation – Hosted by Deloitte LLP 3.15pm Key Trends In Global Mobility – Hosted by Andy Piacentini,

Standard Life & The RES Forum 4.15pm Documenting Expatriate Reward – Hosted by Juliet Carp,

Dorsey & Whitney (Europe) LLP The 2015 Conference & Exhibition saw over 700 visitors attend this not-to-be-missed event.

The seminars will be FREE to attend. To reserve your place or for further information on attending or exhibiting please call Helen Elliott on +44 (0)208 661 0186 or email helen@ internationalhradviser.com.

FEM Global Mobility Conference - Houston 9th February 2015 Hyatt Regency, Houston, USA Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the FEM Global Mobility Conference in Houston and hear from leading global mobility professionals from across Texas and America. Join us on 9 February to learn and share best practice and network with your peers while coming away with valuable insights and ideas for your own programme!

Register your place today at www.forum-expat-management.com/houston.

The WORLD HRD CONGRESS 2016 – 24th Edition 15th - 17th February 2016 Taj Lands End, Mumbai, India THEME : What Next...?

SUB THEMES : Strategic HRM - Talent Management & Recruiting And Staff Best In Class - Employer Branding - Training; Coaching And Leadership International HR Adviser Winter

For Dream Companies - Building Agile Compensation And Benefits Structure – Diversity - HR Technology - Measuring The Impact Of HR For Performance And Bottom-line Improvement- HR Challenges In E-Commerce – Compensation & Rewards - Balanced Scorecard Building A Sustainable Leadership Pipeline In Organisations.

The Congress will be an Executive Level Retreat in which participants will review Evolving Trends in HRM that could change their paradigm on leading people at work. It would provide an opportunity to acquire skills to maximise competencies and become a more knowledgeable contributor in the organisation. Besides networking opportunities, the conference offers unique in-depth approaches to understanding important workplace issues that affect an organisation's viability in today's fast-paced business environment. The Congress is governed by a Global & National Advisory Council that guides the strategic intent of the event & leads it to its success.

The Congress is the largest rendezvous of HR Professionals. We would urge you to please visit www.worldhrdcongress.com.

For more details, please contact Secretariat at World HRD Congress on secretariat@worldhrdcongress.com.

Worldwide ERC® London Summit: Talent Mobility in EMEA 18 February 2016 Lancaster Hotel, London, United Kingdom Experience the Worldwide ERC® 2016 EMEA Summit in London, and be at the forefront of the dynamic changes happening in global mobility.

Explore new policy innovations, solutions and resources to help you with mobility throughout the EMEA region. Build industry connections through benchmarking and dedicated networking time. Gain tools to equip you for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.

Registration is complimentary for corporate HR mobility practitioners.

Learn more and register at www.worldwideerc.org/EMEA16.

MARCH HR Performance Forum 2016 16-17 March 2016 Jakarta, Indonesia Sign up for the 2016 HR (r)Evolution and change your perspective on performance, in only 2 days. Dedicated to bringing new, leading-edge solutions to the management table, we’re kicking off day 1 with keynote presentations, panel discussions and roundtables with major league experts, and reserving day 2 for industry-leading professional development workshops on employee performance, appraisal systems and strategy implementation.

Retaining top talent, driving employee performance, performance based rewards and recognition, strategy, culture and appraisals – are just some of the topics in the cards for this ground-breaking platform.

Register using the “IHRA” code and receive a 10% discount off the Early Bird fee.

For more details, please contact suguna.samynathan@kpiinstitute.com or call T: +603 2742 1357; M: +60 11 3303 2135. Alternatively, visit www.kpiinstitute.org/events/HR-Performance-Forum

Worldwide ERC® Shanghai Summit: Talent Mobility in APAC 11-18 March 2016 Pudong Shangri-La, East Shanghai, China Organisations with superior talent management practices generate higher revenue per employee, lower turnover among high potential employees and higher employee engagement. Join a professional community of thought-leaders pioneering strategy and innovation in global mobility at the 2016 Shanghai Summit. Engage in robust discussions about developments and changes in such key areas as labour law and immigration; the Chinese and other local economies; permanent moves, extended business travel and localisation; taxation and costs. Delve into how all of these will impact mobility throughout the APAC region. Registration is complimentary for corporate HR mobility practitioners.

Learn more and register at www.worldwideerc.org/APAC16.

If you would like to advertise a conference or exhibition on our Diary Dates and on www.internationalhradviser.com please email damian@internationalhradviser.com

DIRECTORY BANKING SERVICES LLOYDS BANK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED Telephone: From the UK, call: 0808 169 6411 Outside the UK, call: 033 3014 5287 Mon-Fri 8am-6pm and Sat. 9.30am-1.30pm UK time. Calls may be monitored/recorded Email: londonbdm@lloydsbanking.com Website: international.lloydsbank.com Registered Office and principal place of business: PO Box 160, 25 New Street, St. Helier, Jersey JE4 8RG. Registered in Jersey, number 4029. Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.

We abide by the Jersey Code of Practice for Consumer Lending.

The Isle of Man branch of Lloyds Bank International Limited is licensed by the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission and registered with the Insurance and Pensions Authority in respect of General Business. Business Address: PO Box 111, Peveril Buildings, Peveril Square, Douglas, Isle of Man IM99 1JJ.

BUSINESS ASSOCIATION J-1 VISA PROGRAMME BRITISHAMERICAN BUSINESS (BAB) 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, 20th Floor New York, NY 10017, USA Contact: Tamra Eker Telephone: +212 661 4060 Fax: +212 661 4074 Email: teker@babinc.org Website: www.babinc.org BritishAmerican Business’s J-1 visa programme assists companies in offering US training and work experience to qualified employees of any nationality and from anywhere in the world, for a time period of up to 18 months. Sectors covered by our J-1 Visa designation include management, business, commerce, finance, law, industry, sciences, engineering, architecture, information media & communications.

Please call to discuss the programme with our J-1 Visa Programme Administrator.

IMMIGRATION NEWLAND CHASE LIMITED One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AA Contact: Asma Bashir Telephone: +44 (0)20 7001 2121 Email: enquiries@newlandchase.com Website: www.newlandchase.com Twitter: twitter.com/newlandchase LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ newland-chase Newland Chase are a specialist immigration firm with over 50 offices in 15 countries, providing a truly global service. Our professional team of immigration experts understand the complexities of both UK and global immigration policies and can simplify the process to ensure you remain compliant. Our clients range from multi-national engineering firms to growing tech startups, so we are able to offer tailored solutions

to meet the specific needs of your industry and company size.

INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES ZURICH CORPORATE LIFE & PENSIONS Tricentre One, New Bridge Square, Swindon SN1 1HN Contact: Adele Cox Telephone: +44 (0) 118 952 4253 Fax: + 44 (0) 118 952 4300 E-mail: adele.cox@zurich.com Website: www.zurichinternational.com Zurich International Life is a global provider of life insurance, investment and protection products. Our corporate range offers flexible, portable solutions, designed to suit multinational organisations with an internationally mobile workforce. The International pension plan offers a cost effective, bundled retirement benefits solution comprising of trust services, investment funds and online administration.

International group protection is designed to protect an employers’ most important asset – their employees – and offers a range of life and disability protection.

With a local presence in key global business hubs and over 20 years experience of implementing and administering plans world wide, we’ve developed our knowledge and understanding of key markets to meet the needs of our customers and business partners.

INTERNATIONAL HR CONSULTANTS DELOITTE LLP Stonecutter Court, 1 Stonecutter Street, London, EC4A 4TR Contact: Robert Hodkinson, Partner Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7007 1832 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7007 1060 E-mail: rhodkinson@deloitte.co.uk Website: www.deloitte.co.uk Whether you are creating your first international mobility programme for employees or addressing fundamental changes to an existing programme, our International Human Resources team can help. Deloitte provides consulting support that has an appreciation for each company’s size, background and unique cultural environment, aligning your international programme goals with corporate business strategies.

Our consultants have developed deep expertise in many fields based on first hand experience with many of the world’s leading organisations: international assignment policy and process design, benchmarking, service delivery modelling, improving vendor management and helping our clients become more compliant and their administration more cost-effective.

INTERNATIONAL MOVING DT MOVING LTD 49 Wates Way, Mitcham, Greater London, CR4 4HR

Contact: Tim Daniells Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7622 4393 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7720 3897 Email: london@dtmoving.com Website: www.dtmoving.com DT Moving is a world leading international moving company. Founded in 1870, we serve corporate customers all over the globe with an award-winning* move management and destination service programme. Through our London and Paris headquarters and worldwide network of global partners, we help clients achieve their workforce mobility goals.

Every employee we relocate receives a dedicated DT Moving team member as a central point of coordination, support and advice to ensure every part of their relocation runs smoothly.

Our goal is your complete satisfaction, and with a 96% customer rating for 2014, we offer unrivalled quality at competitive rates. *Awarded nine global relocation awards since 2010.

RELOCATION HCR RELOCATION UK Head office - Belvedere House, Basing View, Basingstoke, RG21 4HG UK Contact: Louise Hardy - Business Development Executive Telephone: +44(0)1256 313887 email: louise.hardy@hcr.co.uk website: www.hcr.co.uk Twitter: @relochatter LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hcrgroup-limited We look after people, your people. we have a dedicated, high performing and professional team to deliver our award winning relocation service. our knowledge, experience and empathy ensures that each of your relocating employees and their families are carefully managed and that their specific needs are considered.

HCR has a true ‘one point of contact’ philosophy; one dedicated, cross trained account Manager and lead Relocation Consultant who will manage, co-ordinate, deliver and provide comprehensive support for every relocation case.

SANTA FE RELOCATION SERVICES Central Way, Park Royal, London, NW10 7XW Contact: Mark Rising Telephone: +44 (0) 208 961 4141 Fax: +44 (0)208 965 4484 email: Mark.Rising@SantaFeRelo.com website: www.santaferelo.com Thinking Relocation? Think Santa Fe Relocation Services.

Santa Fe Relocation Services provides the full range of relocation services to support businesses with international interests from diverse industry sectors. Santa Fe is conveniently located across six continents and offers holistic relocation solutions to support businesses and relocating employees.

Last year, we handled 120,000 relocations globally. Our core services are Immigration, Moving, Relocation, Real Estate and Records Management.

We make it easy.

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DIRECTORY RELOCATION ASSOCIATIONS

ASSOCIATION OF RELOCATION PROFESSIONALS (ARP) 9&10 Diss Business Centre, Dark Lane, Diss, Norfolk, IP21 4ND Contact: Tad Zurlinden Telephone: +44 (0)1379 651 671 Fax: +44 (0)1379 641 940 Email: enquiries@arp-relocation.com Website: www.arp-relocation.com The ARP is the professional association for the relocation industry in the UK. The ARP’s activities include seminars throughout the year, an annual conference, the publication of an annual Directory of Members and a website, which is updated regularly.

THE EUROPEAN RELOCATION ASSOCIATION (EuRA) 9&10 Diss Business Centre, Dark Lane, Diss, Norfolk, IP21 4ND Telephone +44 (0)1379 651 671 Fax: +44(0)1379 641 940 E-mail: enquiries@eura-relocation.com Website: www.eura-relocation.com EuRA is an industry body for Relocation Professionals in both Europe and Worldwide.

EuRa have launched The EuRA Quality Seal, the world’s first accreditation programme for relocation providers. This pioneering initiative provides a straight forward, cost effective audit to reflect your company’s excellence in providing relocation services.

SCHOOLS International Community School 21 Star Street, London, W2 1QB Tel: +44 (0) 20 7402 0416 Web: www.icschool.co.uk Email: admissions@ics.uk.net An international day school located in 3 sites in the centre of London. We offer all three International Baccalaurate Programmes (PYP, MYP, and Diploma) to children aged 3-18yrs.

ICS has a diverse community with 45 different nationalities, and boasts a strong tradition of working with students in a highly personalised tuition framework thus enabling every student to reach their maximum potential in a rigorous but supportive environment. For students needing English Language Support we offer our unique Preparation Programme that allows students to study mainstream academic subjects alongside the language tuition. We also welcome & provide outstanding support to children with Special Educational Needs. Students at ICS benefit from a wide ranging sports & activity programme during term time and also during school holidays. We have outdoor education centres at Chorleywood and Bawdsey, Suffolk and offer educational trips abroad as part of our Travel & Learn Programme. This year ICS is proud to be celebrating 35 years of offering international education.

ISL Group of Schools ISL Surrey Old Woking Road, Woking, Surrey GU22 8HY Contact: Claudine Hakim International HR Adviser Winter

Telephone: +44 (0)1483 750 409 ISL London 139 Gunnersbury Avenue, London W3 8LG Contact: Yoel Gordon Telephone: +44 (0)20 8992 5823 ISL Qatar PO Box 18511, North Duhail, Qatar Contact: Nivin El Aawar Telephone: +974 4433 8600 Website: www.islschools.org Email: hmulkey@islschools.org The International School of London (ISL) Group has schools in London, Surrey, and Qatar. The internationally recognised primary and secondary curricula have embedded language programmes (mother tongue, English as an Additional Language, and second language) which continue throughout the student’s stay in the school. A team of experienced and qualified teachers and administrators provides every student with the opportunity to grow and learn in an environment that respects diversity and promotes identity, understanding, and a passion for learning.

MARYMOUNT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL LONDON Address: George Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 7PE Contact: Mrs Cheryl Eysele Telephone: +44 (0)20 8949 0571 Email: admissions@marymountlondon.com Website: www.marymountlondon.com With an outstanding record teaching the respected International Baccalaureate for over 30 years, Marymount offers day and boarding to girls aged 11-18 who gain places at the world’s best universities.

Consistently ranked within the top 5% globally, Marymount also offers the pre-IB Middle Years Programme; this stretches students without the need for incessant testing. The nurturing, supportive Catholic Community welcomes all faiths and achieves a shared purpose for girls of more than 40 nationalities.

TASIS THE AMERICAN SCHOOL IN ENGLAND Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Surrey, TW20 8TE Contact: Karen House Telephone: +44 (0)1932 582316 Email: ukadmissions@tasisengland.org Website: www.tasisengland.org TASIS England offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma, an American college preparatory curriculum, and AP courses to its diverse community of coed day (3-18) and boarding (14-18) students from 50 nations. The excellent academic programme, including ESL, is taught in small classes, allowing the individualised attention needed to encourage every student to reach their potential. Outstanding opportunities in art, drama, music, and athletics provide a balanced education. Extensive summer opportunities are also offered. Located close to London on a beautiful and historic 46-acre estate.

SERVICED APARTMENTS

THE ASSOCIATION OF SERVICED APARTMENT PROVIDERS (ASAP)

Suite 3, The Business Centre, Innsworth Tech Park, Innsworth Lane, Gloucestershire GL3 1DL Contact: ASAP Office Telephone: +44 (0)1452 730452 Email: admin@theasap.org.uk Website: www.theasap.org.uk Twitter: @ASAPThe LinkedIn: The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers ASAP is in the industry association representing, promoting and improving the serviced apartment sector. Our 124 members including serviced apartment operators and agents represent in excess of 25,000 serviced apartments in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada.

When booking your serviced apartment, look for our Quality Accreditation kitemark which confirms the operator is fully compliant with all the core legal, health and safety practices and means you can book with confidence.

BBF Avenue de Roodebeek 78 box 9, Brussels Contact: Bernard Kerkhof Telephone: +32 (0)2 705 05 21 Email: info@bbf.be Website: www.bbf.be Twitter: @BBFBelgium LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bbfserviced-apartments BBF is specialised in the rental of serviced apartments since 1992.

Today we are leader in the market of temporary housing with a portfolio of over 1500 apartments in Brussels. We also offer corporate housing in other cities such as Budapest.

Our flexible rental packages include excellent solutions for short and long term accommodation for personal and business travellers. For long term accommodation, minimum one year, we can offer unfurnished apartments where one has the choice to install their own furniture.

TAXATION BDO LLP 55 Baker Street, London, W1U 7EU Contact: Andrew Bailey Telephone: 020 7893 2946 Fax: 020 7893 2418 E-mail: andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk Website: www.bdo.co.uk BDO LLP is the award-winning, UK Member Firm of BDO International, the world's fifth largest accountancy network with more than 600 offices in 100 countries.

We have a partner-led approach, which delivers the highest quality of service by using short, functional chains of communication to aid decision-making. Clients benefit from our fresh thinking, constructive challenge and practical understanding of the issues they face. Developing strong, personal relationships with our clients is at the forefront of our service approach.

Tax advice is just one of our award-winning services and our expatriate team give practical and direct advice, delivering solutions which suit your needs.

To advertise in the Directory, the cost is £175 per issue or £700 for the year (4 issues). Please email damian@internationalhradviser.com