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5 Types of Global Assignments: What’s Best for Your Company?

Last Updated on August 22, 2024

Employers and employees have many reasons for sending employees and other talent on different types of global assignments worldwide . Sometimes, companies need to relocate their employees temporarily for a short-term finite assignment. In other scenarios, they must send talent abroad to work for a more extended assignment to facilitate a business objective successfully.

No matter the type of, or reason for, an international assignment, they are essential in global mobility programs and allow for avenues to ensure international organizations’ success.  

What are Global Assignments?

Global assignments require an employee to relocate internationally and undertake work in a destination country for a specified time. Global assignments can vary in duration , often differentiated by being classified as either short-term or long-term.   

Types of Global Assignments

HR professionals may wonder, “What is an example of a global assignment our company can utilize for the needs that arise in our industry?” Companies have various options for assignments when devising an optimal global mobility strategy.

Employers can leverage multiple forms of global assignments to meet their needs and maximize their ROI by choosing impactful yet cost-effective assignments based on assignment length, location and ultimate business need.

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Short-Term Assignment

A short-term international assignment usually lasts for a year or less. Employers generally have a specific goal for the employees they send on short-term assignments, such as facilitating training, completing a particular project, or temporarily filling a vacancy.

Many short-term assignments are single-status, whereby only the employee travels, and dependents do not join for the time abroad. Companies may also make use of short-term assignment options when trying to reduce the cost of conducting work abroad despite a need to have talent present on location abroad.

Long-Term Assignment

Companies also often leverage long-term work assignments for various reasons. Employers often contemplate long-term assignments lasting one to three years. However, it is commonplace for employers to extend assignments due to continuing business needs, the preference of the employee, or a variety of other reasons. Many companies contemplate a maximum assignment length of five years, primarily due to cost. A stay of up to five years is still often considered temporary. Still, assignments longer than five years are more likely to be seen as permanent.

Employers typically send their employees on long-term international assignments for strategic reasons such as expanding the business into new markets, opening new offices, developing talent and establishing teams of global leaders.

Since long-term assignments last an extended period, employers have more factors to consider than those classified as short-term. One key consideration is that employees on long-term assignments will likely need to find housing, which may include renting or buying a house. Another is the tax component, as there are likely to be more significant tax implications where there is an extended stay in a given destination.

Employees with families are more likely to bring their dependents along on longer assignments, which means their family members may also need to find work or education options. You’ll also want to consider transportation and healthcare needs and tax obligations.

Business Travel    

Business travel resembles a short-term work assignment because employees don’t stay at the destination for an extended period. The main differentiator is the type of activities undertaken during business travel are much less associated with what’s classified as work and are, instead, typically limited to hands-off activities and business meetings.    

Employees often  stay in a foreign country for just a few days . However, business travel trips can last multiple weeks in some scenarios. Employees may also travel for business between several countries, creating added considerations employers should consider to ensure compliance.  

Remote Work Visas  

Remote work visas are available in many countries around the world. Some countries introduced them during the COVID-19 pandemic to stimulate their economies and encourage companies with remote work policies to send their talent there without formally relocating.

Remote work visas quickly gained traction, and governments continued establishing similar statuses. They are an increasingly popular option for companies that allow employees to work from anywhere on a remote basis.

The application cost per visa varies from country to country, as does the visa’s duration. Some countries will extend the validity of temporary remote work visas , while others contemplate only a finite period of stay for visa holders. Countries often require proof of income as part of these types of visa requests and may also have provisions for bringing dependents that potential applicants should consider.

Commuter Assignments  

An image from the Envoy Global 2024 EMEA Immigration Trends Report showing that employers Employers want more rotational and short-term work programs for moving employees across the EMEA region.

Commuter assignments differ from long-term and short-term assignments because employees regularly commute from their home country to the destination jurisdiction.

While companies use short-term and long-term global assignments worldwide, commuter assignments are typically regional because employees cross neighboring borders. Commuter assignments can be good alternatives for employees who need to work in another country but prefer not to relocate entirely for personal reasons.

What Types of Global Assignments Should Companies Leverage?

HR professionals often ask, “What are the different types of global assignments we can use?”.

Businesses have different reasons for needing to send talent abroad for work assignments. Therefore, employers should carefully consider what they are trying to achieve when deciding what type of global mobility strategy to implement.

Along with the duration of the assignment, employers should consider the employee’s circumstances – are they hesitant to leave family behind, or do they have other obligations that would impact the length of the assignment? Cost is another critical consideration for employers when deciding on a global mobility strategy and will be a decision driver for most programs.

Employers must use various services to ensure a smooth transition no matter how long employees stay in another country. A global immigration services provider such as Envoy Global can partner with your organization to decide on the proper assignment strategy for the company and employee and support the acquisition of the necessary immigration status to allow for a compliant work engagement in the destination country.

Envoy offers valuable services to educate employers on all global assignment types and advise on the assignment strategy that will best ensure your organization’s success. Every company’s HR team partners with a Global Account Manager to create a successful and sustainable global mobility program, including guidance on best practices for leveraging global assignments.

With so many moving parts to global mobility, HR managers can rest assured that working with Envoy’s experienced team helps make relocating talent worldwide a seamless and efficient experience.

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Content in this publication is for informational purposes only and not intended as legal advice, nor should it be relied on as such. Envoy is not a law   firm, and   does not provide legal advice. If you would like guidance on how this information may impact your   particular situation   and you are a client of the U.S. Law Firm, consult your attorney. If you are not a client of the U.S. Law Firm working with Envoy, consult another qualified professional. This website does not create an attorney-client relationship with the U.S. Law Firm.

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Global Assignment

This article covers meaning, importance, steps & example of Global Assignment from HRM perspective.

What is Global Assignment?

Global assignments are business projects which are allotted to some employees outside the home country. Global assignments are employers assigning their employees on projects which are globally implemented. Global assignments are mostly taken place in multinational companies and may involve employees to relocate from their current country to a different country where the assignment is assigned.

Since globalization has taken place rapidly and the world has become more connected, it has become a very common phenomenon. Many countries face skill shortage or require an expert for a particular assignment so they would hire the person with the requisite skills or knowledge from other countries and pay the person a hefty compensation as demanded by the person.

Steps in Managing Global Assignment

Some steps in managing global assignments & international projects are:

1. Evaluating objectives of the international project

2. Identifying team members & giving pre-requisite training

3. Pre-departure preparation of activities & work to be done

4. On job activities on global assignment at international location

5. Project completion

6. Evaluation & reassignment if required

Global Assignment

Importance of Global Assignment

Global assignments as identified by experts in international human resource management are of three types

1. Technical assignments: Employees may be assigned global assignments if they have the technical skills that are required by the MNC for a particular assignment and the MNC is not able to find anyone as capable as that person internally and in that particular country, if a person is located within the MNC in another country then that person is sent on a technical assignment.

2. Developmental assignments: Developmental assignments are typically used to develop a project or concept that is new to a different location or develop skills in a different location which is not implemented in that location, it is also used by institutes to bring in faculties from different parts of the globe to give the students an exposure to different perspectives and cultures and their thoughts on the scenario of the subject.

3. Strategic Assignments are global assignments in which a key partner is sent to launch a product in a key location, develop the market or get necessary changes in the business strategy or even sign Memorandum of Understandings and Joint Venture deals.

Advantages of Global Assignments

Some advantages of global assignments are

1. Skills and knowledge which are not available in a country can be brought from other countries.

2. MNC’s are able to get their projects done more effectively and not having the problem of talent not being available.

3. Employees may be motivated to join an MNC which assigns global assignments to its employees regularly.

Example of Global Assignment

Here is an example of global assignment for a hypothetical organization Company A. Company A could not find a person who could communicate in French, German and Hindi in their main headquarters in USA as they felt that there would be a gap in understanding if the language is translated to English, and then to either of these languages. So, since they did not find the any person who had proficiency in these three languages in their headquarters and started finding for a person with the language skills throughout all their office. Company A found a person in their international office in India with the knowledge in these three languages. So, they assigned her the project under a global assignment and she was asked to relocate to the main headquarters located in the United States for the duration of the project.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Global Assignment along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team which comprises of MBA students, management professionals, and industry experts. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team . The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse the definition and meaning of more similar terms. The Management Dictionary covers over 1800 business concepts from 5 categories.

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Global Assignment Best Practice

Anne morris.

  • 3 October 2019

IN THIS SECTION

When planning and preparing for a global assignment, there are numerous factors that have the potential to contribute to its overall success, with benefits both for your business and for the assignee. The following guide looks at best practice for employers when deploying personnel overseas, from the employee experience to the flexibility of different types of global assignment.

The employee experience in global assignments

A good employer will recognise that at the heart of its business are its people. As such, ensuring a positive employee experience for overseas assignees can be crucial the success of a global assignment.

As an employer responsible for sending an employee overseas, you will have a legal duty of care, not to mention a moral responsibility and vested financial interest, to ensure the wellbeing of that individual. In particular, when planning a global assignment, caretaking the health and safety of the overseas assignee should be paramount.

Any assessment of travel risks must be tailored to the nature of the work to be undertaken, the attributes of the employee and any factors specific to the host destination. The importance of researching the country and region in which the assignee will be working, and keeping abreast of any imminent changes, cannot be underestimated here.

Even relatively safe destinations can quickly become high-risk regions due to health, safety, security, political or social reasons, not to mention the possibility of natural disasters, so it is important to stay fully informed of changing risks and to be able to relay such information to assignees working remotely.

It is also important to educate each overseas assignee in advance of their global assignment about the location in which they will be working, not least arranging security briefings and training on hostile environment awareness for those travelling to high-risk destinations, as well as educating all assignees on any legal and cultural differences, even for low-risk destinations.

Preparing assignees for cultural integration can often be key to ensuring not only the safety and security of these individuals, but also their overall wellbeing and happiness, on both a professional and personal basis. This could include, for example, the use of pre-deployment programs such as cross-cultural training and intensive language classes. Any training and classes could also be extended to family members accompanying the employee on their global assignment.

You may also want to consider putting in place a benefit and support program, both prior to departure and throughout the lifecycle of the assignment, from deployment through to repatriation.

As such, by creating a safe and supported working environment from the outset, this can significantly alleviate the risk of failure and help to avoid early repatriation, ensuring the global assignment is a success for everyone involved.

The use of technology in global assignments

When conducting business on an international scale, this can give rise to a number of challenges, not least in sourcing suitable data to make informed decisions, both in advance and during the lifecycle of a global assignment. Here, the use of technology can play a crucial role in guiding your global mobility policies and management decision-making.

In particular, where implemented effectively and used correctly, data and predictive analytics tools can prove to be invaluable in gaining insight into operational costs and overall return on investment, as well as employee placement and key performance indicators.

In particular, analytics tools can be used in the following ways:

  • Cost analytics – to establish a cost model for your global assignment
  • Workforce analytics – to connect the talent in your recruiting database to the skillset needed for your global assignments
  • Assignee identification analytics – to focus on the cost drivers of sending the right assignees to the right location
  • Employee retention analytics – to predict which overseas assignees are at risk of early repatriation or attrition and which candidates, and/or global assignments, are at a higher risk of failure
  • Exposure analysis – to quantify the various levels of exposure to any penalties associated with non-compliance

In fact, with the benefit of these types of analytics tools, together with other forms of technology, global mobility is becoming far easier to achieve in the digital age, and to do so successfully.

It can significantly lessen many of the legal and administrative pressures when managing a mobile workforce, especially when it comes to tax and immigration compliance in a highly regulated environment. Furthermore, technology can also play an important role in enhancing the individual performance of overseas assignees.

When planning and preparing for a global assignment, although the focus will primarily be on selecting the right assignee for the particular assignment and location in question, including their individual qualifications and capabilities, by offering the employee the right tools to do their job to the best of their ability, technology can help to maximise the prospects of a successful outcome.

Indeed, by investing in technology, an employer can not only maximise the productivity of an overseas assignee, but also monitor their progress and even measure assignee experience.

Further, the use of technology through, for example, mobile devices and secured wireless networks, can be extremely effective in maintaining regular communication with overseas assignees, ensuring that they don’t feel disconnected from the company or work colleagues back home. This can be crucial in avoiding early repatriation and the potential failure of the global assignment overall.

Needless to say, however, it is vital that you keep abreast of technological advancements, from connectivity to up-to-date software, to ensure that your overseas assignees can carry out their work cost effectively and efficiently, and that the use of technology is aligned to your organisational objectives and overall mobility goals.

The importance of return investment in global assignments

For you as the employer, global assignments can equate to profitable expansion into both new and existing markets, significantly boosting the global revenue, as well as the reputation, of your business. Furthermore, by sending existing employees abroad, as opposed to recruiting overseas, this can help to streamline operations and expedite growth.

That said, cost control can play a key role in the commercial viability of a global assignment, not least when factoring in the potentially significant cost of both deployment and repatriation of the overseas assignee.

However, global assignment management is not only about number crunching. It is equally about the potential return on investment in various other ways. In fact, overseas assignments can be an excellent way of developing top talent within your organisation, by offering key individual employees a career pathway to more senior promotion.

In particular, the international experience can help train promising and ambitious individuals for leadership, managerial and executive roles, as well as giving them invaluable insight and new industry knowledge to help develop your business back in the UK.

Further, for the individual employee, on both a professional and personal basis, the benefits of working abroad can be significant, not least in terms of potential career progression, increased salary or compensation, as well as the possibility of an international travel experience for their whole family.

As such, given that the overall success of the global assignment will inevitably include the successful repatriation and retention of your top talent at the end of the assignment, you will need to consider what initiatives to implement to alleviate the risk of losing key employees.

In addition to the promise of career progression and a suitably senior role to come back to, useful initiatives could include the use of competitive relocation and repatriation packages, ensuring that your overseas assignees are happy to repatriate and return home. As previously indicated, this should also include the cost of suitable benefit and support initiatives to ensure the overall wellbeing and happiness of your employees.

Understandably, you may feel cautious about controlling the cost of a global assignment, but this must be balanced against the need to attract and retain talent to ensure the continuity and success of your business in the long-term.

Flexibility in global assignments

When determining the potential success of a global assignment, you will also need to consider the nature and duration of the task to be undertaken and the best way in which this can be achieved, from the use of frequent business travel and short-term assignments to long-term assignments and relocation. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Needless to say, each of these different types of global assignment has different benefits and risks, although business travel is likely to prove the most straightforward and cost effective choice in many cases. Here, individual employees can attend conferences and meetings, close a deal, sign new business and network. Indeed, networking can be one of the most lucrative ways to support business growth.

Senior executives and managers can also use extended business trips to undertake various different global assignments, including opening a new office or setting up a new division, without the costs associated with other types of global mobility, and without the same personal and practical challenges of relocating to another country.

In respect of short or long-term assignments, these can be a good way of gaining invaluable insight and industry knowledge to help progress your business back in the UK. The long-term global assignment, in particular, can also be extremely effective in establishing a foothold in strategic and emerging markets. This type of assignment can provide new sales opportunities, new customer bases and significantly increased revenue. It can even enhance your reputation and global influence as a corporate organisation.

However, where you are looking to fill skills gaps or to manage operations overseas, you may want to consider the possibility of permanent relocation, not least because this can often prove to be much more cost effective than the traditional long-term assignment with the associated costs of repatriation. That said, any relocation package will need to include sufficient incentive to attract a suitable candidate to move abroad on a permanent basis.

Key take-aways 

The management of global assignments can be one of the hardest areas for employers and HR experts to master, not least when trying to control costs whilst adapting to the shifting demands of the global business environment. As such, there is a very high failure rate for global assignments.

Further, the consequences of an unsuccessful global assignment can be far-reaching for your business, not only in terms of loss of revenue and wasted expenditure, but the potential loss of key personnel and top global talent from within your organisation.

It is, therefore, imperative that you understand and address the following key global assignment success factors:

  • Make a full assessment of any travel risks, tailored to the individual assignee, the specific assignment and the host destination in question, keeping abreast of any changes that may impact on this.
  • Educate each overseas assignee in advance of their global assignment about the locations in which they will be working, including but not limited to any safety and security issues, as well as any legal and cultural differences.
  • Always ensure the overall wellbeing of your overseas assignees at all times, from deployment through to their return home, as such alleviating the risk of early repatriation. This could be through the provision of cross-cultural training, intensive language classes and/or an ongoing benefit and support program.
  • Ensure that you adequately incentivise your overseas assignees so as to avoid losing key employees from within your workforce, for example, through attractive relocation and repatriation packages, as well as a suitably senior role to return home to.
  • Utilise data and analytics tools to make informed management decisions in respect of global assignments, from cost control to non-compliance.
  • Keep abreast of technological advances that may maximise the productivity of an overseas assignee, or otherwise enhance any profitable business growth.
  • Consider the flexibility offered by different types of global assignment, from business trips to permanent relocation, not only with regard to the nature and duration of the task to be undertaken, but also with regard to the personal and professional needs of the prospective candidate who may be undertaking this assignment.

Needless to say, this list is not exhaustive, with a plethora of other factors that may come into play when planning and preparing for a global assignment.

Guidance for HR & employers

For advice and guidance on managing  global assignments,  or any aspect of global mobility programme strategy and implementation, contact us .

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Founder and Managing Director Anne Morris is a fully qualified solicitor and trusted adviser to large corporates through to SMEs, providing strategic immigration and global mobility advice to support employers with UK operations to meet their workforce needs through corporate immigration.

She is a recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers as a legal expert and delivers Board-level advice on business migration and compliance risk management as well as overseeing the firm’s development of new client propositions and delivery of cost and time efficient processing of applications.

Anne is an active public speaker, immigration commentator , and immigration policy contributor and regularly hosts training sessions for employers and HR professionals

  • Anne Morris https://www.davidsonmorris.com/author/anne/ Holiday Pay & Entitlement: Employers' Guide
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  • Anne Morris https://www.davidsonmorris.com/author/anne/ Student Visa UK: Complete Guide for Applicants
  • Anne Morris https://www.davidsonmorris.com/author/anne/ Equality Act 2010: Employers' Guide

About DavidsonMorris

As employer solutions lawyers, DavidsonMorris offers a complete and cost-effective capability to meet employers’ needs across UK immigration and employment law, HR and global mobility .

Led by Anne Morris, one of the UK’s preeminent immigration lawyers, and with rankings in The Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners , we’re a multi-disciplinary team helping organisations to meet their people objectives, while reducing legal risk and nurturing workforce relations.

Legal Disclaimer

The matters contained in this article are intended to be for general information purposes only. This article does not constitute legal advice, nor is it a complete or authoritative statement of the law, and should not be treated as such. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information is correct at the time of writing, no warranty, express or implied, is given as to its accuracy and no liability is accepted for any error or omission. Before acting on any of the information contained herein, expert legal advice should be sought.

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Selecting Global Assignees

By Valerie Frazee

Jul. 1, 1998

The success of your entire overseas venture may rest in the hands of one expatriate employee and his or her family. So how do you make sure you send the candidate most likely to live up to the challenge? This was the question on the minds of three readers who recently posted discussion threads on the topic in the Global HR Forum on Workforce Online. Responding to their inquiries, we asked an authority on the subject to share her perspective. Here she outlines a strategic approach to expatriate selection. She includes an overview of how assessment tools can aid the process. Dr. Paula Caligiuri from Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, researcher on the topic of managing global assignees, says: Selecting global assignees is both a critical and frustrating topic for global HR professionals. Most human resources professionals agree that not all employees sent on global assignments will succeed. Some will flourish, while others, unfortunately, will fail. Seasoned global HR professionals may pride themselves on the fact that they can predict the outcome of an assignment — after just a few interactions with a prospective assignee. They have developed the sixth sense for selecting global assignees. Despite the sixth sense that these HR professionals may have, the unfortunate reality is that most are unable to stop a risky global assignment from moving forward. Frequently, an assignee is chosen within the business unit based only on the person’s technical or managerial skills. HR has little involvement, except to process the appropriate paperwork. This typical scenario is both myopic and deleterious for organizations valuing the strategic management of their human talent worldwide. Appropriately, this scenario is beginning to change in many multinational organizations as global HR is becoming more integrated into the overall global business strategy. In fact, research suggests that your involvement in the global assignment process is related to better bottom line success. As a function, global HR is becoming more involved in the strategy and practice of managing the global assignment process. Many global human resources professionals have started their strategic roles with improvements on the global assignee selection process. The process outlined below is a description of what global HR professionals in these strategic multinational organizations are doing to select their international assignees. The most effective process for selecting global assignees involves four distinct phases:

Phase One: Allow for self-selection. Employees who may be on the track for a future global assignment should begin the decision-making process about a year or more before a position becomes available. (The way companies identify this group will vary.) In this self-selection phase, employees introspectively question whether they are right for a global assignment, if their spouses and children would be interested in relocating internationally, if this is the best time for them professionally, and so on. The greatest criticism of self-selection is that candidates and their spouses will not be honest. I have found this criticism is unfounded given that most people are very honest with themselves — if they know that the information is private and confidential. People would rather learn for themselves that they may not have what it takes for a global assignment, rather than go through formal company-initiated testing — a process they are likely to fake to save themselves the embarrassment of failing the test . Given that the consequences of being unsuccessful on a global assignment are high, people will seek out information that helps them predict the likelihood of their success living in another country. During self-selection, your employees and their families can be honest with themselves without fearing negative repercussions from the organization and without the pressure of having to make a quick decision. Self-selection instruments such as The SAGE (Self-Assessment for Global Endeavors) and The SAGE for Spouses (both by Caligiuri & Associates in Edison, New Jersey) can help employees and their families through the decision-making process. Some organizations, such as Plano, Texas-based EDS, have made a self-selection instrument generally available on their company’s intranet to encourage self-assessment among those who may not have previously considered a global assignment. Other organizations, such as Wilton, Connecticut-based Deloitte and Touche LLP, give the self-selection instrument to targeted employees. Then human resources is available for follow-up discussion meetings after the employees have taken the instrument. In either case, the purpose is for HR to provide information and assist in the decision-making process — without evaluating the candidates’ potential. Phase Two: Create a pool of candidates After the self-selection process, employees should have the option of putting themselves in a candidate pool. You can organize this candidate pool in an electronic database. Each multinational organization may organize the database differently, depending on its staffing needs. Some examples of employee information for the database include: the year the employee is available to go, the languages the employee speaks, the countries the employee prefers and the jobs for which the employee is qualified. HR, in this phase, creates and manages the database. It’s imperative that you include all possible candidates who may be considered for a global assignment in the database. Phase Three: Assess candidates’ technical skills Once the business unit has identified a position, you should scan the database for all possible candidates for a given global assignment. This short list is forwarded to the department requesting the assignment. It’s now the job of the sending manager to assess each candidate on technical and managerial readiness relative to the needs of the assignment. You can offer guidance in phase three to help the sending manager identify the knowledge, skills, abilities and experience needed to perform a given job. In this phase, the job requirements of the global assignment should be the focus. If a global assignment is for director of production in China, for example, assess candidates on their records as production managers, not on their cultural skills or competencies to operate in China. (The exception to this would be if a position had been analyzed for the necessary global competencies. It has been my experience that this is done very rarely. Phase Four: Make a mutual decision. In this final phase, the sending manager has identified one person as an acceptable candidate based on his or her technical or managerial readiness. You know the candidate family is willing to accept the assignment because it has placed itself in the candidate pool. At this point, an assignee has been tentatively “selected.” To offer a realistic preview to these tentative global assignees, organizations have matched repatriate families with the selected families. The purpose is for the repatriate families to share experiences and difficulties. As a caution, the repatriate families doing the previews should be chosen carefully. Find repatriates who had positive experiences but who are also realistic about the challenges of the assignment. If possible, match families with children of similar ages. An honest discussion between repatriates and future assignees gives the assignees more information and an additional opportunity to deselect if they feel that a global assignment is not right for them. Often, these meetings are encouraging and supportive — strengthening a family’s commitment to the assignment. Some organizations, such as Brampton, Ontario-based Northern Telecom, conduct a more thorough assessment of the selected assignee and his or her family, in an attempt to ensure their assignees’ success. Some consulting organizations, such as Thornhill, Ontario-based FGI Global Relocation Services, conduct a pre-departure family assessment. The relocating family and a family counselor determine what, if any, accommodations the family may need to be successful in the host country. Then human resources works through the counselor to provide the family any necessary accommodations detected in the assessment process. This is a very proactive strategy. Post-selection preparation. Many consulting organizations offer thorough cross-cultural preparation to prospective global assignees and their families. These cultural preparation programs, while falling under the heading of training, sometimes uncover specific cultural concerns. From an assessment standpoint, HR can use this knowledge to prevent a potential problem when the family is on assignment. In the extreme cases, a family realizes that its decision to accept the assignment was a mistake. Employees may, even this late into the process, deselect. As with Phase One, I recommend that the decision to refuse an assignment in this phase be made by the assignee and not by the organization. Fortunately, for organizations going through the first three phases, a deselection at this stage is a very infrequent occurrence. In conclusion, there are three themes in this global assignee selection process. The first is to plant the seed as early as possible. You will get the best possible candidates when you cast a large net and engage individuals’ decision-making processes long before a position becomes available. The second theme is to involve the family from the very beginning. A global assignment will disrupt the lives of every family member — and each member will influence the assignment positively or negatively. The third theme is to allow for deselection at every phase. Traditional selection methods simply do not work for global assignments — unless a thorough job analysis is conducted for each assignment. The decision needs to be mutual among the employee, his or her organization, and his or her family. Organizations should convey to their employees that a global assignment is not right for everyone. Global Workforce , July 1998, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 28-30.

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Global assignments boost employee development.

Updated: Jul 17, 2020

global

Employees Crave Global Opportunities

How employers are responding.

  • Demand for foreign talent to help address skills gaps remains high. More companies are turning to immigration as a means of closing these gaps and in an effort to create a diverse workforce.
  • However, immigration remains an area of high scrutiny by the government. According to the report, “[O]nly 16% of survey respondents said the visa application process has become less difficult under the current administration, while 38% said it has become more difficult.”
  • Sponsorship of employees with green cards is at its highest level since 2016. “However, an unprecedented backlog of green card applications has led to wait times that can span decades,” the report says.
  • The 2020 election is likely to result in significantly more changes to immigration reform than in the past.
  • Non-U.S. global assignments are being used more as a strategic element of talent acquisition and employee development.
  • Canada is continuing to establish itself as a compelling alternative destination to the United States through new, fast-track pathways to encourage high-skilled immigration.

Takeaways for T&D

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Melissa Llarena

Many firms make it harder to land these opportunities by requiring a business case. 51% of companies surveyed in 2012 assess your candidacy on a cost-benefit analysis. Some ask for your own self-assessment to inform their decision-making. Therefore, it is important to think logically about your candidacy before asking for a global assignment. The following discussion addresses what you must consider when itching for a global assignment and what to do if you lack the necessary attributes to advance with that big “ask” for a relocation, and it also gives you a start to structuring your business case. Start by considering the following six questions to give you the most compelling reasons as to why you should be assigned abroad.

Thinking through a global assignmentvfinal

Start by comparing yourself against your peers.

  • Where do I currently stand in the company? – Think about how important your skills, experiences or relationships are in comparison to those of your peers. If you are of more value to an employer, they will be more willing to invest in keeping you happy and succumbing to your request. An easy way to figure out your worth vs. that of your colleagues is if you were stack ranked. For better or worse, if you work in a transparent organization that openly shares your ranking, then you’ll have a clear idea of where you stand organizationally. Otherwise, take an honest look at your performance evaluation(s). Are you a consistent top performer? Consider your direct impact on individual(s), team(s), the business or the industry. Do you get the toughest projects? Are you entrusted with the most responsibilities? Do you lead tasks with higher visibility than your peers? If your answers are favorable, then take note of your findings and proceed to the next question. If your responses are unconvincing, then focus on rising above your peers within the next two years. Performance improvements take time but are prerequisites for launching global-assignment conversations.

Click –> The Essential Guide to Landing a Global Assignment by Melissa Llarena – to download the full edition of this blog. The full edition will address the five remaining questions, and…

-Help you figure out what to do if your manager does not support your relocation

-Share real examples of what successful expats did to land their global assignments

-Expose the two game-changing points that most aspiring globetrotters neglect to address

DOWNLOAD NOW ->  The Essential Guide to Landing a Global Assignment by Melissa Llarena

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Melissa Llarena

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A friend shared this blog with me. Working abroad opportunities are at an all-time minimum because of how virtual we are in 2013. Although I didn’t have this guide during my transition, definitely concur that I did follow the process you lay out in this guide unconsciously.

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You bring up a great point about how virtual we’ve become. I would argue that in some locations face-to-face interactions, however, are crucial. For instance, throughout Latin America, in person contact matters greatly. It’s all about building trust and that’s harder to do via Skype. Thanks for commenting. I hope your transition was wildly successful.

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global assignment

Quick reference.

Is a job assignment within a multinational corporation that involves expatriation; that is the relocation of an employee to another country. Specialists in international human resource management identify different types of global assignment. Technical assignments occur when employees with technical skills are sent from one country to another to fill a particular skill shortage. Developmental assignments, in contrast, are typically used within a management development programme and are used to equip managers with new skills and competencies. Strategic assignments arise when key executives are sent from one country to another to launch a product, develop a market or initiate another key change in business strategy. Finally, functional assignments resemble technical assignments but differ in one important respect. Technical assignments do not require the assignee to interact extensively with employees in the host country but this is a requirement of functional assignments and for this reason assignees are often prepared through cross-cultural training.

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Most people are so hardheaded that they need a real smack on the head before they are

willing or able to rearrange their mental maps of the world. Executives do not generally

receive in-depth international management training in master of business administration

(MBA) programs, in in-house executive education programs, or from their work

experience (Porter & McKibbin, 1988). Less than a quarter of the CEOs in America have

gone on an international assignment (Carpenter, Sanders, & Gregersen, 2001; Gregersen

et al., 1995). Of the CEOs who have worked abroad, their most common destination by

far was Canada, followed by Great Britain and then Belgium. Very few CEOs have lived

and worked in Latin America or the Far East.

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5 Small Things That Can Make or Break Global Assignment Success

This piece was originally posted on the InterNations Business Solutions blog . 

From an employee engagement and talent retention perspective, the majority of hiring executives — up to 97% — understand the immense value of relocation programs, but feel they need a better way to manage these programs (Wakefield, 2018) . With approximately 40% of all international assignments ending in failure (Right Management, 2012), we couldn’t agree more, especially given the forecast for a 50% growth in the number of international assignments by the year 2020 (PwC, 2019).

As an organization with 30 years of experience in supporting global relocation success strategies , we have come to learn those seemingly small things are actually rather big things when it comes to the success or failure of an employee moving abroad.

Although candidates generally request support through financial means — such as cash allowances and housing assistance (Wakefield, 2018), we urge hiring executives, relocation directors, and mobility professionals alike to pay closer attention and give greater assistance to expats in the following areas:

1. Family Support

Over the last ten years family has consistently shown to be the number one reason why international assignments fail or succeed (EY, 2018; CERC, 2017; BGRS, 2016). More specifically, EY lists a partner or spouse “not being happy” with relocation as the top reason for assignment failure. “Children issues” comes in as the fourth most common reason for failure (EY, 2018).

On the one hand, it appears that organizations are recognizing the importance of offering family support. Out of nearly 3,500 respondents, 90% said their companies offered relocation support to partners (EY, 2018). On the other hand, “relocation support” can be a very broad term.

According to EY, the most common form of “partner support benefits” is language training. While language training can be helpful, it does not address the collective stress of cultural adjustment that a family goes through when relocating abroad.

Tip for Success: Look at your service providers first to ensure you have vendors that offer family integration and support (for both spouses and children). Their cultural adjustment to the host country is just as important as the employee’s — if the family is OK, the assignee can better focus on their job. Also, make sure your providers can offer support in a manner that meets relocated families on their terms and schedule. Are they flexible in how they deliver their services? Families need time to be together during this stressful period. This is what will help foreign assignments succeed.

2. Assignment Selection

According to BGRS (2016), poor candidate selection is the second-most common reason why global assignments fail. Not coincidentally, BGRS also reports that approximately 80% of companies don’t formally assess the adaptability of international assignment candidates, and only 29% of companies use some type of self-assessment tool. For some assignments, a particular skill set or urgent business need is required, and for others, the move may be for high potential leadership development. Regardless of the reason, most clients don’t have a long time horizon to identify possible employees as candidates for a move. Even for those firms that do have time to field a pool of candidates, budgets often don’t allow for candidate assessment services in addition to pre-departure cultural training.

Furthermore, data shows that it is rare for a first-choice candidate to accept a relocation offer — and this trend is on the rise (BGRS, 2016). Tying into the need for greater family support, 32% of leaders said they had turned down a foreign assignment out of consideration for their families, and 28% said they did so to “protect their marriages” (HBR, 2014).

In order to access and select the very best candidates for relocation programs, time and planning is key. Companies need a process for employees to self-identify early on that they are interested in a global assignment, which can help expand the already identified pool of employees coming from the business line or talent development. With a broader pool to choose from, there is less stress on choosing a first-choice.

Tip for Success: Nearly three-quarters of companies don’t maintain a candidate pool for global assignments, and 33% don’t have a process for employees to designate themselves as willing to go on a foreign assignment (BGRS, 2016). During new hire orientation, build in a way for employees to “raise their hand” if they are interested in a global move — this can be via interviews or via self-selection tools. When key employees are identified for a move, companies should invest in a developmental candidate assessment process that can identify professional or personal issues that need to be resolved before an assignment begins. Companies that follow such a process will field and deploy many better-prepared employees for assignment, leading to higher success rates.

3. Cultural Understanding

Approximately 44% of companies offer cross-cultural training as a core policy benefit (KPMG, 2018) — which means the majority of organizations are not offering their assignees coaching or training to set them up for business success. As a result, it is no surprise the inability to “adapt to the host location” is the third most common reason for global assignment failure (BGRS, 2016).

Interestingly, “job expectations not met” is the fourth most common reason for assignment failure, according to BGRS. The ability to perform a job role or function successfully in a foreign location is directly connected to understanding and making adaptations for the culture (Aperian Global, 2016). Cultural competence and agility do lead to assignment success on multiple levels. Most companies do not see the value of work style adjustment when considering the ROI for “cultural training.” Many think such training covers basic protocol issues that are common for a tourist vacation.

A foreign assignee recently shared their surprise at the impact cultural work style training had on their global assignment: “I was amazed at how much I had not considered in working with colleagues who are of a different culture. I realized I can’t run meetings or give feedback to people the way I was used to in my home country. In fact, what worked great for me back home in terms of my work style, but will be counterproductive in working with my host country colleagues. I now know how to make simple adjustments to the way I go about my work — and I see it paying off.”

Tip for Success: Although the large majority of mobility heads are under pressure to reduce overall mobility costs, cross-cultural training is one thing that should not be cut from your core policy. Many assignments cost five times or more than the employee’s salary, so a failed assignment is very expensive. Limit that financial risk by providing helpful integration support, which with more options today than ever, is affordable. One-size-fits-all-policies will often lead to overspending for under-utilized and ineffective training. Find providers that can offer the widest range of flexible solutions to assignees on their schedule (pre-departure, post-arrival, virtual coaching, online self-guided, etc). These same providers should be able to offer you subscription-based pricing that ensures the training used is what is paid for.

4. Decreasing Stressors

Beyond an employee uprooting their life and family, there can be many other stressors that come into play during relocation. Expectations and goals are often not clear to foreign assignees, which can quickly mount to stress and confusion. According to KMPG (2018), 19% of companies do not have a process for setting assignment goals.

Twenty-five percent of assignees follow the host country goal-setting process, which could be a significant challenge and stressor for candidates if language and culture barriers have not been addressed through adequate training.

Tip for Success: Mobility department and talent development heads should ask this simple question: “If I were to agree to go on a global assignment, what would I expect? Career advancement, new skills that will serve me later, higher pay?” These and similar types of questions are always top of mind to a prospective assignee, so it is critical to document what the reasons for the move are (business need or professional development), while at the same time documenting the agreed-upon expectations by the employee and manager. Without that, there will be ambiguity and possibly resentment when the employee learns the expectations were not honored.

5. Adjustment within the Social Context

Interestingly, technology has not changed the international assignment failure rate (TLNT, 2017). One might suppose that with webcam video to connect with friends and family back home and social platforms to help expats meet up, that failure rates would have decreased. But the data would suggest that failure rates are a very human issue more related to the ability or inability to integrate and adjust to a new culture.

”Employers underestimate the need for social integration and the fact that it is part of their responsibility to make sure their expat employees manage to feel at home and welcome abroad,” Theresa Häfner, Head of Business Solutions at InterNations, recently said.

Tip for Success: Companies should leverage technology that can help foreign assignees connect and relate, while simultaneously encouraging cultural coaching that focuses on adapting to their new home. Settling in requires personal work, much of it centered around self-awareness of one’s style in relation to the host country. Once the strategies are presented on how to adapt and adjust to host country norms of business, then the networking and social acclimatization will only strengthen their ability to settle in and succeed while on assignment.

Whether it is these five issues or others, there is no simple way to ensure success every time for every assignee. Personal lives are as complex as the business — but these strategies can help.

Aperian

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Global Assignment Policies & Practices Survey Report

Insights on how global organizations administer their global mobility programs.

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  • Global Assignment Policies & Practices Survey Report

For global mobility leaders of multinational organizations, benchmarking your global mobility policies and practices against those of other global organizations and industry peers can be a powerful tool for reflecting on your current approach and planning how to prepare your talent mobility program for the future. To help, KPMG International conducts an ongoing annual survey of global mobility policies and practices of multinational organizations. While the number of participants continues to grow, the resulting database is already believed to be one of the most robust of its kind on a global scale, with input from over 375 multinational organizations in more than 25 countries and/or territories.

The data offers insights into global mobility programs and how they are evolving in terms of mobility, tax and immigration policies, structure, governance, priorities, performance measures, using technology and automation, and more.

Download the 2022 KPMG Global Assignment Policies and Practices Survey summary report and scroll down for more on this year's key findings.  

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2022 KPMG Global Assignment Policies and Practices Survey

A look into how global mobility programs are evolving based on the survey results from over 375 multinational organizations in more than 25 jurisdictions worldwide.

Download PDF (1.1 MB) ⤓

What do the latest results tell us?

The results of this year’s Global Assignment Policies and Practices (GAPP) survey shed light on how global mobility programs are evolving. In addition to compliance and global risk management, supporting the organization’s business objectives, controlling program costs and being adaptable to changing business requirements are clearly the top priorities for today’s global mobility leaders. The global talent mobility function's contribution to strategic value also now seems to be taking priority; being recognized as a trusted advisor and partner to the business playing a critical role in attracting, mobilizing, engaging, developing, and retaining global talent.

Organizations continue to offer greater flexibility in their talent mobility policy approaches — developing policy frameworks that are aligned to overarching talent and business development objectives. Fifty two percent of survey participants cite including core versus flexible provisions, followed by an observable trend of (18 percent) of participants beginning to adopt a cafeteria/menu/points-based approach expanding the range of choices for either the assignee or the business. Enabling choice for mobile employees to develop assignment and transfer packages best suited to their personal needs is on the rise. Enhancing overall employee experience is a critical factor for attracting, engaging, developing, and retaining key talent globally.

Organizations continue to adopt more purposeful approaches to mobilizing talent globally by strengthening the connections between talent management and global mobility functions. During 2022, 71 percent of survey participants ranked supporting overall business and talent development objectives as a top program goal for their international assignments.

Global talent mobility is too complex and important to employees and the organization to leave up to chance. Survey participants are particularly interested in solutions for producing assignment cost projections, automating assignment initiations, and creating supporting documents for assignments and transfers. Further, organizations are seeking fully integrated, ‘single source of data truth’ technology solutions (often with their external service partners) that span the whole spectrum of talent mobility and provides self-service options for employees via online portals and mobile technology solutions integrated with mobility phase processes.

Fast-moving organizations do not want to be bogged down in transactions and typically outsource high-volume complex transactions like individual tax compliance. Survey participants outsource relocation management services (82 percent), destination services (70 percent), tax consulting (91 percent), tax return preparation (89 percent), and immigration (84 percent), so they can focus on providing a superb employee experience, participate in strategic talent planning and future workforce shaping, and demonstrate a return on investment for their organizations including successful assignment completions and post assignment retention against employee mobility spend.

Emerging from the recent global pandemic, many workers, especially those in professional services, still favor working remotely at least part of the time. According to KPMG’s 2022 Global CEO Outlook survey, CEO’s are changing how they support and attract talent, and their efforts are buoyed by a focus on their people and continuing to experiment with ways of working. In the long term, the employee value proposition to attract and retain the necessary talent is tied as the top operational priority to achieving 3-year growth objectives. While remote working has had a positive impact on hiring, collaboration and productivity over the past 2 years, 65 percent of CEOs see in-office as the go-to office environment over the next 3 years.

Benchmark your organization today!

KPMG’s Global Mobility Services practice members can provide a personalized benchmarking report allowing you to compare your organization across key areas of interest. Participants find this useful in evaluating their organizational policies against a specific set of parameters. In addition to key organizational demographics and global mobility policy overview, the survey questions follow an overarching framework of the key phases of an international assignment and transfer life cycle with additional relevant topical categories covering immigration compliance, assignment management technology leverage, automation and robotics and program data and analytics insights.

If you would like to participate in the KPMG GAPP Survey and receive a personalized benchmarking report, please click here . To learn more about how KPMG’s Mobility Consulting Services can help you build an operating model that serves and delivers for your organization, please send an email to  [email protected] .

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International Assignments: Who's Going Where and Why?

What does the global-mobility landscape look like today?

According to global relocation services provider Cartus’ recent 2013 Trends in Global Relocation Survey, younger employees are most interested in taking international relocation assignments, with career development being the main reason, and sequential assignments are on the rise.

The survey’s findings shed light on who companies are moving (and where), what criteria they are using to select their mobile talent, and how they’re linking talent management to global mobility.

Assignee Demographics

The demographics of the expatriate population appear to be steady in terms of gender, with the percentages of both men (79 percent) and women (21 percent) shifting only slightly from 2012.

Generation X employees (56 percent) represent the largest age group of transferees. Baby Boomers (20 percent) posted a slight increase over 2012, while the youngest group—Millennials, or Generation Y (20 percent)—showed a significant increase.

Married expats with accompanying families are still the most common but have become a smaller percentage of global workers over the past six years. The category of those “married and traveling solo” has gained the most in percentage points over this period.

In general, younger, single male employees are showing the highest interest in global assignments, according to the survey. Women, Baby Boomers and employees with families are showing less interest in working abroad.

This profile holds true when the destination is an emerging market.

“Given the issues with schooling, housing and in many cases security, the lack of interest among assignees with families is not surprising,” the report said.

Some of the respondents’ comments include:

  • “Dubai and the Middle East have their limitations for certain lifestyles. People with family are not so open to move their family to areas with little infrastructure.”
  • “There is low interest in African regions.”
  • “Employees seem to be less interested in going to certain locations if assignment allowances do not properly reflect the hardships that exist in the new work/life environment.”
  • “As the quality of lifestyle in emerging markets can vary when compared to a developed country, it is difficult for entire families to relocate to these types of countries. We have implemented two-year assignments in these regions, which seem to be working, with a limited time in more challenging environments.”
  • “Although Millennials are interested in these types of assignments, we need highly experienced people to go in and develop our emerging markets, so sometimes the interest and the experience needed to be successful are out of sync.”
  • “Employees with families tend to shy away from emerging markets. They look for places with more stable economies and social systems, especially for reasons of safety, security and schooling. They are also concerned about fluctuations in currency and overall earning and savings power.”

Most and Least Desirable Locations for Assignments

When asked which of the developed countries generated the most employee interest for assignments, the clear choices were the U.S., U.K., Australia, Singapore and Canada.

Tier I India and China (developed cities such as Mumbai and Shanghai) ranked as the locations that workers were most resistant to relocating to among the developed countries, indicating these are still perceived as challenging markets.

For emerging-market locations, Brazil topped the list of nations to which employees most wanted to go, followed closely by the United Arab Emirates. Among the emerging-market countries that professionals were reluctant to work in are Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Notably, Tiers II-IV for both India and China show up as generating significant interest and resistance. “This is likely attributable to the fact that as booming markets, they offer significant opportunities but also major challenges in infrastructure and other areas,” the report explained. “They are likely to be perceived differently depending on the assignee’s experience, appetite for adventure, and perception of the market’s importance to company goals.”

Motivating Factors

When asked for the main reasons why employees accepted an international assignment, companies said that while attractive compensation was named by a third of respondents (34 percent), the main motivating factors for employees were career development and advancement.

“This finding is a clear indicator that now is the time for companies to really start focusing on creating synergies across HR and businesses in order to ensure assignees are no longer ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and they are aware that the company is also focusing on their career. If employees’ value is not recognized, particularly the Gen Y/Millennial population, attrition rates will continue to rise,” according to the report.

Qualifying Criteria

As for the business criteria and qualifications that organizations seek when considering someone for an international assignment, leadership potential (80 percent) and technical skills (75 percent) were cited the most. A significant number of respondents (61 percent) also noted that the criteria depended on the project. Notably, only 33 percent are factoring in minimum performance ratings in selection criteria.

Flexibility and the ability to adapt to fluid circumstances (71 percent) led the list of behavioral characteristics businesses look for when considering an employee for an assignment abroad.

Second and third on the list of behavioral traits were career orientation and the desire to advance (63 percent), and the ability to work productively in an independent setting (57 percent).

Questioned about the family criteria their organization takes into account when considering someone for an international assignment, 68 percent of respondents said family status was not considered, while 25 percent said family criteria depended on the project.

Linking Talent Management and Global Mobility

When asked whether they agreed with the statement “The impact of an international assignment on an assignee’s career is positive,” 82 percent said yes, a 30 percent increase from 2009. “This supports the feeling that companies are paying more attention to, and realizing the importance of, how international assignments support employee growth, business value and retention,” the report said.

Building effective linkages between talent and global mobility will help ensure that assignments truly contribute to company business strategies, the report said.

According to respondents, the most frequently implemented strategies were:

  • Ensuring assignment objectives are incorporated into the employee’s performance review while on assignment (62 percent).
  • Collaborating with HR to ensure that employee performance ratings are considered for all workers on overseas assignments (60 percent).

The top three strategies under consideration:

  • Tracking postassignment employee advancement (63 percent).
  • Tracking postassignment employee retention (57 percent).
  • Developing a global talent pool for future assignments (56 percent).

Sequential Assignments Rising

Not all expatriates get to return home after an assignment. Fifty-eight percent of respondents have either many (13 percent) or a few (45 percent) “global nomads” who are on back-to-back assignments. More than half (57 percent) expect the sequential-assignment trend to stay about the same, and about a third (31 percent) expect the trend to increase.

Of organizations that said they have sequential assignments, 80 percent said they were typically long term, and the most frequent demographic profile was an older employee, Generation X worker or a Baby Boomer. This supports a general trend of companies sending more senior employees on this type of assignment, often with newer employees accompanying them for professional development, the report said.

Repatriation Lacking

Responding organizations ranked repatriation and career development highest among aspects of their relocation programs they most want to improve.

More than half (58 percent) of companies said they did not offer formal repatriation programs. Of those that offer these programs, only a third (33 percent) typically offer repatriation programs for long-term assignments. The most common reasons given for not offering these programs were lack of perceived value by the organization (60 percent) and cost considerations (35 percent).

Roy Maurer is an online editor/manager for SHRM.

Follow him at @SHRMRoy

Related Articles:

Developing an Effective Global Mobility Program , SHRM Online Global HR, August 2013 International Assignments Expected to Increase in 2013 , SHRM Online Global HR, May 2013

Managing International Assignments , SHRM Online Templates and Samples, July 2012

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Understanding Global Assignment Costs

By LaQuita Morrison, GMS

As confidence in the U.S. economy surges, more companies are seeking to establish, strengthen, or expand their global presence. This often involves expatriating talent to fill key positions in other countries. For many organizations, providing global assignment opportunities is a strategic way to enhance employees’ knowledge and skills, which is vital for staying competitive in today’s interconnected world. The Financial Impact of Global Assignments

Whether your company is experienced or new to managing global assignments, the associated costs can be daunting. However, with proper management, these assignments can significantly contribute to achieving your company’s global business goals.

Consider this: Sending an employee and a family of three on a three-year global assignment could cost over $1 million. It’s no wonder that many global companies perceive traditional overseas assignments as cost-prohibitive. Some have even reduced, frozen, or eliminated their global assignment programs. Despite this, companies still need to place the best talent in the right locations, and sometimes that talent requires a global transfer. This makes managing relocation costs crucial.

Key Strategies for Managing Global Assignment Costs

If your organization is planning global assignments, there are ways to reduce costs without compromising operational efficiency or employee productivity. Balancing employee support with cost management is challenging but achievable. Here are some of the major expenses associated with a global assignment and how to manage them effectively:

  • Candidate Assessment : Evaluate whether the employee is the right fit for the assignment.
  • Pre-Decision Assessment: Ensure that the employee’s needs and family align with the business goals of the assignment.
  • Immigration: Obtain the necessary documentation for the assignment, which will vary based on the purpose of the transfer.
  • Tax Implications and Assistance: Understand the tax responsibilities in both the home and host countries and provide necessary assistance, including consultation and preparation.
  • Host Country Housing: Offer reasonable housing and utility costs according to regional guidelines based on family size and location.
  • Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA): Compensate for the cost difference between home and host locations.
  • Transportation Allowance: Provide a car for the duration of the assignment.
  • Hardship Allowance: Offer additional compensation for assignments in challenging locations.
  • Cultural and Language Training: Help the employee and their family adapt to the host country’s culture and language.
  • Home Finding and Destination Services: Assist with locating housing and setting up necessary accounts in the host country.
  • Departure and Repatriation Services: Manage home sale, lease termination, and the return of the employee to the home country after the assignment.
  • Global Household Goods and Temporary Living: Handle the transportation or storage of household goods and provide temporary housing.

Enhance Your Global Mobility Program

To effectively manage these costs, it’s essential to partner with experienced relocation service providers. Our Global Mobility Services offer comprehensive solutions to support your organization’s global assignment needs while optimizing costs.

To learn more about managing global assignment costs, download our free guide.

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Insights + Resources

How much is the average relocation package in 2024, gross-up: a guide to employer-paid relocation tax assistance, proper handling of relocation on w-2 forms: a comprehensive guide, what is an executive relocation package.

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2490480 - Global Assignment - Ending Global Assignment Updates the Host Record and not the Home Record

  • When ending a global assignment, the End Global Assignment job history record appears just in the host accounts job info and not the home account's job history.

Environment

  • SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central - Global Assignment

Reproducing the Issue

  • Add Global Assignment for a user
  • End that Global Assignment
  • Observe where the End Global Assignment job info record appears in host profile's job history.

Expected System Behavior

  • Update of any data in the host record will only ever appear in the host account's record and vice versa
  • Add Global Assignment and End Global Assignment event reasons will be part of Global Assignment (Host) Profile of the Employee and can be visible in Host Profile's Job History.
  • Away on Global Assignment and Back from Global Assignment event reasons will be part of Home Profile of the Employee and can be visible in Job History of Home Profile.
  • This behavior is dependent on the Event reason and Global Assignment Configuration settings:

Event Reason Configuration:

GA event reasons config.jpg

Global Assingment Feature Configuration:

Global Assignment Configuration.png

Global Assignment, End Global Assigment Home and Host Job Information History , KBA , LOD-SF-EC-GA , Global Assignment , Problem

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Triple L Global, LLC, Complainant v. SLI, Inc. d/b/a Sealink International, Respondent; Notice of Filing of Complaint and Assignment

A Notice by the Federal Maritime Commission on 08/16/2024

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  • Document Details Published Content - Document Details Agency Federal Maritime Commission Agency/Docket Number Docket No. 24-26 Document Citation 89 FR 66721 Document Number 2024-18392 Document Type Notice Page 66721 (1 page) Publication Date 08/16/2024 Published Content - Document Details
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Federal Maritime Commission

  • [Docket No. 24-26]

Notice is given that a complaint has been filed with the Federal Maritime Commission (the “Commission”) by Triple L Global, LLC (the “Complainant”) against SLI, Inc. d/b/a Sealink International (the “Respondent”). Complainant states that the Commission has subject matter jurisdiction over the complaint pursuant to the Shipping Act of 1984, as amended, 46 U.S.C. 40101 et seq. and personal jurisdiction over the Respondent as an ocean transportation intermediary, ocean freight forwarder, and a non-vessel-operating common carrier, as these terms are defined in 46 U.S.C. 40102 .

Complainant is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of California with its principal place of business in San Leandro, California.

Complainant identifies Respondent as a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Texas with its principal place of business in Allen, Texas.

Complainant alleges that Respondent violated 46 U.S.C. 41102(c) and 41103 , and 46 CFR 515.31 and 515.32 . Complainant alleges these violations arose from conversion of cargo ownership, withholding of information, unauthorized alteration of a bill of lading, unlawful disclosure of information related to cargo, and other acts or omissions of Respondent.

An answer to the complaint must be filed with the Commission within 25 days after the date of service.

The full text of the complaint can be found in the Commission's electronic Reading Room at https://www2.fmc.gov/​readingroom/​proceeding/​24-26/​ . This proceeding has been assigned to the Office of Administrative Law Judges. The initial decision of the presiding judge shall be issued by August 7, 2025, and the final decision of the Commission shall be issued by February 23, 2026.

[ FR Doc. 2024-18392 Filed 8-15-24; 8:45 am]

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the global assignment

Acting Special Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment Matza’s Travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania

Office of the Spokesperson

August 21, 2024

Acting Special Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) Helaina Matza will travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania from August 21-28 to advance ongoing U.S.-led investments in the development of the Lobito and Trans-Africa Corridor and to explore opportunities to expand the economic corridor to the Indian Ocean.

While in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, Acting Special Coordinator Matza will also meet with government officials and private sector partners to identify new sustainable infrastructure investment opportunities and deepen our collaboration.

U.S. Department of State

The lessons of 1989: freedom and our future.

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  • Global IDMP Implementation - Getting Closer to the Goal - 10/16/2024

Virtual | Virtual

Event Title Global IDMP Implementation - Getting Closer to the Goal October 16, 2024

Visit CDER Small Business and Industry Assistance Page

ABOUT THIS EVENT (Hosted by CDER SBIA)

Identification of Medicinal Products (IDMP) offers a global framework for the unique identification and consistent documentation of medicinal products, facilitating effective information exchange among regulators, manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. Once fully adopted, these standards will enhance pharmacovigilance, address drug shortages, and improve medication safety worldwide.

This webinar will present an overview of the end-to-end testing results for the Global Pharmaceutical Product Identification (PhPID) Service operating model, which generates global PhPIDs for marketed medicinal products. The session will detail the model's readiness for deployment, including its software functionality, interoperability, processes, and business rules. Additionally, results from simulated real-world scenarios across three global IDMP use cases—Pharmacovigilance, Drug Shortages, and Cross-border Healthcare—will be discussed.

INTENDED AUDIENCE

  • Regulatory affairs professionals, international regulators and industry working on data standards, pharmacovigilance, product labelling, drug shortages, and electronic regulatory submissions
  • Consultants focused on data standards, pharmacovigilance, product labelling, and electronic regulatory submissions
  • IT professionals involved with the electronic exchange of medicinal product information
  • Overview of IDMP framework and its objectives
  • Importance of unique identification and consistent documentation for medicinal products
  • Overview of the end-to-end testing project
  • Generation of global PhPIDs for marketed medicinal products
  • Readiness for deployment: software functionality, interoperability, processes, and business rules
  • Pharmacovigilance: Enhancing drug safety monitoring
  • Drug Shortages: Addressing supply chain challenges
  • Cross-border Healthcare: Facilitating international healthcare

FDA SPEAKERS

Ron Fitzmartin, PhD, MBA Sr. Advisor Data Standards Branch Office of Regulatory Operations Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research

Ta-Jen Chen Project Management Officer Office of Strategic Programs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research

OTHER SPEAKERS

Malin Fladvad, PhD Head of WHODrug Product Portfolio Uppsala Monitoring Centre WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring

FDA RESOURCES

  • Identification of Medicinal Products — Implementation and Use – Final Guidance
  • GIDWG: getting IDMP done
  • International Pharmaceutical Regulators Programme - Identification of Medicinal Products
  • ISO: the International Organization for Standardization

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Real-time attendance is required for the certificate of attendance which can be used in support of CEs for the following professional organizations. Certificates are only available during the two weeks post-event.

This course has been pre-approved by:

  • RAPS as eligible for a maximum of 12 credits for a two-day event (appropriate to real-time attendance) towards a participant’s RAC recertification upon full completion.
  • SOCRA who accepts documentation of candidate participation in continuing education programs for re-certification if the program is applicable to clinical research regulations, operations or management, or to the candidate's clinical research therapeutic area.
  • SQA as eligible for 1 non-GCP or non-GLP unit for every 1 hour of instructional time towards a participant’s RQAP re-registration.
  • ACRP for continuing education in clinical research. ACRP will provide 1 ACRP contact hour for every 45-60 minutes of qualified material.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

  • To optimize your webinar experience, use Chrome when viewing Adobe Connect in a browser.
  • Please contact [email protected] for all technical questions.
  • If you encounter any technical issues before or during the event, please visit the Technical Issues Support
  • Test your PC for use with Adobe Connect prior to the day of the event. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat and Acrobat Connect are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
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‘Worst-Case’ Disaster for Antarctic Ice Looks Less Likely, Study Finds

Global warming is putting the continent’s ice at risk of destruction in many forms. But one especially calamitous scenario might be a less pressing concern, a new study found.

A snowy and icy landscape with white clouds floating above it.

By Raymond Zhong

For almost a decade, climate scientists have been trying to get their heads around a particularly disastrous scenario for how West Antarctica’s gigantic ice sheet might break apart, bringing catastrophe to the world’s coasts.

It goes like this: Once enough of the ice sheet’s floating edges melt away, what remains are immense, sheer cliffs of ice facing the sea. These cliffs will be so tall and steep that they are unstable. Great chunks of ice start breaking away from them, exposing even taller, even more-unstable cliffs. Soon, these start crumbling too, and before long you have runaway collapse.

As all this ice tumbles into the ocean, and assuming that nations’ emissions of heat-trapping gases climb to extremely high levels, Antarctica could contribute more than a foot to worldwide sea-level rise before the end of the century.

This calamitous chain of events is still hypothetical, yet scientists have taken it seriously enough to include it as a “low-likelihood, high-impact” possibility in the United Nations’ latest assessment of future sea-level increase.

Now, though, a group of researchers has put forth evidence that the prospect may be more remote than previously thought. As humans burn fossil fuels and heat the planet, West Antarctica’s ice remains vulnerable to destruction in many forms. But this particular form, in which ice cliffs collapse one after the other, looks less likely, according to the scientists’ computer simulations.

“We’re not saying that we’re safe,” said Mathieu Morlighem, a professor of earth science at Dartmouth College who led the research. “The Antarctic ice sheet is going to disappear; this is going to happen. The question is how fast.”

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Mpox is again a global health emergency. How concerned should Californians be?

Round Mpox particles, red, found within an infected cell as a blue background.

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Two years ago, cases of the infectious viral disease mpox were rapidly increasing in cities across the globe — particularly in the U.S. — causing a scramble for vaccine doses to help contain the outbreak and ease the virus’ uncomfortable symptoms.

That strain of mpox was rarely deadly; even still, officials soon declared it a worldwide public health emergency in July 2022. In the months that followed, the spread of the virus steadily fell, though cases have never completely gone away .

But last week, a much more concerning variant of mpox, previously called monkeypox, has once again prompted such a global health alert . This outbreak is primarily affecting Central African countries, but officials warn that it appears to spread more easily than the 2022 strain — and is significantly more deadly.

Where is mpox a concern right now?

The World Health Organization has deemed this clade, or variant, of mpox the latest global health emergency . The majority of these mpox Clade I cases have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there have already been 14,000 cases and 524 deaths this year, according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization.

Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms such as fever, chills and body aches. People with more serious cases can develop lesions on the face, hands and chest. With the latest outbreaks of mpox, lesions can also develop on a person’s genitals, which can make it harder to spot, in turn making it easier to spread.

While this virus is endemic, or naturally occurring, in Congo and parts of Central Africa, health officials have also recently detected this more concerning strain in other nearby, non-endemic countries, and the first case was confirmed outside of Africa in Sweden . Public health officials are concerned about the “potential to spread further across countries in Africa and possibly outside the continent,” according to the World Health Organization.

As of this summer, the CDC still considers the risk of mpox to the general public in the U.S. very low, but said the risk is slightly higher among men who have sex with men. During the global outbreak of mpox in 2022, gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases, as the virus was primarily spread through close contact, including sex.

Some of those patterns have been observed in the new outbreak in Central Africa, but officials have said that children under 15 now account for more than 70% of the mpox cases and 85% of deaths in Congo.

It’s important to note, though, there have been no cases of the new mpox variant confirmed in the U.S., and health officials say they are closely monitoring the situation.

Should Californians be concerned?

The 2022 outbreak “should have driven the point home that infectious diseases do not respect borders and what happens in one part of the world can quickly become a concern for everyone,” said Dr. Anne Rimoin, professor of epidemiology at UCLA .

And while the risk is very low for widespread transmission outside of Africa, she said public health officials should not be complacent.

“That said, as I always say, an infection anywhere is potentially an infection everywhere,” Rimoin said, “and our best chance to reduce the impact of Clade I-related infections is early detection and response.”

But Californians shouldn’t stress about the transmission of this latest strain because, “we have the tools to be able to control mpox through surveillance, testing, case management, vaccines and public health messaging,” she said.

What are local officials doing?

The 2022 variant, known as Clade II, continues to circulate in the U.S., including in Los Angeles and San Francisco — two the epicenters of the last outbreak.

“We see intermittent detections of Clade II in our wastewater,” said Dr. Julia Janssen, the deputy director of the HIV/STI Prevention and Control branch for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “It is not a cause for alarm.”

San Francisco has seen about one case per week so far this year. L.A. has recorded a slight uptick in cases this summer.

“We’re continuing to monitor mpox development alongside our state and federal partners,” Janssen said. She noted there’s robust testing infrastructure in place now, unlike the last mpox outbreak, which will help identify when and if the Clade I strain makes it to the U.S.

The recent international health emergency declaration puts countries, including the U.S. on alert to improve surveillance and detection, said Rimoin.

The California Department of Health this month issued an advisory to healthcare providers advising “a heightened index of suspicion for Clade I mpox in patients with recent travel to Africa and present with signs and symptoms consistent with mpox.”

The recent health emergency declarations will also unlock resources that are otherwise unavailable for global coordination, critical research to address gaps in knowledge, and public health response, Rimoin said.

It also helps that this is not a completely new virus, she said. The key to containment is early detection and response.

What should you do, if anything?

“We continue to strongly recommend and encourage the two-dose vaccination,” for those considered most at risk, Janssen said. She noted that only certain groups of people fall within the recommendations for vaccination, because the risk to the general public remains low. The CDC continues to recommend that anyone exposed to mpox should get vaccinated, as well as certain gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men.

Despite the geographic location of the new outbreak, Janssen said “there’s not a recommendation for vaccination for travel alone.”

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health continues to recommend people who should get a vaccine are:

  • Men or or transgender persons who have sex with men or transgender persons.
  • Persons of any gender or sexual orientation who engage in commercial and/or transactional sex.
  • Individuals living with HIV, especially persons with uncontrolled or advanced HIV disease.
  • Persons who had skin-to-skin or intimate contact with someone with suspected or confirmed mpox, including those who have not yet been confirmed by the public health department.

Are vaccines and/or treatment available to prevent mpox?

Yes. The good news is there are plenty of doses of the Jynneos vaccine, which is used to prevent both mpox and smallpox.

CDC officials have said that “the medical countermeasures that have been effective for Clade II mpox are expected to also be effective for Clade I mpox,” Janssen said. “That includes Jynneos, the vaccine that’s been recommended ... as well as other treatments.”

At this time the mpox vaccine is free throughout the U.S. and in California. Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health is providing the JYNNEOS 2-dose vaccine. The county has an online list of vaccination sites where the mpox vaccine is being offered.

If I was vaccinated two years ago, should I get a booster?

Booster shots are not currently recommended.

“People who have completed the series, there’s no need to get additional doses,” Janssen said. “And people who have been previously infected — no need to get vaccinated.”

More to Read

FILE - Family nurse practitioner Carol Ramsubhag-Carela prepares a syringe with the Mpox vaccine before inoculating a patient at a vaccinations site on, Aug. 30, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)

A new global mpox emergency: Where are the outbreaks and what is the WHO doing?

Aug. 15, 2024

Los Angeles, CA - August 10: Luis Garcia, a registered nurse, prepares Monkeypox virus vaccine at St.John's Well Child & Family Center on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Mpox is on the rise in L.A. County. Here’s how to avoid it

June 18, 2024

FILE - A sign urges the release of the monkeypox vaccine during a protest in San Francisco, July 18, 2022. The mayor of San Francisco announced a legal state of emergency Thursday, July 28, 2022, over the growing number of monkeypox cases. Public health officials warn that moves by rich countries to buy large quantities of monkeypox vaccine, while declining to share doses with Africa, could leave millions of people unprotected against a more dangerous version of the disease and risk continued spillovers of the virus into humans. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)

A year after outbreak, Africa waits for its share of mpox vaccines

May 30, 2023

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the global assignment

Grace Toohey is a reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering breaking news for the Fast Break Desk. Before joining the newsroom in 2022, she covered criminal justice issues at the Orlando Sentinel and the Advocate in Baton Rouge. Toohey is a Maryland native and proud Terp.

the global assignment

Karen Garcia is a reporter on the Fast Break Desk, the team that has a pulse on breaking news at the Los Angeles Times. She was previously a reporter on the Utility Journalism Team, which focused on service journalism. Her previous stints include reporting for the San Luis Obispo New Times and KCBX Central Coast Public Radio.

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Hudson Valley Renegades' Bhutan Night shows that baseball is truly a global community

Michael Clair

Michael Clair

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. -- Fourteen years ago, they were playing on a small stretch of concrete in Bhutan , the small, mountainous country to the south of Tibet otherwise known as "The Last Shangri-La."

This week, they were playing on the finely groomed turf at Heritage Financial Park, home of the Hudson Valley Renegades, High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. Here, 12 Bhutanese baseball and softball players -- six young men and six young women -- took the field under instruction from the Renegades coaches and nearly half their roster of players; here, in the small hamlet of Fishkill, N.Y., they got to see professional baseball and step on a real baseball field for the very first time; here, they got to see the Renegades don uniforms inspired by the Bhutanese flag and throw out the first pitch while dressed in the traditional robe known as a gho.

The @BhutanBaseball athletes are making their first pitches at @HVRenegades tonight pic.twitter.com/PH6KBiWv7n — Michael Clair (@michaelsclair) August 20, 2024

It's a dream that the Bhutan Baseball and Softball Association co-founders Matthew DeSantis -- an American, who has been living in Bhutan since 2010 -- and Karma Dorji -- who originally hails from Bhutan but currently lives in Australia -- could never have fathomed. When they began teaching baseball in Thimpu, it wasn't with thoughts of worldwide trips in mind. It was simply a sport they wanted to share with the youth of the country.

"We had this idea just to bring the kids to the field and to teach them baseball," DeSantis said. "It was meant to be six or seven days, and we played day to night. The kids just picked up the game so quick and loved it. So, we decided to play another week, and a few hundred kids showed up. By the third week, we had 600-700 kids showing up. The love for the game was there and we had to keep playing."

The sport has exploded in popularity in the country, with over 6,000 children now playing baseball or softball, and that number continues to grow. Kids see clips spread on TikTok or social media and want to try it out.

"Baseball is relatively new in Bhutan, however, we are very, very happy to share that it's a popular sport," Dorji said, a sly smile spreading across his face. "If you look at our social media following, we are number three amongst the 20 sporting organizations that have existed over the last 15 years. We are humbled. It's a very cool sport in Bhutan, so a lot of young kids come in with that mindset of having the cool jersey, having the cool hat -- it comes with a cool vibe."

That the association was able to come to America was thanks to the vision and hard work of Zach Betkowski, GM of the Renegades, and Joe Vasile, the team's director of media relations. After DeSantis' photo of baseball being played in front of the iconic Great Buddha Dordenma went viral, Betkowski reached out to the organization. His first goal was simply to send some Renegades caps and shirts out to the players.

"Take a photo, post it on Facebook, get a lot of engagement and everyone's happy," Betkowski said with a laugh.

The world's most remote country, Bhutan, is experiencing a baseball boom What started as a handful of kids playing on a concrete slab has grown to more than 6,000 children who are becoming dedicated baseball fans "It's the fastest-growing sport in the country right now," says… pic.twitter.com/n8yS5GfLN7 — MLB Life (@MLBLife) August 3, 2023

But after a quick phone call with DeSantis, the plan grew much larger. What if the Renegades hosted a Bhutan Day, bringing athletes for a cultural exchange trip, offering them a once-in-a-lifetime baseball experience in idyllic Dutchess County? It wouldn't be cheap: Lodging, flights, food and so much more would need to be put together.

Have the latest news, ticket information, and more from the Yankees and MLB delivered right to your inbox.

The team partnered with local companies to field donations and auctioned off special edition Bhutan jerseys. Autographed baseballs and other memorabilia that had been collected over the years were added to the pot.

In the end, the trip nearly didn't happen, but it had nothing to do with funds.

"We didn't really find out it was officially happening until two weeks ago when they got their visas from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi," Betkowski said. "But we're thankful. Everything worked out. It was certainly meant to be. ... When they saw the field for the first time, they were just in awe. They were stunned to see a professional baseball field. They don't have playing surfaces like this in Bhutan, they really play on concrete slabs or just grounds of dirt."

On the group's first full day with the team, the Bhutanese players grabbed their gloves and took to the field. There, coaches and players ran them through drills to teach them baserunning, fielding, pitching and catching.

"That one drill, you know, scooping [balls out of the dirt], I really didn't know," Kinley Gyeltshen, a catcher in Bhutan, said. "There's another catcher's mitt which helped with that. I got that knowledge only yesterday. Before I didn't know it actually existed."

"We weren't really sure what to expect, but catching them in bullpen yesterday, they're filling up the strike zone," Renegades pitching coach Spencer Medick said. "They had some good splitters that they showcased. It was really fun. I think they impressed on that side of it, for sure."

Medick even helped show off the Yankees' patented slider grip, hoping to teach the Bhutanese youth the sweeper that has taken over the Majors.

"We'll see if they take it back and -- it's going to be a terrible pun -- be a sweeping craze over there in Bhutan," Medick joked.

The kids then got to step into the cage and, thanks to the Renegades' Trajekt system, which can accurately mimic any pitcher's exact release point and arsenal, bat against Shohei Ohtani. Facing 98 mph fastballs and darting curves may humble even the most talented Major Leaguers, but these young athletes managed to foul off a handful of pitches from baseball's very best.

"When there was a ball that was put in play or fouled off, seeing everybody getting excited all together and really celebrating their friends and their teammates, was pretty cool to see," Renegades outfielder Garrett Martin said.

"Honestly I think they understood the game at a deeper level than we did," first baseman Josh Moylan added. "I think they really took it to heart, the game of baseball. It was really special to see."

The players even showed off their athleticism on some practice home run trots. Forget bat flips, how about front flips?

"They were working on their pimp jobs on home runs, and there were a couple flips and cartwheels mixed in there," Moylan said. "I think if we pulled that out in the game, there might be some consequences, but it was really cool to see that and just see them really enjoying themselves."

Here’s @BhutanBaseball showing off their home run trots complete with home plate flips @HVRenegades pic.twitter.com/cPojlrAWcF — Michael Clair (@michaelsclair) August 19, 2024

On Tuesday, with the Wilmington Blue Rocks in town, the Renegades officially hosted "Bhutan Night" and took the field in their special uniforms, which featured the "Druk," or Bhutan's iconic "Thunder dragon." The Bhutanese flag flew in center field beside the American flag and fans listened as the country's national anthem played over the loudspeakers.

"I'm very honored to be here, especially today for Bhutan night, so I'm very excited for the event," softball player Tandin Bidha Dorjee said before the game. "It's wonderful [that the professional players] are wearing our Bhutan jersey. I feel very emotional."

"I'm feeling very happy because I'm Bhutanese and we also value our culture," fellow softballer Tenzin Dolkar said, "I'm feeling proud seeing them wear the Bhutan jersey."

"It's their first time just being in a stadium, the joy they showed just being taken through warm-ups, catch, play, everything," Medick said. "Especially in August in a Minor League season, it can be a grind, but it's one of those nice refreshers, to show you how grateful you are to be in the position that you are. Across the world, how many people dream of being where we are."

"It's really cool to see that people from all over the world are playing the same game, and everyone can enjoy the same game," Martin said. "There's universal skills that everybody can learn. It doesn't really matter who you are, where you come from, we can all do the same things and play the same game."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hudson Valley Renegades (@hvrenegades)

Far more important, though, is the idea that the baseball world is a large community. On the same night that the Renegades honored Bhutan baseball, there was an announcement thanking an employee who was working her final night before heading to college.

One of the young Bhutanese players later managed to snag a shirt from the T-shirt cannon and, rather than keeping this souvenir from their first professional baseball game, opted instead to hand it to a group of teenaged fans who had been hoping to snag one.

"Baseball is a very large community," Betkowski said. "There are 120 Minor League teams, there are 30 Major League teams. There are Little League teams all over the country and across international baseball. But in a lot of ways, it's such a small percentile of the human race. Baseball is truly one game, and our goal is to grow the game of baseball at a grassroots level, here locally, but also grow it internationally. We have an obligation as a brand that represents professional baseball to do our due diligence to grow the game of baseball."

That idea of community connects back to Bhutan's guiding principle of Gross National Happiness, which focuses primarily on the well-being of the country's citizens.

"Baseball is an engagement where a group of kids come together, they teach each other, they learn from each other," Dorji said. "They build and develop brotherhood. They're not only taking care of themselves physically, but participating in camaraderie. And that is directly in correlation to [Gross National Happiness.]"

The trip isn't over for Bhutan yet, either. On Wednesday, they will head to New York City and take a tour of the MLB league offices. Afterward, they will get a VIP tour of Yankee Stadium, take the field for batting practice and watch their first Major League game in person.

"This is just the beginning," DeSantis added. "These kids are going to go back and share their wisdom that they've gained here over the past week. And someday, there will be a Bhutan Day, and there will be a Bhutanese baseball player on this field, and there will be Bhutanese fans and it will be because these kids, this year, created this pathway."

From AI to the future of education, discover the key highlights of MoodleMoot Global 2024

MoodleMoot Global 2024 is arriving soon! As we prepare to set out for Mérida, México, we eagerly look forward to meeting some of the leading experts in the EdTech industry. 

This year’s conference will explore the theme of ‘Unlocking Human Potential’ , focusing on acknowledging and cultivating the distinctive abilities and talents inherent in every individual. We will explore various topics during the conference, such as inclusive and personalised learning experiences and the need for a supportive and connected environment. We will engage in these discussions as we firmly believe that every person possesses unique strengths and insights that, when nurtured and shared, can greatly contribute to the collective good

In keeping with this theme, we are delighted to share some of this year’s conference key highlights with you. 

A peek into the future of education with Moodle Founder, Martin Dougiamas

Martin Dougiamas , Founder of Moodle and Head of the Moodle Research Lab , will deliver a keynote presentation on “ What will education feel like in 2034? ” He will probe the future of education, offering insights into the trends that could shape learning experiences over the next decade. Martin will also share the latest research efforts of the Moodle team, focusing on how open education technology can continue to support teaching and learning in innovative and human-centred ways. Additionally, he will lead the Open EdTech Workshop , a meeting led by Open EdTech Association and open to any attendees. 

Martin Dougiamas, Founder of Moodle, will explore the future of education and lead the Open EdTech Workshop. Image source: Moodle Image

25 years of Moodle’s legacy with CEO Scott Anderson

In his presentation , Moodle CEO Scott Anderberg will discuss the profound global impact that Moodle has had over the past 25 years. He will highlight how Moodle has empowered educators and transformed learning experiences for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Scott will also talk about the achievements of the Moodle community, emphasising how each educator using the platform contributes to this positive change. He will share unique examples of Moodle’s use in ambitious educational projects, showcasing its potential to inspire and improve learning globally. This presentation will serve as both a recognition of Moodle’s past successes and a call to action for its continued role in making the world a better place through education.

Bridging the digital divide in rural Peru

Javier Tejera, a Senior Learning Technology and Design Advisor at the Edinburgh Futures Institute will present Postdigital Learning Spaces in Rural Peru: Reaching Teachers from Low-resource Remote Communities . The presentation will explore the combination of postdigital learning spaces and a mobile-first strategy to overcome the obstacles of providing quality education to remote learners with limited resources. Javier will highlight the limitations of relying solely on mobile technology in low-tech settings. He will also introduce the concept of postdigital learning, which considers both the pervasive influence of digital technologies and the unique needs of rural communities with limited access to digital resources. Drawing on practical examples from the Alma Children’s Education Foundation ‘s work with rural educators in the Peruvian highlands, Javier will offer strategies for creating more inclusive and accessible educational opportunities in similar low-tech environments.

EFICACIA’s journey with Moodle Workplace for effective employee training (presentation in Spanish)

In his presentation, Hemerson Carreño Raigosa, the co-founder of Buen Data, will present on BUEN DATA y Eficacia: Una Alianza para Desbloquear el Potencial Humano a través de Moodle Workplace . He will show how EFICACIA, an organisation with over 40 years of experience in trade marketing, sales, and human resources across Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, has transformed its training and professional development using Moodle Workplace. 

By automating and customising training programs, EFICACIA has effectively managed the training of over 200,000 employees in Colombia and LATAM, addressing key challenges in security and compliance. Hemerson will discuss how Moodle Workplace has facilitated automated course enrollments, recertification notifications, and flexible, on-demand access to training. This approach has significantly improved regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and employee engagement. The presentation will also highlight how this successful collaboration has strengthened a continuous learning and professional growth culture within EFICACIA and its partner organisations.

Maximise H5P in Moodle with expert tips (presentation in Spanish)

Alfredo González Estrada, a Senior Learning Technology and Design Advisor at the Edinburgh Futures Institute and an Associate for the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh , will present “Top 10 H5P Tips,  Tricks & Hacks” at MoodleMoot Global 2024. With a wealth of experience in integrating technology into learning, Alfredo will share innovative strategies to maximise the potential of H5P in educational environments using Moodle. His session will cover a range of tips and tricks, from using external tools like Lumi to understanding the benefits of H5P’s plugin versus native integration in Moodle. He will also demonstrate practical examples of managing activity dimensions, tracking attempts, and incorporating mathematical expressions in H5P. Additionally, Alfredo will explore collaborative activities and gamification techniques and recommend optimising H5P in Moodle, including insights into upcoming H5P features and interface changes. This presentation is designed to equip educators with new skills and creative approaches for enhancing interactive content creation in Moodle.

Transform Panama’s education through digital innovation (presentation in Spanish)

Ernesto Leon (CEO) and Ariel Medina (Commercial Manager) from Edupan will present the ESTER Ecosystem , a groundbreaking initiative developed by the Ministry of Education of Panama (MEDUCA). The ESTER Ecosystem, a robust learning management system (LMS), has become a cornerstone of Panama’s digital educational transformation. Designed to meet the evolving needs of the Panamanian educational sector, ESTER integrates essential functions such as administration, documentation, monitoring, and reporting, while facilitating the delivery of educational content through accessible and user-friendly interfaces. Its implementation has significantly enhanced the ability of Panamanian educational institutions to thrive in dynamic, digitally enriched learning environments.

The importance of ESTER was further solidified through Law 294, which granted the system legal status, ensuring its continued evolution and expansion. This law highlights the Panamanian government’s commitment to education and technological innovation, making ESTER a state policy that guarantees future generations access to quality education supported by advanced technological tools. Ernesto and Ariel will explore how ESTER’s legal framework recognises its role as a vital educational tool and ensures its permanence and adaptability, reflecting Panama’s national effort to lead in global education.

Explore next-generation Moodle with the CENA project

Bruno Poellhuber, Professor at the Education Faculty and Academic Director of the Teaching and Learning Center at Université de Montréal, will present Enhancing Learners’ Experience with AI and Other Innovative Developments: The CENA Project Roadmap . This presentation will outline the CENA project’s ambitious roadmap to enhance Moodle, funded by the Quebec Ministry of Higher Education. The roadmap features sophisticated dashboards that provide real-time insights and predictive analytics to support both students and educators. Additionally, the project aims to diversify feedback modalities, incorporating AI to deliver immediate, relevant feedback and intelligent tutoring systems. These innovations are designed to personalise the educational experience, adapt to individual student needs, and support educators in creating effective learning activities.

Participate in the Jam sessions of MoodleMoot Global 2024 Image

Get hands-on experience with Moodle Jams

We’re also excited to offer the Moodle Jams as an interactive addition to the conference program. Scheduled to run from 22 to 24 October 2024, these sessions are integrated alongside the main conference tracks and are available to registered attendees, subject to availability.

  • Developer Dev Jam : This hands-on coding session invites developers to bring their projects, explore new ideas, or contribute to existing Moodle Tracker issues. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or new to Moodle, you’ll have support and opportunities to collaborate on exciting coding adventures. Book your place !
  • Learning Designer Jam : Designed for educators, instructional designers, and course builders, this session offers a chance to work together on new projects and innovations in learning design. Engage with peers, share ideas, and build something impactful. More details will be available soon. Get access now !
  • UX Jam : Hosted by the Moodle HQ UX team, this session will dive into the latest UX developments and provide hands-on experience with tools to address real-world challenges. Building on last year’s success, this jam will offer new insights and interactive opportunities. More details will be available soon. Pick your spot !

Whether you’re a seasoned MoodleMoot attendee or joining us for the first time, this year’s conference offers an exceptional opportunity to deepen your expertise, reignite your passion for learning, and forge meaningful connections with fellow education enthusiasts from across the globe. You’ll have the prospect to explore future educational trends, learn about Moodle’s global impact, address digital divides, and discover innovative developments, ensuring that MoodleMoot Global provides valuable insights and inspiration for all.

For more details on the featured speakers and other presentations, please visit our conference website . 

We look forward to seeing you in Mérida, México!

MoodleMoot Global 2024 is approaching fast!

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Register for Moodle Moot 2024

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Unite and innovate at MoodleMoot Africa 2024

How to improve your learners’ distance learning experience Image

How to improve your learners’ distance learning experience

Top 5 reasons why MoodleMoot Global is one of the most sought-after EdTech conferences Image

Top 5 reasons why MoodleMoot Global is one of the most sought-after EdTech conferences

IMAGES

  1. Global Assignment

    the global assignment

  2. The Essential Guide to Landing a Global Assignment [Top Six Questions

    the global assignment

  3. Implementation of Global Assignments in EC to LMS/EC-PY/non-SAP

    the global assignment

  4. PPT

    the global assignment

  5. PPT

    the global assignment

  6. SAP Help Portal

    the global assignment

COMMENTS

  1. 5 Types of Global Assignments

    Commuter Assignments. Commuter assignments differ from long-term and short-term assignments because employees regularly commute from their home country to the destination jurisdiction. While companies use short-term and long-term global assignments worldwide, commuter assignments are typically regional because employees cross neighboring borders.

  2. Global Assignment

    Some steps in managing global assignments & international projects are: 1. Evaluating objectives of the international project. 2. Identifying team members & giving pre-requisite training. 3. Pre-departure preparation of activities & work to be done. 4. On job activities on global assignment at international location.

  3. Global Assignment Best Practice

    The following guide looks at best practice for employers when deploying personnel overseas, from the employee experience to the flexibility of different types of global assignment. The employee experience in global assignments. A good employer will recognise that at the heart of its business are its people. As such, ensuring a positive employee ...

  4. Global Assignment Policies & Practices Survey Report

    The results of this year's Global Assignment Policies and Practices (GAPP) Survey sheds light on how global mobility programs are continually evolving. In addition to compliance and global risk management, supporting the organization's business objectives, controlling program costs and being adaptable to changing business requirements are ...

  5. Managing International Assignments

    According to KPMG's 2021 Global Assignment Policies and Practices Survey, all responding multinational organizations offered long-term assignments (typically one to five years), 88 percent offered ...

  6. Selecting Global Assignees

    A global assignment will disrupt the lives of every family member — and each member will influence the assignment positively or negatively. The third theme is to allow for deselection at every phase. Traditional selection methods simply do not work for global assignments — unless a thorough job analysis is conducted for each assignment.

  7. Global Assignments Boost Employee Development

    Employees Crave Global Opportunities. In fact, according to PwC, among Millennial employees, global assignments are in high demand—71% would like to have one. Envoy Global's "2020 Immigration Trends Report" suggests that organizations understand the value employees place on these assignments, indicating that global assignments are increasingly becoming a strategic aspect of both talent ...

  8. The Essential Guide to Landing a Global Assignment [Top Six Questions

    Global assignments are big risks for firms, so you must do your homework prior to launching conversations around your desire to work abroad. High-profile HR professionals who've assembled compensation packages for global transfers at the big four accounting firms candidly shared how expensive mobility initiatives are.

  9. Global assignment

    Search for: 'global assignment' in Oxford Reference ». Is a job assignment within a multinational corporation that involves expatriation; that is the relocation of an employee to another country. Specialists in international human resource management identify different types of global assignment. Technical assignments occur when employees with ...

  10. Managing the Entire Global Assignment Cycle: Establishing Best Practic

    gone on an international assignment (Carpenter, Sanders, & Gregersen, 2001; Gregersen. et al., 1995). Of the CEOs who have worked abroad, their most common destination by. far was Canada, followed by Great Britain and then Belgium. Very few CEOs have lived. and worked in Latin America or the Far East.

  11. 5 Things That Make or Break Global Assignment Success

    1. Family Support. Over the last ten years family has consistently shown to be the number one reason why international assignments fail or succeed (EY, 2018; CERC, 2017; BGRS, 2016). More specifically, EY lists a partner or spouse "not being happy" with relocation as the top reason for assignment failure.

  12. Global Assignments Enhance Employee Development

    Global Assignments Enhance Employee Development. More companies are sending employees abroad to help them grow needed skills, recent research finds. For the first time in years, building ...

  13. Global Assignment Policies & Practices Survey Report

    The results of this year's Global Assignment Policies and Practices (GAPP) survey shed light on how global mobility programs are evolving. In addition to compliance and global risk management, supporting the organization's business objectives, controlling program costs and being adaptable to changing business requirements are clearly the ...

  14. 5 Essential Topics in Global Assignment Letters

    5 Essential Topics to Include in a Global Assignment Letter of Understanding. To ensure the success of a global assignment, it is crucial for employers to create a well-crafted global assignment letter of understanding. This document should clearly outline the important details and benefits of the assignment, leaving no room for misinterpretation.

  15. International Assignments: Who's Going Where and Why?

    Developing a global talent pool for future assignments (56 percent). Sequential Assignments Rising. Not all expatriates get to return home after an assignment. Fifty-eight percent of respondents ...

  16. Understanding Global Assignment Costs

    Balancing employee support with cost management is challenging but achievable. Here are some of the major expenses associated with a global assignment and how to manage them effectively: Candidate Assessment: Evaluate whether the employee is the right fit for the assignment. Pre-Decision Assessment: Ensure that the employee's needs and family ...

  17. Managing Global Assignments Quiz Flashcards

    Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like An employee has been selected for an international assignment. This first time assignment is expected to last 2 to 3 yrs & involves full relocation. Why is well crated global letter of assignment a key part of the plan?, During which stage of the global assignment process should criteria for the ideal expatriate candidate be ...

  18. 2318799

    This is a collection of useful articles related to Global Assignments. Before opening an case with Product Support: Please be sure that before you open a support case with Product Support, you have performed the following sanity checks on your configuration/data - bearing in mind most issues are due to a configuration issue -:

  19. 2490480

    Away on Global Assignment and Back from Global Assignment event reasons will be part of Home Profile of the Employee and can be visible in Job History of Home Profile. This behavior is dependent on the Event reason and Global Assignment Configuration settings: Event Reason Configuration: Global Assingment Feature Configuration:

  20. Triple L Global, LLC, Complainant v. SLI, Inc. d/b/a Sealink

    Triple L Global, LLC, Complainant v. SLI, Inc. d/b/a Sealink International, Respondent; Notice of Filing of Complaint and Assignment A Notice by the Federal Maritime Commission on 08/16/2024. Published Document. This document has been published in the Federal Register. Use the PDF linked in the document sidebar for the official electronic format.

  21. Acting Special Coordinator for the Partnership for Global

    Acting Special Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) Helaina Matza will travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania from August 21-28 to advance ongoing U.S.-led investments in the development of the Lobito and Trans-Africa Corridor and to explore opportunities to expand the economic corridor to the Indian Ocean. […]

  22. Global IDMP Implementation

    Global PhPID Service Operating Model: Overview of the end-to-end testing project; Generation of global PhPIDs for marketed medicinal products; Readiness for deployment: software functionality ...

  23. New Study Re-Evaluates 'Worst Case' Scenario for Thwaites Glacier

    Global warming is putting the continent's ice at risk of destruction in many forms. But one especially calamitous scenario might be a less pressing concern, a new study found.

  24. Mpox is again a global health emergency. What's California's risk

    During the global outbreak of mpox in 2022, gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases, as the virus was primarily spread through close contact, including sex.

  25. Renegades 'Bhutan Night' proof that baseball is a global community

    WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. -- Fourteen years ago, they were playing on a small stretch of concrete in Bhutan, the small, mountainous country to the south of Tibet otherwise known as "The Last Shangri-La." This week, they were playing on the finely groomed turf at Heritage Financial Park, home of the

  26. Xbox Series S

    Experience the best value in gaming with Xbox Series S, now available with a 1TB SSD in Robot White. Limit 3 per customer. If you buy a physical product from Microsoft Store and we lower the price within 60 days, contact us and we'll refund you the difference. Terms apply. Free shipping and ...

  27. MoodleMoot Global 2024: Discover this year's key highlights

    Awards Discover our global awards and rankings that are a testament to Moodle's 20+ years of expertise in education technology. News. News Find news and resources about Moodle products, solutions, services, releases, case studies, and more. View All News; Register for Moodle Moot 2024